OLIVE TREES

OF WRATH

Why is Lebanon a non-negotiable condition for Iran and an obsession for Israel?

 

By Sidney Hey

It was to be expected that the Zionists would react very badly to the memorandum of understanding reached between Washington and Tehran a week ago. The supremacist ideology that clouds their minds makes them deadly arrogant and, consequently, inflexible. It was also to be expected that they would seek to vent their frustration on Palestinian civilians (including bombs disguised as toys to murder children) and Lebanese civilians through ruthless attacks on any village, town or enclave where they might be found. Among the martyrs of these criminal acts was the cameraman and journalist Ahmed Washah, killed by an Israeli drone in ‘Al Bureij’. In short, Israel is the very antithesis of legality and respect for international law.

As was also to be expected, the Western propaganda machine blamed Hezbollah for breaking the truce, although there are sufficient sources and evidence to the contrary.

But the massacre committed by Israel against the Lebanese population was premeditated and aimed at undermining the agreement between Tehran and Washington – a sinister tactic it has employed since its inception (particularly through false-flag attacks). Under the false pretence of targeting Hezbollah positions, the IDF bombed villages, schools, hospitals and family homes with a clear intention: to create chaos and terror in order to pressure the Lebanese government into breaking with the resistance. On 19 June, faced with Donald Trump’s ineffectiveness and clear inability to control his ally Netanyahu, Tehran decided to cancel the agreement and reclose the Strait of Hormuz, with all that this entails.

Trump received the worst possible birthday present, and it came, of all people, from his much-admired ally in Tel Aviv. Despite his claims that he could rein in Tel Aviv, at this stage nobody gives any credence to anything that comes out of his mouth. But those within the government apparatus in Washington DC and especially within the so-called deep state knew, or at least suspected, that Netanyahu and his people would cause trouble; the questions were: where and how?

The most obvious and readily available option was to strike Lebanon a dirty tactic that would force the Islamic resistance (including the Yemenis of Ansar Allah and the Iraqis of Kataib Hezbollah) to retaliate, thereby reigniting the cycle of hostilities.

But the Israeli strategy is only effective against defenceless civilians. And this is no coincidence, as by instilling terror in the civilian population, it seeks to put pressure on Lebanese politicians –particularly the Phalangists– to delegitimise Hezbollah. That is why the figures for damage and casualties that IDF commanders can boast of in their operational reports only include buildings and civilian homes amongst which are many entire families; by contrast, they are very sparing in demonstrating military successes and direct combat against Hezbollah’s Shia units, and even less so against its special ‘Radwan’ unit, responsible for the destruction and killing of several Merkava tank crews, including their commanders (as happened with that of the 401st Brigade).

When IDF units attempt to advance on the ground, that effectiveness evaporates, and it is then that every Israeli soldier realises what is at stake and understands that they should not be there.

Never before have the true role and intentions of the State of Israel been laid bare as they are in these circumstances. For decades, it was able to carry out ethnic cleansing, the displacement of residents and the usurpation of Palestinian territories, shielded by the silence and disinformation of the media and entertainment corporations not only in the US but throughout the Commonwealth (including Australia). And that was no coincidence. This state was imposed by Europeans of the Jewish faith under the ideology of Jewish nationalism known as ‘Zionism’, which originated in Austria in the late 19th century. 

Other factors conspiring against peace and the fulfilment of the memorandum stem from within the American Christian community affiliated with evangelicalism better known as ‘evangelical Zionism’ from which Islamophobic charlatans such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell emerge. Lindsay Graham and, more prominently today, Paula White-Cain and Mike Huckabee, who have used and continue to use the Bible to create imaginative narratives (many of them absurd) in order to provide an interpretation tailored to Zionist propaganda. It is these fanatical sectors who, through radical and clearly racist rhetoric, endorse the plunder, massacres and brutality perpetrated by Israel in the name of an interpretation of scripture that is a far cry from Christianity or rather, from the teachings of Christ.

There is not the slightest doubt that, for these figures of Christian Zionism aligned with a political ideology (Zionism), Muslims are subhuman and detestable beings who must be eliminated, but when actors such as Hezbollah unmask and strike at the Israelis on the ground, that pseudo-Christian messianic narrative and their visceral hatred are intensified to such an extent that they become full-blown Zionists.

In view of these (false) ideological-messianic agendas masquerading as religious ones, we must also highlight the involvement, both in Gaza and in southern Lebanon, of mercenary groups and gunmen hired by Israel, as well as others sent from the West and funded by governments (the US, Britain and France) and by private investors who fund the operations with their generous donations (the Adelson family). Despite all this cooperation, the Lebanese resistance which is none other than the vanguard of the Islamic resistance has made them bite the dust.