Swiss writer and former intelligence agent Jacques Beau and his book about the Al-Aqsa Flood (Al-Jazeera)
Paris -
Swiss writer Jacques Beau published his new book entitled “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood - Defeating the Winner” to answer many questions about what really happened on October 7, 2023, and the repercussions of the war in the Gaza Strip on global security.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net, the former Chief of Staff (with the rank of colonel), a former Swiss intelligence agent, and an expert in chemical and nuclear weapons, talks about the combat performance of the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli army, including the operations conducted “from zero distance” that broke the title of “the army that Invincible".
Thanks to his intelligence and military experience, Poe reveals the clash of Western decisions with international law, and the extent of the impact of the operations carried out by the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon to confuse the occupation forces.
The following is the text of the interview:
I referred to the concepts of "terrorism" and "resistance" and described Palestinian resistance as legitimate, including the use of force, according to the UN definition.
Do you think Hamas is terrorist?
In light of the changing analyzes and terminology used by Western media, the concept of terrorism carries different meanings according to each country. During World War II, for example, Germany described French resistance fighters as terrorists.
Today, about 40 Western countries consider Hamas a terrorist movement, a view that differs from what the majority of the world believes.
When I was working in intelligence during the Cold War, I dealt with the Warsaw Pact, and I focused at that time on understanding the thought of the Soviets to know how they saw the phenomenon of war. As the Chinese military leader Sun Tzu said 2,500 years ago, “If you know yourself without knowing your opponent, you have a great chance.” "For loss."
The Palestinian movements, including Hamas, may have carried out terrorist activities at certain times in their history, but I believe that the practice of a terrorist act by a particular party does not necessarily mean that it is terrorist, and it is important to emphasize that the way Hamas operates is always a reaction. For something that happened before, when you attack someone, of course they will not accept it.
Even with regard to “Islamic terrorism,” we could have avoided it by not fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.
Because of that, it made perfect sense that we would take a hit in return.
In Israel, as in any occupied country, we are ultimately witnessing the same thing.
Can it be said that the West used the word "terrorism" after October 7 to justify what Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip?
Since 2000, the Israeli government has tried to liken the Palestinian resistance to Al-Qaeda, which the Americans used as a pretext to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Europe, the idea of bombing residents with links to terrorist movements did not bother anyone.
Consequently, the Israeli government said, “We will do the same thing,” and made people imagine that there was a connection between the Palestinian resistance and Al-Qaeda, and this connection was possible from the moment we did not think about the reasons for what was happening, because Al-Qaeda - as we always said - was like September 11 ( In 2001) they are the Islamists who want to destroy our society, but we have never asked ourselves why?
Although we know the reason very well.
This attack was the result of the August 1998 bombings, carried out by former US President Bill Clinton in Omdurman, the Sudanese capital, and then the US strikes in Afghanistan in the same year. The problem is that when we do not monitor the reasons and talk about them, we resort to “Islamic” reasons.
What do you think about Israel's lack of respect for international law?
Israel has not respected international law since its establishment and even before that, the State of Palestine existed in 1921 under the British Mandate, and Golda Meir even said that she was Palestinian because she held a Palestinian passport.
The Arabs supported keeping the State of Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, with two peoples living together, but the Jews - since there were no Israelis yet - wanted a state only for themselves.
Since the Jews constituted about a third of the population of Palestine, and the Arab population (the Palestinians) constituted approximately two-thirds, they did not want to hold the referendum, and they (the Jews) forcibly seized an area that they would not have been able to seize through the referendum, even before the declaration of the independence of the State of Israel in May 14, 1948, UN resolution was not respected.
We must not forget that the United States has not always been supportive of Israel. For a long time since World War II, Americans have believed that Israel was working with the Soviets, because most of the Russian spies who were exposed were Jews.
Do you think that the war strategy pursued by the resistance will enable it to gain an advantage in the war against Israel?
The Hamas movement will not achieve a decisive victory over Israel, because it is not prepared for this, and does not have what it takes to overthrow the government in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, and the Western propaganda that Hamas poses an existential threat to Israel has no meaning in reality.
Historically, France did not defeat the German army thanks to resistance, but rather through Allied intervention, the air landings in Normandy, and so on.
Today, we are witnessing the same situation in Palestine, but the problem is the lack of allies to help the Palestinians invade Israel.
Therefore, I believe that what is happening in Gaza is more of a strategic political superiority than a military one.
This war put Israel's foreign policy in a dilemma, because the West found that it had an ally that did not respect international law and was accused of committing genocide, which led to questions being raised about whether they would continue to buy and send weapons to Israel, for example.
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood revealed the extent of the contradiction in which Western countries are floundering. After everyone agreed to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of violating international law, they found themselves facing Israel, which is doing worse than that and killing a much larger number of civilians in a few weeks. Compared to the Russians in two years.
How do you see the countries neighboring Palestine dealing with the war in the Gaza Strip?
In the 1970s, a large number of “Sunni” Palestinians went to Lebanon as refugees, which led to an increase in the population by 30%. If the Israelis had understood the truth of what was happening at that time, they would have made allies of the Shiites against the Palestinians, but history did not want that and a party was established. God to defend his lands.
Since Israel was aggressive with all the countries surrounding it, a kind of sympathy developed for the Palestinian cause, and we see this clearly with Hezbollah’s decision to help in its own way by creating tension on the northern border. What is noteworthy is that Hezbollah was able to bypass and penetrate the Israeli defenses. Which showed that the Israelis do not master their technology.
After the peace agreement between Egypt, Jordan and Israel, Tel Aviv felt that it was losing its enemies, and since it always linked its existence and national cohesion to the presence of the enemy, it saw in Iran the ideal candidate to be its enemy, but I do not think that Iran has any intention to attack Israel, because there are no regional or major problems. economic between them.
Although the Houthis do not have great financial or political capabilities, they wanted to participate and take risks by imposing Western-style economic sanctions on Israel, and even the American and British strikes did not succeed in stopping them.
How does the war in Gaza affect global security, and to what extent have Western countries become extremist in their policies to support the occupation?
Western countries prefer rules that they establish themselves according to their needs through selective international administration, rather than using the list proposed by the United Nations and international law. This is not actually new, but the Palestinian conflict has highlighted this blatantly.
I do not think that we in the West are more extreme than before. We have always had a problem in our relationship with Israel, and the “policy of silence” that countries use is not to condemn or say that Israel is wrong to avoid accusations of anti-Semitism and other things. The truth is that we have not played our role as friends since Years, because a friend is not the one who always says “yes” to you.
But today we have reached a situation where we realize that we are in an extreme situation, to the point that we have fallen into the trap of our own game, as we claim to be defenders of international law but we do not do so, and when we apply international law, we will have to think about perhaps cutting our relations with Israel, because it is accused of genocide.
With the passage of time, we see that the image of Israel in the West is changing, and the war in Gaza will contribute to widening the gap between Israelis and their government, and isolate Israel politically and morally from the rest of the world.
Source: Al Jazeera