Israel occupies a land that was inhabited by and belonged to the Palestinians. Confining the Palestinians to genocidal and inhuman conditions, Israel has since its inception, invaded almost all its neighbors and still occupies their lands.
In 1981, it destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Morphing into Murder Inc, it has sent assassins around the globe with a never diminishing hit list.
Nurtured, protected and encouraged by Washington, Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. It refuses inspection of its nuclear programme. Western estimates put its nuclear arsenal at 400 bombs. This equation comes to one nuclear bomb to defend 2250 Israelis.
Despite this massive power, Israel’s myth of invincibility lay shattered with Hamas’s October 7 assault. Eminent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes this reversal in a recent article, ‘The collapse of Zionism’. He likens the Hamas assault to an earthquake that strikes an old building with the already present cracks reaching thefoundations.
Netanyahu termed the martyrdom of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah as the “key to restoring power balance and recovering the hostages”. Despite decades of brutal subjugation and subterfuge, the acceptance of lacking in the power balance and Hamas holding Israeli hostages is in itself an acknowledgement of defeat.
It is also a proven fact that Israel’s assassination spree has failed miserably to quell the resistance. It has rather proved counterproductive. It was only after Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi were assassinated in 2004 that the group developed close ties with Iran.
With the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a pragmatic and moderate political operator, the Hamas leadership mantle has now gone to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack.
Still living in Gaza, Sinwar has spent 22 years in Israeli prisons. In 2011, he was released in a prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who remained in Hamas custody for five years. With Haniyeh’s assassination, Hamas’s political bureau has been taken over by its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.
In his book, ‘Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations’, Israeli author Ronen Bergman affirms that Israel has assassinated more than 2,700 people throughout its history. He describes it as Israel seeking to stop history without engaging in diplomacy and statesmanship.
He also writes how some Israeli military figures opposed the assassination plan of Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi warning that he “would be replaced by someone more radical”.
In 1992, Abbas al-Musawi along with his wife and five-year-old son were killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship strike in south Lebanon. His successor Hassan Nasrallah turned out to be more resourceful and eloquent. He transformed Hezbollah into a formidable military force with long-range rockets and precision-guided missiles.
Yahya Ayyash, a 29-year-old Hamas operative, was on Mossad’s most wanted list. In 1996, on receiving a call from his father, he asked “how are you father?” His last words; the rigged phone exploded, killing him on the spot.
This was almost three decades before pagers and walkie-talkies started exploding in Beirut recently. Ayyash’s assassination was deeply unsettling for Hamas as it exposed the extent to which Israeli intelligence had penetrated its ranks. Time proved it a temporary setback.
An extremely unpopular Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial may well earn him a conviction and an extended stay behind bars. His persistent stonewalling of the peace negotiations is his fear that the release of hostages could lead to a ceasefire and a rekindled political process. His political survival, as that of his Zionist coterie, lies in extending the war theater to Iran.
Instead of reining in this insanity, Washington – an enabler in the Gaza genocide – threatens anyone who dare stand up to Israel. Continuously arming and encouraging it, Washington feigns ignorance to Israel’s provocations and atrocities.
Washington’s aiding and abetting status is also proved from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaked documents. They show that Israel has access to the highly classified computer network shared by America’s spy agencies.
Experts and polls say that Israel has played right into Hamas’s hands. For the first time in its history, Israel is seen as a genocidal war-mongering entity by people in the West. Pro-Palestinian news and views are at the forefront of the international media, universities and streets.
Israel’s quest for a conflagration shall not be tenable because of economic considerations. Rakefet Aminoach, former CEO of Israel’s Bank Leumi, says that having spent over $67.3 billion to date, the Gaza war (alone) further drains the Israeli economy of $260 million daily.
“To say that we are going to make Hamas disappear is to throw sand in people’s eyes. Hamas is an ideology - we cannot eliminate an ideology.” These were the comments made recently by the IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 and understandably rebuffed immediately by Netanyahu’s office.
One can feel Ghassan Kanafani smiling. He was as accomplished an artist as he was a man of letters. One of the most prominent Arab novelists and resistance writers, he was assassinated by Mossad in July 1972 along with his niece Lamees in Beirut. An obituary in Lebanon’s Daily Star described him as a (Palestinian) commando who never fired a gun and whose weapon was a gun.
Celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish eulogized Kanafani in a poignant elegy: “They blew you up, as they blow up a front, a base, a mountain, a capital, and they fought you, as they fight an army; because you are a symbol of a wounded civilization.”
A few walls still remain standing defiantly in a devastated Gaza. Spray painted on them is Kanafani’s sublime quote symbolizing Palestine’s valiant generational struggle: “Bodies fall but ideas endure”.
The writer is a freelance contributor. He can be reached at: miradnanaziz@gmail.com
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