This comes as no surprise, and now Israeli overreactions are not even making Iran seem the bad guy it is and should be seen as.
The anti-democratic bullies of the world are all rising together to create unrest and topple Democracies. This is a much bigger problem than just the middle East.
You mean the illegal Israeli military occupation and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank?
Very cool of Iran to supply the West Bank with the means to resist their terrorist israeli occupiers.
Well, the people receiving it may not see it that way. FTA:
For years, Iran’s leaders have declared the necessity of arming Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank. Iran has long supplied weapons for attacking Israel to militants elsewhere in the region, members of its so-called Axis of Resistance, including its two primary Palestinian allies in Gaza, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
…
Fatah, the Palestinian faction that controls the Palestinian Authority and with it much of the West Bank, accused Iran last week of trying to “exploit” Palestinians for its own means by spreading chaos in the territory. In a statement, Fatah said it would not allow “our sacred cause and the blood of our people to be exploited” by Iran.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/irans-order-chaos-suzanne-maloney
A key component of Iran’s strategy in its neighborhood has been the cultivation of an “axis of resistance,” a loose network of regional militias with discrete organizational structures, overlapping interests, and ties to Iran’s security and religious establishments. The Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, maintained that exporting the revolution was necessary for its survival, arguing that if the theocracy remained “in an enclosed environment” it would “definitely face defeat.” Determined to spark a wider wave of Islamist-led upheavals against secular monarchies and republics in the Middle East, Khomeini and his acolytes developed an infrastructure dedicated to toppling the status quo across the Muslim world.
…
With its cultivation of Hezbollah as a template, Iran then invested an enormous amount of effort and resources in cultivating militant groups across the Middle East. The support it has given to Palestinian militant groups, especially Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas, paid tremendous dividends over subsequent decades, as did its aid to Shiite opponents of Saddam in Iraq. These relationships provided the springboard for Iranian influence at key turning points for regional stability. In the 1990s, PIJ terrorist attacks disrupted the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and nudged Israeli politics rightward. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Tehran’s patronage of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the Dawa Party, both significant Shiite factions, positioned Iran as the most influential player in Iraq’s contentious postwar polity.
Everyone on the west bank hates Fatah and the PA. They are Israeli plants.
Comment is being reported as “misinformation”, but it’s not entirely wrong:
“Today, a staggering 87 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza believe that the PA is corrupt, 78 percent want Abbas to resign, and 62 percent believe that the PA is a liability.”
Sadly doesn’t prove they’re Israeli plants, as the other user had noted below. I’m sure you know what you are and aren’t responding to. My source from Stanford paints a different picture qualitatively (and quantitatively, and is newer), but that’s a personal interpretation of the sources.
So by not entirely wrong, you’re saying something is wrong?
Sure, the source I found mentions nothing of Fatah, only the Palestinian Authority, and with the vast, vast majority unhappy with the PA, you can’t really call them “Israeli plants”.
I appreciate the confirmation that the comment is promoting misinformation.
I’m leaving it with the note that I can prove it’s at least PARTIALLY correct. The statement is overblown, and Fatah may be just as disliked, I just don’t see a source as definitive as the bit about the PA.
Odd, I haven’t heard that, but regardless I’m not sure how it changes what was said in the article.
It’s common knowledge. Hamas won in Gaza because their opposition was basically israel. Doesn’t change much but just so you know PA and Fatah aren’t to be taken seriously. They work together with these Israeli terrorists.
I’m sorry, I operate with citable information, not what you consider “common” in your personal opinion.
The poll found that 53% of Palestinians believe Hamas is “most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people,” while only 14% prefer Abbas’ secular Fatah party.
Abbas faces a major crisis of legitimacy among Palestinians after calling off the first elections in 15 years in April.
At the time, it appeared Fatah would suffer another humiliating defeat to Hamas, which won a landslide victory in 2006 parliamentary elections. But his decision, citing Israel’s refusal to grant permission for voting in east Jerusalem, also helped clear the way for Hamas to draw attention to Abbas’ weakness in the holy city.
This is an old article, and captures, at it says, a spike, not an overall trend. From your source:
Head pollster Khalil Shikaki, who has been surveying Palestinian public opinion for more than two decades, called it a “dramatic” shift, but said it also resembles previous swings toward Hamas during times of confrontation. Those all dissipated within three to six months as Hamas failed to deliver on promises of change.
https://news.stanford.edu/report/2023/12/05/palestinians-views-oct-7/
According to the latest survey, a majority of Palestinians (51%) supported a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with slightly more support seen among residents of Gaza than among West Bank Palestinians. A quarter of respondents also said they supported “armed resistance” as a preferred solution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The results also revealed a very low level of support among Palestinians for institutions, whether it be the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. “The Palestinians don’t feel that any of their leaders are really legitimate in this sense,” said Robbins.
Arguably, this does not imply they are hated or anything else you said, nor does your source. As well there is support for reforming the PA:
A related issue, Jamal added, is that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has lost legitimacy, due to both its levels of corruption and the continued failure of the peace process. If Palestinians are to ever believe in a future that extends beyond Hamas, she said, then the international community must work together to help bolster the legitimacy of the PA so that it can be the champion of the peace process.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-new-palestinian-government-political-reform-rcna145717
The United States has welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian autonomy government, signaling it is accepting the revised Cabinet lineup as a step toward Palestinian political reform.
The Biden administration has called for “revitalizing” the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in hopes that it can also administer the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends. The war erupted nearly six months ago, triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
In a statement late Friday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States looks forward to working with the new group of ministers “to deliver on credible reforms.”
And this fails to address the substance of what was said, instead aiming to undermine the person saying it.
I won’t be continuing with this conversation.
Then they will cry genocide when Israel retaliates.
Retaliates? Israel attacks.
This was pretty inevitable.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As the arms cross borders, the officials added, they change hands among a multinational cast that can include members of organized criminal gangs, extremist militants, soldiers and intelligence operatives.
Among those killed was Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, 65, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps general in charge of Iran’s covert operations in Syria and Lebanon through which parts of the weapons smuggling trail wends, the Israeli, Iranian and American officials said.
Those weapons, the Israeli officials said, include antitank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, which fly fast and low to the ground, creating a challenge for Israel when defending civilian and military targets from close-range fire.
One of the Iranian officials said increased security since Oct. 7, by both Israel and Jordan, has raised the risk of getting caught, especially for Bedouins and Arab-Israelis who play critical roles for their ability to cross borders.
Ayatollah Khamenei, who years ago publicly issued an order to arm the West Bank, told both leaders, according to the state media, that Iran would not hesitate to support Palestinians and their cause.
“It would not have been easy for the Palestinian people to withstand this battle had it not been for Iran’s continuous and consistent support at all political, military and security levels,” Mr. al-Nakhalah said in a speech in Tehran.
The original article contains 1,662 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The Central Command of the US Armed Forces announced that it had handed over to Ukraine the weapons seized from four Iranian ships, which were supposed to be delivered to Iranian proxy forces
Among the weapons:
▪️more than 5,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles; ▪️sniper rifles, hand grenade launchers; ▪️more than half a million rounds of caliber 7.62.
Is Israel letting them cross the border like they were with suitcases full of money leading up to 10/7?
Because when the foreign country controlling the border let’s this stuff thru, it’s hard to call it “smuggling”…
Fuck Hamas
