A new Arab proverb has been coined after the release of drone footage showing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s last stand: Sinwar’s stick – symbolising resilience and determination against impossible odds.

Every attempt by the zionists to decapitate and demoralise the forces of liberation has backfired.

As the zionist entity’s genocidal onslaught on the oppressed Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip passes the one-year mark, the bloodshed shows no sign of slowing down. Rather, the zionists are actively doing their best to try to ignite a wider conflict, with the hope of getting US imperialism to intervene directly on their behalf.

To this end, the Israeli regime has now begun to carpet-bomb Lebanon, with the stated aim of launching a “full-scale invasion”. Unsurprisingly, there are no Lebanese cedar flags to be seen hanging from any government buildings in Britain, nor are our schoolchildren likely to be encouraged to dress in Lebanese colours or to shake the collecting tins as they #StandWithLebanon anytime soon.

The sudden change of focus of the zionist blood machine onto the people of Lebanon has provided Israel with a few short-term PR ‘victories’ – most notably the successful assassination of the legendary long-time Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah. Since this was quickly followed by assassinations of other leading figures who might have been potential successors, such as Shaykh Nabil Qaouk and Sayyid Hashem Safieddine, the zionists were clearly operating under the delusion that a decapitation operation combined with a blitzkrieg along the lines of 1967’s six-day war would destroy Lebanese morale and pave the way for a quick march into Beirut.

Lebanese resistance on the offensive

Unfortunately for the zionists, the resistant men and women of al-Janub (southern Lebanon) are not the 1960s Egyptian bourgeoisie. Whilst the loss of beloved leaders undoubtedly caused a great deal of heartache, their determination to resist the fascist zionist invading forces with every drop of their blood has not changed in the least. Moreover, this is precisely the scenario for which Hezbollah has been preparing ever since it successfully ejected Israeli occupation forces in 2000 and defeated their subsequent re-invasion in 2006.

This determination and ability by the Lebanese to resist an Israeli invasion is clearly demonstrated by the fact that the zionist army, despite repeated attempts to occupy southern Lebanon, has barely managed to advance more than a few kilometres over the border before being forced to retreat under the shattering blows of the resistance.

Nor has the settler-colonial regime been able to restore security to its northern settler communities, even more of which have had to be evacuated following continued missile fire from the Lebanese resistance. Clearly, the attempts by the zionist-imperialist coalition to cripple Hezbollah’s firing capabilities have been as unsuccessful as their attempts to render the resistance movement impotent and directionless.

Western corporate media, of course, are still playing their part in whitewashing both the zionists’ crimes and the imperialist enabling of those crimes. The strike that killed Hassan Nasrallah, for example, caused a colossal amount of ‘collateral damage’ – as many as one thousand civilians are reported to have been killed or injured in this attack alone. Eighty bunker-busting 2,000lb bombs (provided by and some of them likely even directly piloted by the USA) were dropped on a single neighbourhood in order to vaporise all the residential buildings and penetrate deep into the earth below.

This was barely mentioned by imperialist media or politicians, who celebrated the attack as if it had been a “surgical strike” that was precisely aimed at a single “terrorist”. The indiscriminate drone strikes against wedding parties whose attendees were universally described as “al-Qaeda terrorists” by the US and British imperialists during the Afghan war look positively humane by comparison.

Stunning example of Yemeni defiance

Meanwhile, Israel and its western backers have also been ratcheting up their attacks on the steadfast people of Yemen, which is the only Arab country not directly involved in the war whose government (the actual ruling government, not the pretend ‘internationally recognised government’ living in Saudi exile) has dared to take real action against the zionist state. By the simple act of refusing access to the Bab-el-Mandab strait (effectively blocking access to the Red Sea) for all US, British and Israeli-linked shipping, the Yemeni resistance has dealt a severe blow to the Israeli economy and almost completely bankrupted the port city of Eilat.

Swept to power in a popular revolution ten years ago, Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) government has successfully resisted countless violent and frantic imperialist attempts to regain domination over its geopolitically vital territory. The Yemeni people have faced down years of a bloodthirsty Saudi-fronted bombing campaign and a merciless siege that starved tens of thousands of vulnerable citizens (all funded and directed by imperialism of course), as well as seeing off an imperialist-inspired attempted insurrection in 2017.

Anglo-American imperialism now finds itself somewhat at a loss in trying to deal with the defiant Yemenis, having already used all the cards at their disposal to no avail. Their bombs and starvation siege have been endured and overcome. Their naval power is now directly defied and outwitted.

Not only have the Yemenis survived a decade of genocidal onslaught, they are better armed and more defiant than ever, and supremely aware of the need to keep resisting – not only until Yemen is free from any threat but until the entire middle east is free of imperialist occupation and domination. Which means, of course, both the ejection of US and British bases and the defeat and dismantlement of the imperialists’ settler-colonial outpost of Israel.

Growing ever more desperate, and no longer able to hide behind their formerly willing Saudi and Emirati proxies (‘partners’), British and US military forces have been conducting direct military operations against Yemen since the beginning of 2024, repeatedly bombing the ancient capital of San’aa (a world heritage site) and the port city of Hudaydah in a fruitless attempt to end Yemen’s Red Sea blockade.

