Nasrallah: Hezbollah Stronger Than Zionist Army

BEIRUT – Secretary General of Hezbollah said late Tuesday that U.S. sanctions against Iran and Lebanon's resistance movement will not have major effects on them and will not lead to regime change in Tehran.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech marking the 12th anniversary of the end of the 34-day war with the occupying regime of Israel that the Trump administration is "mistaken" by thinking the sanctions will lead to riots in Iran.

Last week the U.S. began restoring sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which President Donald Trump withdrew from in May.

"Iran has been facing sanctions since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979," Nasrallah said. "He (Trump) is strengthening the sanctions but they have been there since 1979 and Iran stayed and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the victory of its revolution."

The Hezbollah chief spoke to thousands of Lebanese gathered at a rally south of Beirut, where they watched his speech on giant screens.

Speaking about the restoration of the sanctions by the Washington, Nasrallah said: "I can tell you and I have accurate information they are building dreams, strategies and projects that Iran will head toward chaos and the establishment will fall. This is illusion, this is imagination and has nothing to do with reality."

He added that Hezbollah is not scared of a possible war with the Zionist regime of Israel.

"No one should threaten us with war and no one should scare us by war," he said, adding: "We are not scared or worried about war and we are ready for it and we will be victorious."

Nasrallah said, "Hezbollah might not be the strongest army in the Middle East but it is certainly stronger than the Israeli army because we have more faith in our cause and greater willingness to sacrifice.”

"The resistance in Lebanon — with its arms, personnel, expertise and capabilities — is stronger than ever,” he added. 

Nasrallah also said Israel would fail to force Hezbollah away from the Syrian Golan, where the Zionists regime fears the resistance movement will set up bases to use for attacks against the occupying regime, and has pushed for Russia to enforce a buffer zone.

"The Israeli enemy, which has been defeated in Syria, is insolently seeking to impose its conditions in Syria, but this will not happen,” he said.

Perils could actually herald positive change

By Martin Love

NORTH CAROLINA - Sometimes, more often than not, I write against the U.S. as it was and as it has been since. I was born right after Fat Man and Little Boy were thrown at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The public was told these two crimes against Japanese civilians, when Japan was already prepared to surrender, saved lives and shortened World War 2. It did neither. The war was already won in the Pacific The U.S. in fact was sending a message to the USSR, which more than any country had defeated Nazi Germany: “Look what we can do to you if you don’t behave.” Hundreds of thousands of Japanese perished to deliver what amounted, at bottom, to a threat to the USSR. And since then?

No doubt the U.S. government has done at least some good in isolated locations around the world, but on balance the idea and fact of “Empire” has gotten insanely out of hand since the turn of the century, and on balance the U.S. has caused more carnage and humiliation to others trying to maintain power and dominance than any other country in world history in the past century. Iran has suffered, beginning with the CIA and British coup against Mossadegh. But maybe, maybe the chickens are coming home to roost as the U.S. government as it has been, may be becoming of late more isolated and reviled, and if you ever imagined you might live in “interesting times”, they have arrived. And oddly enough, amid the dangers, there may be cause for some hope ahead. Consider that the geopolitical deck is getting reshuffled, at least slowly. Alliances and perceptions are changing. Currently, for examples, Turkey seems to be falling out with both the U.S. and the EU, the U.S. falling out with the EU, Canada and Mexico (and others), Saudi Arabia falling out with Canada, Turkey and Qatar, and tradition Western allies appearing incapable of getting along, among many other instances of discord.

While one cannot disagree with some moves Trump has made, including the appearance at least of Trump’s suggestions to reduce tensions with Vladimir Putin and the Russians, a suggestion which may literally threaten his Presidency, his greatest failings are, of course, his Middle East policies where the Zionists have been setting the agenda, particularly with regard to Iran. He can tweet and tweet idiotically, endlessly send out messages that he often contradicts the next day, but as long as he protects the super-rich oligarchs and permits the Zionists’ to control him, and allows the U.S. Military Industrial Complex to do its worldwide murder and to loot the U.S. Treasury, he will be allowed to carry on, and meanwhile the Democratic opposition, which claims to be more “sane”, really is not yet and its intentions though cast differently are just as inimical – until something breaks. And something will break. Perhaps it will be the faux health of the U.S. economy and its perilous finances. Perhaps it will be an overwhelming preponderance of breaks with allies like the EU that make it impossible for the U.S. government to maintain its desired status quo. Perhaps even some kind of revolution in the U.S. is brewing. No one is happy with the stance of Washington against Iran except the warmongers, and Neocons, and that includes many Americans. Do not be deluded: those who are pulling Trump’s strings with regard to the Middle East would like nothing more than for Iran to fall apart and be drowned in chaos of the sort that ensued in Assad’s Syria until recently. If Iranians were fully aware of this, they would hang tough through the sanctions and threats until they abate, and if Iran can manage somehow, they will abate.

And Americans are wising up through all the propaganda, at least at the margin, because they see that Republican Party domination in Washington of late is dismantling, or wants to dismantle, not only protections of free speech and the free press, but also environmental protections and cherished social programs like Medicare and Social Security – at the behest of greedy corporations and other “elites”.

