Editorial
Saleh al-Arouri’s assassination at the hands of Israel as well as the assassinations of Hezbollah militants will only strengthen the Palestinian cause and weaken the Israeli menace by further increasing the regional spread of the war. Al-Arouri, a top political and military leader of Hamas, dedicated much of his service in the Palestinian resistance to developing international links between the anti-imperialist forces of the region, and killing him in Lebanon only served the very task he set his mind to. In this way he is a most effective martyr and an inspiration to the people of the entire region and all progressive peoples of the world.
The assassination of al-Arouri violates the national sovereignty of Lebanon, and as such it has been immediately condemned by Arab countries and anti-imperialist organizations. Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, commented that the murder of al-Arouri makes the organization “stronger and more determined than ever.” This is not mere posturing, as the situation has sharpened the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with Hezbollah recently striking with 62 missiles a key Israeli air traffic base used to coordinate its aerial assassinations. Other armed Palestinian resistance groups responded with statements of solidarity. Denunciations of the assassination and the violation of sovereignty were raised by Iran as well.
The attack cannot weaken the resistance. It has backfired—only making the resistance stronger. This is a tendency of imperialist wars against just wars for national liberation and a continuation of the victory represented by Al-Aqsa Flood. Imperialism and its lackeys appear strong and lash out only to expose themselves as the real enemy and consolidate their opposition. These shows of strength by the lackeys of imperialism are meant to conceal their fundamental weaknesses. The monopoly media does its part by trying to convince anyone who will listen that Israel is an invincible juggernaut, but the Palestinians and their comrades prove the contrary with every bullet, every rocket, and every act of militant protest.
Targeted Assassination is not a New Development
The historical repetition of Israel’s assassinations and violations of national sovereignty demonstrates the futility of the Israeli policy. Just as the mythical notion of “destroying Hamas” is paper thin, so is the idea that murdering leaders in targeted assassinations will cripple the resistance. Contrary to all cynicism on the matter, the opposite is true. Israel has murdered high ranking leaders of the Palestinian organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, yet they have lost none of their fighting capacity. Instead, they have only grown in numbers over the years. The same is true for the Lebanese Hezbollah.
In 1996, the Zionist entity murdered Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash, the legendary bomb maker of Hamas and a leader of the Qassam Brigades. Ayyash is credited for advancing the technique of suicide bombings used by the Palestinian resistance. The Israeli state boasted of his murder in the name of their security and the “right to defend” themselves. Palestinians have named streets after him and Hamas has memorialized him by christening a rocket in his honor—the Ayyash 250—which is still being fired at the occupation. His murder had another repercussion as well: it showed the treacherous role of the capitulationist traitors and snitches known as the Palestinian Authority, who collaborated with the Nazi Zionists in killing this hero of the resistance, enhancing the support for Hamas among the people who long for the liberation of Palestine.
In direct response to the murder of Ayyash, a wave of suicide bombings was unleashed and developed the struggle for liberation. These attacks were carried out not only by Hamas, but by Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as well.
Hamas leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassin Yassin was murdered by Israel in 2004. Yassin, a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair since childhood, was assassinated by the Zionist entity with a rocket fired from a helicopter. Over 200,000 Palestinians would attend his funeral. Israel claimed that “The successful operation against Yassin constitutes a significant blow to the central pillar of Hamas terrorist organization, and a major setback to its terrorist infrastructure.” Yet Hamas did not suffer militarily and gained ground politically as a result, with much of the world condemning the assassination. Israel came under international pressure in response to the killing, even from among the imperialist camp—the UN passed a resolution condemning the killing, an act just as hollow as their posturing today. After this murder Hamas became the most popular Palestinian organization in both Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas declared its resolute commitment to the fight against Israel and retaliated for the murder militarily with a suicide attack killing 15 Israeli occupiers and injuring 80. 20,000 Palestinians took to the streets in celebration of the successful attack.
Yassin’s second in command, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi would replace him without missing a beat. He too would be murdered by Israel in the same year, with almost the exact same technique. The results were the same. The situation for Israel and its prospects for “destroying Hamas” did not improve. In the process of murdering al-Rantisi, the blood-crazed Zionists killed his sons, and in 2006 they would assassinate his wife Jamila Abdallah Taha al-Shanti. The situation compelled even the British imperialists, the old colonial masters of Palestine, to declare that the attack was “unjustified and counter-productive.”
The murder of two top leaders and co-founders of Hamas in the same year had no weakening effect on the organization or on the Palestinian resistance as a whole. So much for a “significant blow” to Hamas. Since 2004, Hamas has increased in numbers and support, taking more and more of a leading role in the armed struggle.
In 2008, Israeli Zionist forces in a joint operation with the CIA assassinated Imad Fayez Mughniyah, otherwise known as al-Hajj Radwan, a Lebanese resistance fighter who was a founding member of Islamic Jihad and a founder and the second in command of Hezbollah. Mughniyah is believed to have led the successful attacks against barracks in Beirut and the US embassy in Lebanon and the Israeli embassy in Argentina. His leadership is believed to be responsible for nearly eliminating US presence in Lebanon.
The US imperialists and their Zionist lackeys had attempted to capture Mughniyah on many occasions. In their desperation, the US imperialists offered $25 million for information leading to his arrest—he was by any account one of the most hunted men in the world. His brother Fuad was murdered by the Zionists in a car bombing in 1994 in a plan to assassinate Mughniyah when he attended Fuad’s funeral. Ever elusive, he did not attend. As usual, when the assassination attempts were finally successful the cowardly Zionists would not claim their action, but the US imperialists celebrated it. Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who would be assassinated by the US imperialists in 2020, declared that “avenging Mughniyah’s death won’t be fulfilled by launching a missile or killing someone in response, but blood like these will only be avenged by the full destruction of the Zionist regime.”
All of these organizations have had major and important leaders murdered by the US imperialists and their Israeli lackeys and all have continued the resistance and armed struggle for the national liberation of Palestine. All of them have grown and gained support in the only manner possible: with the gun in hand. US intelligence agencies according to CNN have admitted that Hamas’ credibility and influence has grown “dramatically” since the success of Al-Aqsa Flood. The organization is believed to include over 25,000 members. Their support in the West Bank surged from 12 to 44%, according to the sources of imperialism itself. Their popularity is not diminishing.
Hezbollah is believed to have up to 150,000 fighters, enough to significantly deepen the war against the Zionist entity and US imperialism, which they have pledged to do. And they are doing it too, having forced significant quantities of Zionist settlers from the North in recent months according to the newspaper A Nova Democracia. All of the facts confirm the great truth that the resistance gets stronger, and imperialism is desperate, that the tide of history is rising, and all monsters will be abolished from the world. It is just as the Chinese revolutionaries said: “Countries want independence, nations want liberation, and the people want revolution.”
