VIDEO
Israel assassinated two leaders of the Axis of Resistance within hours of each other, in its most explosive provocation for regional war yet. Israel bombed Beirut, killing top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, then struck Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran – both escalating with Iran and killing the individual Israel was negotiating with for a ceasefire in one dangerous blow. Beirut-based journalist Ghadi Francis says that these are not “wins for Israel” and will only strengthen the resolve of the Axis of Resistance. Francis says we’ve entered a “new season of the war” and considers the serious consequences to come.
so we want to I think go ahead R and get right into it uh and obviously one of the biggest issues that is facing the globe right now that everyone is talking about is the possibility of a continued escalation by Israel uh into Lebanon the possibility that they may invade or and you know do various other things in order to increase the level of violence they are imposing on the people of Lebanon and we are very very honored to be joined here on the show as we move forward by Gotti Francis who's a war course responded based in Lebanon Gotti thank you so much for being with us thank you for having me Eugene such a pleasure to be in the middle between you and ra well believe me it is also our pleasure to have you here with us and I I guess you know just to start here I I mean it really I I don't want to have too many projections because you never know exactly what's happening but it really does feel that Israel you know sort of step by step is is is is laying the bis to keep increasing almost terroristic like activity on Lebanon and from your perspective I mean I wonder how you uh are are interpreting this in terms of what their goals may be and if you think it's uh leading to something further or really just trying to save face in the midst of of what Hezbollah has been able to do in in defense and relationship to what's happening in Gaza well first of all Eugene um when someone crazy is having a tantrum you don't really look at what what are they trying to do uh this is a genocidal ethnic uh cleansing aparti State occupation that has been uh carrying out a massacre a televised genocide for the past nine months so they're not really very sane when we're looking at the at the situation here I'm always feeling better and more secure when the ball is in the hands of the resistance like it is right now because has been a Tit for Tat exchange for the past 9 months especially on the Lebanese front a target for a target a kill for a kill a base for a base and the and the resistance has been able to play this to orchestrate this kind of deterrence and retaliation in a way that would always preserve and protect the Lebanese infrastructure and the the complex political situation of Lebanon does not really help in opening a full-blown War as as well so right now after the shuk they are waiting for hisbah retaliation and when the Israelis are waiting for the retaliation because I trust the wisdom of hisbah and their retaliation and their strikes we feel at ease because we know that they will have it calculated in a way when you ask me why the Israelis are doing that are they trying really to to collect some winds or to uh to save face I think yes I think they're trying especially bamin Netanyahu is trying like tactical wins which really are not wins if you go if you if you go to dissect these uh events I mean is is not the first he's just another Hamas leader that has been assassinated his predecessors were all assassinated when you look at fuk inah his uh his colleagues and fellows have been assassinated in the same manner the leaders of the resistance are made for martyrdom they calculate this martyrdom they put it in front of their eyes their families know it their lifestyles are always governed in a way where this is a daily possibility in their lives so when you look at fad shukur you say he lived 40 years after the Israelis were trying to kill him 40 years every day and night the Israelis were trying to kill this man that was able to um expand the Warfare technology for the resistance to expand missiles and uh ways in fighting the Israelis for years and years he was there in every fight he's been in the uh leadership of the AL AA flood operations and also the operations before so this is not really a win for Israel these people are Martyrs in the waiting it's actually putting the ball uh or in the control of the resistance axis they can choose how when and what kind of retaliation to carry on and and I think the coming days will show the world uh how wise when you say non-state actors and some of the media calls them militias and you look at how wise and how much they are caring for the civilian life and the civilian cost and the way they are governing their italiat strikes I mean these non-state actors that are called militias and are called the resistance access in this part of the world have really proven to be more respectable more they they respect international law although they are occupied and they have every right to do want but they play more reasonably and more wisely and strongly and Faithfully than the colonizing occupation aperti RI uh you know I'm sure you saw that Hassan estrellaa spoke today and he made a point that you just touched on about the fact that the Israelis continue to assassinate resistance leaders and it doesn't change anything in facts it makes these organizations more powerful and he also made the point he said that um we have entered a new stage of this War uh where before a lot of these fronts whether Lebanon or Yemen or Iraq were supportive fronts for Gaza but now he called them battlefronts in their own right uh because especially because the Israelis are directly Crossing red lines they've been targeting Lebanon they have they actually targeted Yemen they bombed Yemen last week I believe it was um and we're now at a new dangerous phase I'm just curious you know as somebody you've been to Iraq you've covered Yemen you've been to Yemen you've been to the tunnels of Gaza you have obviously been all across Lebanon you've been all across Syria when you've when we watch this this battle that's played out from October till now do you see this as a new phase in this in this war and I'm talking here about Beyond Palestine well and also Iran I've been to Iran being all in all these countries I think from the beginning regardless of the nomenclature or the designation of the war the Israelis and the Americans regard all these entities as one and they they uh they impose sanctions they demonize them they they uh character assassinate their politicians and their leaders and they pay billions of dollars to fight them every time there is any kind of uh elections whether it's presidential or parliamentary I'm talking about Iraq Lebanon and all these countries so I think the the new era that s nasah has announced when these are all battlefields it has been like that but it hasn't been really declared as such in the in the past and probably it's also because of the wisdom of the resistance axis and how they're playing out this war but now the Israelis and the Americans they have called them battlefields they have touched the uh the beasts you know and um this is why in terms of the historical uh events and days that we are living we are witnessing the end of Israel I mean whether you see that or not in the future our GR kids will look at these times as the last days of Israel because you cannot carry on a massacre and televise it and post it on Tik Tok and get away with it it's not going to happen we will always know that one of the main reasons why Israel is ending is that all of the Levant all of suraka all of Greater Syria all the people have been antagonized and killed enough and slaughtered