Iranians must be aware that the American PEOPLE, by and large, have no ax to grind with Iran. In fact, even such media pundits as Geraldo Rivera of Fox news have lately questioned why Iran, and not Saudi Arabia, has been demonized by Washington. He went on to suggest that Iran ought to replace the Saudis as an “ally” of sorts in the Middle East…but of course that goes against the Zionists’ grip on foreign policy. And one must note that Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party in the UK, attacked so viciously of late by Zionist zealots even in his own party, is actually gaining support among Jews in the UK even though he has long been a champion of human rights, has supported relief for the long-suffering Palestinians and claimed he would endorse Palestinian statehood. Grand it would be if Corbyn becomes Britain’s Prime Minister, which is a real possibility.

Just this week, another promising development. The state of Michigan is likely to send the very first Muslim woman to the U.S. House of Representatives in November. This is Democrat and atttorney Rashida Tlaib, 42, daughter of Palestinian immigrants who just won a primary election. Representing part of Detroit and Dearborn, she may be joined by a couple other Muslim candidates in Congress come November.

In any broad survey of the geopolitical landscape, which is being reshuffled like never before in decades, the one clear takeaway is the necessity for not just Iranians, but all people distressed by narrow and desperate U.S. imperialists, to maintain solidarity and cool heads whatever the pains as something better and new may be born not merely in the U.S., but worldwide.  

Armed Struggle Only Solution to End Palestinian Plight

The plight of the Palestinians knows no end. Not a day passes when they are not targeted by the usurpers of their homeland, whether in besieged Gaza, whether in the West Bank, or whether in the occupied Islamic holy city of Bayt al-Moqaddas.

They are killed like sitting ducks by the Zionist soldiers or the Jewish settlers streaming in illegally from various parts of the world to seize the lands of the Palestinians and to practice their skills with newly acquired rifles by taking potshots at the helpless men, women, and children. 

And if the Palestinians dare to defend themselves, they are branded ‘terrorists’ and denounced as ‘heartless brutes’, with the western media joining the Zionists to highlight ‘violent crimes’ against the ‘peaceful’ and ‘peace-loving’ Israelis. 

The UN, especially its Security Council, looks the other way, while the regimes ruling the Arab states have no interest, other than lip service, for the chronic question of Palestine.
This indifference has emboldened the Zionists to trespass with impunity on the sacred sites of Islam in the usurped land, as was evident the other day when soldiers and the so-called settlers joined together to desecrate the holy precincts of al-Aqsa Mosque.

Day before yesterday, Palestinian worshippers gathering for the weekly Friday congregational prayer at Islam’s third holiest site were barred by the Zionist soldiers, who closed the gates and fired teargas shells and live ammunition at the helpless protestors, accusing them of pelting stones and throwing combustibles.

It is obvious that no true Muslim will resort to such violence at a holy site and if there were such incidents as claimed by the Zionists then this should be the dirty work of the illegal Jewish settlers clamouring for destruction of the sacred Islamic precincts and the building of a temple in its place.

Not an eyebrow was raised by Arab reactionary regimes at the latest sacrilege in Occupied Bayt al-Moqaddas, or the unabated killing of peaceful protestors in Gaza by the Zionists, while the Saudis and Emiratis continued to shed Muslim blood in Yemen while labelling all sorts of wild accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran for its defence of the oppressed and the downtrodden.

It is time for the Palestinians to realize that mere protests in Bayt al-Moqaddas, stone-throwing at the heavily armed Zionists in the West Bank, and combustible kites coupled with a few crude rockets fired at the occupiers of their homelands from Gaza, although commendable acts, are not enough to scare their enemies, let alone drive them away from the usurped land of Palestine.

They should take a leaf from the uncompromising spirit and innovative methods of Lebanon’s legendry anti-terrorist movement, the Hezbollah, or the indomitable heroism of Yemen’s popular Ansarallah Movement against invaders possessing state-of-the-art military technology.

In other words, only a well-organized armed struggle with asymmetric forms of modern warfare, including guided missiles and remote-controlled radar-evading drones, is the only solution to redress their plight that requires further sacrifices in view of the savage racist and terroristic nature of Israel, which eventually will be.

This technology, in addition to being available on the international market, can be assembled through accessible data on the websites, and there is no shortage of helping hands. All it needs is ingenuity by the Palestinians, as the Yemenis have shown with complete trust in Divine Assistance and full confidence in their own abilities.

It is certainly no crime nor terrorism for an oppressed, occupied and usurped people, to acquire whatever forms of defence equipment that is possible to procure through any means in order to protect their life, their dignity, their land, their families, their faith and their heritage.
The important point, however, is to be on guard against pressures, threats, and deception of both the implacable foes like the US, Britain, and France; and those feigning to be friends such as the UN, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris, the Kuwaitis, and the Egyptians.

In other words, unless the Palestinians resist and refuse with firm conviction any of those much-tried useless methods of talks, negotiations, and mediation that have yielded no results over the past seven decades, their situation will never change, let alone their steady slide into not just second or third class citizens, but slaves of the Zionists in their own ancestral land. 

Fortune favours the brave, and any laxity will be a costly lapse that might delay the march of the forces gathering in the vicinity of Palestine in scores of thousands for liberation of Islam’s former qibla.

-Kayhan Int’l 

Atallah Hanna slams Israel’s ‘fascist nation state’ law

The Archbishop of the Palestinian Orthodox Church in occupied Jerusalem, Father Atallah Hanna, yesterday slammed a new law passed by the Israeli Knesset that officially recognises Israel as the “national homeland of Jewish people”.

