On March 2, 2020 the Hamas mouthpiece Al-Risala published an article by Mahmoud Mardawi, an Israeli affairs analyst and a former senior member of Hamas from the West Bank, who was deported to Gaza in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal. In the article he presented the agreement signed by the U.S. and the Taliban on February 29, 2020 as an American capitulation and a great achievement for the Taliban, and wondered why the various resistance movements, especially the Palestinian ones, did not seem to appreciate this. He called on the Palestinian resistance factions to take a lesson from the Taliban's firm stance and from its successful guerrilla war against the U.S., and to draw inspiration and encouragement in its own struggle against the U.S., which is "the leader of evil and the main supporter of the occupation."
Mahmoud Mardawi (Source: Al-Risala, Gaza)
The following are translated excerpts from Mardawi's article:[1]
"America’s capitulation to the Taliban drew little attention or interest… This [indifference] may be understandable coming from players whose traditional stance is predetermined and who have nothing to do with the Taliban or with Afghanistan, [players] who are unaffected and unmoved by [the events in Afghanistan] and have nothing to do with those who are suffering the many hardships of occupation… But revolutionary movements that are waging resistance and fighting their occupying enemies pay a price for [concealing] their stances. They are taken seriously only if they have an independent identity and the courage to express their real positions. The U.S. severely endangers [the Palestinian resistance factions] with its unlimited political, diplomatic, economic, military and security support of their chief enemy, the Zionist entity. [Yet] the defeat of the U.S. did not evoke any comment from them, although they know that the Taliban has been fighting the U.S. persistently and patiently for 20 years.
"[The Taliban] is the only revolutionary movement still fighting outside Palestine… Its firm positions, and its ability to unite around them while ceaselessly persisting in guerrilla warfare on the ground and confronting a great enemy… until it was forced to surrender and meet all its demands – [all these] are a source of strength and hope for [other] resistancae movements. They should have noted this [achievement], and benefited from it by outlining [a path] for their activists and lighting new hope in the hearts of their members, [hope] that arrogance will surely be defeated by repeated blows and capitulate to firm positions.
"This [country], the U.S., is the leader of evil and the main supporter of the occupation. It is the one that opposes national rights that contravene [the interests of] imperialism and arrogance. [Yet] its defeat [by the Taliban] did not arouse the interest of the revolutionary resistance factions, which seem to be fighting within the permitted margins and [remain] committed to the restrictions imposed upon them.
"What is it that prevents the national and Islamic Palestinian movements from appreciating the Taliban's victory over imperialism and evil and from drawing hope that resistance is [indeed] the only way to break the circles of darkness and defeat oppression and crimes?!"
[1] Source: Al-Risala (Gaza), March 2, 2020.
