Majid Mohammad Sharifi – Assistant Professor, International Relations Department, Kharazmi University

Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa storm operation in Palestine, the Zionist regime has decided to compensate for its gross failure in predicting and preventing this operation by launching a large-scale military attack on Gaza and causing irreparable damage to the infrastructure. This barrage `is also aimed at destroying the military power of Hamas at the same time. According to the leaders of the Zionist regime, especially Benjamin Netanyahu, the only way to make up for the defeat of October 7 is to inflict heavy damage on Gaza and leave a ruin for the Palestinians. By carrying out unprecedented attacks, the Zionist regime intends to show that any action against this regime will have heavy costs and consequences. Ruling an atmosphere of fear and terror in Gaza and sending a message to the countries of the region is the most important goal of the military strategy of the Zionist regime in Gaza.

Concurrent with the massive and brutal attacks on Gaza, the Zionist regime has also carried out several operations in the West Bank; at the same time, as the exchange of fire continues, it is preparing itself for a big confrontation with Hezbollah. It appears from the evidence that the radical members of Netanyahu’s cabinet want to carry out a large-scale military operation against the Lebanese Hezbollah: in the meantime, they consider Yoav Galant, the Minister of War, to be a significant obstacle, and for this reason, they seek to replace him with the possibility of Sa’ar joining Netanyahu’s cabinet, the political weight of the Prime Minister of the Zionist regime will increase in the internal power balance and more people will join him. At the same time, Gallant warned Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense of the Biden administration, that the period of diplomatic negotiations to end the crisis on the Lebanese border was coming to an end. All the evidence shows that the Zionist army is preparing for a massive attack on Lebanon. It seems that the Zionist regime intends to use the opportunity of the presence of American forces in the region to start a big war with Lebanon.

Regardless of whether the regime succeeds in accomplishing this task or not, what is most important is that the effect of the inhuman actions of the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip and the mass killing of civilians is a strategic and irreparable failure for this regime. Although this regime may succeed in weakening the military force of Hamas by carrying out military operations, the Gaza crisis has definitely disturbed the dream of Netanyahu and the extreme leaders of the Zionist regime to eliminate any possibility of the formation of a Palestinian state. All the efforts of Netanyahu and his hardline allies in the cabinet of the Israeli regime are to completely destroy and eradicate the possibility of forming a Palestinian government in the region. All of Netanyahu’s military and psychological operations are carried out to realize such a goal.

Despite this, popular movements in the region and even in the allied countries of the Zionist regime in Europe and other parts of the world show that not only did Netanyahu fail to achieve this goal, but now more than ever, support for the legitimacy of forming a Palestinian state has increased.

The hardline cabinet of the Zionist regime is seeking to spread the conflict to other parts of the Middle East region to basically marginalize the possibility of forming a Palestinian state. Opposing any agreement for a cease-fire and termination of the war in Gaza is with the knowledge that if such an agreement is reached, the position of forming a Palestinian state will once again be a legitimate demand and, more importantly, as the only solution for the realization of sustainable peace in the region will be discussed.

Netanyahu and his like-minded people have used all their efforts to prevent this possibility. Still, it seems that considering the important development that has occurred in the public opinion of the region and the world, delaying the plan to form a Palestinian state does not mean it is impossible to realize it in the future. The Gaza crisis, with all the human casualties and the destruction of infrastructure, which are undoubtedly unfortunate consequences, has had an irreplaceable effect on the promotion of the legitimacy of the formation of the Palestinian state and the acceptance of this inviolable right among the public opinion of the region and the world.

Although the Zionist regime and the اhotheaded government of Netanyahu can rely on their tactical victories on the battlefield, the emergence of solid saplings of resistance in other countries, including Jordan and Yemen, and the enlightenment of public opinion in understanding the nature of this regime and its futile efforts to ignore the legitimate right to form a Palestinian state is a strategic failure for Netanyahu and the Zionist regime.