“It is a purely fascist law which completely ignores the fact that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of this land, not some goods imported from here or there,” Hanna said during a press conference.

Hanna explained that the controversial “nation State” law reveals the true face of Israel, which claims to be democratic.

The Archbishop called on human rights advocates and organisations and the international community to reject this “new and dangerous law” which targets Palestinians in their homeland.

“The Palestinians will stay in their land despite these racist laws,” he added.

Adam Garrie: US Veto Power, A Weapon of Mass Obstruction Granting Impunity for Israeli Killings

TEHRAN (FNA)- Geopolitical expert Adam Garrie says that the Israeli regime’s possession of nuclear weapons and the American veto power at the UN Security Council have provided the regime with a feeling of impunity for their daily violations of international laws.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Adam Garrie said that the US exercises its veto power “like a weapon of mass obstruction” to shield the Zionist regime at the UN Security Council.

Mr. Garrie believes that the US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, acts more like the Ambassador of the Zionist regime than that of the United States. He likened the UN Security Council to “a shopping center where Zionist propaganda is for sale” and the US envoy to “a shop keeper lying to her customers” while trying to insult the intelligence of the whole world.

Adam Garrie is the director of Eurasia Future, a geopolitical expert and a frequent commentator on international news outlets such as RT and Press TV. He is a global specialist with an emphasis on Eurasian integration. Garrie’s articles have been published in the Oriental Review, Asia Times, Geopolitica Russia, Global Research, RT’s Op-Edge, Global Village Space and others.

FNA has conducted an interview with Adam Garrie about Trump’s relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem Al-Quds and possible motives behind the move and also the recent killings of Palestinian protesters by Israeli army.

Below you will find the full text of the interview.

Q: Delivering on his campaign promise and in defiance of all global warnings, Donald Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds. Many believe that this move by Trump has effectively killed fantasies that Washington is a neutral party in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. How do you think that would play in the current and future developments surrounding the issue?

A: The United States has never been a neutral arbitrator in the conflict but has always done its utmost to preserve geopolitical Zionist mythology while tempting naive Palestinian leaders into so-called peace deals which were in reality a surrender of their land that was stolen at gunpoint during the Nakba. Under the brash character that is Trump, the illusion of neutrality has been replaced by a vulgar mania which seeks to elevate an artificial colonial state to the level not only of a superpower but of one which somehow possesses a unique right to slaughter, steel and pillage at will. This realization has made even the most naive Palestinian politicians wake up to a long standing reality that the only way to secure justice is through a multilateral approach that sidelines the US into a position as a kind of advocate for the regime while others perform their duty as genuine arbitrators.

In terms of these multilateral mediators what is needed is a group of nations and super-national bodies which include Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, the Arab League (or some variant thereof), the African Union, ASEAN, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, European Union, India and Pakistan. Only when these entities come together to speak with the directly affected parties can there be any hope of a genuine settlement free from the extremist dogma of the United States and the totally pro-Zionist Donald Trump.

Q: Since the beginning of the protests dubbed as the “Great March of Return”, the Israeli forces have killed and wounded many Palestinian civilians, including the protesters, members of the press and medical workers. It seems as if the regime in Tel Aviv feels an atmosphere of impunity where it can act beyond all international laws and conventions. Where do you think this feeling of immunity comes from?

A: The impunity comes from two main places. First of all, in spite of the black propaganda leveled against Iran from the sinister elements in Tel Aviv and Washington, there is only one country in the history of the Middle East that has had, still has and likely will continue to have nuclear weapons. This power is the Zionist regime. Because of this, the entire world stands worried that the nuclear war hungry maniacs in Tel Aviv might push the button should the world decide to take a full stand for Palestinian justice.

The other reason is that the United States affords the regime a pass when it flaunts international law on a daily basis. The US wields its UN Security Council veto like a weapon of mass obstruction while the current US Ambassador to the UN acts as though she is more the Ambassador of the Zionist regime than that of the multi-cultural and multi-religious United States.

Between its vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and the subservient attitude of Washington, the regime’s war crimes are never prosecuted because the current mechanisms of so-called international justice are little more than neo-colonial justice. They are perfectly happy to harass elderly Serbians who haven't been in politics for decades, African leaders without a penny in their pocket and the anti-imperialist President of The Philippines, but this international justice system does nothing for the genuine victims of terror whether those in Palestine, Syria, Kashmir or beyond.

Q: The US Ambassador to the UN said “no country would act with greater restraint than Israel” as the world was witnessing the rise in the toll of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded by Israeli live fire. How do you evaluate her words?

A: If the issue were not so serious it would be comedic. The Zionist regime which opens live fire from machine guns, weaponized drones, helicopters and missiles on unarmed youths protesting for the right to return to their own homes is the most immoderate regime on the planet. They kidnap children like Ahed Tamimi and throw her into their dungeons, they murder men in wheelchairs who lost their legs in the last war against Palestine, they recently shot dead a 21 year old female nurse with her hands in the air. There are also videos of regime soldiers laughing as they murder Palestinian children in cold blood. This is not restraint - this is open criminality on a systematic scale. Nikki Haley can try and insult the intelligence of the world but she is only insulting herself by acting as the saleswoman of death. She uses and abuses the UN Security Council as a shopping center where Zionist propaganda is for sale and she is little more than a shop keeper lying to her customers as though they are too stupid to know that the shoe does not fit.

