In an article published April 3, 2024 by the online daily Rai Al-Youm, the London-based senior Palestinian journalist Abd Al-Bari Atwan, who is the outlet's editor, called on the "resistance axis" led by Iran and Hizbullah to strike at U.S. interests, not just Israeli interests. This, he argued, is because the U.S., which provides Israel with weapons and diplomatic backing, "is a direct accomplice in all its crimes."
Ridiculing those who warn against attacking U.S. targets due to their fear of that country's military might, he said that the U.S. was defeated in Afghanistan and in Iraq and would also be defeated in Yemen. He also called on the Arab nation to devote all its military and economic resources to "aveng[ing] the deaths of its martyrs" and warned that "punishment is near" for the Arab regimes that collaborate with Israel, which he says are destined to fall.
Abd Al-Bari Atwan (Source: MEMRI TV, October 9, 2023)
The following are translated excerpts from Atwan's article:[1]
"U.S. President Joe Biden phoned Spanish chef José Andrés, founder of the World [Central] Kitchen charity, to express his condolences for the martyrdom of seven of his employees in a rocket attack carried out by an Israeli drone against their vehicles in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip. Israeli President Isaac Herzog did likewise. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron summoned the Israeli ambassador and conveyed to him a letter of protest. All these contacts and condolences took place [only] because three of the seven fallen were British, Australian, and Polish citizens. No one expressed condolences for the deaths of the four Palestinians who were among the victims...
"[Although] John Kirby, the White House spokesman [sic; he is White House National Security Communications Advisor] stated at a press conference that President Biden is furious about the deaths of the seven employees of the [World] Central Kitchen international aid organization, he also said that 'Washington will continue to ensure that Israel can defend itself.' This is the height of effrontery and bias in favor of the murderers...
"President Biden is a direct accomplice in this extermination... not only by means of sending advanced missiles and stealth aircraft to the occupation state, but also because he gives [this state], and the massacres it carries out, protection and political support at the UN and worldwide. His claim that he had no advance knowledge of the missile attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, in which 14 senior commanders of the Qods Force were martyred,[2] is a lie, in a desperate attempt to distance himself from this act of terrorism.
"The resistance axis's retaliation must include U.S. targets, not just Israeli targets, because the U.S. is a direct accomplice in all of Israel's crimes in the Gaza Strip, South Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
"I am astonished at those who warn of the U.S.'s might and play up [the capability] of its weapons... These weaklings forget that this superpower was defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq, and will soon be defeated in Yemen, the sister who declared war on it and on its aircraft carriers in the Red Sea, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, and the Arabian Sea.
"The Arab nation must rise up and avenge its martyrs. It must devote all its military and economic capabilities to this goal, and I refer particularly to oil and natural gas.
"The Gaza war toppled [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party from its throne, even though he was deeply rooted in the Turkish political regime for more than 22 years.[3] It will bring down many Arab leaders who collaborate with the occupation, with the U.S., and with the war of extermination and ethnic cleansing.
"The masks have fallen and the time for punishment is swiftly approaching."
[1] Raialyoum.com, April 3, 2024.
[2] On April 1, 2024, 14 members of Iran's IRGC Qods Force were killed in a missile attack on a building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, among them the Qods Force commander in Syria and Lebanon, Mohammad Reza Zahedi (Hassan Mahadavi). Iran blamed Israel for the attack, although Israel has not claimed responsibility for it.
[3] In Turkey's municipal elections in late March 2024, Erdogan and his AKP party suffered a considerable defeat.
