Israel’s murderous attack on Gaza on Monday was driven both by Netanyahu’s parliamentary problems and the US’s imperial agenda, argues Michael Lavalette

Israel restarted its genocidal slaughter in Gaza overnight on Monday. Almost 400 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air assault: bombed in refugee centres, schools and in ‘tent cities’. Within the first fifty minutes of the initial two-hour bombardment, eighty children had been murdered whilst they were sleeping. 

The six-week ceasefire that was initiated in early January has been repeatedly breached by Israel. They delayed hostage releases, restricted aid and refused to move to the agreed stage two of the ceasefire process. 

For the last seventeen days, they have cut off all aid and electricity supplies to the beleaguered Strip. These actions even pushed the supine David Lammy to suggest Israel was committing war crimes (though he was quickly slapped down by Starmer’s people in Number 10). 

Nevertheless, despite the fact that most of us expected the Israelis to break the agreement, the scale of the attack and the brutality of the slaughter was truly shocking. Monday became one of the most deadly nights of the eighteenth-month genocide. The pictures from Gaza truly sickening, the anguish of the Gazans obvious for all to see. 

Monday night’s attack was clearly coordinated with Trump’s White House. Over the weekend, the US launched a ferocious attack on the Houthis in Yemen and made threats at Iran. The Israeli government notified the US in advance that it was about to launch the attacks; notice that wasn’t given to the men, women and children who were sleeping before Suhoor. 

The timing of the attacks was affected by internal Israeli political concerns. Netanyahu has to get his annual budget through their parliament by the end of March, or else he has to call an election. To do that, he needs the votes of the far right in parliament and they made it clear they would only vote with him if he restarted the killing. It is no surprise that when the bombing started, the odious Ben-Gvir re-joined the butcher’s cabinet. 

But these attacks are not without difficulties for Netanyahu. There was opening hostility to his actions by families and supporters of the hostages. The Israeli media are openly discussing the difficulties he will have if he decides to send in ground troops (with some commentators suggesting there could be significant numbers of ‘refuseniks’). It is not clear that there is mass support for a return to war. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has been increasingly hostile to Netanyahu, his drive to war, the fact he has made Israel a pariah state and that he is openly making alliances with European far-right, anti-Semitic networks. 

Imperial plans 

The attack is also a reflection of the US’s broader aims. We should not lose sight of the determining role the US plays in Israel’s wars. Israel simply couldn’t conduct its wars (they would soon run out of ordinance) if it wasn’t for the constant supply of bombs given by the US, and other Western powers, including Britain. 

Trump has given the go-ahead for these attacks and has been openly advocating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza for weeks. The latest suggestions are that the US is putting pressure on Sudan and some other east African countries to be the recipient of forced Palestinian displacement. 

For the US, Israel remains their most important ally in the region. Their vision of a ‘secure Middle East’ (that is secure for US military and economic – essentially oil – interests) is reliant on a strong Israel as the regional sub-imperialist power. They are happy for Israel to expand into Syria, stay in Lebanon, ethnically cleanse Gaza and annex the West Bank if this results in a calm, but controlled, region. The far right in Israel and the settler organisations are using this support to pursue their expansionist dreams. 

But the other part of this US plan involves Saudi Arabia. The US ideally wants both Israel and Saudi working together in US interests. But the renewed attacks on Gaza make it unlikely (at least in the short term) that Saudi will be able to come to any accommodation with the Zionist entity. 

The bombing was met with significant emergency protests across the globe. In Britain, there were significant and impressive demonstrations in all our major cities, but also in smaller towns. It is clear the Palestine movement isn’t going anywhere and these latest attacks have refocused minds on the need to stay on the streets. 

For those of us in the US and Europe, we are in the ‘heart of the beast’. It is Western imperialism that is at the heart of the tragedy of the Middle East and it is our responsibility to address our government’s collusion with the genocide and the atrocities of the expansionist Zionist entity. 

We need to redouble our efforts and raise our voices to hold Starmer, Labour and our politicians to account for their craven collusion with Israel’s genocide. We need to demand that Starmer stops selling arms to Israel and moves to cut off all relations with the apartheid state.