Q: Israel has rejected international calls for probes into recent killings and insisted that its open-fire rules for Gaza will not change. Some Western states, particularly the US and Britain, who call themselves champions of human rights, have supported the Israeli crimes against Palestinians. The UN has also failed to restore the rights of the people. What is your assessment? What role can nations of the world play in protecting the rights of the oppressed people of Palestine?

A: The UN needs urgent reform. In 2009 the Libyan Revolutionary Leader Muammar Gaddafi spoke of how the UN must abolish the Security Council and must instead leave the most important global security decisions of the day to the all-nations General Assembly. Furthermore, Gaddafi spoke of giving various blocs of nations from the developing world a greater say whether it be a pan-Arab bloc, a South East Asian bloc, an African bloc, a Latin American bloc, etc. Until such a thing happens, the Security Council will continue to be at the mercy of the one nation that vetoes anything remotely related to genuine human rights and this nation is the United States of America.

As for taking action in the present day, if nations concerned for Palestine wanted to do something that mattered, they would jointly enact a total economic boycott of the regime. This could be further enforced by boycotting other nations that continue to trade with Tel Aviv. Such a method helped to end Apartheid in South Africa and over time it could help to end the long suffering of Palestine.

Q: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has recently said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh could be mutually beneficial. The Saudi regime once, at least apparently, opposed Israel’s right to exist. What do you think has changed in Riyadh to now come out as an apologist for the Zionist regime and betray the Palestinian cause? How do you think would other fellow Arab and Muslim nations think of the Kingdom?

A: Saudi Arabia is an ally of the Zionist regime, no one pretends otherwise anymore, not those in Washington, not those in Riyadh and not those in Tel Aviv – it is the biggest open secret in the world. Just because there are no “formal” relations between the two regimes does not make the reality different. Saudi Arabia is banking on the US ignoring its increased economic relations with Russia and China, something that would normally lead to US calls for “regime change” in the Arab world, because if worse comes to worse Riyadh can turn to the US and say “if you go to war with us, we may be replaced by leaders who are anti-Zionist, who refuse to desecrate the holy cities of Mecca and Medina with commercialized events and buildings and who stand up for our brothers in Palestine”. Of course there is also anti-Iranian mania which connects the two nations but ultimately, for all its expensive arms, Saudi Arabia is militarily weak. Here Riyadh is merely following Tel Aviv down a path towards its own prejudices.

Ultimately though, Saudi Arabia’s support for the Zionist regime is its insurance policy against any criticism from Washington.

Zionism’s doomsday scenario

Failure of Israel’s deterrent capability

Zaakir Ahmed Mayet

There appears to be blood across the Israeli flag as politicians, the security establishment and parties with vested interests battle it out to direct the future of the colonial state. As fighting continues an inevitability has dawned on all the major players including hardliners, that the current trajectory of Israeli policy mirrors that of Apartheid South Africa. The end result will be a one state solution which means the dismantling of the colonial outpost to reflect a democratic state representative of all the people.

Statements at the Herzliya conference (May 2017) reflect a deeply fractured Israeli landscape. Former Israeli Prime Minister (one-time defence minister) Ehud Barak stated at the conference that current policy “will surely result in a ‘one-state solution’ which will either be an ‘Apartheid State’… or a ‘bi-national state’ in which the Jews will become a minority within a couple of generations, and will most likely be in a continuous civil war.” This was not the only attack on the hard-line coalition. The erstwhile former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni added to the chorus, “The decision of whether to work toward a two-state solution or toward a single united nation should be a national one, in order to ‘take back our democratic Jewish Israel.’” The recent publication of the “Security First” report authored by over 200 former Israeli generals, Shabak, and Mossad figures, and the Center For A New American Security report paint a similar picture of polarisation. The recognition by the Israeli security establishment that military force can no longer solve the problems Israel faces is a damning indictment of the failure of Israeli policy. Therefore, the current discourse revolves around a two-state or one-state solution, the latter lifting the veil on the apartheid nature of Israel which is being exhibited by the current right-wing regime. As the political crisis continues, Israel faces a far more serious challenge.

The State of Israel was founded on the basis of terror and disproportionate force. The first signs of this entrenched policy emerged in the massacres of Deir Yassin, which were characterised with such brutality that it served as a primer for the mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population. Menachem Begin stated, “Without what was done at Deir Yassin there would not have been a State of Israel.” He added, “While the Haganah [the Jewish terrorist group] was carrying out successful attacks on the other fronts… The Arabs began fleeing in panic, shouting ‘Deir Yassin’.”

This policy has remained the cornerstone of Israeli militarism. History is often written by the victors and the public narrative of the June 1967 war is no exception. Israel was portrayed as a victim, bullied and bludgeoned by its larger Arab neighbours. The 1967 victory was projected as a miracle confirming alleged divine help and the justness of Zionist occupation.

Occasionally, the true narrative pierces the proverbial propaganda veil and truth filters through. The catalytic deterrence capacity policy was the prime motivator for the first strike Israel conducted to spark the 1967 war. Ariel Sharon, a divisional commander at the time stated “deterrence capability… our main weapon — the fear of us.” The deterrence capacity policy of Israel has been characterised as one of deterrence by punishment which constitutes disproportionate force and punishment.

