On June 17th, after 108 days of a war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Donald Trump announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) calling for a pause to military strikes on all sides for sixty days. “The Islamabad Memorandum,” or the “Iran MOU” is yet another machination by the US imperialists to put out the raging fires started by the al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7, 2023. This document also shows Iran extracting significant concessions from US imperialism. These concessions shows the weakening of the general counterrevolutionary offensive of imperialism, and the beginning of a new chapter in the people’s resistance. In this new balance of forces, US imperialism is increasingly losing hegemony on the one hand, and on the other, ascendant National Liberation movements are increasingly capable of conquering major victories from the sinking imperialist powers. There is no stronger example of this new reality on the ground than in the victories of Axis of Resistance, codified in the Iran MOU. This victory has been won because of the Unity of Fronts of the Axis of Resistance on the battlefield, and particularly because of the steadfastness of the Lebanese Resistance as a part of this Axis. It is for these reasons that the Anti-imperialist forces all over the world must treat the Axis of Resistance in general, and especially Hezbollah, as being one of our greatest teachers. This begins with deepening our understanding of what has happened in recent weeks and months.
Zionists have wanted to subject Lebanon to the “Greater Israel” project for a long time. From the nineteenth century, Theodor Herzl’s earliest designs for a Jewish State include all of Lebanon within its borders. Decades later, David Ben-Gurion, founding father of the State of Israel, put forward the position that Israel’s Northern border should actually be in South Lebanon. Israel invaded this part of Lebanon twice before, once in 1978, and again in 2000. Even today in its most recent acts of aggression against Lebanon, Israel is fighting to maintain “security outposts” in this same part of South Lebanon Ben-Gurion wrote about over one hundred years ago. None of this history reflects fringe, or minority viewpoints in the Zionist movement, but the long development of lines that have become an integral component of Israel’s security strategy1.
Annexing the land of Lebanon is a solution to two of Israel’s fundamental problems; first, that Israel is an imperialist outpost built on top of Palestine, and second, that Palestine exists as the cause of every genuine Anti-imperialist, and not in a vacuum. With each wave of martyrs, prisoners, and acts of settler violence from 1948 to this day, Israel has sewn together tighter and tighter the unity against Zionism among Palestinians, the Arab masses, Muslims, and all Anti-imperialist and internationalist people across the globe. The highest expression of this unity is in the coordination of the Axis of Resistance, especially on the part of the selfless sacrifice and internationalist spirit of Hezbollah. No matter what twists and turns lie ahead for the Resistance Axis, the unity of the free peoples of the region being incorporated by the thousands into the United Front of the Axis is stronger than the Iron Dome and any other weapon the imperialists try to use against it. The unity of the Lebanese and Palestinian struggle for National Liberation is particularly dangerous for Israel because it must contend both. This unity in action in particular has foreclosed the possibility of any future for Zionism, which has taken the form of a dead man walking. It is only a matter of time.
Progressive people around the world, especially in the part of the Arab world that borders Palestine and Muslim majority countries, are drawn to fight for Palestine for many reasons. A significant factor in this equation is in the actions of the enemy; Israel is digging its own grave because it is so unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of people in the area around it, and it is so unacceptable because it is the face of imperialism. In addition to waging a brutal occupation of Palestine, Israel directly targets Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon as part of a broader border security strategy to serve US imperialism. At various points Israel has orchestrated coups, taken land, and carpet bombed all of these countries, and when it is not attacking these countries militarily, it is actively working against the unity of the masses in other ways. Israel has always tried to divide and conquer the Arab and Muslim world, and it may win in its efforts in some places some of the time, but it has never been able to put out all the fires on its borders at once. Because Israel has never been able to resolve the problem of hostilities around its borders, let alone within it, Zionism pursues a strategy of always looking to expand its borders.
This is Israel’s basic security policy towards every country in the Arab world, and it is an important factor in the social basis for Resistance against Zionism and imperialism in the Greater Middle East. Israel does not have a general policy of provoking the Arab and Muslim masses in the region because of a specific political party, or because Netanyahu is a particularly evil actor, Israel conducts itself with such a hostile posture so that it may sustain its occupation of Palestine and serve US Imperialism. At certain moments Israel may appear all-powerful because of its technology and financial resources, but for all the projections of its strength, the strategy simply does not work to dismantle resistance. Because Israel cannot win and it is also unwilling to accept defeat, its posture becomes even more violent and reactionary as it feels itself further backed into a corner. In this context of Zionist crisis, doing something like trying to invade Lebanon for third time actually becomes a sensible option for the Israelis. This is why the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, was absolutely correct to say “We are not talking about expansionist intentions; we are talking about expansion. We are not talking about aggressive intentions; we are talking about aggression. The danger is existential2.”
