[News] Palestine, Syria, and the sickness called defeatism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/palestine--syria--and-the-sickness-called-defeatism>
Palestine, Syria, and the sickness called defeatism
Hanna Eid
December 19, 2024
------------------------------

The events in Syria have occupied the news cycle for the last few weeks,
and while these events are no doubt important, it seems that Palestine has
been obscured from view.
[image: 764317bd-6d69-4632-8727-fd955a815873.jpg]

   - The events in Syria have obscured Palestine from view (Illustrated by
   Zeinab al-Hajj; Al Mayadeen English)

“The de-emphasis on the war of movement stems from two sources. One is the
overall illegalization and subsequent delegitimization of antisystemic
armed violence, in contrast to the lionization of US-backed anti-state
violence: notably, the Syrian opposition has been accepted by US Middle
East studies. Another is the broader de-politicization of the Palestinian
cause, turning it into a set of de-territorialized rights, sheared from the
national movement as the agent to achieve and defend those rights” - Max Ajl

The events in Syria have occupied the news cycle for the last few weeks and
while these events are no doubt important—the Arab region being the main
theatre of imperialist kinetic warfare and thus the national question
remaining crucial—it seems that in the corporate media and even in some
left-wing independent media, Palestine has been obscured from view. The
holocaust in Gaza continues, with daily massacres committed by the Zionist
entity. Resistance continues daily as well. The defeatism on the left is
both ideologically the incorrect position and a sickness that spreads like
wildfire if left unchecked. So, because Palestine is at the heart of
the national
question <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/22779760241253788> in
the Arab-Iranian region, the events in Syria must be analyzed through this
lens. How do we make sense of Hamas’ congratulatory message to the people
of Syria? How can we understand both the PFLP and DFLP
<https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/13041/>’s warnings regarding Israeli
land grabs in the Golan and beyond? Who are the new "rebel leaders" in
Syria and what is their relationship to the Zionist entity and their NATO
backers?

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the force behind the advances on Hama, Homs,
and the eventual capture of Damascus. While it is politically irresponsible
to reduce the Syrian opposition to HTS and other Al-Qaeda and Daesh
splinters, the reality on the ground is that this is the armed group that
has taken state power. We must operate from this reality as our launching
point for analysis. In an interview with a high-ranking HTS official, a
reporter from *DropSite News* was stunned
<https://substack.com/%40slkanthan/note/c-81153403?r=d54rw&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action>
that the official refused to criticize “Israel” or even comment on the fact
that “Israel” has conducted over 300 bombings of strategic Syrian military
sites. There are multiple possible readings of this response. On the one
hand, HTS members and their allies have been happy to do interviews on
Israeli TV and praise the Zionists
<https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/12/06/al-qaeda-rebels-syria-israel-usa/>
for helping them against their "main enemies" Iran and Hezbollah. On the
other hand, it makes sense for a government to attempt to restore civic
life after years of war. Most serious analysts
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMy_AyEkTwI> are partial to the first
reading. HTS is a Takfiri movement, a sectarian organization
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/armed-groups-in-syria-carry-out-summary-executions-in-lataki>,
concerned with its own narrow and sclerotic interpretation of Islam, which
excludes minorities, women, and other Muslims from governance and social
life.

Martyr Fathi Shiqaqi of PIJ
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/palestinian-islamic-jihad-9780755635924/>
knew that “the persistence of the Zionist entity means the failure of all
[Islamic] renaissance projects." Thus, it is clear that due to the HTS
ideology, they are not presenting “a serious endeavor to build an
integrated and coherent strategy for the contemporary Islamic renaissance’s
project." Instead, they are a useful tool of the West, denigrating Islam
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hts--armed-groups-assault-sayyeda-zeinab-shrine--st--georges>
and the Syrian nation. Meanwhile, the US and their European vassals are
scrambling to take HTS off their "terrorist lists". So what of al-Assad?
What about the Resistance?

