PNN – According to Hasan Salami, a researcher of issues of Lebanon, Violence, reliance on state terrorism, and ideological activism of the Zionist regime form the three sides of Israel’s historical conflict with the people of the region.
Where do Israel’s crimes and aggressions against the people of Lebanon, which have reached their peak these days, originate and what are the most important causes and contexts? How were the seeds of sedition of the Zionist regime sown in the Middle East region? How was and is the situation of the Zionists yesterday and today in confrontation with Lebanon and the resistance forces? And… These are among the most important questions that we discussed with Hassan Salami, a researcher at the Middle East Center for Scientific Research and Strategic Studies in the Lebanese Society and Politics Group, and you can read its text below:
As the first question, how did the Zionist regime emerge in the Middle East?
When the seeds of the Israeli regime were planted in the middle of the 20th century in the Middle East and the heart of Arab lands, the seeds of seditions, wars, conflicts and contradictions were also spread in this region. This seed gradually turned into a sapling and then a tree, and the Arab countries not only could not stop it, but some of the leaders of these countries recognized Israel and established relations with this regime and brought the Tel Aviv authorities out of political isolation.
When Lebanon emerged from the ashes and ruins of the Ottoman Empire and gained its independence in 1943, it made its policy to stay away from Israel and get closer to the Arab countries, but it was unable, neither from itself nor from the small Lebanon, against Seditions, wars and frequent attacks of the occupying regime did not defend and even a number of Arab governments such as Egypt and Jordan admitted the existence of Israel.
It seems that among Arab countries, Lebanon has been the target of Zionist aggression more than others.
Eight times in 1948, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996 and 2006, Lebanon was the target of a massive attack by the Zionist regime and was caught in the seditions of this regime. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured, more than a million were displaced, and billions of dollars were damaged in the economic sectors of this country. After the Al-Aqsa storm operation and the massive Israeli attack on the Gaza strip as well as the Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon, this country was on the verge of the 9th war. Arab nationalism and the currents and institutions arising from it, especially the Arab League, could not and cannot prevent these wars against Lebanon, and they could not end these wars. Now the Lebanese have understood that when the water is from above and the source is muddy and the house is destroyed from its foundation, the dark times of a society and intellectual current and the institution and political union governing it (Arab Union) will come.
What is the reason for this long and irreconcilable confrontation between the Zionists and the people of Lebanon and other countries on the resistance front?
This regime has characteristics that have become the basis for continuous war with the people of Palestine, Syria and South Lebanon, and first of all, the violence of the occupying regime should be mentioned. The Jewish author Israel Shahak writes in the book of Jewish history and religion: The Zionists consider not only Palestine, but other Arab countries around them, such as Lebanon, as their land, which must be removed from the existence of “others” by any means and methods, including war, violence, detention, and killing, and for this reason, they recommend genocide and genocide. According to Shahak, according to the inference of Zionist commentators and leaders from the distorted Torah during the war, all Arabs belong to the front and the enemy population, both men and women; they can and even should be killed with or without weapons. The impact of this interpretation and literature on the Israeli soldiers and politicians who are seeking to gain identity can be seen in the case of the War of the Winning Swords under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and the continuous violence of the Zionists against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip. This violence, which led to the death of nearly 42 thousand Palestinians and the wounding and displacement of hundreds of thousands of them, is more than based on military and security considerations.
In addition to this violence, it is necessary to address the terrorist nature of the Israeli regime. In the Arab world and the Middle East, the occupying regime of Al-Quds has been called the “plague of the earth”. This attribute has been given to Israel because of the terrorist policy and the record of this regime in confronting the people of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine. For example, Ariel Sharon, the former right-wing prime minister of the Israeli regime, in September 1982, when he was the war minister of this regime, ordered the killing of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps in the south of Beirut. And in this massacre between 2 and 4 thousand Palestinians and hundreds of Syrian, Egyptian, Algerian and Jordanian citizens were killed. In 1996, in the so-called Clusters of Rage operation, Sharon ordered an attack on the Qana region in southern Lebanon, in which hundreds of civilians were killed. He also played a key role in the attack on Egypt’s Sinai, the Syrian Golan Heights and the assassination of some Hezbollah leaders and Palestinian groups in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank of the Jordan River, and the Gaza Strip in Palestine.
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The phenomenon of Israeli terrorism, which the likes of Netanyahu and Sharon have been implementing, is a long-term phenomenon that has now exceeded the limits of time and space and is different from other forms of terrorism. One of the differences is that Israel’s terrorism is official and state terrorism. Israeli terrorists like Netanyahu and Sharon operate under the shadow of the law, and the Zionist regime is the only regime in the history of the world that has given legitimacy to terrorism at the level of the prime minister, the parliament, the army command, and the Supreme Court.