On the Lebanese side, the situation leading to the current existential danger has been brewing for some time. Namely, since 2020, the oppressed classes of Lebanon have already been burdened by one of the most severe financial crises in history. The Bureaucratic Lebanese government responded to this financial crisis by defaulting on Lebanon’s sovereign debt. Defaulting on sovereign debt devastated the entire Lebanese economy, which has not recovered to this day. While Hezbollah’s historic mass base is the Shi’a Muslim population of Lebanon, the threat of the subjugation of Lebanon on top of its economic catastrophe naturally draws all progressive sections of the Lebanese people closer to Hezbollah, while capitulationist Lebanese politicians find themselves more and more isolated.
The Lebanese State that is currently collaborating directly with the Israelis and the Americans is degraded to an extent that almost lacks comparison. There is no modern historical precedent for the Lebanese Prime Minister, Joseph Aoun, taking such actions as beginning negotiations with an invading foreign power by offering up 10% of his country’s sovereign land, or rescinding the right of his citizens to pursue legal claims against the invading power. Hezbollah alone shows itself to be the only force in Lebanon capable of leading the defense of Lebanon’s territorial sovereignty, and indeed the very lives of the Lebanese people from certain death under Israeli fire. The masses of Lebanon see this and express their understanding when they revolt against treasonous direct talks between the US and Lebanese State.
Israel also finds itself in an existential crisis when it comes to the question of Lebanon. Zionism and “Greater Israel” demands more money, technology, and manpower maintaining the Occupation of Palestine. But how strong is a State that survives on land expropriation when it cannot even hold onto a piece of land ten kilometers north of its immediate border? What use is an “unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East,” as Joe Biden described the State of Israel’s function for US imperialism, if it is burning on all sides? The Axis of Resistance winning the withdrawal of Israeli troops in the Iran MOU is a testament of how far Israel has fallen as a regional power.
In 1948, Israel fought a multi-front war of aggression against Palestine and all of its neighboring Arab countries, resulting in the loss of 70% of Palestinian land to Israel. In 1967, Israel defeated multiple Arab armies, taking hundreds of miles of land from Egypt and Syria in its Six Day War. Come 2026, Israel cannot hold of a single kilometer of Lebanese territory. For decades, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) seemed unbeatable while the Resistance seemed weak, but now the truth of the matter is becoming clear: like all reactionaries, Israel is a paper tiger which looks strong but is weak, while the Resistance may start weaker but becomes stronger. The IOF put boots on the ground in Lebanon again in March of 2026, calculating that Lebanon had already been so badly weakened that it could easily do whatever it wanted. However, Israel’s objectives have not been achieved: the disarmament of Hezbollah, execution of all of its leaders, and indefinite occupation. Instead of encountering a force too weak to fight, Israel has discovered a reorganized Hezbollah that seems even more capable of striking blows against the IOF. By their own admission, Israeli news outlets have reported that the talks between the Aoun and Netanyahu governments are a “trainwreck3,” and the military incursion into Lebanon represent “the darkest days in Israeli history.”
Israel’s darkest day is cause for celebration for the overwhelming majority of the people in the world, and it is the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon that has opened this window of hope. Hezbollah has not only been fighting bravely, but fighting successfully for the defense of the Lebanese land and people. The IOF acted with arrogance to invade Lebanon, as though it believed in the myth of its own invincibility. But the reality shown to us by Hezbollah is that when resistance relies on the unity of the masses, all the tricks of the imperialists – assassination of leaders, brutal repression of the masses, forced displacement – these machinations are not only ineffective, but actually fuel the resistance. Israel cannot take a single step in Lebanon, or in any place where the Axis of Resistance is present without causing the incorporation of even more masses into the Resistance. The leaders of the Resistance understand this. As Martyr Tareq Izzedine of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said, “Whenever a leader ascends, ten will emerge to replace them. When a martyr ascends, 100 martyrs will emerge to replace them. The march continues, it does not stop until the defeat of the occupation4.” And as Saleh al-Arouri of Hamas asserted, “We are martyred like our people, we are arrested as they are arrested, our homes are demolished and we are being chased and pursued. We fight because we must5.”