Former President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Russia; the combination of the
American Caesar sanctions, corruption, and bribery in the Syrian Arab Army
ended al-Assad’s mandate in the eyes of the Syrian people. Ansar Allah and
Hezbollah apparently pleaded with al-Assad to open up a front on the Golan
Heights against the Zionists, which he refused. This was likely due to the
weakness of the SAA as well as the fragility of the Syrian state in its
fractured form. Within the last few days, the Zionists have destroyed quite
literally every defensive battery in Syria, and they have advanced well
beyond the UN buffer zone, now occupying the hills overlooking Damascus at
a distance of only 25 kilometers. So where does this leave the Axis of
Resistance and the patriotic political forces in Gaza and the rest of
Palestine?

While these are no doubt dark days, the war for the liberation of Palestine
and the region is far from over. How have the Palestinian factions
responded to the Syrian crisis and what are the prospects for the
continuation of the struggle with the Syrian conduit disabled? Hamas
congratulated the Syrian people and said that they “respect the will, the
independence, and the political choices of the people of Syria." This
response seems like the reasonable and diplomatic approach that a group
like Hamas would take, given that they straddle the line between being the
government in Gaza and the tip of the spear of armed Resistance. PIJ, whose
history of non-interference in the affairs of their neighbors has granted
them many friends, took a similar position. The PFLP is active on the
Resistance front. On December 11, they celebrated their 57th anniversary
<https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/13058/> and have not ceased their military
operations
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/marxists-of-gaza-resistance-roundup-day-432/>
against the Zionist colonial army.

Many analysts, even respected communists and anti-imperialists, have been
peddling a defeatist line regarding Hezbollah as well.
Pointing–correctly–to the fact that a good portion of Hezbollah’s missile
program in Syria has been crippled, and the martyrdom of key leaders, these
analysts have cast Hezbollah aside as a spent force. This faulty analysis
was also fueled by defeatist sentiments regarding the ceasefire agreement
that preceded the Syrian crisis. None of these analysts have considered
Hezbollah's infantry and special forces who did not allow the Zionists to
advance past Khiam village and caused numerous casualties among the Zionist
shock troops prior to forcing “Israel” into the ceasefire. The Zionists
achieved far less, in more days, than in 2006 when they were also defeated.
The settlers are not returning to the north of occupied Palestine because
the Zionist government cannot guarantee their safety. On the opposite end
of the colonial entity, the port of Eilat is bankrupt and inoperable due to
the heroic and brotherly Ansar Allah’s operations. Sayyed Abdul-Malik
al-Houthi, in a recent speech, praised Yemen’s “active involvement in
supporting the Palestinian cause, including joint operations between Yemeni
and Iraqi Resistance forces targeting Israeli interests."

Iran disengaged its forces from Syria during the crisis, prompting backlash
<https://substack.com/%40carinamalatesta/note/c-81190219?r=d54rw&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action>
from voices usually sympathetic to Iran and the Axis of Resistance. The
idea that Iran betrayed al-Assad and instead favors a takfiri, anti-Shia
terrorist organization on their doorstep is clouded judgment at best and
ludicrous at worst. Iran is still in open conflict with the Zionist entity
and remains a key element of the strategic depth of the Axis of Resistance.
This strategic depth, referred to as the popular cradle in the Palestinian
political lexicon “nests Hamas and Palestine as far afield as Tunisia,”
according to Max Ajl.

To conclude, the situation in Syria brings with it a black cloud and the
black flag of ISIS. It is certainly a strategic setback for Resistance
forces. Yet, it is important that we don’t lose the woods for the trees.
Al-Assad lost the mandate of his people, as well as the Resistance. It is
politically irresponsible and incorrect line to say that the al-Assad
government was the “backbone” of the Resistance. For the last decade, the
Zionists have bombed the Resistance roads crisscrossing Syria, and yet
Hezbollah and the Gaza Resistance have weapons manufacturing capabilities
in their own locales. The same goes for Yemen and obviously Iran. We must
agitate against the HTS-led ‘provisional government’ while also
understanding that the Resistance is not broken or beaten. To peddle a
defeatist line is reactionary and allows the Zionists to gloat and drive
harder toward manufacturing sectarian hatred. We mustn’t forget that over
the last years, and especially the last 14 months, the Axis of Resistance
has been an exemplary force in destroying the Zionist-driven fitna
(sedition). Sunni Hamas and PIJ, Zaydi Ansar Allah, Twelver Shia Iran and
Hezbollah, and the Marxist PFLP and DFLP are all working in concert to
remove the Zionist colony from our region.
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