Today I am providing my English translation of not one, but two articles, originally in Italian, from ComeDonChisciotte.org.
Here is the first article written by Nestor Halak and published on ComeDonChisciotte.org on Friday 9th August 2024. Although I do not fully agree with the author on everything, this article is still an interesting one.
THE PERSIAN ALTERNATIVE
Plans do not necessarily have to be cunning and Machiavellian to work; on the contrary, it is very often the simplest and most trivial plans that work because there are fewer things that can go wrong.
The Americans wanted to force the Russians into a war in Ukraine, and although Putin did everything he could to avoid it, he was eventually forced to intervene. It may end badly for the perfidious plotters, but no one can deny that they managed to bring war home to the enemy.
The Israelis are more ambitious, they want to control the controller. Since they are used to having the God Lord of hosts fight for them, they now want the Americans to fight Iran on their behalf. In order to succeed, they have found no better way than to play the victim once again, they want Iran to attack them and to this end they make one provocation after another and will probably not stop until they achieve their goal.
Iran does not want open war, at least for now, but how long can it hold out? At the moment we are all waiting for its response to the Israeli attack that led to the assassination of the chief Hamas negotiator in Tehran. The Iranians have solemnly promised that the terrorist act will not go unpunished, so the retaliation is given by many as certain and imminent and perhaps by the time someone reads these remarks it will have already happened.
Evidently, if one necessarily wants to fight, it means that one expects to win (in this case, more precisely, one expects others to win on one's own account); on the other hand, if someone on the contrary does not want to enter the tussle, it means that he thinks he has more to lose than to gain. But what are the options facing Iran at this juncture?
Well, they could surrender, lose their independence and go back to being, as in the Shah's time, an American colony, but this is evidently not an option contemplated by the current government: at the very least, it would first require a “colour revolution”, i.e. one of the countless coups organised by the Americans where a certain number of citizens who want to become Americans, like Alberto Sordi in the famous film, act as a claque.
In April this year, following the bombing of the Damascus embassy, Iran settled for a mock retaliation, agreed with Washington. A few drones, a few harmless missiles just to keep up appearances behind the promise that the Americans would not grant Israel permission to start a full-scale war. They could probably repeat the pantomime, but what would be the point? Apart from no longer being sufficient to save face, it would encourage Israel to continue with its provocations, ever more serious, until the desired result is achieved, perhaps even with a pre-emptive strike in the name of its biblical right “to self-defence”. At most, it would be useful to gain time, but at the price of prestige. Isn't it better to thunder, but do nothing, like Erdogan? At least it is free.
A third option, the one that seems the most probable to most observers, is the medium-sized retaliation: a missile attack on Israeli territory, coordinated with Hezbollah and the other allied militias, which this time hurts, but not too much, so as not to be a declaration of total war. In short, the famous “measured” response: the Latins used to say in media stat virtus [literally “virtue lies in between (extremes)”].
But this is more or less exactly what Israel is looking for. It would react to such a response by retaliating with an even stronger counter-response, and so on, until, at last, its servant/master overseas decides to actually intervene.
What good, then, is a “measured” response? It does not eliminate the danger of war, it gives Israel an excuse (imagine the indignant chorus in the Western media), without striking it deeply. Where is the gain? It's a bit like the mistake Russia made with the “special [military] operation” of 2022: a “measured” response that more than two years later has not solved the problem and has not even saved many lives, it seems to me. When you hit the bully, you have to give him a nosebleed.
But the Ayatollah government has to do something, you might say. In theory, there are other alternatives. The first, is a mirror reprisal, i.e. the targeted assassination of a sufficiently prominent personality in the opposing camp. It is cheap and does not increase the risk of war that much, since it is what the enemies have done so far. Of course it does not solve the situation, but it saves deterrence and buys time. The problem here is: are the Iranian services capable of carrying out such an operation? If not, then obviously the option no longer exists.
There is also one last alternative the Iranians might consider: if war cannot be avoided, then they might as well wage it by striking the first blow, deciding the how and when. Israel is yes an American offshoot, but it is also a small country with no strategic depth, a devastating first strike combined with an attack in the Galilee might succeed in destroying most of the infrastructure and breaking the country. Of course it would not defeat the protector across the sea, but if he did not have time to save it, the whole situation in the region would change radically. Adventurous? Certainly yes, very dangerous and it also failed in the past (see the war of 1973), but the Persian alternatives are what they are.
