Al-Qalam 
FILE PHOTO: REUTERS/Ayal Margolin
Having failed to subdue Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Israel is at its wit’s end to deter Hezbollah, writes Iqbal Jassat.
As Hezbollah raises the stakes in its battle with the settler colonial regime, alarm bells are ringing in despotic Arab regimes.
After all, many of these reactionary governments, led by Western-allied tyrants, have vainly tied their fragile security to an equally weak and battered military force of apartheid Israel.
It ought not to surprise anyone familiar with the fact that Zionism and imperialism are intertwined with reactionary Arab despots, whose reign in power is completely dependent on the malicious goals of the West.
Just as Western Europe, primarily America and Britain, has a military, economic and geopolitical interest in keeping its illegitimate Zionist entity alive at any cost, so too do they share a vested interest in ensuring that Arab client-states remain tied to them.
The message to Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), Mohammed bin Zayd (MbZ), General al-Sisi, “King” Hoosein, and the rest of the Gulf oligarchs is clear: You cannot survive without Israel!
Not only is this brutal reality borne out by the vicious repression of Muslim activists, scholars, academics and journalists, but also by their abject failure to intervene – militarily or via boycotts – in defence of Palestinian lives.
In fact, to even consider the thought of Arab regimes stepping up in any meaningful way to protect the honour and dignity of mothers and babies, the elderly and infirm, and the wounded and gravely ill Palestinians is wishful thinking.
Since the 1967 and 1973 wars, it is evident that Arab armies have lacked both the will and conviction to confront Israel’s aggression, occupation, settler-colonialism and menacing threats to demolish the Al-Aqsa mosque.
That Arab governments have turned their collective backs on Palestine’s freedom struggle and instead placed all their security “eggs” in Israel’s basket will haunt them if they are able to see through the fog of Zionist myths.
One of the primary myths that has been thoroughly and decisively blown apart is that of Israel’s so-called “invincibility”.
The other dominant myth is that of its “deterrence” based on military “power”.
Perhaps the myth that’s taken the most beating and is thus severely bruised is that of public opinion unquestionably “favouring” all the evil Israel commits.
The earth-shattering event of Oct 7 by Hamas, known as the “Al-Aqsa Storm”, forcefully praised the true character of Zionism and the danger it poses to global security, apart from the well-being of Palestinians under its racist yoke.
Nine months since it launched a merciless onslaught on Gaza, resulting in over 120,000 martyrs and wounded, the Zionist regime has failed to achieve any of its military goals. Neither has it secured the “freedom of hostages” nor the elimination of Hamas.
These are the mantras repeated ad nauseam by Benjamin Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords, to no avail.
Not only has he invoked the Biblical narrative of “Amalekites”, who in Jewish tradition represents “pure evil”, to justify gruesome massacres of innocent Palestinians, Netanyahu has defied each and every international convention and law to wipe out Gaza and reduce it to rubble.
Indeed, even the myth of a “United Israel” has been destroyed as the world watches fissures, fractures and growing disillusionment among Jewish citizens.
Zionism has spawned a regime of incompatibility with civilised values and disagreement among its diehard followers over the so-called “day after”.
In addition, many observers point to the fallout between the political gurus and the military.
For instance, Alon Mizrahi alludes to this by tweeting that while Netanyahu insists that the IDF got orders ‘to obliterate Hamas operational and governing capabilities’ and must carry them out, the IDF says only a political solution will solve this.
“IDF spokesperson announced today that the war objectives as presented by Netanyahu are unattainable and a deception of the Israeli public.”
Having failed to subdue Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Israel is at its wit’s end to deter Hezbollah.
Whether the Zionist war cabinet has taken account of the likely outcome if it presses ahead with a full-scale war on Lebanon to “eliminate” Hezbollah or not, it is clear that the entire Islamic resistance across the region will not stand idly by.
Having been defeated in Gaza, yes, defeated indeed, Netanyahu is gambling on his bankrupt legacy by promising to reduce Beirut to rubble.
What he fails to acknowledge or chooses to be silent on is that Hezbollah’s steely resolve and response will mark what has been described as the “biggest decolonial shift in world history”.
And the fear haunting Arab regimes is that the day after, there will “not be American bases in this part of the world”.
*Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the MEDIA REVIEW NETWORK, Johannesburg.
