By Abayomi Azikiwe
Iran has fired hundreds of drones and missiles into Occupied Palestine in retaliation for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bombing of their embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1.
Seven people were killed in the Israeli attack which was never condemned by the staunch allies of Tel Aviv in Washington, London and Brussels.
The United Nations Security Council failed to condemn the attacks against the Iranian embassy due to the lack of support by the western imperialist states which arm and finance the settler-colonial regime in Israel. Therefore, it was not surprising that the Iranian government was compelled to strike Israel in a major way.
President Joe Biden of the United States has recently declared that Washington’s support for the Zionist state in Tel Aviv was “ironclad.” Just days before, the White House wanted to make it appear as if the administration had fundamental differences with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the way it was carrying out the genocidal onslaught against the people of Gaza. In actuality, there are no disagreements over the maintenance and security of the Israeli regime because it serves as an imperialist outpost in the West Asia and North Africa geo-political regions.
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the U.S. has refused to call for a permanent ceasefire in the war. The mass outpouring of opposition to the U.S. arming and diplomatic support to Tel Aviv has further fractured the Democratic Party and its electoral base. The “Abandon Biden” campaign, which began in the state of Michigan, has mobilized significant “uncommitted” votes within the Democratic primaries in other key swing states such as Wisconsin and Minnesota.
This retaliation by Tehran will intensify the level of military tensions throughout the Occupied Territories and the broader regions. Although Israel and the U.S. had anticipated some response from the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), they did not expect that in a matter of hours 400-500 drones and missiles would be launched at Israeli military targets. Despite the much championed “Iron Dome” surrounding the State of Israel, Iranian and other regional sources indicated that more than half of the missiles and drones deployed reached their intended targets.
In a statement issued by the IRGC on the character of the strikes against the Israeli regime, it emphasizes:
“In response to the Zionist regime’s numerous crimes, including the attack on the consular section of Iran’s Embassy in Damascus and the martyrdom of a number of our country’s commanders and military advisors in Syria, the IRGC’s Aerospace Division launched tens of missiles and drones against certain targets inside the occupied territories.”
Biden in his official response to the Iranian retaliatory attacks, urged the Israeli regime not to respond militarily to the strikes. The logical outcome of a continuing military engagement with Iran would be the enhancement of Pentagon forces in the region and the eventual need for a ground operation.
Over the last 34 years, the U.S. has been involved in several air and ground operations in the West Asia and North Africa regions. In Iraq and Kuwait during 1990-91, the U.S. deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to ostensibly eject the Iraqi military from Kuwait. Later draconian United Nations sanctions resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
There was the imposition of a “no-fly zone” over Iraq where repeated U.S. bombings of the country were carried out. By March 2003, the U.S. under then President George Bush, Jr. engineered a major build-up in military forces as a precursor to another invasion and occupation. Hundreds of thousands more U.S. troops established bases in Iraq where they faced fierce resistance which continues up until today.
Other bombing operations, occupations and destabilization efforts have occurred in Syria, Libya and Yemen. Due to U.S. and NATO interference, large-scale dislocations have taken place involving up to 75 million people over the last two decades.
Another article published by Press TV said of the current situation that:
“‘Operation True Promise’ was in response to the assassination of seven Iranian military advisors in Damascus on April 1, including a senior IRGC commander in Lebanon and Syria, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his deputy General Hadi Haj Rahemi, the IRGC said in its first statement. In the second statement, the IRGC retaliation came after 10 days of ‘silence and neglect’ on the part of the international organizations, especially the United Nations Security Council, to condemn Israeli aggression or punish the regime in line with Article 7 of the UN Charter. Iran then resorted to retaliatory strikes, ‘using its strategic intelligence capabilities, missiles, and drones’ to attack ‘targets of the Zionist terrorist army in the occupied territories, successfully hitting and destroying them.’”
U.S. Hypocritical Stance on Palestine Has Damaged the Administration
During the last several months since early October, the Biden administration’s miscalculation that it could avoid the political consequences of facilitating genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza has cost it politically. Most polls reflect the close race for president between Biden and former President Donald J. Trump. Biden is trailing Trump in several polls taken over the last six months and if the administration cannot reverse course on Palestine and other important foreign and domestic problems, it will inevitably fail in November to get reelected.
Even if Biden loses in the upcoming presidential elections, this will not automatically shift the U.S. foreign policy toward the Palestinian question. Trump, who was defeated in November 2020, is also a proponent of Zionism and the suppression of the people within the regions of West Asia and North Africa. It was Trump who illegally moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. However, Biden did not nullify this move while continuing the arms supplies to the State of Israel.
Since coming into office in January 2021, Biden has been responsible for initiating two wars. In Ukraine, the Russian Special Military Operation was a direct outcome of the U.S. policy of expanding NATO and weakening Moscow. The ongoing military, economic and political support for Tel Aviv has encouraged the six months genocide in Gaza and other areas of the Occupied Territories.
In both of these wars, the Biden administration has failed to call for a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement to the fighting. The U.S. sabotage of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
Quite similarly in Palestine, all efforts to reach a ceasefire and begin talks over a permanent solution to the problems of national oppression, displacement and genocide have been blocked by the U.S. administration. Consequently, the Biden administration and its calls for ending the war, at least temporarily, is not being matched by its actions which involve provoking resistance groups in Palestine and other contiguous and neighboring states.
In Lebanon, the role of the settler-colonial regime in Israel has reignited military clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. Although Biden has threatened the affiliates of the Axis of Resistance ordering them not to attack Israel and its allies, the objective conditions in the entire West Asia region cannot restrain the people from defending themselves against Zionist and imperialist aggression.
With specific reference to Lebanon, Al Mayadeen reported:
“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon announced early Sunday (April 14) the targeting of several Israeli military sites in northern occupied Palestine using dozens of Katyusha rockets. In a statement, Hezbollah announced strikes on the Israeli Nafah, Yarden, and Kila outposts in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It reiterated that the operations were in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and their brave and honorable Resistance and in response to the Israeli aggression on the southern Lebanese villages and towns, including al-Khiyam and Kafr Kila, which resulted in the killing and injuring of several civilians.”
Antiwar and anti-imperialist organizations along with Palestine solidarity activists must view the Israeli attacks on Iran as a direct threat to the struggle for peace and national liberation. A regional approach to ending settler-colonialism in West Asia and North Africa is the only real path to victory over racism and genocide.
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