Once again, the point is: does Iran really have the means, does it really have the firepower that is commonly attributed to it? Is it really capable of striking Israel with terrible effectiveness? They should know, we can only watch.
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What follows is the second article, published both on InfoPal and ComeDonChisciotte.org on Wednesday 7th August 2024. (All formatting original).
SINWAR IN CHARGE OF OPERATION AL-AQSA FLOOD: HAMAS'S UNEQUIVOCAL MESSAGE
On Tuesday Hamas appointed Yahya Sinwar as the new chairman of the political bureau, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Tehran last week.
The Hamas movement announced in a statement that Sinwar, its leader in Gaza, would replace Haniyeh as leader of the movement.
Haniyeh was assassinated in an attack on his residence in the early hours of 31st July in the Iranian capital Tehran, where he had attended the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the day before.
He was the second high-profile Hamas leader to be assassinated by Israel since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7th October 2023, following the assassination of Salah al-Arouri in southern Beirut on 2nd January.
The Hamas leadership was divided between three commands: one in the West Bank, led by Salah al-Arouri, another in the Gaza Strip, headed by Yahya Sinwar, and Khaled Meshaal abroad. Haniyeh was the overall leader. Israel assassinated al-Arouri and Haniyeh.
After days of consultations, the Palestinian shura council elected Sinwar as its new general leader.
The messages sent out by this election
His election to the leadership of the Hamas Political Bureau as the successor to Ismail Haniyeh is highly symbolic, and unexpected - in recent days, the Palestinian media were talking about Khaled Meshaal as the new leader -, and it sends out messages to Israel and the entire West:
Hamas and all its factions are compact and united, and the movement emerges even stronger and more united after the assassination of its leader, Haniyeh;
Hamas believes that the Resistance in Gaza must remain strong, united, organised and capable of leading a long war of attrition against the Israeli occupation;
Western mainstream media reports that there is a conflict between the 'moderates' and the 'intransigents' of Hamas are false; and
the entire Hamas movement supports Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Sinwar's strategy, and not just the military wing in Gaza;
the relationship with Tehran prevails;
Hamas, despite the war and assassinations, is a movement of institutions and decisions are made through a democratic process, which remains in place despite the ongoing Israeli war and genocide in Gaza. Hamas takes responsibility for the military and political consequences of the Gaza war.
Thus a strong and decisive response to the murderers of Haniyeh and the entire hegemonic West that supports them.
Yahya Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim)
Sinwar, a high-ranking Hamas military commander, became its leader in the besieged Gaza Strip in February 2017, taking over from Haniyeh. He has now been elected to head its political wing.
He was born in October 1962 in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip.
In 1948, his parents were expelled as a result of Zionist ethnic cleansing from their homes in Majdal-Askalan, now occupied by Israeli settlers and renamed Ashkelon.
He studied at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he helped set up the Islamic Bloc and held various positions in the university's student council.
In 1982, Sinwar and other members of the student council had visited Palestinian women in Jenin who had allegedly been victims of a poisoning attempt by the Israelis. In response to this visit, he was arrested and placed in administrative detention for six months on charges of participating in subversive Islamist activities.
During his detention, Sinwar befriended other activists, such as Saleh Shehade who would lead the armed wing of Hamas until his assassination in 2002.
Sinwar was responsible for the creation of a security network, known as the Majd.
The Majd operated in secret while the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned organisation that preceded Hamas, the Mujamma Islamiyya, remained a non-combatant group until the founding of Hamas in late 1987.
In 1988, Sinwar was arrested and tortured for six weeks after the discovery of armed cells belonging to the Majd.
In 1989, Hamas carried out its first significant armed attack, killing two Israeli soldiers. Sinwar was convicted on charges of plotting the attack and sentenced to 426 years in prison.
In 2011, he was among the 1,027 prisoners released by Israel in exchange for an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held captive for over five years by Hamas.
Returning to his position as a prominent Hamas leader, he was appointed head of the movement's political bureau in the Gaza Strip in 2017.
In 2018, under Sinwar's leadership, Hamas adopted the political platform of non-violent resistance in an attempt to open up to diplomatic negotiations that could have ended the siege of Gaza.
The Hamas leadership supported the mass non-violent protest movement, known as the “Great March of Return”, which began on 30 March 2018. However, following Donald Trump's US decision to unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and the killing of hundreds of unarmed protesters at the hands of Israeli soldiers, Hamas changed strategy again.
