October 10, 2024
Israel's War on Lebanon
Lebanese Resistance Stymies Israeli Ground Assault for Nine Days
Lebanese Resistance fighters
• Lebanese Resistance Stymies Israeli Ground
Assault for Nine Days
• Commemoration of Anniversary of Hezbollah's Support for Palestinian Resistance Since 2023
• A Battle That Concerns All Humanity
Israel's War on Lebanon
Lebanese Resistance Stymies Israeli Ground Assault for Nine Days
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For nine days Israeli special forces commandos have tried to make headway into southern Lebanon without success. October 9, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance organization Hezbollah reported that its fighters have managed to prevent the Zionist advance as they tried to take three areas on Lebanese territory. Zionist special forces were forced to retreat from their positions in Kafr Kila and Odaisseh and they have been stopped in Meiss El Jabal and Labbouneh. They are now trying to open a new front in the Labbouneh region however Hezbollah stressed that nine days after the beginning of the Zionist ground operation against Lebanon, the regime has not been able to take any bordering areas.
The Palestine Information Center notes that October 9 also marked the 17th consecutive day of Israeli aerial and artillery bombardments against Lebanon, along with ongoing attempts to infiltrate towns and villages in southern Lebanon. Early morning on October 9, Israeli warplanes targeted the Al-Kafa'at area in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Israeli airstrikes since the beginning of the conflict on October 8, 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 2,119 Lebanese citizens and injuries to 10,019 others with varying degrees of wounds, the Lebanese Ministry of Health informs. The toll from recent Israeli aggression on the Bekaa region has risen to 294 martyrs and more than 800 injured. Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, Nabatieh, the Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, and Mount Lebanon, on October 10, resulting in the death of 36 people and injuries to 150 others.
Commemoration of Anniversary of Hezbollah's Support for Palestinian Resistance Since 2023
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem addressed the
nation on October 8, commemorating the anniversary of the Lebanese
Support Front for the Gaza Strip which was launched on October 8, 2023. Al Mayadeen reported on his televised broadcast.
Firstly Sheikh Naim Qassem confirmed that Hezbollah's command and control as well as the management of the party and the Resistance are "in an orderly manner and in accordance with the party's norms," adding that the Resistance "overcame the painful blows that it suffered." Sheikh Qassem reassured the Resistance's popular base that "We do not have any vacant positions [within Hezbollah]; all positions are filled, and Hezbollah is operating in an orderly manner and at full readiness."
"The administration is cohesive" and so are "the Resistance fighters on the frontlines," he said. "This war has not affected our will and will not affect our determination to confront [the enemy]," he said.
Sheikh Naim Qassem reiterated that the Support Front "is focused on alleviating the pressure imposed on Gaza and defending Lebanon and its people." He also affirmed that although the confrontations in South Lebanon have begun, the Israeli enemy has failed to advance, "leaving the Zionists bewildered by their inability to do so."
"The few metres that the enemy may gain are of no value, and we will engage them, whether on the frontlines or beyond," he added, warning that "if the enemy continues its war, the final word will be that of the battlefield, and we are the men of the battlefield and will not beg for a solution."
Self-serving Israeli media and the media of the Genocide Cartel which includes Canada have construed remarks supporting a ceasefire to mean that Hezbollah is seeking a ceasefire at all costs, even at the expense of the Palestinian people. This is a perversion of Sheikh Qassem's remarks.
Sheikh Qassem emphasized his support for the political movement led by Lebanon's Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, which primarily advocates for a ceasefire. He expressed confidence in the leadership of Nabih Berri: "The Secretary-General once regarded you as the elder brother, and I know you are regarded as such by the entirety of Hezbollah," he said. He also emphasized that Hezbollah and the Amal Movement "are united as one heart in both good times and bad."
"The objective of the occupation has been the complete eradication of resistance and the systematic annihilation of the Palestinian people, aimed at stripping them of their ability to resist and claim their rights," Sheik Qassem said. "Lebanon has been targeted, and Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he wants a new Middle East, but history has proven time and again that this entity poses a threat to the entire region," he added. In this context, he pointed out that "our struggle is not a fight for Iranian influence, as Netanyahu claims; it is a fight for the liberation of Palestine."
In conclusion, the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah emphasized that "the only solution for us is resistance, steadfastness, and uniting our people around us. This is our recipe to victory." He addressed the enemies, saying, "Your attempts are in vain, and the support base of the Resistance is strong and consolidated. After all, they are the most honorable people, the greatest people, and the people of utmost determination and resolve."
To the Resistance fighters and all who stand with them he said:
"Just as you proved your steadfastness during the July 2006 aggression,
which you have continued to demonstrate over the past year, we firmly
believe that victory will come through the resilience of the Resistance
fighters and your unwavering patience. Israel will ultimately fall."
(El Mayadeen, IRNA)
A Battle That Concerns All Humanity
Interview with Lebanese Activist Leila Ghanem
Leila Ghanem is an anthropologist based in Beirut. She is editor-in-chief of the magazine Badael, founder of the Tribunal of Conscience to try Israeli war crimes in 2008 and coordinator of the Social Forum for Alternatives in the Middle East.
