Alireza Soltanshahi, researcher and author in Palestine studies
Although the Zionist regime declared its existence in 1948, it took 50 years to provide the necessary grounds for this event. The ceaseless efforts of Zionist leaders in the capitals of European, American, and Arab countries finally led to the Balfour Declaration. Britain’s role as the director in this process was evident, and it actually managed to announce the formation of a national homeland for the Jews by issuing the Balfour Declaration and drawing the attention of the people and governments of the world to such a movement. By issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and establishing Mandatory Palestine in 1922, Britain established the fake foundations of a government and, within 30 years, prepared the foundations for the establishment of the Zionist regime. This means that Britain built the pillars of this fake government economically, demographically, militarily, and politically, reinforced it, and prepared everything so that on May 14, 1948, the Zionist leaders proclaimed the existence of the Zionist regime to the world. After this date, the supportive and complementary role of defending the Zionist regime was assumed by the United States. 11 minutes after the announcement of its existence, it was the US that recognized the Zionist regime.
Within 30 years, from 1948 to 1978, all the efforts of the Zionist leaders in the occupied territories, as well as European countries and the US, were directed at using the West’s help so as to withstand all oppositions, wars, and internal and external anti-Zionist protests. In fact, this period is called “the consolidation period.” With its wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, the Zionist regime showed to Arab, Islamic, and opposing countries that it could defend and maintain its existence against attacks. In the summer of 1978, when the Camp David Accords were struck between Egypt and Israel, it was thought that the era of legitimizing this illegitimate regime had begun. In fact, from this date onwards, the Zionist regime sought to convey the message to Arab and Islamic countries as well as countries that had not yet recognized Tel Aviv that now that they are not able to destroy Zionism and Zionism is able to defend its existence; they should rather negotiate with Tel Aviv and sign a peace agreement with it.
Not even 4 months had passed when the Islamic Revolution occurred in Iran and all of the pipe dreams of the Zionists and their Western and Eastern supporters were shattered. From the very first day, the Islamic Revolution showed that it was against the existence of the Zionist regime by capturing its embassy and replacing it with the mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization. By taking this stance, it used all its capacities and facilities to prevent the start of the period of legitimization of Israel. In a way, the Islamic Revolution returned the Zionist regime to the period of self-protection, i.e. “the consolidation period.” But how did this happen? Not even 4 years had passed since the Islamic Revolution when the Lebanon War occurred and Hezbollah was born from the womb of the war — a movement that managed to shatter the myth of Israel’s invincibility for the first time and expel the Zionist regime from Lebanon in 2000, after 18 years of relentless and continuous struggle. From the same year, the Intifada, the formation of the Islamic Jihad Movement, and the formation of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in the Palestinian territories continued along with the efforts of the West and Zionism to legitimize Tel Aviv, and they tried to create restrictions against the Resistance Front to pull off the reconciliation process. Despite all this and despite the signing of the Oslo Accords and various other agreements, this process was not successful.
It was in 2006 that the 33-Day War took place. We are not exaggerating if we say that Hezbollah, by winning the 33-Day War in 2006, established a balance of power against the Zionist regime and created a deterrent for itself. In 2007, the Annapolis Conference was held with the participation of the West, the US, the Zionists, and submissive Arab countries. In this conference, the balance of power between the Resistance Front and the Zionist Front was acknowledged. Since then, efforts have been made to weaken the components of the Resistance Front in Palestine, Lebanon, and other countries that gradually joined the Resistance Front, with all kinds of pressures, wars, sanctions, etc., so that they would finally decide to part ways with this front. It was in those years that with the establishment of Hamas’s rule in Gaza, the blockade of Gaza began. The war of 2008 and 2009, the war of 2012, the war of 2014, the war of 2018, and the war of 2021 happened so that Hamas and the resistance groups in Gaza would accept defeat, but nothing like that happened.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah was put under all kinds of political, economic, military, and security pressures to leave the Resistance Front, but that never happened. Also, Iran was put under all kinds of pressures, sanctions, assassinations, etc., to bring Tehran, as the leader of the Resistance Front, to its knees, but this goal was not achieved either, and the Resistance Front was still able to maintain its deterrence against the Zionists with the strength it had gained in the military, missile, drone, and cyber fields. On October 7, 2023, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood showed that not only the Resistance Front is able to protect itself in the field of defense, but it is also able to attack the Zionists and challenge their existence by designing and implementing combined operations in an offensive format. This was the first major blow to the Zionist regime in the offensive format from the Gaza front, and this is the reason why the Zionist regime is unable to recover from this blow. The reason is that the Zionist regime lost something more than its deterrence in Al-Aqsa Flood, namely its grandeur and dignity, and tried to restore this lost dignity with all kinds of savage attacks on civilians under the pretext of regaining its deterrence.
Currently, the Zionist regime has taken a similar approach toward Hezbollah as well, but thinkers and politicians alike, as well as the media outlets inside and outside the occupied territories, now acknowledge that this idea [of resistance] cannot be destroyed. The Resistance Front and its components are still alive in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and not only they do not recognize and legitimize the Zionist regime, but they also challenge its consolidation and fundamentally undermine its existence.
The Resistance Front has tightened the noose on the leaders of the Zionist regime to a point where they admit that if they cannot overcome the existing challenges and achieve their goals in Gaza, the Zionist regime will eventually go into decline. Therefore, they consider this war as a decisive and existential war. That is why, despite the doctrines that they had previously drawn for themselves — that the war should be purposeful and non-attritional — they got involved in a long-term, attritional, and very costly war in the last year, and they know that if they do not win this war, their existence will surely go into decline, and it will be no longer possible to speak about the survival of the Zionist regime. In fact, the theory of returning the Zionist regime to 70 years ago alludes to the fact that the Resistance Front has found the upper hand and is not in a defensive position, but rather it’s in an offensive position and can impose its will on the Zionists.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
