It is victory day .The 14th of August 2006 , the war waged by Israel on Lebanon ended after 33 days without achieving any of its objectives . Since then Israel did not attack Lebanon. The Resistance won for the second time . This Resistance is not of a party or a sect or even a religion ; it is of another kind since it is the people themselves who decided to resist and resisted with whatever means they had.
The fact that they were Shi’as is just circumstantial and not essential. It happened that people dwelling in this area of Lebanon were mostly Shi’as . It happened also that they were the most deprived Lebanese community and the most exposed to Israel’s attacks and the most targeted. It happened –at the same time - that the Islamic revolution of Iran had won and overthrown the shah ending decades of US hegemony in the country. It happened that the Shi’as who won in Iran were able to support their brothers in Lebanon who were facing the same enemy . The social community from where the Resistance will spring was already there with its full structure and constituents. There were no imported revolutionary ideas or ideals. What was required was to work within the traditional social religious frame of this community that will become the real potential of the Resistance .
The religious or sectarian belonging is irrelevant here and not a determining factor because the challenge is universal . It just happened that the country that was confronting the US establishment was Muslim and that it was Shi’a Islam of Revolutionary Iran that was challenging the world order at the same time .Had it been Christians who were challenging the world order, this Resistance would have been maybe Christian and would have grown in Christian traditional society and using Christian terms to express its revolutionary struggle.
Significant help from Iran did not come from the very beginning; the Resistance had to prove itself on the ground and show the seriousness of its endeavor before help came.
The endeavor was damn serious and help and support came to the committed Resistance in terms of logistic and financial aid. All these factors joined together gave birth to the successful Resistance of the People that cannot in anyway be separated from the extended families of the whole community involving women , men of all generations who were all part and still are part of it.
Therefore there is nothing alien in this Resistance or made up, it is home made. It is like when you prepare the most wonderful meal without going to the grocery store ; you have picked everything from your garden.
The Resistance was living and moving in its own element within its own environment and this was definitely a point of strength which presented a great difficulty to the Israelis. For sure this Resistance was not imposed on the people causing their dismay the same way the Palestinian Resistance did when it took position in certain southern villages annoying the villagers more than achieving anything on the ground . This was something different, this was serious and not the stuff for mere consumption . This was the spotless Resistance of Hizbullah. .
The other major obstacle was the illusion of the invincibility of Israel due to decades of Arab conditioning and defeats . Arabs could not win a war over Israel then, they could not retrieve Palestine or any of the stolen Arab lands . In 1973 there was an attempt on behalf of Arabs that was not quite successful. The long story of the Palestinian Resistance was but a series of barren actions where there was too much smoke and no fire . Despite the money and weapons within their possession the PLO and other organizations did not really achieve much .Their goal was not really to liberate Palestine but some political issue of their own .They simply lacked the right decision and action and the determination to achieve anything ..
All these organizations in addition to the crippled Arab regimes had made Israel look even more invincible . An illusion maintained by the failures of the Palestinian Resistance and by the Arab rulers who –by recognizing and normalizing with Israel -sought to remain on their thrones while catering for Israel’s supremacy .And everyone believed this lie of the strength of Israel until the Lebanese Resistance came to say that the emperor was naked liberating the Arab minds from this myth on which the usurping state has been feeding .
Weaker than a spider’s web was Israel as it turned out to be after it was defeated in year 2000 and 2006-when the Israeli army was torn apart by the Resistance freedom fighters. In the exhibition where the confiscated tools , arms and devices of the fleeing Israeli army were displayed you could see the great hurry the Israelis were in to leave : weapons , binoculars and glasses and all kind of stuff , the invincible army did not find enough time to collect before fleeing . All were in such haste to leave the kind of hell the victorious Resistance has created for them .
Israel is weak and this is the truth , physically and morally weak and this is what the Resistance succeeded in proving and is still proving since Israel has not dared attack Lebanon for the last six years . Now the notion is totally reversed and it is Israel that is afraid of Lebanon and not the opposite . This happened by acquiring the Resistance confidence and by attempting and having faith in the righteousness of its endeavor . After that , after defeating the monster mentally , victory was easily won.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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