In the mountains east of the Jordan River, a patrol of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fedayeen (freedom fighters) punctuates a battle hymn in early 1969. Photo: Thomas R. Koeniges/LOOK Magazine/File photo.
Editorial note: Orinoco Tribune does not generally publish pieces older than two weeks. However, an exception is being made in this case as the current article remains as relevant today as when it was first published.
By Al-Hadf Editorial Team â Aug 23, 2023
It is superficial and patronizing to reduce all of the forces combating the Zionist entity and Western imperialism in the region to being âIranian proxies.â This view is only espoused by the defeatists and the allies of the colonizers. Conversely, a substantial portion of those who have shed blood in the face of the colonial project understand that today’s battle is an extension of a long-standing conflict that began before the Zionist project itself. Iran’s central role in this current struggle dates back to the same year [1978] that the Zionists signed the Camp David Accords with Egypt. It was the first settlement agreement between an Arab nation and the Zionist entity; the Zionists believed it would herald the complete submission of the region and its peoples. During that very year, when the Camp David Accords were signed, Iran was overthrowing the Shah’s regime and breaking free from colonial domination.
In our understanding, the starting point of the Iranian Islamic revolution began partially from a spark lit by the Palestinian people waging struggle against the Zionist colonial project. The Palestinian people have fought against the Zionist invasion for more than a hundred years in which they have known both victories and defeats and periods of expansion and decline influenced by material conditions. These conditions transcend the confines of Palestine and are subject to the material conditions of the region and, often, the entire world. In their brave fight and resolute stance on the frontline, the Palestinian people formed a bulwark that drained the enemy and prevented absolute colonial hegemony from sprawling across the region.
Recognizing this fact, it is evident that the Zionist invasion of Palestine and the expulsion of its people was the result of the dominance of major colonial powers and the realization of their victories in the First World War. The first phase of the Palestinian revolution was an extension of national liberation movements and the Arab independence movements. The Camp David Accords marked the beginning of the retreat of this tide. Similarly, the Oslo Accords extended the Camp David process, signifying the onset of Washingtonâs [global] hegemony, which aimed to bury the Palestinian cause. It desired to reshape the entire region according to Washingtonâs standards and strengthen the Zionist entity so that the United States would play a central role in protecting the Zionist project in the region.
However, the hour of the Zionist entity’s defeat is drawing near. It approaches, faster and faster, every moment that the region’s peoples and their Resistance forces, aided by Tehran, resist. The clock is ticking within the heart of the entity, while the unity of the Resistance continues to grow and the Resistance escalates its comprehensive confrontation with the Zionist colonial project and the Zionist appendages in the region. The elements required to achieve victory are converging, and the conditions for achieving it are increasingly aligned. What was once simply coordination between the Iranian state engaged in a struggle against the colonial project and some disparate resistance forces fighting the Zionist enemy has now evolved into a comprehensive Resistance Axis that comprehends its objectives and has a complete strategy to achieve those objectives. Foremost among these objectives is the defeat of the Zionist entity, as it represents the spearhead of Western imperialism in the region.
Anyone who believes that the current level of coordination and cohesion among various forces in the Axis of Resistance is the pinnacle of what can be achieved is either pessimistic or deluded. Every bullet that strikes enemy soldiers on Palestinian soil today confirms this axis’s capacity to wage a strategic battle in which all of its components play their roles with clear direction towards the defeat of the Zionist enemy. In many aspects of this struggle, the potential greatly exceeds what has currently been utilized because several emerging forces within this axis have significant capabilities that have yet to be unveiled.
What supporters of Palestine and the Axis of Resistance that extends from Tehran to Jerusalem should aspire to is to rally an even broader front comprising the peoples of this region and their capabilities. This coalition should harness its maximum potential to confront colonial aggression in all its forms. Achieving this goal necessitates overcoming numerous artificial barriers and challenges and debunking defeatist propaganda.
In this part of the world, in the battle against imperialism and its military outpost, the Zionist entity, there is a common doctrine that transcends all those differences: a complete conviction in the inevitability and necessity of defeating the Zionist entity. This belief is rooted in resistance, sacrifice, and redemption, a path defined by shared sacrifices and the blood of martyrs spilled in every battlefield against the invaders. Todayâs struggle in Palestine is a deliberate act of resistance and a shared allegiance to this common struggle which will shape the future of the region; no [religious, ideological, or ethnic] differences, artificial barriers, or defeatist propaganda can stop it.
Translation by Orinoco Tribune
OT/DZ/SL
