Last night, while Israeli jets were pounding the suburbs of Beirut, the city of Tyre, and the whole of South Lebanon, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Lammy - in the name of the government and the "British people" - stood up to declare their full support, yet again for "/srael's right to self defence".

    And then came the predictably ineffective missile attack by Iran on Israel, almost entirely intercepted by the US-maintained Iron Dome system and US and British naval batteries and air-defence. Yes, an attack which was a response to repeated and escalating provocation by the Israeli regime, invited and fully anticipated.

    And why now? Because, this time, unlike in April, the context is a very much weakened Hizbollah, which has been the only physical opposition against the Israeli army's obliteration of Palestinian Gaza. So Netanyahu's regime is now seizing its advantage in order to threaten Iran. Yes, remember? This is the crux of the so-called "axis of evil"...

    And in this latest turn of events, Netanyahu has the "full, full" support of Biden and Keir Starmer. Who just yesterday were telling him to cease fire! So, yes, they are now backing the new aggression of this extreme- right-wing regime - the real terrorist of the Middle East, "fully".

    Was the target, behind all the rhetoric, always the Iranian regime? Certainly the denial of this vast country to the exploitation of the western powers for so long - and in the context of world economic recession - means they would certainly be in favour of beating the Iranian regime into submission and "regime change".

    Netanyahu says he wants to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Never mind that it could cause a radiation fall- out, not just over the region, but potentially over half the world. He may even decide to deploy his own nuclear arsenal with even worse consequences.

    The "unity" of the western powers with this most right-wing and most depraved Israeli regime in the history of its apartheid state, is unprecedented. What's more, the British media, almost without exception, has taken sides with Israel across-the-board. That is also unprecedented.

    But the working class of this country - indeed the international working class - has its own side to take. And that "side" corresponds with the interests of the poor of the Middle East today - who are truly at this moment the "wretched of the earth".

    Workers may have felt impotent as they watched the horror unfold day by day, month by month over the past year. But they are not impotent. The working class has the potential power to stop the whole economy, the workings of the state, to overpower governments - and stop wars.

    Can the working class organise a general strike, for the interests, not only of itself, but for the sake of brothers and sisters in the Middle East; indeed, for humanity, against this war? In particular, a war against Iran, which Starmer and Biden are helping to stoke? It certainly could. And for once, we say, we "should".

It's the 13th week of this Labour government, but the "winning team" is already out of luck. Starmer's speech at Labour conference last week didn't even offer the promised "light at the end of the tunnel". What's more, everyone kept bringing up the expensive gifts received from Baron Alli, staunch Labour Lord and former media mogul.

    In the conference hall, UNITE union leader Sharon Graham led the chorus calling for a reverse of the cut in pensioners' winter fuel allowance payment. The majority attending the conference even voted for government to scrap it - by a token show of hands.

    Then came the resignation of MP Rosie Duffield, over Starmer's "cruel and unnecessary" policies: the cutting of pensioners' Winter Fuel Allowance and the refusal to reverse the two-child benefit cap which has contributed to the huge increase in child poverty.

    Indeed, a barrage of criticism has been mounted against the new government's austerity measures from right to left. And no wonder. The overwhelming crisis in the NHS alone is a factor holding up the economic growth (i.e., profits growth) they all crave. And how else under this system can that be addressed without "taxing the rich"?

    Economists are all offering advice. Reeves could, for instance, embark on some kind of disguised Public Finance Initiative - keeping in mind how that came back to bite Tony Blair.

    Yes, among all the other things which bit Blair. Like his co-invasion of Iraq in 2003 alongside George Bush - which is a memory revisited today as Starmer in turn, acts poodle to the US, by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Biden and Netanyahu.

    Indeed, Starmer has already emulated Blair by dipping his hands in the blood of the wounded, dying and dead of the Middle East, as Netanyahu turns the region into hell - including for his own population. If Starmer et al deserve to be criticised - no, cursed - today for "cruelty", it is above all because of their complicity in this war.