Being ideological is another characteristic of the usurping Zionist regime. Speech, behavior, religious teachings, textbooks, and the general atmosphere governing the Israeli society and political regime clearly show that this regime is based on the ideology of Zionism and the element of racism. The purpose of these kinds of speeches, as well as the teachings and ideology governing the Israeli society and system, is to create a public atmosphere filled with hatred and violence against Arabs, Palestinians, and Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups, and to block the way for them. Also, the purpose of this type of racist and ideological speech is to block the way for the new generation of Palestine and the future generations so that they cannot think about their history and past, their assets and their destiny, regional and global transformations and the way out of the basic internal and external problems.
Regarding the characteristic of Israeli regime occupation, explain how this characteristic has caused the extension of tensions in the region?
Some newspapers of the Middle East countries, including Al-Balad newspaper in Lebanon and Al-Jazeera printed in Riyadh last year, wrote that Tel Aviv authorities in messages to the leaders of Syria and Lebanon considered the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied areas such as the Golan Heights to be a condition of severing relations with Tehran. In the messages of the leaders of Israel that reached the presidents of the Republic of Syria and Lebanon through Turkey and Germany, the other two conditions for leaving the Golan are that Syria does not support Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement, and the People’s Front for Freedom.
Regardless of the confrontation that took place after the Al-Aqsa storm between Hezbollah and the Zionist occupiers over the past year, what is the explanation of the general nature of this confrontation?
The regime of Israel, the representatives of the United States, France and even the United Nations, as observers of the implementation of Resolution 1559, have emphasized many times in their meetings with the Lebanese authorities that there is no justification left for maintaining the weapons of the Islamic resistance of the military wing of Hezbollah. This resolution was passed under the pressure of the United States; it calls for the disarmament of Palestinian groups in Lebanon and Hezbollah.
What is the level of acceptance of Hezbollah among Lebanese people?
Many political experts in Beirut say that the relative peace in the border region of southern Lebanon and the north of the occupied territories was owed to the cooperation of the army and Hezbollah forces before the start of the Al-Aqsa storm operation, but the Israeli regime has repeatedly stated that it cannot tolerate the military presence of this party in the northern borders.
This regime has repeatedly demanded the disarmament and complete withdrawal of Hezbollah from the border areas in southern Lebanon and the establishment of the country’s army in its place, but experts say that this request is not for Lebanon’s national interests, but because of Hezbollah’s anti-Zionist and anti-American positions. At one time, Richard Armitage, the US Deputy Secretary of State at the time, described Hezbollah as more deadly than the al-Qaeda organization led by Osama bin Laden, but such accusations were not and are not accepted by most Lebanese people. Some young people in Lebanon get angry when they hear America and Israel refer to Hezbollah as a terrorist group and consider it a distortion of reality by Washington and Tel Aviv.
These days, there is a possibility of Israel’s ground attacks to the south of Lebanon. What is your estimate of the deployment of military forces on both sides of the borders of Lebanon and the occupied territories?
The Lebanese army, the Hezbollah forces, the Israeli regime army and the United Nations peacekeeping forces are four military forces that have been present and active for years in southern Lebanon and within a 10-kilometer radius of the country’s border with occupied Palestine. According to the latest statistics published in Beirut media, the Lebanese army has nearly 75,000 troops, most of whom are police forces. The Lebanese Air Force and Navy each have about 1,000 members, some of whom are volunteer forces. The rest are among the ground forces of the Lebanese army. This army has 310 T-54 and T-55 tanks, most of which are old and made by the Soviet Union. 23 helicopters and 32 patrol boats are among the assets of the Lebanese army in the air force and navy sector of this country, and Lebanon does not have a warship.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah relies on operational forces and thousands of reserve forces that target Zionist targets with tens of thousands of missiles. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper published simultaneously in Beirut and London recently wrote: Katyusha missile with a range of 29 km, Fajr 3 with a range of 45 km, Fajr Panj with a range of 75 km, Zelzal I with a range of 150 km and Zelzal 2 with a range of 200 km are different types of missiles that Hezbollah has at his disposal
On the other hand, according to estimates, the Zionist army has 168,000 soldiers, of which 125,000 are ground forces, 35,000 air forces, 8,000 naval forces, and 408,000 reserve forces. This regime also has 3,630 Merkava tanks, 470 warplanes, 15 warships, three submarines, Patriot anti-missile missiles and 200 nuclear bombs.
The number of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon UNIFIL was 14,999 people, most of them were military, and some of them were military observers, some civilians and about 400 internal staff. UNIFIL consists of forces from China, France, India, Ireland, Australia, Poland, Ukraine and Italy, and their mission is renewed every six months by the UN Security Council. Of the UNIFIL forces, 1,780 of them are Italians who are stationed in southern Lebanon. In 2006, after the end of the 33-day war of the Israeli regime against the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Italian Parliament announced its approval for the presence of its forces in this country.