There are no doves in August, only birds dead in the street. In one of the protests that have continued since October 2019, a bird suffocated to death on tear gas meant for resisting youth. ‘The birds stop singing,’ Darwish lamented, ‘and pay heed to the war’. – Elina Abou Sleiman in August.
Israel has murdered one of the leaders, Saleh Arouri, of the Palestinian resistance in the southern suburbs of Beirut. His supporters on the West Bank have come out in demonstrations against the Israeli murder on foreign soil, inside Lebanon. A general strike mourning his murder by Israel is underway.
We await the response, not by the Lebanese President, but by Hassan Nasrallah, one of the leaders of the ‘axis of the resistance’. Meanwhile the United States has withdrawn its aircraft carrier Gerald Ford from the Mediterranean as if to say to Israel: “this is your war”. Israel has withdrawn two brigades from Gaza and is currently pounding the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, including the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society which provides medical aid to Palestinians who have so far suffered over 22,000 dead and the over 50,000 severely wounded.
As always, the West lags behind the news, trying desperately to construct a narrative sympathetic to Israel where there is none. Israel invaded Beirut in 1982 and again in 2006. The latter invasion was the main reason why I started this blog. This is what I wrote when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006:
Israel is trying to drive the people out of Palestine. It is collective punishment, genocide.
Today is Black Thursday. You will hear more about this on the mass media but today Israel has bombed the Beirut International Airport. It has continued bombing numerous bridges, a power station and other infrastructure in Lebanon that it started yesterday.
In truth, Israel has declared another war on the Lebanese people.
Israeli military said this about about the International Airport in Beirut the “the goal of the attack was to shut down air traffic in and out of the Lebanese capital.”
Early tomorrow morning, Thursday, 4 January 2023, we will hear what the leader of the ‘axis of resistance’, Hassan Nazrallah, has to say.
Nasrallah’s speech
Context: On Tuesday 2 Jan 2023, Israel’s Mossad (Shin Bet) assassinated al Qassam leader, Saleh al-Arouri, along with 5 or 6 comrades in Beirut. Israel has broken the rules of engagement with Lebanon that have been in place since 2006. Israeli spokespersom, Mark Regev, said that Israel does not take responsibility for the attack but commented that it was a surgical strike. This is usual Israeli obfuscation.
In response, Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, outlined the role of the ‘axis of resistance‘ in combating Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Nasrallah stressed the need to protect Lebanon from attacks especially given that the Israeli defence minister threatened to raze Beirut to the ground, make it look like Gaza.
At no time in his 1 hour 20 minutes speech did the Hezbollah leader mention the role of the Arab governments and elites in the axis of resistance. This underlines how little Arab states have done to prevent the genocide in Gaza. That is not to say that the people agree with their leadership as demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s invasion of Gaza across the Arab world have shown.
Ramzy Baroud writes: “The Arabs, the Muslims – in fact, the whole world – are watching, listening, reading and are getting angrier by the day, at the direct American role in facilitating the Gaza bloodbath.” Will President Biden end up like Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea in occupied Palestine, washing his hands of the genocide?
Here is Ramzy Baroud’s opinion of why Israel assassinated
Ian Curr
3 Jan 2023