The interviewer, Robin Delobel, is a professional journalist, coordinator of the magazine Les autres voix de la planète and contributor to Investig'Action.
Investig'Action: What is the feeling among the Lebanese people following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah?
Leila Ghanem: The assassination of the historic leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah occurred in the midst of an incredible tumult of catastrophic events that befell the people of Lebanon, with intense and simultaneous air strikes on South Lebanon, the Bekaa and the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded into the capital in an apocalyptic atmosphere, 250,000 in the first four days. This figure has tripled as we are speaking [September 30], and it is hard to keep my wits about me, under the bombs that are dropping a few kilometres from my home in the southern suburbs, with the deafening sounds of drones flying over the Lebanese capital day and night. I can also hear the echoes of prayers and Koranic recitals being held all over West Beirut for Sayyed's soul.
The people have yet to react, still reeling from the terrible shock caused by the series of attacks that followed one after the other: first the beeper attack that wounded 4,000 people, then the walkie-talkies, the assassination of the leadership of the Aradwan command and the fateful day of September 23, when bombings left 600 dead within 24 hours. If stupor and the doldrums immediately took over, there are cries among the leader's admirers, calling on him to return, some asking him to come back and take them with him. One old lady, forced to sleep on the sidewalk for lack of a shelter, told us that Sayyed "will certainly return like the Mahdi (the awaited prophet of the Shiites) to continue the liberation of Palestine." "And what about your situation dear," we asked, and she said that her condition "remains better than that of the people of Gaza." Her comments are now being broadcast on social media.
It is time for sadness and deep contemplation, but the reaction will come, and in any case nothing will erase the charismatic leader from the minds of millions of people in Lebanon and in the Arab-Muslim world, indeed the whole world.
For the Shiite population, Nasrallah is a sacred figure compared to Hossein, the son of the dignitary Ali Bin-Abi-Taleb, philosopher and fourth Khalifa, assassinated at Karbala like his father Ali, murdered because he refused to allow the rising class of princes to legislate "private property" and control of public money. Nasrallah came from a poor southern family and grew up in a working-class district of East Beirut, where he was a friend of the underprivileged and of just causes. He dedicated his life to Palestine. Now that he has been martyred, his words resonate even more powerfully. He will be more than an icon, he will be an identity anchored in people's minds.
For the left, which has stuck to Bolshevik positions expressed at the Baku Congress for the Peoples of the East, Nasrallah, as an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist fighter, is a Libertador, the equivalent of a Giap, a Che or a Ho Chi Minh. He is another one of the guns raised against imperialism. I hope he won't be the last.
IA: Is there a motion towards a union of the political class of Lebanon against Israel?
LG: No, the political class is not united against Israel. The civil war that broke out in Lebanon in 1975 and lasted almost two decades was aimed at disarming the Palestinians and driving them out of Lebanon. This led, after an Israeli-American intervention in 1982, to the defeat of the progressive forces and the deportation of the Palestinian fighters and their leader Yasser Arafat to Tunis. As with every defeat, this was followed by the massacre of the civilian population. This was the famous genocide of Sabra and Shatila, committed by the Lebanese Phalangists under Israeli guard. Bachir Gemayel, elected president under Israeli occupation, was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with the Zionist enemy. His brother Amine was deposed for the same reason.
The split in Lebanon's political class is deeply rooted in history, one can say it is structural, a legacy of the Sikes-Picot Agreement which divided the Arab region between France and Great Britain at the end of the World War I. And then by the 1947 charter drawn up by France, which became Lebanon's mandate after World War II, laying the foundations for a confessional system based economically on rentierism.[1]
The current rift in Lebanon is due to unprecedented economic and social pressure exerted by Western countries via financial institutions. It is undeniable that Lebanon is at the heart of the strategic battle being waged between the U.S. and Iran, which is engulfing several countries, including Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.
International donors are making their aid to Lebanon conditional on the disappearance or considerable weakening of Hezbollah. Lebanon is openly faced with two alternatives: either disarm Hezbollah, or plunge into the darkness of economic bankruptcy accompanied by civil war (the fascist Lebanese Forces have a militia of 30,000 men armed and financed by the American embassy). This is a dilemma for a country (at least for a good majority of Lebanese citizens) that has experienced six Israeli wars in twenty-five years (1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2006). Now in our seventh war, a large majority of Lebanese see Hezbollah as a resistance that has liberated the country after 22 years of Israeli occupation, while a large proportion of the people believe that Hezbollah's deterrent armament has prevented Israel's murderous recidivism for 18 years.[2]
These differences are not confessional, since Hezbollah has two major allies in Christian circles, former President Aoun's party and the Frangieh camp. These political parties, in addition to the head of the Druze of Mount Lebanon, have announced their mourning. It should be pointed out that the entire Lebanese people welcomed the refugees from the South with open arms. Solidarity was outstanding, neighbourhood committees were formed everywhere to help and house the displaced. It should also be noted, however, that in Lebanon it is forbidden by law to refer to Israel without mentioning the Israeli enemy, and visiting Israel is considered treason punishable by imprisonment.
