Think of the Palestine of the 1940's: a land in the heart of the Arab world, a poor country with a weak government and an unaware nation and some neighbors installed by colonial powers. The wealthiest and most evil Western government with the greatest stockpile of arms and weapons, provoked by the Zionists, took it away from Muslims and entrusted it to a racist, belligerent and terrorist party which received support from all Western countries and from both of the world's two political blocs that were at odds with each other.
It also received services from the puppet regimes in the region, including the Pahlavi regime in Iran and others that had turned their backs on Islam and Arab nations. It was provided with money, weapons, science and technology from everywhere. The United States acted as its guardian, attorney and caterer, and this was the only issue on which the former Soviet Union expressed no disagreement with the United States.
The UN resolutions, even in their weak and conservative form, were utterly ignored by the forged and rogue Zionist regime. Relying on the backing and support on the part of the United States and Europe, the Zionist regime launched a military offensive on Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and occupied some parts of their territories with the intention of annexing them.
The Zionist regime openly and audaciously made threats to assassinate, kill and plunder, and notorious terrorists took power one after another in this regime, the last of whom was the infamous butcher of 'Sabra and Shatila'. For tens of years, the usurper Zionist regime remained on the scene of Palestine with a violent, inflexible and invincible face.
On the opposite front, following initial weakness and abjection and failure of the half-done efforts of early years, various ideologies from pan-Arabism and nationalism to leftist views such as Marxism and the like were put to the test, and they all proved to be unsuccessful in practice.
However, religious faith, to which the Palestinian nation strongly adheres, gradually created some bright spots on the dark and gloomy horizon, thanks to the firm determination of patient and persevering mujahedin, and gave rise to hopes and motivation. At this time, the sun of 'Islamic Revolution' suddenly rose in the east, and the hoisted flag of this divine revolution was embellished with the words 'Allah', 'the Islamic Sharia' and 'Palestine'.
From this time on, the events began to take a different course, and the process of downfall of the usurper regime and decline in the absolute domination of the region by the United Sates, which had for many years acted as an accomplice with the usurper regime, was initiated.
The jihadi groups devoted to Islam emerged in Palestine and Lebanon and constituted a generation of dedicated and determined combatants. Jihad and martyrdom were revitalized and the genuine power, namely the power of a nation that was intent on resistance and self-sacrifice, attained its due status in the equations of Palestine and the region.
The immaculate blood of martyrdom-seeking youngsters and the presence on the scene of devoted combatants ready to make self-sacrifice refuted all the calculations of materialistic mammonists pursuing riches and pleasure and opened a new arena in which blood achieved victory over the sword.
Today, some sixty years after that agonizing outset, the rightful front, vigorous and determined, cherishing noble objectives and inspired with faith which has strongly appealed to new generations, is steadily getting stronger in the arena of Palestine and inflicting military and political defeats one after another on the enemy in Lebanon and Palestine and taking firm strides toward a brilliant victory through its epical jihad.
It seems as though this true word of Allah is addressed to them that "Allah promised you many acquisitions which you will take, then He hastened on this one for you and held back the hands of men from you, and that it may be a sign for the believers, and that He may guide you on a right path. And others which you have not yet been able to achieve, Allah has surely encompassed them, and Allah has power over all things." (the Holy Qur'an, 48: 20-21)
The unjust front, for its part, following repeated retreats and losing its initial false hopes, is currently tormented with schism, hesitation and confusion. Its major patron, the United States, is itself confronting insolvable problems in the Middle East and facing increasing hatred on the part of nations of the region, or rather of the whole world.
The slogan of annexing territories from the Nile to the Euphrates has been reduced to the slogan of maintaining security - by building a wall around itself. And to confront the rising Palestine, it knows no way but to resort to tanks, bombs, assassinations, bulldozers and prisons, namely the same tools the application of which for the past tens of years has turned the Palestinian nation into tempered steel, and the application of which from now on also will have no effect but to make Palestinians more determined and perseverant.
My brothers and sisters!
Today, the Palestinian nation is at the center of the arena of a difficult and long-term jihad, which is not only for the cause of Palestine, but which also constitutes a major part of the Islamic world's jihad on vast fronts against the aggressive, ruthless, plunderous arrogant powers.
The Islamic world has experienced an awakening. The slogan of the rule of Islam in all Islamic countries is the major slogan among the youth, academics and intellectuals of these countries. The Islamic Iran, which has fostered and carried into effect the principle of religious democracy, has become stronger and more progressive day by day. And the pure Islam, which was introduced by Imam Khomeini and which was free of the influence of other ideologies and free of deviation, stagnation and reactionaryism, has taken root from the east to the west of the Islamic world and influenced the political sphere of many countries.
The bitter and venomous taste of Western liberal democracy, which the United States has hypocritically been trying to portray through its propaganda as a healing remedy, has hurt the body and soul of the Islamic Ummah and burned the hearts of Muslims. Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon, Guantanamo and AbuGhuraib and other secret dungeons and, above all, the cities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have shown to our nations the real meaning of ‘liberty' and ‘Western human rights', the most shameless and impudent propagator of which is the American regime. Today, Western liberal democracy is as disgraced and detested in the Islamic world as was the East's socialism and communism yesterday.
Muslim nations aspire to attain freedom, honor, progress and dignity under the banner of Islam. They are fed up with the 200-year domination by alien and colonial powers, and they are tired of imposed poverty, suffering and backwardness.
We are entitled and able to return the humiliation and contempt on the part of domineering powers to themselves. This is the genuine feeling of our nations and the present generation of the Islamic world from East Asia to the heart of Africa. And this is the arena of an intricate, multifaceted, demanding and long-term jihad. If we call Palestine the standard and banner of this jihad, there will be no overstatement in what we have said.
Today, all Muslim nations should treat the issue of Palestine as their own issue. This is a mysterious key that will open the doors of deliverance to the Muslim Ummah. Palestine should return to the Palestinian nation, and a single Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should administer the entire Palestinian territories.
The fifty-year efforts of Britain and the United States and Zionists to remove the word 'Palestine' from world maps and incorporate the Palestinian nation into other nations have proved futile, and their pressures, injustice and cruelty have yielded contrary results. Today, the Palestinian people are livelier, more valorous and more efficient than their predecessors who lived some sixty years ago.
This process which has emerged as a result of faith, jihad and the glorious Intifada will continue, and this divine promise will be fulfilled that "Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them rulers in the earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange; they shall serve Me, not associating aught with Me; and those who disbelieve henceforth, they are rebellious and wicked." (the Holy Qur'an, 24: 55)
Leader’s Address to the 3rd Intl. Conference on the Holy Quds and Support for the Palestinian People , April 14, 2006
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