Israel's military aggression on Iranian soil—which began with the assassination of the military and security officials of the Khamenei regime and the targeting of the Islamic Republic's military centers, and whose fascist leaders now promise to turn Tehran into hell—is an expression of the way Israel has always operated. Since its inception shortly after World War II as a colonial settler state pitted against the Palestinian people, Israel has been the military and security arm of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa, and it cannot exist as anything else. The glue that maintains its social cohesion is a theocratic fascism (Jewish religious rule). The code name that Netanyahu gave to this operation—“Rising Lions”—perfectly expresses the nature of these fascist Jewish fundamentalists: before the launch of the Israeli operation, he went to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and pasted a note quoting the verse from the Torah [that says “the nation is like a rising lion”]. These lions will not sleep until they eat the flesh and drink the blood of the dead!

The Israeli regime's existence has been built on violent and terrifying “dreams” and it imposes this horror on the Middle East with advanced military weapons and security systems from the U.S. The leaders of this [Israeli] regime are no different in their evil crimes against the people than the criminals of the Islamic Republic—Khamenei and its assassinated generals. The only difference is that Israel has the power to destroy and murder on a much greater scale, and the arsenal of U.S. imperialism at their disposal. Those who think that the State of Israel is “the most democratic state in the Middle East” or that it is going to bring something good to the people of the Middle East (with bombs and genocidal missiles), should know that Netanyahu's goal is to make Israel the dominant power in the region and even expand its territories. This is what is meant by “these lions will not sleep until they eat the flesh and drink the blood of the dead!”

The real power and motivation for Israel's genocidal war in Gaza and its current aggression against Iranian territory comes from U.S. imperialism. The Trump fascist regime has come to free the hands of U.S. imperialism to impose its interests anywhere in the world with unlimited violence and destruction. For many decades, U.S. imperialism had sole possession of the Middle East—a monopoly that was broken by the rise of powerful imperialist rivals such as China and Russia. However, from the Trump fascist regime’s perspective, this monopoly on power in the region must be returned to the U.S. 

One of the determining factors in this recovery is settling the score with the Islamic Republic of Iran [IRI]. U.S. imperialism advertises that its “problem” with the IRI is the latter’s attempt to acquire a nuclear bomb. But this is not the essence of the matter. The main problem for U.S. imperialism is that the IRI has gone too far in turning Iran into a sphere of influence for the Russian and Chinese imperialists, and these two imperialist powers are using the IRI to challenge the power and influence of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. The competition between these imperialist powers has reached a point where it can not only ignite a devastating war in Iran, but also set the whole world on fire.

Undoubtedly, the needs of these imperialists—just as Israel's interests in becoming a regional power, and as the IRI’s interests in the survival of its hated regime—have nothing to do with the fundamental interests of the masses of the people in Iran, the Middle East and the world. Their move towards destructive wars must be resisted and each instance of turmoil in their system must be used to advance the revolution: especially in Iran and the U.S. 

In such circumstances, and in preparation for a real revolution, the political content of the people's struggles against the IRI must prominently include exposing the fascist and criminal nature of Israel's attacks on Iran (regardless of whether the victims are the hated leaders of the IRI or ordinary people), exposing the nature of U.S. imperialism, and exposing the reactionary nature of the IRI and its false posturing as an “anti-imperialist.” 

In these struggles, we must support the Palestinian people and the anti-fascist struggles of the people in the United States. The struggles of the people of the world against Israel, and the anti-imperialist struggles in various countries in general, should not be directed towards supporting the IRI and its “axis of resistance,” which includes the imperialists of Russia and China. The IRI, as a capitalist state dependent on the capitalist-imperialist world system, has sucked the lifeblood from the 90 million people of Iran. Our people have paid a heavy price for the false “independence” of this regime. Our people's struggles against the IRI must not be contaminated by the deadly poison of silence or surrender in the face of this vicious aggression, nor by support for the fascist regime of Trump, Israel, and their royal or non-monarchical mercenaries. The overthrow of the Islamic Republic must be accompanied by a call to overthrow the fascist “rising lions” in Israel and their imperialist backers. This is a global battle—fought in different arenas but with the same political content.

Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), June 14, 2025