–Approved as a statement by the Steering Committe of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization

Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran, beginning at 3:00 AM local time, was a reckless, barbarous act that threatens to set the entire region aflame. Some 200 Israeli planes, as well as missiles and drones, bombarded the country, destroying military bases and nuclear infrastructure, the avowed aim of the attacks. Israel also assassinated, apparently in their homes, several important military, political, and scientific leaders, among them the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s most important military leader. Its strikes also killed the chief-of-staff of the Army and four nuclear scientists. Reports from Iranian civilians suggest that many of the attacks struck residential areas of Tehran and other cities. To the extent that regime officials were killed in their homes, this constitutes a major violation of the laws of war, apart from the utterly innocent civilians also killed in such actions.

Israel clearly wants to stop any possibility of another US-Iran nuclear deal and may have moved more quickly to attack than even Trump wished. But now that Iran has counterattacked, the US will jump to Israel’s defense. This only underlines the need to cut off all military funding and aid to Israel, as we have been demanding since the genocidal Gaza war of 2023

Israel’s stated aims are to incapacitate or decisively delay Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, to destroy its long-range missiles, and to decapitate its military and nuclear research infrastructures. It promises, with strong US support so far, to deal such a decisive blow to Iran as to remove it as a threat to US-Israeli hegemony in the region. This, like its aim of “eliminating” Hamas in Gaza, is in the long run Quixotic. In truth, Israel has incomparably less chance of destroying Iranian military capacities. It will, however, be able to inflict untold suffering on the Iranian people.

How could such a miscalculation be possible? First, Israel and the US seem to believe that with Iran’s allies in Syria and Lebanon having been destroyed or severely weakened, that it will be hard for Iran to stage a serious counterattack against Israel. Thus, now is the time to take advantage of Iran’s weakness. This is a grand illusion if it means that Iran can be eliminated as a factor in the region rather than temporarily weakened.

Second, Israel seems to believe that the Iranian people will support their attack, and perhaps even rise up to overthrow the regime. While the regime’s popular support is weaker than ever since the 2023 mass uprising of women and ethnic minorities, this is an even greater illusion. This is the error of believing one’s own propaganda. The illusory character of such aims is seen in the horror almost all Iranians are feeling at this clearly unwarranted aggression, as seen in this post on social media from inside the country just hours after the attacks began: “The people of Iran must not be sacrificed again. Not for the Islamic Republic. Not for Zionist militarism. And not for those who, from abroad, mistake bloodshed for liberation.”

Finally, Israel is playing both the antisemitism and the Islamophobia cards, claiming that the Iranian regime is some kind of inherent threat to Israel, just because its rhetoric ever since 1979 has referred to the “destruction” of Israel. Also, because at some time in the future it could conceivably attain a nuclear weapons capability, Israel claims that Iran would then move to attack even if that meant suicide vs. Israel’s actual nuclear weapons, not least because its religious fundamentalism extolls martyrdom. Here, Israel is under the illusion that, just as largely spurious charges of antisemitism have been used to justify the repression of the pro-Palestinian movement in the West, and in the US, outright attacks on major universities, it could play that card again to gain support for its military adventurism. Given the relative silence of US liberals, and the support of the Trump administration, this may be the case. But for how long, especially if the US is drawn in or Israel asks it to take a direct part?

At the same time, our opposition to this military aggression in no way constitutes any kind of political support for the Iranian regime. The genuine left has opposed the Islamic Republic from day one. Back in 1979, we supported the feminists, the independent wing of the workers councils, and the leftist tendencies that wanted to turn to the revolution against the shah into something socialist, secular, and democratic. This kind of support for the progressive opposition needs to continue, just as we supported uprisings like the ones in 2023, or earlier, 2009. It can also be pointed out that the regime is weaker and more dysfunctional internally that it seemed, given how easily its leaders were picked off by Israel on June 13.

But these kinds of considerations in no way lessen our opposition to this new wave of Israeli-US aggression.