As typically happens when Israel gets condemned internationally for its violations against the rights of the Palestinians or assaults on their holy sites, the militias of our region make the politically naive decisions to intervene and flip the situation on its head.
The actions of these militias garner unwarranted international sympathy for Israel. I am not only talking about the rockets recently fired from southern Lebanon into Israel, but a history of political naivety that has achieved almost nothing for the Palestinians or the Palestinian cause.
Regarding what happened last Thursday in particular, when rockets were fired from South Lebanon, with Israel blaming Hamas and Hezbollah denying any involvement, the incident reaffirmed that this political naivety endures despite the wars that have been waged on Gaza with no real justification.
It is no secret that neither Hamas nor any other Palestinian faction or militia can fire rockets at Israel from South Lebanon without the approval of Hezbollah and, of course, Iran.
As usual, Israel responded by striking Gaza and South Lebanon. Since those 24 hours of Israeli bombardment, nothing has been achieved for the Palestinians, and Hezbollah has not retaliated. Israel, on the other hand, has benefited from the split of global public opinion, as condemnation of its raid on the Al-Aqsa Mosque was replaced by expressions of support for Israel’s right to self-defense. No one is talking about divisions within Israel anymore; instead, everyone is speculating about what Netanyahu will do in response! Could these militias be any more politically naive?
The truth is that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the other militias have no grasp of the state or its concepts, nor do they understand politics, neither as theory nor as practice. They only understand the language of assassination, inciting crises, and destroying statehood. Indeed, they do not believe in the Arab state, to begin with.
Hezbollah is nothing more than a militia serving Iran’s agenda. Indeed, its leadership explicitly affirms this undeniable fact. As for Hamas, it is a product of the Muslim Brotherhood, which does not believe in the state, but in the Muslim nation (umma), and that is a different; a very complicated story.
The question we should always (loudly) ask: What has been achieved since the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, or the five wars waged on Gaza? The truth is that these militias (Hamas, Hezbollah, and others) neither saved Al-Aqsa Mosque nor improved the living conditions of the Palestinians.
They have not made things any better for the Lebanese either, nor have they made peace any more imminent. In fact, with the stroke of a pen without firing a single missile, Hezbollah facilitated Lebanon’s recognition of Israel through the maritime agreement, becoming the guarantor of Israel’s maritime security.
Without getting into the conspiracy theories our region is brimming with, all what the political naivety of these militias has done is deepening the Arabs' hatred for them. Even more so, they have deepened the hatred of the Palestinians and Lebanese for them, and the same applies to the people of Iraq and Syria.
Furthermore, the political naivety of these militias has reinforced the theory that they serve Israel’s goals, as well as Iran’s.
