Lebanon: Colour Revolution Phase 3

A photo of the August 4 explosion at the port of Beirut. Image from Splash 247

Lebanon: Colour Revolution Phase 3

14-08-2020: On August 4, a massive explosion ripped apart Beirut, killing at least 100 people and injuring thousands. The blast was so powerful it was heard by Lebanese people 80 kilometres away in the southern city of Nabatieh, and by those on the Syrian border.[1] The port where it took place was all but destroyed. Several different stories began circulating at to exactly what happened. Some say it was an accident which ignited 2700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate which was being stored at the port after being unloaded from a container ship which ran into problems in 2013.[2] Others say a cui bono (“who benefits”) analysis will quickly point to the Zionist state of Israel. It cannot be denied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out targets in Beirut in a speech to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September 2018.[3] Richard Silverstein claimed that a confidential source inside Israel confirmed that it had indeed bombed Beirut, targeting a Hezbollah weapons depot at the port, and did not know or care that it was stationed next to small mountains of ammonium nitrate.[4]

Rioters capitalise on bloodshed

The Israeli government has denied it was involved, but the ferocious antagonism of the Zionist state towards the Shia politico-military Hezbollah is well known. Hezbollah has militarily prevented the Israeli state from invading Lebanon twice, and this is the basis for its enormous popularity within the country. However, there are also those within Lebanon who are not phased about aligning with US imperialism against Hezbollah, even if it means destroying the country still further. These elements need little encouragement to engage in riotous chaos, especially if they are aware that the US deep state will covertly back them. Of course, this takes place under the rubric of a battle against “corruption” and for “democracy”. As if on cue, these elements used the excuse of the bloodshed of the explosion at the port to storm government buildings in an attempted takeover.[5] Security forces ensured it did not last.

Whoever was responsible for the August 4 explosion, it appears to be the third phase of a politically reactionary “colour revolution” not against the Lebanese government per se, but against the political and military power of Hezbollah. The first two attempts took place in November 2019,[6] and in April this year,[7] the so-called “Revolution in the Time of Corona”. These violent riots are light years away from anything progressive, let alone contain traits of workers’ struggle. The demands “they all must go” are a dead giveaway. All colour revolutions have an entirely negative message – just collapse the government with nothing better to replace it. The beneficiaries in this scenario is the US Empire and the Israeli state in the process of attempting to recover what it lost in Syria. Hezbollah joined with Syria, Russia and Iran to defeat US backed mercenaries in Syria in what was perhaps the dirtiest proxy war in history. It is estimated that the CIA directed the funding of up to $1 billion US taxpayer dollars to alleged “moderate rebels”[8], who slaughtered around 500 000 innocent Syrians, many in the most gruesome manner imaginable. Of course, the “moderate rebels” turned out to be ISIS and Al Qaeda death squads. This diabolical campaign was arguably the first military defeat for US imperialism since the liberation of Vietnam in 1975. Needless to say, Wall Street seeks to reverse this defeat by any means necessary, up to and including the stoking of a right-wing fake uprising in Lebanon against Hezbollah. Why there? Because they have been largely chased out of Syria, Russia is untouchable in a military sense, and they cannot invade a fully prepared Iran.

Corona tyranny a cover for imperialist strategy

As we have warned previously, the fake Coronavirus “pandemic” is being used as a fig leaf to cover for an unprecedented attack on the workers of the world, including lockdown fascism and imperialist war.[9] The “Beirutshima” attack on August 4 is but one step further towards the abyss of a world conflagration, with Red China being a prime target of Washington and their allies in Tel Aviv, Canberra, London, Berlin and Paris. The Beirut port is a competitor for trade volumes to the Israeli port of Haifa and is a lifeline for Lebanon’s daily sustenance. Destroying the port, with all the difficulties it will add to an already struggling Lebanese economy, facilitates the chaos of the pro-US rioters in Lebanon in a transparent attempt to oust Hezbollah from its position of political and military strength. What is more, the blast comes at a convenient time soon after the Lebanese government was in talks with Chinese based companies for significant investment and development of the Beirut port, as part of China’s New Silk Road linking Europe and Asia.[10] Needless to say, US imperialism is desperate to derail all land and sea links of the New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative) as part of its “cold” war on China.

The former colonial power of Lebanon, via French President Macron, gave yet another indicator of their aims. Macron hypocritically warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to stay out of Lebanon while it was rebuilding, to “put in place a government that can manage the emergency”.[11] Saudi Arabian political commentator Hamdan Al-Sheri was even more explicit in spelling out imperialist aims. He claimed that Iran was controlling Lebanon via its backing for the Hezbollah “terrorist militia”. His solution was the disarming of Hezbollah and the handing over of its weapons to the Lebanese army, and the elimination of the Hezbollah “state within a state”.[12] This is the real aim of imperialism, using the reactionary Lebanese flag-waving “protestors” laying siege to its parliament as its pawns.

Given Hezbollah’s role in defending Lebanon against the Zionist Israeli state, and helping to defeat US imperialism and its ISIS/Al Qaeda proxies in Syria, workers internationally should call for its military defence alongside that of Iran, Syria and the Axis of Resistance, including the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Workers need to defend the right of state-owned and non-state-owned entities based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to engage in trade, investment and infrastructure construction with all countries in the Middle East and internationally. This remains the case despite the participation of the governments of China, Iran, Syria and Russia in the Covid-19 deception which is being used against them. For liberation from Corona lockdowns and their attendant wars, the key task remains the forging of Marxist vanguard parties based on genuine Leninism, as part of a workers’ international.

WORKERS LEAGUE

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[1] https://www.syrianews.cc/massive-explosion-destroys-beirut-harbor-hundreds-of-casualties (12-08-2020)

[2] https://www.globalresearch.ca/horror-beirut/5720787 (12-08-2020)

[3] https://www.voltairenet.org/article210679.html (12-08-2020)

[4] https://israelpalestinenews.org/breaking-israel-bombed-beirut-silverstein (12-08-2020)

[5] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/lebanese-protesters-storm-ministry-buildings-as-anger-over-beirut-blast-grows (12-08-2020)

[6] https://redfireonline.com/2019/11/10/colour-revolution-stalks-lebanon/ (12-08-2020)

[7] https://redfireonline.com/2020/05/09/lebanon-colour-revolution-redux/ (12-08-2020)

[8] https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/10/the-end-of-the-cias-dirty-war-in-syria/ (12-08-2020)