Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
October 8, 2023, Latakia, Syria: The former chief of Mossad, told CNN today that Israel had “no warning of any kind”. A massive attack on Israel by Hamas, a Palestinian resistance group in Gaza, was carried out yesterday on Jewish communities in southern Israel, near the Gaza border. Hamas fired between 2-5 thousand rockets at Israel and hundreds of Israeli are dead, while dozens of Israelis were captured as prisoners of war. In the ensuing air response by Israel, hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Experts warn that Israel appears to be planning a ground invasion into Gaza.
This morning, the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah entered the war to support the Palestinians quest for freedom. Israel has been occupying the Shebaa Farms area in southern Lebanon for decades, and the Lebanese want to retake their land, as well as fight for the end of occupation in Palestine.
Hamas collectively operated under ‘radio silence’. No mobile phones were used, because the Mossad and army intelligence would be listening. Only face to face meetings were used to organize the huge mission. Underground meeting places can’t be filmed by surveillance cameras by the Israelis. Using old fashioned techniques of a pre-technology era, the Hamas operation was a huge success in shocking Israel, and the world.
Gaza is the largest open-air concentration camp on earth. It has been under an Israeli-imposed blockade since June 2007, under which there is no travel in or out of Gaza, water supplies are minimal and sometimes cut off, electricity is minimal and sometimes cut off, as is the case now. University students are prevented from traveling abroad to receive a higher degree, medicines are unavailable and the emergency rooms have only basic supplies which quickly run out in a war. Food supplies are severely curtailed and building supplies take years to arrive piecemeal.
Human rights organizations, and the UN have described Israel as an Apartheid state. The Palestinian people of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank have no human rights, and they are demanding their freedom.
The Geneva Convention guarantees all peoples the right to resist occupation, and justifies the use of force to end occupation.
During WW2, the French Resistance became famous for their armed resistance to the Nazi occupation of France. Through movies and books the French Resistance became romantic heroes in the hearts and minds of the western and democratic world. However, the Palestinian resistance is labeled as ‘terrorists’ by democratic governments.
The American hero of the revolution, Patrick Henry, said “Give me liberty, or give me death”. This is the same sentiment expressed by Palestinians today. Their fight is for human rights, dignity, and freedom. Those are the very values that every American, Canadian, European and Australian claim as their own. How can these westerners claim that freedom is deserved by themselves, but not others?
Fatah, the main political party in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and President Mahmoud Abbas, have long adopted a pacifist stance, and do not advocate an armed struggle with Israel. That position has made the PA a good partner under the brutal Israeli military force in the West Bank, but the people there have seen no benefits to accepting the dictates of Tel Aviv. Their lives have gotten progressively worse over the recent years, and the summer was spent with Israeli security forces attacking the West Bank communities repeatedly without provocation.
The current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu is the most Jewish extremist in history, with some members stating that “Palestinians are not humans” and “Palestinians must be all deported”. Palestinians have suffered from genocidal ethnic cleansing for 70 years, and the current Israeli regime are openly advocating for increasing the war crimes and atrocities perpetrated on the Palestinian people. Netanyahu in the past ridiculed those Jewish extremists and their parties, but now he is forced to acquiesce to their orders or his government will fall, and he would go to prison on corruption charges from a past criminal case.
These Jewish extremists have repeatedly stormed the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, while Israeli police and security forces protect them, and allow them to humiliate Palestinians praying there. Yesterday, those extremists had planned another belligerent visit to Al Aqsa, and the Hamas attack was the response to them, and has been dubbed the “Al Aqsa Flood” operation.
Recently, Jewish extremists in Jerusalem were videoed spitting on Christian pilgrims from Europe as they walked along the path Jesus had tread while carrying a wooden cross. In response to the video, five Jews were arrested, but tour directors who make a living taking American and European Christians to religious sites, say that the viral video is what prompted the arrests, otherwise the Israeli police routinely protect the Jews when they spit or curse Christians, or Muslims alike.
When Netanyahu came back to office, he promised two things: he would make more illegal settlements of Jews on Palestinian lands, and he would sign a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab country in the region. Israel’s response to this current war in Palestine will determine the fate of the Saudi deal, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has continued to call for a peace deal between Israel and Palestine.
In past decades, the Palestinians had only rocks to throw at Israeli soldiers, and we heard successive US Presidents and politicians call on the Palestinians to “stop the violence”. But, those same voices representing the “land of the free” have never asked Israel to “stop the violence”. How can you equate teenagers with stones, with the 6th largest army on earth firing live bullets at protesters? Times have changed, and today Hamas and other resistance groups have sophisticated weapons and technology to use to fight back for their freedom and human rights.
The US is not a viable partner for any Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. The US, and its allies are an enabler. Just like the worried parent who will go out in the night to buy drugs for their addicted child to protect the child from harm or arrest, the US enables Israel to ‘get away with murder’ in Palestine. Instead of the parent cutting off support for the child until they accept rehab treatment, the US continues to feed the Israeli addiction of torturing the Palestinians. Israel is never held accountable to anyone, or any group, for their crimes against humanity. The UN has dozens of resolutions adopted by the members targeting Israel, and their behavior; but, not one of them has been complied with. Yet, there are never any sanctions placed on Israel in order to pressure them into better behavior. Israel sits secure in the knowledge that the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and some others will always support Israel regardless of their crimes against humanity.
With the media coverage of the current conflict in Israel, journalists are missing our colleague Shireen Abi Akleh, who was murdered by the Israeli Army just for reporting the news in the West Bank. Independent investigators concluded that the Israeli soldier who killed her, was targeting her, and there were no other armed men in the vicinity at the time. The journalists who are covering the events now in Occupied Palestine and Gaza are holding the torch of truth which was ripped from the hands of Shireen, known also as “The Voice of Palestine”.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
