It is true that Palestine is even today the scene of the most heinous crimes in human history being committed by alien and usurper Zionists against the oppressed owners of Palestinian territories, and the most brutal atrocities are being openly and boastfully perpetrated by the Zionist regime in an unprecedented manner.
However, a glance at what has happened over the past sixty years reveals a surprising reality, which serves as a lesson, and this reality is nothing but a great change on the scene and the shift of power from one front to the other both in Palestine and in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
As a matter of fact, Western politicians had planned and given rise to the tragedy of the usurpation of Palestine with the intention of ensuring their long-term control and domination of Palestinian territories.
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 neighbours 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 the downfall of the usurper regime and decline in the absolute domination of the region by the United States, 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)
Imam Khamenei, Apr 14, 2006