This particular shade of Israel’s deterrence doctrine was incorporated by the Israeli military with adoption of the Dahiya doctrine. Major General (ret) Giora Eiland who is thought to be the real mastermind behind this doctrine argued the “impossibility of defeating Hizbullah.” He devised a policy that would “lead to the elimination of the Lebanese military, the destruction of the national infrastructure, and intense suffering among the population,” so much so that “the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people are consequences that can influence Hizbullah’s behaviour more than anything else.” The diabolical playbook of disproportionate force was utilised by the then head of Israel’s Northern Command, Gadi Eizenkot who stated,

What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on… We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases…

This doctrine is premised on the fact that the sheer magnitude of destruction would discourage further engagement on the battlefield and reinforce three concepts: that the Israeli military has the capacity to wipe out the opposition merely with the might of its bombardment (shock and awe). Second, that Israel would act viciously against anyone, be they civilian or combatant, once they had commenced bombardment and finally, that their conduct should serve as a signifier of the fate that will await any who cross their path.

This doctrine of deterrence via punishment was successful in all major Israeli-Arabian wars, particularly the 1967 war. Adoption of Israeli policy of deterrence was also hinged on shorter and increasingly brutal engagements. The aim of these shortened engagements is to project deterrence while preventing a war of attrition. This rubric, however, was rewritten with the war against the Hizbullah in 2006 with the first effective failure of the cornerstone of Israeli militarism and deterrence capacity. This came on the back of Israel’s forced abandonment of a portion of Lebanon in 2000 due to Hizbullah’s heroic resistance. In a public lecture under the auspices of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, Major General Uzi Dayan delivered a striking blow to the deterrence doctrine and the outward edifice of success that Israel was projecting post-2006. He stated that Israel lost a lot of deterrence in the last war in Lebanon (2006), this being a turning point not only for Israel but other resistance movements. This acknowledgement emerged from the then opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu who stated, “The greatest failure as a result of the war is that Israel’s deterrent capability has been severely harmed.”

Israel’s inability to adapt to the changing environment resulted in the further implementation of the doctrine in Gaza during 2008. The stated aim of Operation Protective Edge was to put an end to Hamas rocket fire, a feeble attempt at restoring Israel’s deterrence capacity. On the contrary, global opinion shifted dramatically against Israel and calls for the prosecution of Israeli leaders for war crimes grew louder. The finding of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission was a severe blow to Israel in the global arena. Further engagements occurred inside the Gaza Strip. Despite the brutality of Operation Cast Lead, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas rolled out extensive rocket and mortar attacks on Israel in 2014. The record of prior engagements regardless of whether initiated by Israel or Palestinians evidences the fact that the deterrence or fear of Israel has not been re-established. According to the Washington Institute “Over time, deterrence in the Gaza situation will likely fail. Deterrence works best in essentially stable situations, wherein the sides clearly understand each other’s calculus.”

The continued siege of Gaza fuels instability that creates an appetite for resistance. The equation that follows is that but for Israel’s occupation, there would be no need to resist. In fact, instead of deterring escalation, according to US analysis, the resistance in Gaza is becoming stronger. The same report by the Washington Institute stated, “The military capabilities of the Qassam Brigades and other organisations have increased, perhaps making them more confident as well as more dangerous. This may lead to sharper fighting along the buffer zone — and inevitably to more casualties, including IDF — along with increased pressure on the IDF to respond with greater force.” This deterrence failure was further captured in a Congressional Service Report by analyst Jim Zanotti in which it was stated,

Teams of engineers, chemists, and machinists have improved the range and payload of the Qassam series rockets over time, and Israeli military raids have targeted several individuals and facilities associated with rocket research and production operations. Over the years, rockets have expanded in range beyond relatively small Israeli communities near the Gaza border, such as the town of Sderot (population est. 24,000), to the larger coastal cities of Ashqelon (population est. 120,000) and Ashdod (population est. 200,000) and to the Negev city of Beersheva (population est. 185,000). Mid-range Gradstyle rockets (thought to be smuggled into Gaza) that travel farther than Qassam rockets have been fired from Gaza by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (al-Quds series) and the Popular Resistance Committees (Nasir series).

The alleged success of Iron Dome appears to be fraudulent. According to Theodore Postol, missile expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Iron Dome is only intercepting 5% or less of Hamas projectiles. Further supporting evidence comes from the comments of Major General Uzi Dayan when he related the story of an Israeli who stated that if Israel cannot stop Hamas, what chance do they have of stopping Iran. Hamas’ challenge was magnified in the last conflict via the penetration of resistance forces into Israeli territory via the sea. Footage appears to have leaked showing Hamas frogmen infiltrating Zikim beach military facility. The troops opened a new era of warfare which exposed a military threat to Israel from the Mediterranean. This new front of operations is now open from the north via Hizbullah after they targeted the Israeli navy’s missile corvette, one of the most sophisticated pieces of Israeli military equipment; the Saar-5 during the 2006 Lebanon war. In February of 2017, the Times of Israel ran a story stating that Hizbullah had acquired sophisticated anti-ship missiles during the Syrian conflict. This weapon in the hands of the Hizbullah as per the Israeli source would be a game changer thus severely constraining Israeli’s dominance. Therefore a pincer-like threat engulfs Israel from both the north and south thus compromising the western borders of the Zionist State and poses a tangible threat to Israel’s access to its gas fields. This was communicated in March of this year by Dr. Efraim Inbar, who is Director of the BESA Center (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies) and professor-emeritus of political science at Bar-Ilan University.

