Nothing can justify what is happening in Gaza today. For the last fortnight, terror has rained down on the Palestinians living on this narrow strip of land.

Homes, hospitals, UN administered schools, mosques and churches… the two and a half million inhabitants have nowhere to shelter from the bombing. Nowhere to get food, water, fuel and medication.

Humanitarian aid is just a drop in this ocean of suffering. With more than 4,600 dead, entire neighborhoods destroyed, hospitals overwhelmed, it’s a tragedy happening in front of the eyes of the whole world. It’s a policy of blind vengeance on the part of the Israeli state and no one can say that they didn’t know.

And there may be worse to come!

Will the Israeli army enter Gaza? Will it widen the gulf of blood and hatred that separates Palestinians from Israelis? And what is their goal? To occupy Gaza? To raze some of it to the ground? These are all hypotheses being seriously envisaged by the state of Israel and its imperialist advisors. This alone shows the level of barbarity reached by society.

The future of Palestinians and Israelis for decades to come will depend on these events. The future of the Middle East and perhaps the world will depend on these events – no one can be sure that they will not set the world ablaze.

Not even the leaders of the great powers, Biden at their head, can guarantee it. Last week, the US president asked Netanyahu not to be “consumed by rage”. But he hasn’t vetoed a ground invasion or called on the Israeli army to cease fire. The US has even deployed two aircraft carriers in the region and sent new weapons to Israel. Macron is going there on October 24 with the same message of support.

Yes, the imperialist powers are complicit in the carnage happening in Gaza today. This is not surprising: those powers have given their continual support to Israel, despite colonization, despite the systematic dispossession and oppression of the Palestinians, whether they’re living in Gaza, on the West Bank or in Israel.

For decades, these major Western powers who claim to be democratic, have used the Israeli state as their combat wing in the region. They have covered up all its crimes and continue to do so.

These same major powers have created explosive situations across the globe. This is particularly true in the oil-rich Middle East where they have imposed their domination by decimating peoples, by relying on the most reactionary monarchies and dictatorships; Saudi Arabia is an example. And when such regimes are not sufficiently docile, they are crushed, as Saddam Hussein was in Iraq.

Today, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Yemen are social time-bombs where there are millions of poor people who are often as desperate as the Palestinians. This is a situation where the smallest spark could set off an explosion. And the major powers are allowing Netanyahu to play with matches.

There won’t be any help from them. The UN is just a powerless act. The so-called “international community” is just a fig leaf to hide the domination of the richest countries who spend their time tearing each other apart for the right to plunder the world.

The imperialist powers are fighting Russia in Ukraine, using Ukrainians as their intermediary. The tug of war between the US and China can degenerate into armed conflict in any number of ways. And all the major powers are already thinking ahead to a third world war.

Hope can only come from the peoples themselves. It will come from those who rise up against imperialism and its scheming. It will come from those who understand the need to fight capitalism and the big bourgeoisie, whose policy is to set peoples against one another in order to consolidate its domination.

The only way out for humanity is to overthrow imperialism and build an egalitarian society in which there is no more exploitation. This prospect is the opposite of nationalist policies that aim to defend one people to the detriment of others. The exact opposite of Netanyahu’s policy in Israel and the policy of Hamas in Palestine.

The only way to break the vicious circle of war into which they are dragging us is for the workers of every country to unite against the rulers of the world.

Nathalie Arthaud