Statement of the Israeli Communist Forum (20.7.2006)
Stop the war in Lebanon and Gaza !
The Israeli communist forum strongly condemns the barbaric attacks of the Israeli army in Lebanon and in Gaza Strip. In those attacks many innocent people, including women and many children, have been killed. A lot of houses have been demolished, as well as airports, various roads, bridges, electric power stations etc’. As a result of this destruction hundreds of thousands of people are in dangerous situation and lack basic products, including food and water.
The refusal of Ehud Olmert's Government to conduct any negotiation with the Palestinian elected leadership, including on exchange of prisoners, was main cause for recent escalation in the region. Olmert's government is continuing the old principle of past Israeli governments - which failed during all history - according to it "with our neighbours we shall 'speak' only with force, and what we can't achieve with force, we shall achieve by using more force". This policy inflicts not only great losses to the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples, but also to Israeli citizens and to its economy. The northern part of Israel is nearly paralyzed.
From the history of the conflict in our region we know that neither mass killings, bombardments and destruction of huge areas nor liquidations of military or political leaders in any degree can't achieve for the long run the aim of their perpetrators.
The pretext of the Israeli government for initiating the new war was that its aim is to recover an Israeli soldier who was captured by the Palestinians, and later to release the two soldiers which were captured by Khizballa near the Lebanese border, (the declared aim of Khizballa was to use the Israeli soldiers in order to exchange them with Lebanese prisoners in Israel, and it was also kind of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and with the Palestinian prisoners.) If the real aim of the Israeli government indeed was to release the captive soldiers, it could have been achieved through negotiations, as it happened in several occasions in the past, including in recent years. But it was just excuse for realizing military aggression which was prepared long time ago.
There is a dangerous attempt to drag Syria and additional countries in the region into the new war. The implementation of these schemes is enabled at this stage by the total support of USA. USA automatically supports all the barbaric acts of aggression conducted by the Israeli army. USA is trying, through the Israeli army, to score some achievements in the region, which will mitigate its recurrent failures in Iraq, which weakens its status in the region. It is very regretful that the international opposition to the Israeli aggression was very weak in the beginning of the war, but in last days its started growing in various parts of the world.
The current policy of Olmert's government is disastrous for both the Israeli People and the other Peoples in the region.
We call to enhance the struggle against this policy, and for maximum unification of the forces, Jews and Arabs, which are persistently opposing the war and occupation as well as the racism inside the state of Israel. We congratulate the first acts of protest, which took place in last days and call for their continuation and increase. We call to all peace loving forces in the world to raise their voice against the barbaric war of the Israeli government and to express active solidarity with the Palestinian People, the Lebanese People and the persistent peace forces in Israel.