The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) warns against the terrible danger of a new regional war that may be inflicted on us due to the programs of Netanyahu-Barak’s government to attack Iran.

Netanyahu and Barak are leading the people of Israel and the peoples of the region to a war whose hazards and severity are deeply unprecedented. Even the heads of Israel‘s various security systems, past and present, have warned openly that initiating war against Iran would wreak disaster and destruction on Israel. Nevertheless, and despite criticism and opposition from the public and prominent world leaders, Netanyahu and Barak continue to promote precarious programs and may drag the entire region into a horrific destruction.

We determine with great concern that Netanyahu and Barak break any record of political and security adventurism and that they subject the life of Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs, to terrible destruction. Israeli government’s premeditated use of the suffering of the residents of Israel (following the prospective reaction to Israeli offense) in order to drag other powers and forces into the war is particularly rigorous.

Promoting this dangerous and bloody adventure is also made in order to rule out the question of Israeli-Palestinian peace from the agenda in Israel and the region, as well as in order to avoid demands for social justice and social budget in Israel. Instead of tackling these issues, the government of Israel introduces a militaristic and nationalist agenda. Netanyahu’s attempt to influence, through plans of war, the elections in the United States is also severely bothersome.

The danger is indeed terrible – but it is not predestined by fate. It is essential, and still possible, to prevent the war. At this crucial time we call the opposition parties, political figures, intellectuals, academics and journalists, movements and forces in Israeli society, and even the sane elements within the Israeli establishment itself, to act together against the war initiative. We call on to create a broad mobilization of public action against the war.

The Political Bureau calls on all party institutions, the Israeli Communist Young League (Banki-Shabiba) and Hadash, all party members and sympathizers, to present the issue of the struggle against the regional war at the top of our agenda.

We urge all social protest activists to speak out clearly against the war, based on the understanding that beyond all other damages, a regional war will infringe on the struggle for social change and social justice in Israel. Regional war and social justice cannot coexist.

We call on the Left and other progressive forces in the region and the world as a whole to raise a strong voice of opposition to the war and to initiate mass protests in order to mobilize public opinion and worldwide governments against the war that Netanyahu and Barak plan to wage on Iran.

The future of the peoples of the region, including the citizens of Israel, will not do in horrifying wars of annihilation or in aggression but quite the opposite – in a comprehensive and stable peace in the Middle East whose core is an Israeli-Palestinian peace – to be established on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative and the UN resolutions.

Wars cannot eliminate nuclear weapons – only a comprehensive settlement of the demilitarization of the entire Middle East of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in general can. In this regard, we demand that the Israeli government will sign the treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

For the future, for life – stop the war!

Decision of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Israel,

Um el-Fahem, August 3, 2012.