In May 2021, Hamas launched the Battle of Saif al-Quds, which was supported by several other armed groups within the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Sinwar's speeches and public appearances have made him a very popular leader throughout the Arab world.
He was a key architect of the 7th October 2023 surprise operation Al-Aqsa Flood that Hamas launched against the occupying regime in response to its decade-long campaign of oppression and devastation against the Palestinians.
Sinwar is also among the main Hamas targets of the Israeli regime, which put a $400,000 bounty on his head after the 7th October operation.
The reactions
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader, said that the election of Sinwar as political leader was a unanimous decision of the movement's leadership:
“The choice of Sinwar shows the dynamic nature of Hamas and reflects the direction in which movement is headed.
“It also sends a clear message that Hamas has chosen a leader who has been a guardian of jihad and battlefield struggle in Gaza for over 300 days”.
Hamdan stressed that the group responsible for negotiating with the mediators on a potential ceasefire in Gaza, which was headed by Haniyeh, will now be headed by Sinwar.
Yemen's Ansarallah, Lebanon's Hezbollah and others congratulated Yahya Sinwar on his election as head of the Hamas movement's political bureau following Israel's assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Ansarallah spokesman and head of the UN delegation in Sana'a, Mohammad Abdulsalam, congratulated Sinwar in a statement on 7 August. “We ask Almighty God to grant leader Sinwar support and guidance to carry out this responsibility in this historic phase of confrontation with the Israeli enemy”.
Hezbollah: Sinwar's appointment proves once again that Israel's goals of assassinating the resistance group's leaders have failed.
The Lebanese movement said on 6th August that “the choice of brother Yahya Sinwar, from the heart of the besieged Gaza Strip, who is with his mujahid brothers on the front line of resistance and among his people under rubble, siege, killing and starvation, is a confirmation that the objectives pursued by the enemy in killing leaders and officials have failed to achieve anything”.
“It is a strong message to the Zionist enemy and behind it to the United States and its allies that the Hamas movement is united in its decision, firm in its principles, resolute in its main choices and is determined to continue [fighting]”, Hezbollah added.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement and other Palestinian resistance groups congratulated Sinwar on Tuesday.
The genocidal colonisers
After the Hamas announcement, Israeli leaders renewed their vow to kill the newly appointed head of the resistance group's political bureau, whom they call the “mastermind” of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched on 7 October.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the decision is “another compelling reason to eliminate him quickly and wipe this vile organisation off the face of the earth”.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “there is only one place for Yahya Sinwar and that is next to Muhammad Deif and all the terrorists responsible for 7 October. This is the only place we are preparing and designating for him”, adding that “the hunt for Sinwar will not stop until we capture him, dead or alive”.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stated that Sinwar “has been and remains the primary decision-maker when it comes to the conclusion of a ceasefire. And so, I think that just underscores the fact that it's really up to him to decide whether to go ahead with a ceasefire that obviously will help so many Palestinians in desperate need”.
Hamas announced its decision to elect Sinwar as the new head of the political bureau on Tuesday morning.
“The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas announces the selection of Commander Yahya Sinwar as head of the movement's political bureau, succeeding martyred Commander Ismail Haniyeh, may [God] have mercy on him,” Hamas said in a statement.
Sinwar is currently inside the besieged Gaza Strip, always in contact with resistance fighters on the ground.
In the video below, the moment when Ismail Haniyeh presented Yahya Sinwar to the leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei.
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A coordinated and unified response to western escalations in both ukraine and the middle east might send a message that would finally be understood by the vile merchants of death responsible for both. Same day, same hour, israel and ukraine, kiev and tel aviv. Your time of control and brutality has ended, go home or else, leave these spheres or be prepared for a decisive confrontation. Ships, bases, satellite comms, resupply lines. There is no opportune time for war, yet, massacres of children in tents and attempts to seize nuclear plants will only worsen. It may be time for allies to pray and determine if tonight is the time to shove evil back into the pit, and if not tonight then when? Prayers sir.
A coordinated and unified response to western escalations in both ukraine and the middle east might send a message that would finally be understood by the vile merchants of death responsible for both. Same day, same hour, israel and ukraine, kiev and tel aviv. Your time of control and brutality has ended, go home or else, leave these spheres or be prepared for a decisive confrontation. Ships, bases, satellite comms, resupply lines. There is no opportune time for war, yet, massacres of children in tents and attempts to seize nuclear plants will only worsen. It may be time for allies to pray and determine if tonight is the time to shove evil back into the pit, and if not tonight then when? Prayers sir.