In their martyrdom, the leadership of Hezbollah, and the other leaders of the Axis of Resistance, showed the Lebanese masses that the Resistance leaders were ready to fight and die alongside them to free Lebanon from imperialist and Zionist aggression, for a free Palestine from the River to the Sea, and in defense of the Iranian, Yemeni, and Iraqi people and their territorial sovereignty. These leaders repeatedly emphasized that all of these causes are linked. This is especially true for Sayyed Nasrallah of Hezbollah, who often began public updates on the war with news about martyrs in Gaza, not about his own country. The linking of these causes is the Unity of Fronts, the strategy of the resistance axis developed by Ayatollah Khamenei from Iran, Yahya Sinwar from Hamas in Palestine, and Sayyed Nasrallah from Hezbollah in Lebanon. All three of these leaders who developed this strategy have achieved martyrdom. The martyrdom of this leadership has not dismantled the Resistance, but seals the inevitability of the defeat of Israel and imperialism in blood because the steadfastness, sacrifice, and revolutionary line of the Resistance is strengthened even further with the martyrdom of its leaders. To the surprise of the IOF, Israel is finding no widespread success in trying to get the Sunni Muslim and Maronite Christian masses in Lebanon to turn against the Islamic Resistance. It is now possible for the first time in history that the only people who fully believe Zionism has a future in Lebanon are occupying posts in the Israeli Knesset.
For the arch-reactionary Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, it is better to live with the costs of a badly failing military incursion in Lebanon than it is to accept decisive defeat. Admitting defeat to Hezbollah at this scale would be an admission of how badly Israel has stumbled as a political-military power. It would also mean admitting a strategic failure for Zionism and Greater Israel on the one hand, and a strategic success for the Axis of Resistance on the other. On an even deeper level, it would affirm before the people of the whole world that it is possible to stand up to the imperialists and win. The Zionist entity represents the full force of the projection of US imperialism in the Greater Middle East. If Hezbollah can cast off the yolk of US imperialism in spite of the seemingly insurmountable odds stacked against it, the victories of armed struggles for National Liberation in every part of the world will follow. The Anti-Imperialist Front USA urges readers to take the contributions of the Resistance as one of its great teachers, standing shoulder to shoulder with the heroic People’s Wars led by Communist Parties in Peru, India, the Philippines, and Turkey. When it comes to the question of Lebanon, we call on readers to learn from Hezbollah, and this means transforming the lessons from the Resistance into actions. We call on all Anti-imperialist activists to set aside any minor differences and sincerely support the Resistance, striving for genuine partnership around our common cause: hastening the inevitable end of the bloodthirsty imperialist system.
Our teacher, Hezbollah, offers another lesson of vital importance for anti-imperialists. The fact of the matter is that it is the Islamic Resistance of Lebanon that has incorporated broad swaths of the working class into its membership and is mobilizing the working and oppressed people of Lebanon against imperialism, and not the opportunist Lebanese “Communist Party”. It is the Islamic Resistance at the center of the greatest anti-imperialist waves in a generation, and not the toothless “left”. Anti-imperialist activists of all kinds, especially Marxists, have no choice but to see these facts on the ground. We have no choice to see these facts, but the tasks we derive out of them is a matter of our own decision. We say that our task is not to condemn the Resistance because it is not organized into a Communist Party, but to humbly take the contributions of the Resistance as one of our teachers, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the People’s Wars being waged in Peru, India, the Philippines, and Turkey which light the path for working class liberation across the globe. The Communist Parties in the Greater Middle East will not be reconstituted or constructed in study groups or in the ivory tower, but in the midst of the fierce anti-imperialist struggle under a barrage of bullets and bombs, fighting alongside the Islamic Resistance forces against US imperialism and its guard-dog Israel!
Our task is also to unite all genuine Anti-imperialists in our country to support the Resistance as partners with a common cause, and to seize the windows opened by the Axis of Resistance. Seizing this moment means striking blows at our common enemies from within the belly of the beast. None of this means disregarding class or political differences, it means recognizing there is a common enemy, imperialism, and defeating imperialism for good requires the broadest possible unity in action.
US IMPERIALISM OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!
VICTORY TO THE AXIS OF RESISTANCE!
ISRAEL OUT OF LEBANON!
1 https://theconversation.com/israeli-threats-to-occupy-or-annex-south-lebanon-dust-off-a-decades-old-playbook-279704
2 https://www.palestinechronicle.com/we-broke-israels-project-sheikh-qassem-declares-victory-rejects-disarmament/
3 https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-train-wreck-as-jerusalem-and-beirut-hold-talks-israeli-envoy-pans-linkage-to-us-iran-deal/
4 https://orinocotribune.com/sayyed-hassan-nasrallah-the-martyrdom-of-a-great-international-revolutionary-leader-of-our-era/
5 https://samidoun.net/2024/09/sayyed-hassan-nasrallah-the-martyrdom-of-a-great-international-revolutionary-leader-of-our-era/