by Yusuf Dhia-Allah (Main Stories, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 10, Jumada' al-Ula', 1446)
Notwithstanding the US-brokered cessation of hostilities between the zionist war criminals and Hizbullah that went into effect on November 27, the zionists have failed to achieve any of their military or political objectives in Lebanon. The zionists wanted to create a buffer (meaning occupy a swath of territory in South Lebanon) but that is not the case. Hizbullah will not be disarmed; it will never agree to such a demand.
Let us be clear: the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu did not agree to cessation of hostilities because he believes in peace. He is a blood-thirsty monster. The region will only have peace when he is eliminated from the scene.
It was the heavy losses Hizbullah inflicted on the zionist invaders that forced Netanyahu to seek refuge behind this deal, although valid for only 60 days. In announcing the deal, he said Israel must focus on Iran, give Israeli forces a respite and replenish its stocks. This is a clear admission of defeat.
Since France also played a role in the Lebanon deal, it stated that Netanyahu has immunity from the International Criminal Court arrest warrants recently issued against him. William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University in Britain, dismissed this assertion. He said France’s claim that Netanyahu has immunity from ICC prosecution because Israel is not party to the Rome Statute is “flimsy”.
In any case, the zionists’ vow to push Hizbullah fighters beyond the Litani River and re-occupy South Lebanon has failed. There will be no zionist military presence in South Lebanon. As for Hizbullah’s withdrawal beyond the Litani River, it is contingent on all Israeli forces withdrawing from all Lebanese territory.
Since Sheba Farms, recognized internationally as Lebanese territory, still remain under zionist occupation, that would allow Hizbullah to operate in South Lebanon to liberate their territory.
The illegal zionist squatters occupying northern Palestine would also not be able to return to their homes. Mayors of several squatter colonies have complained that Netanyahu “surrendered to Hizbullah”.
This also the view of other Israeli offficials. The former head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, Tamir Hayman, acknowledged that the Israeli army failed to achieve any of its objectives during its recent aggression against Lebanon. Hayman said that the goal of swiftly and safely returning illegal squatters to northern occupied Palestine was not realized.
The squatters fled their illegal colonial settlements when Hizbullah launched drone and missile strikes in October 2023. These were in support of the Palestinian resistance against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Hizbullah fighters did more: their missiles struck deep inside the colonial entity including hitting its defence headquarters as well as the Mossad spy agency base in Tel Aviv. On November 25, Hizbullah fired more than 300 rockets and missiles on colonized northern Palestine inflicting massive damage.
Despite being equipped with lethal military hardware, most of it supplied by the US—tanks, bulldozers, artillery, armoured personnel carriers—as well as fighter jets, bombers and missiles, the zionists failed. Hizbullah mujahideen were able to successfully repulse them, often with small arms and shoulder-held missiles.
Attempts by the zionists to occupy such border towns as Aita ash Shaab, Kafr Kila and Khiam ended in disaster. Khiam was the notorious torture camp where the zionists imprisoned Lebanese civilians including women and minors, kidnapped from their villages in Lebanon. This writer visited the camp in 2010, 10 years after the Hizbullah had driven the zionists out of there.
A former inmate who had suffered horrible torture at the hands of the zionists, acted as our guide. The cages where inmates were kept were cramped and filthy. One particular form of punishment was especially painful.
It was a metal box measuring three feet by three and barely three feet high. There were a few holes in it to allow some air to flow through. Inmates were put in these metal boxes in extremely stressful positions for several days in the scorching summer heat. They could not move and when let out, they were unable to walk because their limbs were completely numb.
To inflict additional torture, the zionists would bang on the metal cover making a deafening noise. Even looking at the metal boxes sent shivers down one’s spine. Scores of inmates died under torture in the notorious Khiam camp between 1985 and 2000.
A little south of the Khiam concentration camp is a monument erected to the memory of the four UN Peacekeepers who were deliberately targeted and killed by the zionists on July 25, 2006. One of the peacekeepers was a Canadian armed forces major, Paeta Hess-Von Krudener. Then Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper refused to condemn Israel’s criminal conduct and instead blamed the UN for keeping its forces in harm’s way. Such shameless grovelling to the zionist war criminals is standard fare in the west.
In October alone, Hizbullah killed more than 90 Israeli soldiers and injured hundreds of others. Official figures released by the Israeli military admitted that 62 soldiers were killed in October 2024.
Several Israeli media outlets have said that the regime’s reports about casualties among soldiers bear no resemblance to reality. The actual figures are much higher. The much-vaunted Golani Brigade in particular has suffered massive casualties and is suffering from severe shortages.
This is also reflected in the army’s draft orders to about 7,000 Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) previously exempt from military duty, to report for military service. The draft call is controversial but losses on the war fronts—Gaza and Lebanon—demanded drastic measures. The zionists have also recruited tens of thousands of mercenaries, especially the Falasha Jews from Ethiopia with promises of permanent settlement in the colonial entity.
Previously, the Falashas were denied citizenship. They were not ‘proper Jews’. Even the blood they donated was not considered ‘kosher’. It was spilled into gutters on orders of the Ashkenazi (white) rabbis! Now Falasha blood has become ‘kosher’; at least to be shed to protect the zionist squatters’ colony!
While the zionists demonstrably failed on the military front, they pushed ahead with their political agenda through the Americans. Amos Hoschein, a hardcore zionist who had served in the Israeli army, is the US ‘envoy’ for talks with Lebanon.
Lisa Johnson, the US ambassador to Lebanon, acts as a viceroy dictating terms to the weak Lebanese government. To get a sense of what Lisa Johnson is up to, she told the Lebanese government that any relief supplies to Lebanese victims of Israeli barbarism have to land in Jordan for inspection (by the Americans, of course) before being allowed into Lebanon. She also threatened the Middle East Airline not to airlift any wounded Lebanese for treatment or the US would impose sanctions on the country.
Following the assassination of Hizbullah leader Seyyed Hasan Nasrallah and several top commanders, the US envoy told Lebanese political forces and representatives that they must “prepare for the post-Hizbullah phase, as its control over the state, its institutions, and the state’s border crossings are no longer permitted to continue.”
She went on to say that “there is a new political era that the country will witness soon, in which Hizbullah will have no place.” One hears echoes of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East” uttered by Condoleezza Rice during the Israeli war on Lebanon in July-August 2006. Those claims proved premature. Ms. Johnson’s utterances have the same unrealistic ring to them.
The US is a has-been superpower. It is likely to experience serious internal upheaval in coming months and would be left with no choice but to flee West Asia, as its forces did from Afghanistan in disgrace in August 2021.