Hazem Saghieh
TT

Revisiting A Victory We Have Opted to Forget

In the axis of resistance’s lexicon, terms mean the opposite of what they are supposed to. The matter has become comical when it comes to day-to-day rhetoric, especially the terms victory and defeat. Recent developments enrich this ridiculousness and feed it. How so?

A few days before the first anniversary of the blast at the Port of Beirut, the Israeli paper ‘The Jerusalem Post’ (July 22nd) wrote that Israel would inaugurate a new port in Haifa on the first of September. The paper quotes the CEO of the Israel Ports Company as saying that it would “revolutionize the entire economy. It is the newest port in the world, with the latest in port technology.” Our beloved, China, will operate the port through its Shanghai International Port Group.

Haifa’s new port, built next to its old one, will also pave the way to another port currently under construction in Ashdod and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Furthermore, the three older ports, in Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat, are also being renovated “in efforts to modernize an important component of Israel’s economy.”

The comparison is painful enough as it is. Slap after slap after slap to our faces… What makes the comparison more painful is that the announcement of this new port comes as we are awaiting something else: reaping the fruits of a victory it was said that Hamas had recently achieved. You may recall that since May 21, when the cease-fire that ended the latest war in Gaza was announced, the usual suspects from the axis of resistance’s voices reverberated: it is victory. A historic victory. The demise of Israel is just over the hill. Jerusalem is closer than it had ever been...

We continued to talk about our victory for an entire month. We “humiliated Israel.” We did it for the second time in 15 years, as we had, as you well know, previously “humiliated it” in 2006. The victory achieved that day was of a divine caliber.

However, one month was enough for the talk about victory to fade, and it was swiftly forgotten. We forgot the victory we had achieved. The victory has totally vanished, and it is now like a needle in a haystack. Our preoccupation with it shifted, and our thoughts turned to other matters, among them the Israeli strikes on Syrian territory. Writing for Haaretz, Israeli journalist Amos Harel mentioned reports claiming that Israel had launched three airstrikes in central and northern Syria over the past week. All these strikes targeted locations that are relatively close to Russian military sites. Our other dearly beloved, Russia, responded by voicing its concern, and in this regard, it announced that it had “disrupted” an Israeli strike in Syria.

Also, while we were waiting to pluck the fruits of our historic victory, it was announced that Israeli reconnaissance warplanes had carried out a raid on a Hamas site in the east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

In turn, Hamas, and with it, the “factions,” descended from the heights of its epic victory to engaging in what resembles syndical negotiations. The Lebanese newspaper ‘Al Akhbar’ wrote: “After a relatively calm few days during Eid al-Adha, the Palestinian resistance factions took a decision to ramp up the pressure on the Israeli enemy through actions along the borders of the Gaza Strip as part of an effort to push the ongoing discussions on issues regarding the Strip forward, especially those regarding humanitarian and economic situation. Over the past two days, incendiary balloons were launched from northern and central locations in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli media has not reported any damage or fires as a result of these operations.

‘Al Akhbar’ has learned, from Palestinian sources, that the factions are planning to gradually ramp up their operations against the occupation. This escalation will begin with the launch of explosive balloons, while the resistance is looking into other means for exerting pressure, including the organization of new marches along the border as part of the “Great March of Return,” which had begun in mid-2017 and went on for nearly a year and a half.”

No one scrutinized the claims made during the first month after the war. No political, military or media authority was questioned. Axis of resistance leaders were not asked: where is the victory? Where did it run away to? How did you squander it? Or had you failed to achieve a victory in the first place?

Without being questioned, axis of resistance loyalists took it upon themselves to advise Iraqi Prime Minister Mustapha Al Kadhimi on how he should conduct himself in Washington: achieve victory as we had; remove any trace of US presence in Iraq. The results would be, in this case, guaranteed: for a whole month we chant for the epic victory over the Yankees at the top of our lungs, and then Iran and ISIS share Iraq.

The victory of Lebanon, which had its port blown up, over Israel, which is building its ports, is a temptation Khadhimi cannot resist.

In all of this, there is one thing we must recognize: the ability of the axis of resistance’s milieu to alter the meaning of terms and nurture the supporters who adopt the new definition. As for us, those loyal to the old definitions, we wish nothing upon our enemies but that they achieve victories of the kind we are achieving.