enough to gain one um faith in fighting this oppression I really think we are going to witness a new uh season of this war but I don't think it's going to be a full-blown operation not in Lebanon not in Iraq not in any of and by the way R I've been you've been covering these this uh region for the past few years as well and you know just like I know if it's assassinations it hadn't stopped before they assassinated people before October 7 I mean leaders and so on whether it's Iranians Lebanese Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon and Iran okay in Iraq as well the Americans have been doing this on and off for the past decade or more Syria as well so when they talk about an escalation I mean there wasn't peace here it's just your way of covering it was different do we really forget what they did in Iraq do you really forget who they assassinated in Bagdad International Airport there was no October 7 but they did something very similar to what they did to is I mean in terms of the politics and the policy this war has been going on in this region for 76 years plus the ways and the shapes and the manifestations of the war differ and alter uh with the times but um uh this only makes us feel more comfortable and more optimistic about the future because it's the wish it has been a wish for the Palestinians to see the Iraqis and the syrians and the Lebanese and the yemenis involved in their struggle had that been the case since 1948 Palestine would have been ago you know I think one of the factors that is important I think especially for people watching in the United States about how this is portrayed especially sort of the various resistance fronts is and you know because you read the American Media it's like Lebanon has been hijacked by Hezbollah Gaza has been hijacked by Hamas and all the people really would reject these organizations if they weren't you know funded by the evil Iranian you know terrorist regime so I was hoping you could also talk a little a little bit about that aspect is you know how the people of Lebanon and and in these other places feel about the resistance forces because you know maybe it it seems obvious to some people but it's obviously going to be impossible to sustain yourself if you don't have support I think it is time for the American media and the American politicians to stop saying lies and believing them because even the American people do not believe them anymore I mean you can say this lie you can say the same lie million years it's not going to change hasah a part of the parliament how could they hijack if they have the most voted uh parliamentary members ever in the history of Lebanon 50,000 plus Muhammad rad got they have their supporters their supporters are Lebanese their Fighters and their Martyrs are Lebanese you cannot call white black or blue green and just believe it and and it's very obvious that hisbah is a part of the Lebanese social structure it is very obvious that this is part of the political structure and if they do not acknowledge the reality and they always think of them as aliens who hijack they will never be able to fight them they will never be able to change the policies or to make them less loved among their people if you do not really know your enemy very well you will never be able to fight them one of their biggest failures when I'm speaking about the anti- hasbullah uh uh States and actors and people and politicians one of their biggest failures comes from them denying the facts they don't want to see the fact whether you say I mean even the Israelis one of their ministers was on TV saying oh they have kusia I mean Rana made me listen to that ltic on on the dispatches earlier and he's saying oh they have kusas what can they do he can say we only have kusas all day all night but the missiles are getting there they headquarters are being evacuated our Drone footage is getting out there in the in the whole wide world so the lies do not work anymore hisbah is a part of the Lebanese structure and before hisbah was born there was another resistance armed resistance group that was a part of the Lebanese structure the action here that started these all of these uh non-state actors is and they were all legalized by their people and loved and revered by the people because they emerged as their protectors they were protecting them from the ongoing slau that has started with the hagana 1948 and haven't stopped with the Neo haanas and the neo-nazis in 2024 we are seeing what they are doing so this has been ongoing for all this period of time the people in Lebanon the people in Palestine any oppressed or occupied people would rever their resistance groups as protectors right now even the hisbah right now if Beirut is under attack and Hezbollah is actually fighting back and protecting Lebanon every single Lebanese person will be praying for them because our well-being is part of their uh uh well-being as well so American Media and mainstream media and politicians keep telling you these things keep telling you that all Islams are terrorists and these are Islamic group but I mean you are more aware than that you have seen how they they uh how they treat uh Islam of phobics who killed children in the Community uh I think the terrorism the real terrorism today is the bias and is the absence of accountability towards these crimes that are happening some of them we're not even knowing about so the era of listening to what the American mainstream media is saying I think it's done I think all the world nobody believes them anymore not even the American people and the American Youth as as we could see from the encampments I mean I think the truth is is out there and they cannot really uh serve in anymore yeah it's really incredible there's just one last thing I wanted to touch on RI before we let you go here and that's the fact speaking of Lies um I noticed that after you know I wasn't I wasn't in Lebanon when the when the the killings of those of children on the soccer field in the occupied Golan Heights took place and hasbalah vehemently uh denied that they were involved in it the Israelis of course blamed Hezbollah Hezbollah said this was no this was like an errant uh Iron Dome missile I'm just curious what was the sentiment in Lebanon about that in terms of how the media covered it and how people were viewing it did anybody buy Israel side of the story or was everybody just pretty certain it was Israelis I would tell you it took us split seconds me and uh our friend when we read the news we looked at each other civilians it took Split Second we look at each other say we all knowb doesn't kill civilians but then the the coming minute we all know that Golan is Syrian we all know that the Israelis hate Arabs even the Israeli Arabs I mean there's no way that any sane mind could believe lie and they want to retaliate for Dy kids they really like them so much then why did they deny them any papers today does does anyone know how the how's the livelihood of the the people in M Sham in occupied Goan Heights does anybody know before they go and carry the the the Israeli CLA these are not Israeli kids these are Syrian people who denied Israeli papers who are paying for it right now they are lost and stranded in the middle of nowhere left uh there's there Syrian government that cannot access them very well and there's the occupation and even if you really had some question and you don't want to believe all of that you can look at what the people did when Benjamin Netanyahu tried to visit them and tried spoke you know they kicked him out they did indeed and also basil smartr so it does say a lot and certainly uh we really appreciate the opportunity Gotti for you to join us here and help us sort through all of this I know you're very busy so thank you for giving us some of your time here side thank you for having me guys