The defeat of Israel in 2006 set the bar for Hamas and an opaque reference to the same was made in the aforementioned report,

The Iran-backed Hizbullah movement in Lebanon provides military training as well as financial and moral support and has acted in some ways as a mentor or role model for Hamas, which has sought to emulate the Lebanese group’s political and media success.

There was a distancing of Hamas from Iran during the Syrian conflict, which weakened the axis of resistance. However, post the elections within Hamas, there has been an embracing of Hamas by both Iran and Hizbullah. It has been reported that in the most recent speech of Sayyid Hasan Nasrullah of Hizbullah he honoured Hamas, which symbolised an important rapprochement. The meeting in 2016 between Iran and Hamas was of particular importance as one of the key meetings was between Hamas and Major General Qasem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Forces. This marked a realignment of forces once again directed at the Zionist occupation of Israel. This reignited the fears of Israel and the United States as Israel is indeed an extension of its hegemonic policy in the Muslim East. The threat to the existence of Israel was communicated in the erstwhile congressional report that said,

Israel also fears that Iran, Syria, and possibly other actors in the region might use Hamas’s proximity to Israel either to facilitate a coordinated multi-front military attack or to mobilize regional and international political pressure against Israel through the precipitation of crises and causes célèbres.

Zaakir Ahmed Mayet is Chairman of the Media Review Network of Pretoria, South Africa.

 

Zaakir Ahmed Mayet

Excuse Me, But Israel Has No Right To Exist

Israel has no right to exist. Break that mental barrier and just say it: “Israel has no right to exist.” Roll it around your tongue, tweet it, post it as your Facebook status update – do it before you think twice. Delegitimization is here – have no fear. Palestine will be less painful than Israel ever was.

By Sharmine Narwani 

The phrase “right to exist” entered my consciousness in the 1990s just as the concept of the two-state solution became part of our collective lexicon. In any debate at university, when a Zionist was out of arguments, those three magic words were invoked to shut down the conversation with an outraged, “are you saying Israel doesn’t have the right to exist??”

Of course you couldn’t challenge Israel’s right to exist – that was like saying you were negating a fundamental Jewish right to have…rights, with all manner of Holocaust guilt thrown in for effect.

Except of course the Holocaust is not my fault – or that of Palestinians. The cold-blooded program of ethnically cleansing Europe of its Jewish population has been so callously and opportunistically utilized to justify the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Arab nation, that it leaves me utterly unmoved. I have even caught myself – shock – rolling my eyes when I hear Holocaust and Israel in the same sentence.

What moves me instead in this post-two-state era, is the sheer audacity of Israel even existing.

What a fantastical idea, this notion that a bunch of rank outsiders from another continent could appropriate an existing, populated nation for themselves – and convince the “global community” that it was the moral thing to do. I’d laugh at the chutzpah if this wasn’t so serious.

Even more brazen is the mass ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population by persecuted Jews, newly arrived from their own experience of being ethnically cleansed.

But what is truly frightening is the psychological manipulation of the masses into believing that Palestinians are somehow dangerous – “terrorists” intent on “driving Jews into the sea.” As someone who makes a living through words, I find the use of language in creating perceptions to be intriguing. This practice – often termed “public diplomacy” has become an essential tool in the world of geopolitics. Words, after all, are the building blocks of our psychology.

Take, for example, the way we have come to view the Palestinian-Israeli “dispute” and any resolution of this enduring conflict. And here I borrow liberally from a previous article of mine…

The United States and Israel have created the global discourse on this issue, setting stringent parameters that grow increasingly narrow regarding the content and direction of this debate. Anything discussed outside the set parameters has, until recently, widely been viewed as unrealistic, unproductive and even subversive.

Participation in the debate is limited only to those who prescribe to its main tenets: the acceptance of Israel, its regional hegemony and its qualitative military edge; acceptance of the shaky logic upon which the Jewish state’s claim to Palestine is based; and acceptance of the inclusion and exclusion of certain regional parties, movements and governments in any solution to the conflict.

Words like dove, hawk, militant, extremist, moderates, terrorists, Islamo-fascists, rejectionists, existential threat, holocaust-denier, mad mullah determine the participation of solution partners — and are capable of instantly excluding others.

Then there is the language that preserves “Israel’s Right To Exist” unquestioningly: anything that invokes the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and the myths about historic Jewish rights to the land bequeathed to them by the Almighty – as though God was in the real-estate business. This language seeks not only to ensure that a Jewish connection to Palestine remains unquestioned, but importantly, seeks to punish and marginalize those who tackle the legitimacy of this modern colonial-settler experiment.

But this group-think has led us nowhere. It has obfuscated, distracted, deflected, ducked, and diminished, and we are no closer to a satisfactory conclusion…because the premise is wrong.

There is no fixing this problem. This is the kind of crisis in which you cut your losses, realize the error of your ways and reverse course. Israel is the problem. It is the last modern-day colonial-settler experiment, conducted at a time when these projects were being unraveled globally.

There is no “Palestinian-Israeli conflict” – that suggests some sort of equality in power, suffering, and negotiable tangibles, and there is no symmetry whatsoever in this equation. Israel is the Occupier and Oppressor; Palestinians are the Occupied and Oppressed. What is there to negotiate? Israel holds all the chips. They can give back some land, property, rights, but even that is an absurdity – what about everything else? What about ALL the land, property and rights? Why do they get to keep anything – how is the appropriation of land and property prior to 1948 fundamentally different from the appropriation of land and property on this arbitrary 1967 date?

