20 July 2006
What next?
This is a fearsome open Israeli war against Lebanon. It has nothing to do with the matter of two Israeli prisoners.
This is a war prepared ahead of time that had to wait for the right moment to be launched. It is a war that had to wait for the period after Lebanon liberated itself in 2000, after the events of 11 September 2001, and after what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.
It is an Israeli-American war, par excellence. Their joint project has faltered and both of them are trying to make up as much as possible for that faltering, or we might even say for the real, serious difficulties facing the implementation of their plans for the region.
The theory of war against terror and the use of the weapons of violence and democracy American style have failed in practice in Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and Iran, and even in Lebanon where it has been impossible to carry out the UN Resolution 1559. The theory of protecting Israel and its security and its strategic program also faltered because of Israel’s defeat in Lebanon in 2000, the victory of Hamas, the failure of all the road maps that had been plotted out for Palestine and Lebanon. It failed also because of the situation of Hizballah and its weapons in south Lebanon, its link to Iran and nuclear weapons, and Syria with its standpoint and resistance even after its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005. All these factors continually obstructed their program for the region.
This is, therefore, an open war according to the new international and regional balance of forces. It is a summary of all these developments and events, their ups and their downs, at their various levels and with their various weights.
Lebanon, once again, and now for nine days, has been the target of this systematic, comprehensive aggression, the aim of which is not only to uproot Hizballah or Hizballah’s armed resistance — as the Americans, Europeans, some Arabs (particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan), and the forces in the Lebanese “Cedar Revolution” all allege. Its real aim is to crush resistance and steadfastness, to tie Lebanon to the Israeli-American strategy, and then to turn the tables against the elements that have obstructed the program that Bush and his administration have been pushing, striking multiple targets in order to go through Lebanon to get at Palestine, Syria, and Iran.
It is in line with this vision that Lebanon has now been subjected to nine days of aggression. It has opened the doors to all possibilities because of the interpenetrating and interlinked features of it. Clearly exposed are the size, quality, and numerical strength of the aggressive war machine that has been used to strike and destroy all Lebanon’s civil institutions, committing one massacre of civilians after another in villages, houses, and lanes. Spreading terror while playing on religious and sectarian differences inside Lebanon in order to change the situation in the country, to open a fissure that will help weaken the effort at steadfast opposition to the invader, drawing benefit from the nature and makeup of the sectarian system that is itself a generator of crises and an obstacle to creating a state of laws and institutions.
In spite of the power of this brutal aggression, the extent of human and material losses and the enormous tide of refugees whose numbers have exceeded half a million, and in spite of America’s intentional absence coupled with heavy pressure on international humanitarian bodies, and in spite of the government’s tardiness in implementing an immediate and rapid emergency relief plan, Lebanon by its national steadfastness and heroic resistance has shown once again that the will to resist is stronger and the resolve of the national resistance effort is greater. Those are the natural responses to the Israeli aggression and its aims. Those are the natural responses to all the stances and statements coming from those in the Arab world and Lebanon that are today preoccupied either with finding the best way to offer their services to the Americans or with serving their narrow group interests and accounts — things that have nothing whatsoever to do with an Arab national or Lebanese patriotic stance.
What we need today from everyone is that they take one side or one position in this battle of destiny.
What we need is support for the decision to resist, the reinforcement of national steadfastness, and the provision of all the requirements and prerequisites for this steadfastness so that the hellish Zionist-American program can be defeated.
The original text in Arabic was published on the Web site of the Lebanese Communist Party. Translation by Muhammad Abu Nasr.