Alwaght- Palestinians residing in the occupied West Bank who once were fighting the Israeli regime with stones and slingshots have recently chosen an all-new way for their struggle. The armed movement that formed over the past months and intimidated the Israeli leaders and settlers has changed the course of developments in favor of the Palestinians. Arming the Palestinian groups in the West Bank with the aim of tightening the noose on the Israelis is a continuation of the resistance strategy raised years ago by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
Eight years after the Leader’s remarks, the West Bank is armed with light assault weapons and has managed to inflict heavy casualties on the occupation forces. In various meetings with the leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups, the Leader mentioned this issue many times and called the planning to bring the West Bank to confrontation of the Israeli regime one of the necessities of the resistance. These recommendations are materializing now.
A smart advice that materialized
Iran’s Supreme Leader is closely watching what is going on in Palestine and makes the best recommendations that can help the Palestinians out of their plight. Arming the occupied territories was one of them that is now realized. After Gaza Strip that in a set of wars inflicted heavy defeats on the Israeli regime, now it is time for fighters in the West Bank to take the initiative. Though the West Bank is under Israeli occupation, the Palestinians there grow stronger everyday as they are equipped with more arms.
In recent months, Palestinian fighters led by the Lions’ Den, or Arin Al-Osud in Arabic, resistance group have carried out hundreds of operations against Israeli settlers and military personnel in different areas of the West Bank. According to the Israeli media, in 2022, more than 30 Israelis were killed and dozens more wounded— figures unprecedented since the establishment of the Israeli regime and showing how effective the arming of the West Bank has been in the field balance.
The West Bank resistance warned that it would grab the calm from the Israelis from now on and “unleash hell to the occupiers.” Its almost daily operations against the Israelis are indicative of this strategy. The Israeli army has been on full alert over the past six months since Lions’ Den announced its existence, and despite several large-scale operations to eliminate it, they were not successful, and every day a large number of Palestinians join this group. Tel Aviv security authorities admit that they do not have the power to deal with these groups.
The Palestinians of the West Bank have come to the belief that their only path to liberation crosses from armed struggle and any kind of compromising to the occupation is off the table. The West banks see the back-to-back victories of Gaza as a success story. Despite their advanced weapons, the Israelis in every war yield to the Palestinian conditions for ceasefire. This is presenting an example for anti-occupation model in the West Bank.
Sound of Israeli collapse coming
The significance of arming the West Bank that was recommended by Iran’s Supreme Leader nearly a decade ago should be observed in the battleground breakthroughs of the resistance forces against the Israeli enemy. Equipping the West Bank with weapons besides Gaza can be very dangerous to the Israeli regime, and in the event of a full-scale war between the resistance and the enemy, the Israelis will be targeted by the Palestinians from two fronts. The fact that Tel Aviv authorities have been confused and lost the initiative for some time and do not have a strategy to deal with the West Bank resistance is because they are afraid of the consequences of conflicts. The Palestinian leaders in Gaza warn every day that if the Israelis make a mistake, they will strike the occupied territories and the scope will be much wider than in previous wars.
It is obvious that the stronger Palestinian deterrence in the face of the Israeli regime, the more conservative the Israelis would be in their dealing with the Palestinians. After all, Tel Aviv knows very well that the opposite side has capabilities that in case of a war they can deal destructive blows to its infrastructure and, indeed, its security and economy.
The Palestinian resistance is now so powerful that it adopts tit-for-tat policy n dealing with the Israelis. The Palestinian fighters are not afraid of confronting their enemy with exemplary courage. This courage and resolution strengthen their blows to the occupation. The martyrdom-seeking attacks are the epitome of this resolution that grew significantly in the past months. Palestinian youths and teenagers hit the depth of the enemy on a regular basis and this is the outcome of the plans the resistance leaders and on top of them Iran’s Leader have repeatedly referred to.
Although Lions’ Den is based in Nablus, the Israeli military has no sufficient capability to counter it, as the group applies various models to deal blows to the Israelis.
On the other hand, the Israeli regime did not feel much threat from the Palestinian groups in the past seven decades, and thanks to its powerful weapons, it easily lined up against the Palestinians, but now it is afraid of confronting them, because a kind of deterrence and balance has been established between the two sides that rendered the Israeli weapons ineffective. The armed resistance of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the possibility of its spread to the 1948 lands, along with the internal crises of rocking the Israeli regime that showed themselves in rapid collapse of Israeli cabinets followed by fruitless elections, have reduced the Israeli dream of forming a united Jewish state that would live for centuries to a mirage. Now many Israelis and even their leaders doubt if Israeli regime would celebrate its 80th anniversary.
The stronger resistance, the bigger concerns of the Israelis, and after arming the West Bank, the Israelis felt extremely threatened, and admitting that in the next few years their so-called state may explain why Iran’s Leader is so insistent on arming the West Bank. The reports emerging everyday about crisis in the Israeli army indicate that the Israelis are growing too desperate to uproot the resistance.
The resistance power gain in the West Bank may expedite the Israeli collapse, even before the 25-year time frame Iran’s Leader predicted years ago. And arming the West Bank is the start of the end of seven decades of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and a catalyst to their liberation.
