By Noman Hanif, PhD
In thee name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, Most Merciful
The Israeli army has insinuated that it may extend the scope of confrontation with the
Palestinian resistance in Gaza and has deployed further troops to its outskirts. It has
also announced an increase in its target list. As we have previously said, the battle for
the Jews is designed to Judaize al-Quds and the holy sites and impose a fait accompli
in light of the previous understandings between Donald Trump and Benjamin
Netanyahu. It is also par excellence a personal battle for Netanyahu who wants to
export his own crises abroad and disrupt the campaign of his opponent, Yair Lapid,
the chairman of the Yesh Atid party and opposition leader in the Knesset. Hence,
Netanyahu may opt for a dangerous escapade with no guaranteed outcome as he lacks
regional and international cover, and due to the bravery of the people of Palestine and
the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance buoyed by an unprecedented quality.
Hence, he may decide to prolong the battle and extend it by sending ground troops
into Gaza. Deploying the soldiers and the artillery shelling, despite the precariousness
of such undertaking, especially if the resistance were to capture Israeli soldiers whose
impact would dramatically impact negatively on Israeli public opinion and could
completely destroy Netanyahu’s electoral credentials strengthening the omens of such
a scenario.
However, Netanyahu does not have much room for maneuver and he can only gamble
with prolonging the battle which could give him, from his perspective, a chance to
conjure up an achievement on the ground such as assassinating prominent leaders of
the resistance and inflicting substantial damage on the people of Gaza and the
resistance, so that he may be able to face the Israeli public opinion.
He may also call a fifth election in an attempt to win a comfortable majority to form a
government and avert prosecution, as Israeli law only grants him immunity from
prosecution if he remains prime minister. Hence, he has been working towards
widening the domestic wedge between the Palestinians and Israelis, particularly by
inciting the settlers to attack Palestinians across various cities of occupied Palestine,
with 70 locations being the scenes of such attacks. This would ultimately weaken the
chances of Yair Lapid in forming a government since he is banking on the votes of
the Arab members of the Knesset, and would disenchant his allies from among the
Israeli political forces and drive them away lest they should lose their electoral
powerbase.
As for the calls for a ceasefire by Europe, Russia, the UN, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and
Turkey, and America’s calls for de-escalation, they are designed to deprive
Netanyahu from achieving his aims, should he be forced to halt the escalation, and
take him back to confronting the popular resistance that incites domestic and
international public opinion against him.
Meanwhile the US is attempting to prevent the UN Security Council from intervening
with the aim of implicating Netanyahu, deepening his crisis, and portraying him as a
savage beast rather than someone acting in self-defense as he has been trying to tell
the world. The policy pursued by the US to isolate Netanyahu is reflected in the
international standpoints that identify with the dual US standpoint, and in the
Pentagon’s decision to withdraw 120 US marines from Israel, a move that sends
several messages to Israeli domestic public opinion.
The policy is also reflected in the style with which America is dealing with the
unfolding events in terms of the White House press briefings and the statements of
Secretary of State Blinken who said “We believe Palestinians and Israelis equally
deserve to live with safety and security”, in addition to the statements of the US’s UN
envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who said: “We urge de-escalation to end the
ongoing crisis in Israel and Gaza and mourn the innocent lives lost on both sides.”
She added: “We recognize Israel’s right to defend its people and territory, and we
equally believe the Palestinian people need to be able to live in safety and
security.” Russia for her part slammed the Arab normalization and called for the two
state solution as per the statement of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov while his deputy,
Sergei Vershinin, urged Israel to cease all settlement activities in Palestinian lands
immediately saying “Moscow has called for respecting the status quo of the sacred
precincts in Jerusalem”.
This denotes the presence of a serious move by Joe Biden to amend some of Donald
Trump’s decisions, and Russia, Europe, the Arab states, Turkey, the Palestinian
Authority, and Israel have picked this up. Further pressure was piled on by various
international institutions such as the statement of the chief prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, the statements of the UN
that it felt sorry for the children killed in Gaza, the standpoint of the Arab states, and
the strong statements by Turkey and Iran, in addition to Israeli voices critical of
Netanyahu for exploiting the issue for domestic political gains, the spiraling cost of
the war and escalating tensions in various Palestinian cities, especially in the city of
Lod.
Nevertheless, the Arab and international pressure exerted on Israel does not mean
they support the Palestinians, but rather that they are attempting to align the events
with the political solutions leading to liquidating the Palestinian issue in a manner that
would not be impeded by the domestic Israeli political outbidding and Netanyahu’s
personal calculations.
As for the pernicious and traitorous standpoint of the Arab regimes, especially the
standpoint of the Egyptian regime, towards the Israeli aggression against the people of
Palestine and the Gaza Strip, it is designed to prevent the Palestinians and the
resistance groups from imposing their willpower while framing their movements and
demands, harnessing their resistance to the advantage of their enemies, dissipating
their efforts, squandering their gains, dashing the Ummah’s hopes of achieving
liberation, and extinguishing the spirit of Jihad and any glimmer of hope that may
rekindle in the Muslims their glories and expose the cowardice of the Arab
collaborating regimes.
Their stance is also designed to throwing the leaders of the Zionist entity a lifeline
while keeping their comportment in check according to the volition of America when
they overstep their bounds and impinging on the American agenda and interests,
knowing that Israel has several precedents for putting its own interests ahead of
British, European and American interests. The abilities of the Palestinian resistance,
despite their modest means, have proven that Muslims are capable of crushing the
usurping entity, scattering its raging herds, and expelling them with their tails
between their legs.
What is required from the armed resistance and the Muslim masses in Palestine,
irrespective of the political context of the battle, is to be like thorns in the throats of
the traitors and a shield that prevents them from trading in the issue and liquidating it.
They should be wary of the chicanery of the Palestinian Authority and the
surrounding regimes which aim to turn their blood into a fuel to rekindle the useless
negotiations designed to entrench the Zionist entity under any peace formula, be it the
so-called two-state solution, or the one-state solution, or self-rule.
Netanyahu today is waging this battle without an adequate international or regional
cover. Hence, the regional and international political settings are in favor of the
resistance and summed up in the world’s standpoint vis-à-vis Israel’s barefaced
violation of international law in respect of al-Quds, the holy precincts, and the
unarmed civilians, which impacts the American agenda to internationalize the holy
sites, knowing that the Biden administration hoists, somewhat hypocritically, the
slogan of international democracy and human rights. America has never previously
equated the Palestinian victims and the slain Zionists, and this could only be a
warning message to Netanyahu.
Hence, the Muslims in Palestine, especially the resistance fighters, should reject the
dictates and despicable mediation of the Egyptian regime and snub its pressures that
are designed to impose the direction of the battle on the resistance in order to achieve
outcomes which are in favor of the expected submissive solutions in line with the US
agenda. With this backdrop, we can understand the calls for deploying peacekeeping
troops to protect the Palestinians as actually being dangerous since they institute the
internationalization of the holy sites and frame and ensconce the political solution as
the only option to settle the issue. They are also dangerous since they would lead to
preventing the Palestinians and the Muslims at large from seizing the initiative to
liberate al-Quds and Palestine in the future while providing protection to the oppressive
entity.
No matter how much damage the confrontation undertaken by the Palestinian
resistance is able to inflict on the aggressors, the war will never be
balanced, especially as the strikes of the resistance has turned the Zionist entity into a
wounded beast, and this is why it has started to intensify its vicious attack on the
people of Gaza with utter oblivion to the Muslims and the entire world. The Muslims
should stand against their collaborating leaders, whose function is to protect the
Zionist entity and the American interest.