Last Friday, the Zionist regime yet again committed broad-daylight terrorism with devastating aerial bombings across southern Lebanon, including the capital city of Beirut, assassinating among others Hezbollah resistance movement leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. 

By Musa Iqbal *

Last Friday, the Zionist regime yet again committed broad-daylight terrorism with devastating aerial bombings across southern Lebanon, including the capital city of Beirut, assassinating among others Hezbollah resistance movement leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. 

Soon, the Tel Aviv regime published a photo of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu ordering an airstrike on a residential neighborhood in the southern suburb of Beirut, most likely from a United Nations office.

The photo as well as the terrorist act itself immediately drew condemnation globally and raised new questions about how emboldened the Israeli regime feels under the patronage of war hawks in Washington to break all red lines.

The strike itself was part of a larger series of criminal, indiscriminate bombings carried out by the Zionist entity across Lebanon since the start of the Al Aqsa Flood Operation last October. 

However, in recent weeks, these bombing campaigns have intensified. Friday’s strike targeted multiple residential buildings in Burj al-Barajneh, Kafaat, Choueifat, Hadath, al-Laylaki, and Mreijeh, with local sources reporting over 300 casualties. 

It came shortly after Israel’s “pager massacre” which used explosives intentionally hidden in electronic devices to terrorize, maim, and kill thousands of Lebanese citizens.

In last week’s bombing, Hezbollah General Secretary Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan were among the martyrs, offering their lives on the path to liberate the occupied al-Quds. 

The Zionist regime used over 80-ton bombs supplied by the United States to carry out the cowardly assassination operation in the Lebanese capital. 

An aggression of this magnitude, ordered from a New York City United Nations office using American weapons and likely American intelligence, shows the degree of criminal collaboration between the United States and the Zionist entity.

Mainstream U.S. media will mostly choose to omit this as it does not align with their interests.  Still, the truth of the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah is not that Israel was “defending itself.”  It is because he refused to abandon the Palestinians of Gaza and occupied West Bank.  

The Islamic Republic of Iran vowed retaliation for these assassinations and that of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while calling on the international community to condemn these aggressions.

Clearly, the Zionist entity is relying on “shock and awe” tactics similar to the ones the United States carried out in Iraq and Yugoslavia - indiscriminate bombings using heavy payload weaponry meant to stir confusion and terror.

Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli command were using this opportunity to demonstrate to the world that no matter how brazen their terroristic tactics and operations are, the United States will back them. 

The publication of the photo of Netanyahu green-lighting the assassination is not an inconsequential move - it is Netanyahu challenging world leaders - the majority of whom walked out during his speech Friday that he can do whatever he wants with the blessings of the United States. 

A so-called "world leader" flaunting about using a UN office -- particularly one located in the U.S. during a General Assembly session -- boasting about ordering the assassination of an adversary would under any other circumstance be met with calls for expulsion from the U.S. and its puppets and proxies. 

However, Netanyahu understands the imperialist dynamics of the Zionist entity and Washington.  The Zionist arrogance of the previous days culminated at the start of the week.  On Monday, euphoric from the carnage inflicted on Lebanon, Israeli leadership announced “limited ground operations” -- an invasion -- of Lebanon. 

Though Hezbollah repelled any advance of regime troops into Lebanese territory, clashing with the marauding forces on the border and sending them back in ambulances, the calls for a ground invasion were seen in defiance of established international norms.

Strategic patience, effective retaliation

Zionist aggression and euphoria were cut short on Tuesday evening when Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at the occupied territories, sending millions of Israeli settlers running into bomb shelters and freezing the regime's military operations.

According to the IRGC, 90 percent of missiles struck the intended targets – which were military and intelligence sites in Tel Aviv and other occupied areas – evading much-hyped Israeli air defense systems.

The IRGC missiles targeted, among others, Nevatim, Hatzerim, and Tel Nof air bases that have been used to carry out indiscriminate bombings for nearly a year now, in Gaza, Lebanon, and other places. 

These air bases are home to U.S.-made fighter jets such as the F-35 that have been used to drop bombs on Gaza, Lebanon, and other places.  There are also the places from where the United States has transported bombs dropped on Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. 

Initial reports by Israeli media outlets claim the air bases are inoperable or significantly damaged, especially the Nevatim airbase.  The Zionist regime has imposed a military media blackout to prevent the resistance -- and the global community -- from knowing the degree of damage.

