Gaza Needs Anti-Tank and Anti-Aircraft Weapons

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

If the Gulf states were to add up what they have spent on the war in Syria, and decided to give half of it to the resistance in Gaza and southern Lebanon, they would place Israel in a strategic bind it could never escape. And now the news speaks of a Saudi decision to supply the Syrian opposition with advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles capable of affecting the existing balance in Syria between the army and the opposition forces.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza are in desperate need of anti-armor, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft weapons, because Israel continues its ground and air assaults against the Strip, while the whole world, Arab countries foremost among them, besieges Gaza. So will Saudi Arabia direct some of its money and equipment toward Gaza? Would Saudi Arabia dare smuggle ten anti-tank missiles into Gaza — friendly, as it now is, with the Egyptian regime, which it could well ask to ease their passage? Or would it dare smuggle even a single anti-aircraft missile? Or hand these missiles to a party skilled in smuggling to deliver them to Hamas? Of course not. All this money and all this bravado stop working the moment Israel’s security is at stake. The slogan of most Arab regimes is: “Yes to Israel’s security, no to the Arabs’ security.”

If Saudi Arabia is truly so sensitive about Arab nationalism, the freedom of the Arab person, and protecting the Arab homeland and its holy sites, it must be reminded that Palestine has been seized since 1948, that there has not been a single moment when Palestinians did not need military support, particularly advanced equipment, and it must be reminded that Israel has humiliated the Arabs again and again, and that the Arab masses’ feelings of humiliation and defeat stem from Israel’s military capacity to drag Arab dignity through the mud. It must be reminded that Al-Aqsa Mosque lies under Israeli occupation, and so do the Dome of the Rock and the Ibrahimi Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity as well.

If the matter is truly about zeal for the Arabs, then supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad ought to take precedence over supporting the opposition in Syria. In Palestine there is a foreign enemy occupying the land and working to erase its identity, while in Syria the adversaries are brothers, none of them threatening to change the country’s identity or tear it from the Arab homeland.

But it is clear the problem lies not in Arab priorities but in Israeli and American priorities. America and Israel are both concerned with destroying Syria, and for this reason many Arab countries rush to take part in the raging war, hoping perhaps to gain some favor from America and Israel, or at least the approval necessary to secure the regimes. America and Israel are not pleased by support for Arab and Islamic resistance factions active against Israel, and this is the secret behind the Arabs’ reluctance to support the resistance — indeed, their standing against it. The Arabs, Egypt especially, besiege Gaza harshly, seeking Zionist approval, while waging wars against Hezbollah.

And here comes the role of Jordan, a state with no sovereignty whatsoever. The Jordanian army stands as a faithful guardian of Israel’s security, preventing any fighter from the East Bank from entering Palestine, while its northern border remains entirely open to bringing weapons and fighters into Syria to stoke the fighting.

This is a lesson for every group fighting under the belief that it is Islamic. What are the intentions of states that claim to care about Arab freedom, offering support for the fighting in Syria, yet have not offered a single rifle to a single fighter wishing to fight Israel? Should a Muslim not ask himself about the secret behind supporting fighters in Syria while fighting against fighters against Israel?

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “غزة بحاجة لمضادات دبابات وطائرات” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.