Stop the US-Israeli war against Lebanon! End the genocide in Gaza!

As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for US President, I condemn the escalating violence unleashed by Israel, with the full backing of American imperialism, across the Middle East.

The recent airstrikes in Lebanon, which have claimed the lives of more than 500 people, including 50 children, 94 women and nine paramedics, and injured more than 1,000 others, are the deadliest attacks on Lebanon since the 2006 war.

Israel’s bombardment has indiscriminately targeted Lebanese civilians. Over the past day, Israeli fighter jets have struck over 800 targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Thousands of people are fleeing toward Beirut as the bombardment intensifies. The toll on Lebanese civilians, including women and children, is devastating. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of “complicated days” ahead, signaling even further violence.

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One of the most heinous acts committed in recent days was Israel’s use of mobile communication devices rigged with explosives to target civilians in Lebanon. Thousands of these devices, planted by Israeli forces, detonated across Lebanon, killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands more.

This mass terror bombing was a blatant violation of international law. As Lama Fakih of Human Rights Watch stated, “International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps—objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use.”

The constant Israeli airstrikes on civilian areas and the destruction of wireless devices are not only flagrant war crimes but deliberate attempts to terrorize the population into submission.

On top of this, Israel has conducted a series of targeted assassinations of senior Hezbollah leaders, including Ali Karaki in a Monday airstrike and Ibrahim Aqeel just days earlier.

American imperialism, Israel’s chief backer, is fully complicit in this violence. The Pentagon announced Monday that it is sending additional troops to the Middle East, raising the risk of a broader regional conflict, particularly targeting Iran. With approximately 40,000 US troops already stationed in the area, this latest deployment signals the Biden administration’s preparedness to intervene directly if the conflict expands.

The Pentagon has also dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Truman and other warships to the Mediterranean, in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln stationed near the Gulf of Oman, making clear that American forces are poised for further action.

Washington continues to provide Israel with the military and diplomatic support it needs to carry out its genocidal policies, not just in Gaza, where nearly 200,000 Palestinians have been killed, but now in Lebanon. The Biden administration, alongside both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, stands firmly behind Netanyahu’s war machine.

In Washington, Netanyahu is met with bipartisan support for his government’s atrocities. This is not just a war against Hezbollah or Hamas—it is a war to assert imperialist control over the entire region, with Lebanon and Iran in their crosshairs.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s pledge Monday to “always ensure that Israel has the ability to defend itself” is a blank check for mass murder. Amidst Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon, it is a statement of full support for a region-wide war.

The United States is preparing for even broader conflicts as it seeks to secure control over the Middle East’s resources and deepen its confrontation with larger rivals such as Russia and China. This reckless drive toward world war threatens to engulf the entire region, if not the world, in a catastrophic conflict that could lead to nuclear annihilation.

However, there is a force capable of stopping this descent into barbarism: the international working class. The same capitalist contradictions that push the ruling class toward war also drive workers into struggle against the exploitation and oppression they face at home. From the strike of 33,000 Boeing workers, to protests around the world against rising inequality, these struggles must be transformed into a conscious political fight against imperialism and capitalism.

The Socialist Equality Party is leading this fight. We call on workers and youth across the globe to unite in a common struggle against the capitalist system that breeds war. The fight against war is inseparable from the fight for socialism. Only by overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist system, where the vast resources of the world are used to meet human needs and not corporate profits, can we end the cycle of imperialist war and oppression.

To those who oppose the horrors unfolding in Lebanon, Gaza, and beyond, we say: The fight against war is a fight against capitalism. The war in Gaza, the bombardment of Lebanon, and the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine are all part of the same imperialist agenda. The working class must unite internationally and fight for a socialist world to put an end to the destruction caused by capitalism and imperialism.

Join the Socialist Equality Party and the International Committee of the Fourth International to build a global anti-war movement and stop the ruling class from plunging humanity into catastrophe.