Why are the colonial-settlers prior to 1948 any different from those who colonized and settled after 1967?

Let me correct myself. Palestinians do hold one chip that Israel salivates over – the one big demand at the negotiating table that seems to hold up everything else. Israel craves recognition of its “right to exist.”

But you do exist – don’t you, Israel?

Israel fears “delegitimization” more than anything else. Behind the velvet curtain lies a state built on myths and narratives, protected only by a military behemoth, billions of dollars in US assistance and a lone UN Security Council veto. Nothing else stands between the state and its dismantlement. Without these three things, Israelis would not live in an entity that has come to be known as the “least safe place for Jews in the world.”

Strip away the spin and the gloss, and you quickly realize that Israel doesn’t even have the basics of a normal state. After 64 years, it doesn’t have borders. After six decades, it has never been more isolated. Over half a century later, and it needs a gargantuan military just to stop Palestinians from walking home.

 Israel is a failed experiment. It is on life-support – pull those three plugs and it is a cadaver, living only in the minds of some seriously deluded foreigners who thought they could pull off the heist of the century.

The most important thing we can do as we hover on the horizon of One State is to shed the old language rapidly. None of it was real anyway – it was just the parlance of that particular “game.” Grow a new vocabulary of possibilities – the new state will be the dawn of humanity’s great reconciliation. Muslims, Christians and Jews living together in Palestine as they once did.

Naysayers can take a hike. Our patience is wearing thinner than the walls of the hovels that Palestinian refugees have called “home” for three generations in their purgatory camps.

These universally exploited refugees are entitled to the nice apartments – the ones that have pools downstairs and a grove of palm trees outside the lobby. Because the kind of compensation owed for this failed western experiment will never be enough.

And no, nobody hates Jews. That is the fallback argument screeched in our ears – the one “firewall” remaining to protect this Israeli Frankenstein. I don’t even care enough to insert the caveats that are supposed to prove I don’t hate Jews. It is not a provable point, and frankly, it is a straw man of an argument. If Jews who didn’t live through the Holocaust still feel the pain of it, then take that up with the Germans. Demand a sizeable plot of land in Germany – and good luck to you.

For anti-Semites salivating over an article that slams Israel, ply your trade elsewhere – you are part of the reason this problem exists.

Israelis who don’t want to share Palestine as equal citizens with the indigenous Palestinian population – the ones who don’t want to relinquish that which they demanded Palestinians relinquish 64 years ago – can take their second passports and go back home. Those remaining had better find a positive attitude – Palestinians have shown themselves to be a forgiving lot. The amount of carnage they have experienced at the hands of their oppressors – without proportional response – shows remarkable restraint and faith.

This is less the death of a Jewish state than it is the demise of the last remnants of modern-day colonialism. It is a rite of passage – we will get through it just fine. At this particular precipice in the 21st century, we are all, universally, Palestinian – undoing this wrong is a test of our collective humanity, and nobody has the right to sit this one out.

Israel has no right to exist. Break that mental barrier and just say it: “Israel has no right to exist.” Roll it around your tongue, tweet it, post it as your Facebook status update – do it before you think twice. Delegitimization is here – have no fear. Palestine will be less painful than Israel ever was.

Sharmine Narwani is a commentary writer and political analyst covering the Middle East. You can follow Sharmine on twitter @snarwani.

A Review of the Disastrous Occupation of Palestine

More than six decades have passed since the tragic occupation of Palestine. All the main causes of this bloody tragedy have been identified and the colonialist English government is the most important cause. The policies, weapons and military, security, economic and cultural power of the English government and other arrogant western and eastern governments were put to the service of this great oppression. Under the ruthless clutches of the occupiers, the defenseless people of Palestine were massacred and forced out of their homes. Until today even one percent of the human and civil tragedy – which was carried out at that time by the claimants of civilization and ethics – has not been properly portrayed and this tragedy has not had its fair share in the media and visual arts. The owners of visual and cinematic arts and western movie mafias have not been willing to allow this to happen. An entire nation was massacred and displaced in silence.

Certain instances of resistance emerged at the beginning, which were harshly and ruthlessly crushed. From outside Palestinian borders and mainly from Egypt, a number of men with Islamic motives made certain efforts which were not sufficiently supported and could not have an effect on the scene.

Afterwards there were full-scale and classical wars between a few Arab countries and the Zionist army. Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized their military forces, but the unconditional, massive and increasing military and financial support of America, England and France for the Zionist regime overwhelmed Arab armies. Not only did they fail to help the Palestinian nation, but they also lost an important portion of their territories during these wars.