Exactly how direct bombing by imperialist aircraft is supposed to result in a different outcome than bombing with imperialist-paid-for Saudi-piloted aircraft is a question that is beyond our meagre capabilities to answer. However, the perceived need for such action does lay bare exactly how much damage to imperialist interests the most impoverished country in the Arab world has managed to do, despite still being mired in an imperialist-engendered civil war.

Yemen’s firm stance in support of Gaza has been highly embarrassing to the Gulf autocracies. Having spent years hysterically demonising the ‘al-Houthi militia’ in the media outlets under their control, to see said ‘militia’ taking hugely popular action in support of Palestine while they themselves do nothing is shredding what little remains of their credibility in the eyes of the people.

This is particularly the case for the Qataris and the Kuwaitis, whose ruling elites consistently try to pose as ‘pro-Palestine’ on the international stage – mouthing empty phrases and offering tokenistic charitable donations for public consumption while doing nothing that might materially damage imperialist or zionist interests in practice.

Gaza endures, Sinwar sparks a legend

Despite the attacks on Lebanon and Yemen, there is still no respite for the people of Gaza, who continue to suffer under the most brutal siege and infrastructure collapse, exacerbated by daily bombardments.

To add to this pain, Israel announced in mid-October that it had killed Yahya Sinwar, the near-legendary leader of Hamas who is said to have masterminded last year’s 7 October al-Aqsa Flood resistance operation.

Caught up in its own supremacist narrative, the IDF press office was so stupid as to release video footage of Commander Sinwar’s last moments, which had been captured by a drone that was looking for survivors after a firefight (Israeli troops being too nervous of resistance fire to go in until they were sure the half-destroyed building was empty). If the Israelis thought to portray Hamas’s fighting chairman as weak and helpless, and thus to destroy Palestinian morale, this calculation backfired spectacularly.

If the shock assassination of Sayyid Nasrallah, widely seen as an anti-imperialist figurehead by the whole region, failed to make any significant dent in resistance morale, the killing of Sinwar was never likely to undermine the Palestinian people’s determination to fight on. On the contrary, although he had successfully evaded death for over a year, he himself and those around him worked on the assumption that at some point an enemy bullet would find him.

Part of his legend springs from the fact that, despite knowing he was number one on Israel’s hit list, he continued to lead his troops on the ground in the most heavily-bombed and surveilled patch of land in human history.

Far from denting resistance morale, then, the drone footage, which shows a badly-wounded man defiantly staring down a drone he knows will shortly deliver his death blow, has only solidified Sinwar’s reputation as a legendary leader who refused to surrender and instead fought to his last drop of blood for his people’s liberation. His last stand, throwing a stick with his remaining but clearly much-weakened arm, has even coined a new proverb on the Arab street. ‘Sinwar’s stick’ symbolises resilience and determination against impossible odds; to give one’s all when nothing is left to you but a stick.

Israel’s admission that its forces were not even looking for Sinwar at the time – rather, they stumbled across him accidentally and only identified him after death – is a further source of embarrassment, effectively exposing the impotence of their much-trumpeted high-tech surveillance and supposedly all-seeing spy network, which together were still not sufficient to track down their most-wanted adversary.

Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall for imperialism’s doomed and tottering criminal enterprise in occupied Palestine, western mass media have been busy creating a narrative that places all the blame for the horrendous bloodshed on the heads of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ‘extremists’ in his cabinet (is there such a thing as a non-extremist zionist?) The goal being, of course, to absolve US president Joe Biden and all the other complicit western and proxy regimes of any culpability.

The portrayal of the Biden administration as basically well-meaning and longing for a ‘diplomatic solution’ but just a bit too weak to know how to get there while being led around on strings by Netanyahu, is effectively an updated iteration of the old “America would be great if it wasn’t for the jewish lobby” talking-point, which up until recently was primarily a preserve of the fringe right wing. It is interesting to see how this has now become a mainstream talking point promoted by virtually all corporate media – and even by many on the left who should know better.

The reality is that this is a war waged for domination and control of resources by US/British/EU imperialism (aka the ‘collective west’) against the resistant peoples of west Asia, using their zionist proxies as cover. There is no way the imperialists can absolve themselves of blame for the genocide they are committing by hiding behind their proxy Netanyahu. It is as clear as day that the zionist regime’s ability to wage this war is dependent entirely on western weapons, funding, media and diplomatic cover, and that it would collapse tomorrow if these were withdrawn.

The imperialists are driven to push for escalation after escalation because their decrepit system is mired in inescapable crisis. They are trying to resolve the inherent contradictions of the global capitalist economy through the medium of a world war, hoping that if enough accumulated wealth and enough people are destroyed, this will provide the basis for a ‘reset’ – will provide renewed demand to kickstart the whole boom and bust capitalist cycle of economics again.

And indeed, such a devastating spread of war across the globe is inevitable unless we are able to take the opportunity that is being presented to us to smash the imperialist global system once and for all, while it is weak and riven with contradictions.

That is why it behoves all progressive and freedom-loving humanity to stand with Palestine, not only in words but also in deeds. The liberation of Palestine, the dismantling of the supremacist colonial settler-state of Israel, and the ejection of US, British and French imperialism from the middle east will deal a crippling blow to this rotten and decaying system.

Whatever we can do to speed up and ensure this outcome, we must do. And in doing so, we must be organising ourselves into a force capable of delivering the system’s death blow on the home front.

Republished from TheCommunists.org, with thanks!