IRGC missiles also struck a Mossad base in Tel Aviv and a gas platform right off the coast of Gaza.  What underscores all of this is the immense failure of the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow, which were hailed as key to the survival of the illegitimate Israeli regime. 

Videos on social media show how Iranian missiles, including the hypersonic Fattah, hit their targets without triggering any interceptor.

In a statement, the IRGC said the incoming missile salvo was in retaliation for the assassination of Haniyeh, Nasrallah, and Nilforoushan.

The operation was dubbed “Operation True Promise II” - a follow-up to the IRGC missile attack against the occupying entity in April that was also successful. 

The world saw Iranian missiles making direct hits back in April.  The IRGC likely took the initial run as testing grounds for what vital structures reacted, how they reacted, and their timing. 

Operation True Promise II improved on that, causing significant material damage and promising room for more if Zionist aggression continued.  If “True Promise” was a slap across the face, “True Promise II” was a punch in the mouth.

It is important to note that despite international law and international bodies proving an absolute failure to stop the Gaza genocide and the aggression on Lebanon, Iran is still abiding by the rules of engagement, stressing that since the Israeli regime is carrying out assassinations on its soil and of officers on legitimate defense missions, it is entitled to retaliate under the United Nations Charter.

As a victim of U.S. imperialism itself, Iran knew no one would step in to stop the Zionist aggression that is intensifying against Lebanon while the genocide in Gaza continues to claim innocent lives. 

Iran promised retaliation in August after the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran and declared that the time and place will be chosen by it.  Iran strategically waited for almost two months and chose to execute it to bloody the nose of the Zionist entity at a time when many felt it was invincible. 

The strategic use of promised retaliation has caused the Israeli regime a tremendous setback at the worst moment possible, inflicting material, economic, and psychological damage and exposing the regime’s weakness and vulnerability. 

This same “International law” -- which is written vastly by the West as it is disobeyed -- has been spit on by the Zionist regime since its establishment. 

Israel has violated most of the UN Security Council Resolutions it has been asked to adhere to.  Indeed, the past 24 hours have demonstrated the absolute double standard of international law -- American proxies and puppets condemning Iran’s retaliation while refusing to say a word about Gaza or Lebanon where the regime continues to wreak havoc. 

It also underscores what a large chunk of the international community has concluded over the course of the last year: that neutral institutions propped by the West -- such as the United Nations -- are not neutral at all: they are the tools of imperialism. 

Had any other world leader done what Netanyahu did over the weekend, arrest warrants would have been issued, executed, and fulfilled the same day.

In a way, the post-American or “multipolar” movement - which highlights the decline of American hegemony - will be shaped by the responses and lack of responses seen today.

The act of resistance on multiple fronts materially stopped the Zionist entity and delivered a significant blow to its military capabilities, which reaffirmed the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s words: that resistance alone will be the path to victory against an aggressive force backed by world imperialism.

Promised defeat

The Zionist entity’s image has never been worse globally. Demonstrations against the regime are held daily in different countries, attended by thousands in, including in the West, including in the United States. 

American universities have become a main center in this protest movement against the Zionist regime - with students demanding university divestment from the Zionist regime and to re-examine curriculum that erases Zionist war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

Germany, an ardent supporter of the Zionist regime, as well as the UK, had recently also temporarily suspended arms licenses to the Israeli occupation. Though this may be short-term political maneuvering motivated by self-interest, it ultimately concedes that the Zionist regime is overplaying its hand to a degree where even the most devoted imperialist client states fell wary in blindly supporting the Tel Aviv regime. 

Netanyahu saw these developing equations and is trying to go on the offensive - boasting his level of assurances from Washington to conduct what he and the Israeli experiment ultimately want - a full ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Iran will not let it.

Perhaps it is time for the UN to start listening to the countries taking a legitimate stand for global peace and stability. A good way to start this process would be to rescind Israeli membership to the UN - as suggested by Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi. 

Failure to do so is giving the green light to Washington and Israel that they can continue to commit these egregious war crimes as West Asia ignites into a full-scale war zone and the Gaza genocide continues.

Make no mistake, the Israeli regime has only made it this far because of Washington’s support. 

To paraphrase the great martyr, Sayyed Nasrallah, Israel is weaker than a spider’s web. Without Washington’s political, economic, and military support, Israel is finished. It is only a matter of time.

* Musa Iqbal is a Boston-based researcher and writer with a focus on US domestic and foreign policy.

[ SOURCE:  PRESS TV ]