After the weakness of Palestine’s Arab neighbors was revealed, cells of organized resistance were gradually established in the form of armed Palestinian groups and after a while they came together to form the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This was a spark of hope which shone brightly, but it did not last long. This failure can be attributed to many factors, but the essential factor was their separation from the people and from their Islamic beliefs and faith. Leftist ideology or mere nationalistic sentiments were not what the complicated and difficult issue of Palestine required. Islam, jihad and martyrdom were the factors that could have encouraged an entire nation to step into the arena of resistance and turned it into an invincible force. They did not understand this properly. During the first few months of the great Islamic Revolution, when the leaders of the Palestinian Liberation Organization had found a new spirit and they used to visit Tehran repeatedly, I asked a pillar of the organization why they did not raise the flag of Islam in their righteous battle. His answer was that there were a number of Christians among them as well. Later on that person was assassinated by the Zionists in an Arab country and I hope Allah the Exalted has bestowed mercy on him. But his reasoning was flawed. I believe a faithful Christian who fights alongside a group of selfless mujahids – who carry out jihad in a sincere way while having faith in God, the Day of Judgment and divine assistance – would be more motivated to fight than a Christian who has to fight alongside a group of people who lack faith, rely on unstable sentiments and lack loyal support of the people.

Lack of firm faith and separation from the people gradually made them neutral and ineffective. Of course there were honorable, motivated and valorous men among them, but the organization went off in a different direction. Their deviation has been a blow to the issue of Palestine. Like certain treacherous Arab governments, they too turned their back on the ideal of resistance which has been the only way of saving Palestine. And of course not only did they deliver a blow to Palestine, but they also delivered a strong blow to themselves. 

As the Christian Arab poet says,

لئن اضعتم فلسطيناً فعيشكم          طول الحياة مضاضات و آلامٌ

Thirty two years were spent in this misery, but suddenly God’s hand of power turned the tables. The victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the year 1979 completely changed the conditions of this region and turned a new page. Among the amazing global effects of this Revolution and the strong blows that it delivered to arrogant policies, the blow to the Zionist government was the clearest and the most immediate. The statements of the leaders of that regime during those days are interesting to read and they show how unhappy and anxious they were. During the first few weeks after the victory, Israel’s embassy in Tehran was closed down and its staff was expelled. The embassy was officially given to the Palestinian Liberation Organization whose representatives are still there. Our magnanimous Imam announced that one of the goals of the Revolution was to liberate Palestine and to remove the cancerous tumor, Israel. The powerful waves of this Revolution, which engulfed the entire world at that time, conveyed this message wherever it reached: “Palestine must be liberated.” Even the repeated and great problems that the enemies of the Revolution imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to discourage the Islamic Republic from defending Palestine. One instance of the problems that they caused was the eight-year war waged on Iran by Saddam Hussein who had been goaded by America and England and was supported by reactionary Arab governments.

Thus, new blood was pumped into the veins of Palestine. Muslim mujahid groups started to emerge in Palestine. The Lebanese Resistance formed a powerful and new front against the enemy and its supporters. Instead of relying on Arab governments and seeking help from global organizations such as the United Nations, which were accomplices of the arrogant powers, Palestine started to rely on itself, its youth, its deep Islamic faith and its selfless men and women. This is the key to all achievements.

Over the past three decades this process has been accelerated on a daily basis. The humiliating defeat of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in the year 2006, the humiliating failure of the arrogant Zionist army in Gaza in the year 2008, the Zionist regime’s escape from South Lebanon and withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of the resistance government in Gaza and in brief, changing the Palestinian nation from a group of helpless and hopeless people to a hopeful, resistant and self-confident nation – these were the outstanding characteristics of the past thirty years.

This general picture will be clear when attempts at compromise and treacherous activities – whose goal is to break down resistance and make Palestinian groups and Arab governments acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel – are also reflected upon in an appropriate way.

These activities, which were initiated with the Camp David Accords by the treacherous and unworthy successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser, have always been aimed at undermining the steely determination of resistance forces. During the Camp David Accords, for the first time an Arab government officially acknowledged that the Palestinian lands belonged to the Zionists and it signed the papers according to which Palestine was recognized as the homeland of Jews.

From that time until the Oslo Accords in the year 1993 and later on in complementary plans – which were imposed one after the other on compromising and careless Palestinian groups with the intervention of America and the cooperation of colonialist European governments – the enemy tried its best to discourage the Palestinian nation and Palestinian groups from resisting through the use of empty and deceptive promises and making them busy with amateur political games. The uselessness of all these accords was revealed very soon and the Zionists and their supporters repeatedly showed that they consider these accords as worthless pieces of paper. The goal of these plans was to create doubt among the Palestinians, make materialistic unbelievers greedy and cripple Islamic resistance.

So far, the spirit of resistance among the Islamic Palestinian groups and the Palestinian people has been the antidote to all these treacherous games. They stood up against the enemy with Allah’s permission and as promised by God, they benefited from divine assistance: “And surely Allah will help him who helps His cause. Most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty.” [The Holy Quran, Sura al-Hajj, Ayah 40] The resistance of Gaza in spite of a comprehensive siege was an instance of divine assistance. The collapse of the treacherous and corrupt government of Hosni Mubarak was divine assistance. The emergence of the powerful wave of Islamic Awakening in the region is divine assistance. The removal of the mask of hypocrisy from the face of America, England and France and the increasing hatred of the regional nations towards these countries are divine assistance. The repeated and innumerable problems of the Zionist regime – from its domestic political, economic and social problems to its isolation in the world, to public and even academic hatred of the Zionists in Europe – are all instances of divine assistance.

Today the Zionist regime is weaker, more hated and more isolated than ever before and its main supporter, America, is more embattled and confused than ever before.

Today the general history of Palestine in the past 60 years is in front of our eyes. It is necessary to delineate the future by considering that general history and learning lessons from it.

(Supreme Leader’s Speech at International Conference on Palestinian Intifada -01/10/2011)