.....Sunday 16 July, 12.43pm....

World War 3 has begun in Lebanon. Anyone who doubted it were possible, think again. The reckoning (and human wreckage) is unfolding before your eyes, on the streets of Beirut. The Israeli air force is now in the process of destroying the civilian infrastructure of southern Lebanon, indiscriminately targeting civilians in the raids (this is the US's own definition of "terrorism") while the Israeli navy, stationed in Lebanese waters, pulverises the ports as far north as Tripoli.

At this crunch time for Lebanon, desperately mustering the strength for a war against a fearsome adversary, what is the "international community" doing, exactly? Nothing. What about Tony Blair? Is he using the special relationship, that long-standing, subtly engineered diplomatic arrangement the UK has with the US, to persuade George W. Bush that another battlefront in the Middle East is in nobody's interests? Apparently not. The diplomatic watchword in this war is "restraint". Israeli army, when you blow up those houses and offices, overwhelmingly in residential areas of southern Beirut, do everything you can to minimise the collateral damage, would you?

But of course, Israel, according to George W. Bush (and now we know what the "W" stands for) is simply "defending" itself. "Defending" itself for the most part, he always omits to mention, in Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory. What a thoroughly contemptible response from the leader of the free world! What a fucking embarrassment! Meanwhile, Tony Blair - what is his stated position on the war? On 14 July the Prime Minister responded to the allegation that Israel had used a disproportionate degree of force by saying that he didn't want to get into a "finger-pointing game" (presumably because he didn't want to get it shot off by Bush!). This following the death of 27 people in Israeli air raids the previous day. But having established the criminal behaviour and outright hypocrisy of our "democratically" elected politicians, let's focus on what's most telling in the war in Lebanon. The war in Lebanon (and that is what it is, involving two opponents, Israel and Lebanon) is constantly referred to, both by politicians and news agencies alike, as the "crisis in the Middle East". This convenient euphemism is deployed in order to underline the allegedly complex webs of diplomatic intrigue leading inexorably back to the situation in Palestine. BUT THIS IS JUST NOT TRUE.

Hezbollah, which is entitled to call itself the only authentic political organisation operating in the region, if not one of the last on earth was formed with very specific military aims: to resist and drive out the Israeli occupation. Now, 24 years after its first occupation, Israel has set out on another micro-imperialist adventure that can only result, according to the logic of its own rhetoric, in the renewed military occupation or siege (it's the same thing) of southern Lebanon. The objective conditions that brought Hezbollah into existence in the first place have come full circle, justifying its continued existence. So when Israel says that its current operation is intended to disarm the militias it is being disingenuous; it knows full well that the Hezbollah militias exist as a direct result of Israel's uninterrupted occupation of Lebanese land since 1982.

THE EUPHEMISM "THE CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST" IS DEAD! NOW IS THE TIME FOR THE CLARITY AND PRECISION OF SPECIFIC AND LITERAL STATEMENTS! For example: "Israel is attacking Lebanon in total contravention of Lebanese sovereignty"; and "Hezbollah has the right to defend Lebanon."

These are the two axioms that we have, these are the facts to date. And isn't it ironic how every definition of terrorism helpfully provided by the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world, the US, actually applies in reverse? Because what Hezbollah has been doing since 1982, following the Israel army's "retreat" from Lebanon in 2000, has been aimed at defending its land and its people from the incursions of the military leviathan to the south. This INCLUDES Hezbollah's recent hostage taking of Israeli soldiers, conducted in reprisal for the hundreds of Lebanese hostages taken by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon over recent years. This was the spark for the current "crisis", Israel would have us believe.

A patent lie. Israel has been looking for the pretext to reinvade Lebanon ever since it left, searching for a convenient excuse to advance its borders further into Syria, in preparation for a final push to Damascus.

As you gulp down your cornflakes this morning, wake up to reality. You can do fuck all to prevent what is happening. To quote De Gaulle following the Israeli air force's bombardment of Beirut airport in 1967, "nations don't have friends, they have interests". The situation will change only once people in the wider world realise that their interests - our interests - are Hezbollah's. But in the meantime we can at least make literal statements.

Oh, and by the way. Hezbollah will win.