65 Years on after the Nakba: Resistance Has Upper Hand

Thursday 16 May 2013

65 Years on after the Nakba: Resistance Has Upper Hand

Marwa Haidar

65 years have passed since Palestine was occupied and the Zionist entity was established in the year of 1948. Long years of raids, massacres, arrests, killings and many other crimes committed by the Israeli enemy have passed.
However, the people of Palestine and the region had not surrender to all means of oppression; they spared no effort as they held weapons and fought the enemy for long years too.

Although the struggle with the Israeli enemy was tough, the resistance in Palestine and the region was able to make many achievements that changed the balance of power.

Today and after65 years on Nakba there are many challenges that face the resistance and the Palestinian cause.

Narrow-Mindedness of Gulf States Main Challenge

Nahed Hattar, a political analyst from Jordan, stressed that the central cause of the nation is the struggle with the Israeli enemy.

He considered that we must distinguish between the Palestinian cause and the struggle with the Zionist entity.

“Some believe that the Palestinian cause can be peacefully settled through concessions, and that what some Arab states and regimes have done,” the political analyst told al-Manar Website.

“When we talk about the struggle with the Israeli enemy then this issue is of interest to the people of the region and not only to the Palestinian people.”

“The Palestinian cause is from a stumble to another, from setback to another and from failure to another.”

However, Hattar believes that the struggle with Israel is in favor of resistance.

Talking about the challenges, he said that the “major danger that looms over the struggle with the Israeli enemy is the narrow-mindedness and the sectarianism of the Gulf States.”

“The narrow-minded Saudi Arabia had funded the Israeli war against Egypt in 1976. It also spoiled the Palestinian resistance through bribes and drived it to make Oslo Agreement.”

“Nowadays, KSA and Qatar are launching war against Syria. A war aimed at weakening the axis of resistance,” Hattar noted, adding that these two states “have been recruiting tens of thousands of terrorists who are fighting the Syrian government.”

“The main problem is that the Gulf States have large amount of money that is used to target the resistance movements in the region.”

“The other danger which threatens the axis of resistance is the United States and Israel. These two powers have lethal arms which are used against the resistance movements.”

However, Hattar stressed that this axis has several elements of power that make its situation in advance against the Israeli enemy.

According to the Jordanian analyst, the first element of power is Hezbollah whose power has grown to become a regional power after it was a local resistance in Lebanon.

Syria is the second element of power, Hattar went on to say, noting that although Damascus has been in war, it is still powerful.

He talked about the strategic change that Syria witnessed during these days, saying that Damascus turned from a country that supports resistance into a resisting country through opening Golan front against the Israeli enemy.

The third element of power is the international alliance with Iran, Russia, China and the BRICS countries, Hattar added.

“Resistance The Only Rightful Path”

For his part, Imam of al-Quds Mosque in Sidon, Sheikh Maher Hammoud stressed that during these years a lot of illusions were dispersed as well as a lot of realities have become firmed.

Talking about the illusions which were “gone with the wind”, Sheikh Hammoud said that betting on the Arab governments and the Western countries failed since it was fruitless in the struggle with the Israeli enemy.

In this context, he asserted that path of dialogue and compromises with the Zionist entity, is not the right path in order to regain Palestine.

Hammoud highlighted the importance of the resistance choice, saying it is the only rightful path to regain Palestine.

Sheikh Hammoud also talked about the challenges that threaten the Palestinian cause. He briefed these challenges as saying: “In dead, the sectarian strife, the pressure staged by Arab and Western powers against the Palestinian resistance as well as the Syrian crisis are the challenges that are looming over the Palestinian cause.”

“The sectarian strife is very dangerous on the Palestinian cause, since it prevents the unity of the resistance movements against the Israeli enemy,” Sheikh Hammoud told our website.
“There is Arab pressure on the Palestinian resistance in order to go ahead with the Palestinian reconciliation.”

The Muslim cleric also said that the current crisis in Syria can be considered as one of the prominent challenges that face the Palestinian cause “since it has mixed papers among the Arab people.”
In this context, Sheikh Hammoud stressed that "when we talk about the Syrian crisis we should talk objectively and we should think strategically."

“Although there are accusations against the Syrian regime concerning human rights, we should not forget the support which Damascus has offered to the resistance and the Palestinian cause.”

“Palestinian Cause Closer to Stage of Liberation”

Azzam Ayyoubi

On the other hand, the head of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya’s political bureau, Azzam al-Ayyoubi, said that the Palestinian cause today “is in a better situation than before, despite that the Arab countries are occupied with their local issues.”

“We consider that the Palestinian cause is very close to the stage of Liberation,” he told al-Manar website.
“We believe that the Zionist project is deteriorating. Therefore, and despite the dim picture, the people of the region are closer to the project of real liberation.”
When asked about the challenges that face the Palestinian cause, Ayyoubi said: “Surely there are challenges and they will last till the liberation of Palestine.”
He said that these challenges are the Palestinian disagreements and the problems that some Arab countries are witnessing.

“The Internal issues that some Arab countries are witnessing prompted the people of these countries to be dipped with their own problems at the expense of thinking about Palestine.”
Although the politician believes that the Arab people’s engagement in their local affairs is a challenge that faces the Palestinian cause, he said that he is optimistic that “whenever they will solve their own problems, they will give priority to the Palestinian cause.”