IA: What response do you expect to these attacks?
LG: Lebanon and Palestine are going through the most serious and decisive period in our history. This is a war of survival pitting our resistance and our peoples against the most barbaric enemy in history, supported, directed, armed, financed, promoted and protected (legally and diplomatically) by the imperial West, and the U.S. in particular.
Since October 8, Washington has established an air bridge with Tel Aviv and delivered the most sophisticated weapons, including the F35 and the two-ton bombs used to assassinate the members and leader of Hezbollah. The U.S. has just announced this week that it has granted $9 billion to Israel for its war against the Lebanese resistance. The Lebanese and Palestinians are being killed by U.S. and European weapons and munitions. Forty-five billion dollars is the amount of U.S. aid sent to Israel since October 8, to massacre the people of Gaza, which means a million dollars paid by U.S. taxpayers for each Gazan killed.
What is currently at stake in the Middle East is the future of humanity. Will the international order of the 21st century be based on the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians? Or on their protection? In short, on barbarism or on civilization?
On the one hand, the logic of the Abraham Accords; on the other, that of the Axis of Resistance. In fact, the U.S.-Israeli strategy was not just to annihilate Gaza or to complete the 1948 war in Palestine: Netanyahu and his U.S. allies believe that eliminating resistance in the region paves the way for the submission of the region's peoples to U.S. supremacy.
It was clear that the U.S. objective, disguised by talk of a diplomatic path or a "two-state solution," was merely a decoy to extend the war from Gaza to the West Bank, and to unleash war against the Lebanese resistance when conditions on the ground were ripe.
In six months, the equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs and 85 American bombs (MARK 84, anti-reinforcements weighing one ton each) were dropped on Gaza and BLU-109, weighing two tons each, were used to kill resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah. Before him, the Israelis killed Major Ibrahim Akil. Netanyahu dedicated his assassination to his U.S. masters who had been looking for him since 1983 for two military acts: the explosion of the U.S. embassy in Beirut during a meeting of U.S. spies in the Middle East, and the attack on a Marine base which killed 246 soldiers.
Over and above the objectives announced by Israel and its Western allies, this war declared on the Lebanese resistance is not only aimed at restoring the 300,000 settlers in northern Israel to their colonies on the Lebanese border, nor at stopping support operations in Gaza, it is also aimed at liquidating Hezbollah, which is currently the largest national liberation movement in the world. A movement that proved its worth in 2000, when it drove the Israeli army out of southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation, and in 2006, when it inflicted a crushing defeat on the Zionist state. It was the first time since Vietnam that the simple commandos of a national liberation army won a war against a regular army armed to the teeth and assisted by the U.S.
The battle now being waged in Beirut and Gaza is a battle for all humanity. The stakes are similar to those of the Spanish Civil War. Netanyahu announced at the United Nations that he is leading the fight in the name of the civilized West against barbarism and terrorism.
The question today is: can we stand the test of time and rise again? The answer for us and for the people of Gaza is that we must, because this is a battle of life and death. Amid the tumult of its leader's death, Hezbollah reiterated its commitment to continue the war against Israel in support of Gaza. Since yesterday [September 29], snippets of Nasrallah's speeches have been broadcast, in which he insists on the meaning of dying as a martyr. He explains that "dying for the homeland, or for the cause, for justice, for freedom, for Palestine, is a voluntary path for Hezbollah militants."
The resistance has objectives that it continues to follow. The 100,000-strong army of commandos has not been shaken. Hezbollah's commandos are experienced and valiant field men who have been training for 30 years and have already fought against the Israeli colonial army and ISIS mercenaries in Syria and Iraq. According to military analysts like Al-Dwairi [Al-Jazeera TV's military analyst Fayez Al-Dwairi], Hezbollah has only used 10 per cent of its weaponry to date.
The same can be said of new leader Hashem Safieddine, a close associate of Nasrallah, who has been active in the military, organizational and political arenas. For the time being, the party is reorganizing and has to deal with security issues. It has decided to go underground and has just issued a text on the adoption of the long-range popular liberation war line.
An Arab proverb says that the blow that doesn't kill you strengthens you. We are determined to fight, aware that the battle we are waging here in Lebanon is the battle of all humankind, for it is here that the capitalist predators are concentrated, with their science and their most sophisticated and deadly weapons.
Note
1. TML Ed Note: refers to "states that generate a large proportion of their income from rents, or externally-derived, unproductively-earned payments" (Gray, 2011, p. 1).
2. Investig'action: The last legislative elections in Lebanon were held on two themes: 1. do you support or oppose arming Hezbollah, and 2. the social question. Given the results, it's fair to say that the people are divided.
(Investig'action, September 30, 2024. Translated from the original French by TML.)
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