Continuation of War in Gaza to Syria’s Advantage

Israel claims that it has attacked Gaza in response to the rocket attacks of Palestinian groups. But it seems that even if such a claim is accepted, such widespread reactions and attacks are not appropriate. What are Israel's reasons, in your opinion, for launching such attacks and expanding conflicts? Are Israel’s domestic developments involved in this matter?

It seems that the attacks of the Zionist regime have not been launched with limited goals, but numerous objectives are rather considered. One of them can be related to the domestic issues of the Zionist regime, including the election on one hand, and changing the economic priority in Zionist society to a security priority on the other. Since long ago, economic dissatisfaction has emerged in various dimensions in this regime in forms of widespread demonstrations and self-burning protests. Therefore, the Zionist society is involved in some type of internal crisis and the officials of this regime have assumed that by creating an external crisis, they can overshadow the domestic conditions and establish a new situation. 

Thus, this measure can be related both to the election and the economic situation and changing social conditions. Furthermore, there are movements which always attempt to transform the atmosphere of the Zionist regime into a security atmosphere. But beside these goals, some other objectives can be recognized. I believe that one of the important points in these operations was the assassination of some influential people in the Resistance which would not have been possible under normal conditions and international laws do not permit such assassinations. It can be observed that, during these conflicts, the Zionist regime has been able to target these people and assassinate them.

This is the first serious conflict between the Zionist regime's forces and the Palestinians after the popular movements in Arab countries. How effective have the developments of the Arab world been in the position of the Arab states with regard to this issue? Has the new situation of the region led to a reduction in Israel's power?

I believe that part of this question is related to the objectives of the Zionist regime. In fact, the Zionist regime intends to assess the power of reaction of regional countries, particularly countries where revolutions and awakenings have happened, and to also make the Palestinian Resistance realize the real capacity resulting from these developments. It means that it intends to show, in practice, the inefficiency of these governments in defending the people of Palestine so that the Palestinians would not expect more than this reality from these governments. Practically, the reaction of the governments of Egypt and Tunisia was more a show of sympathy through the presence of Egyptian and Tunisian officials in Palestine. The fact is that it does not seem that these countries are able to react more than what they have already shown, except in humanitarian and medical fields. It seems impossible that, if these attacks maintain the present volume, the positions taken by these countries would go beyond this point and political and diplomatic pressures will probably suffice for them. 

Will the visits of Egyptian and Tunisian officials to the Gaza Strip have impacts on the situation of Hamas, considering that such visits had never been made before?

I believe that the collection of measures will be limited to political and humanitarian support. Under the present political situation, these countries are expected to react. The people of Egypt and Tunisia and the world of Islam expect the governments of Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey to react to these attacks. Otherwise, these governments will lose their status among their own people and in the region. But the fact is that these political positions and humanitarian aids are not considered as serious measures. 

Furthermore, the Zionist regime's measure to attack Gaza while changing the priority of the region from Syria to Palestine is also disrespecting the regimes which are affiliated with the US and, at the present time, have spent a huge amount of money to maintain Syria as their priority and pursue regime change in that country. This is while the Zionist regime has unilaterally entered the scene and changed the priorities and practically placed these regimes in a challenging position with regard to their own people. The issue that is now proposed is that if these countries had used one tenth of their efforts to topple the government in Syria on the overthrow of the Zionist regime, the situation in the region would not have been as such. Therefore, these countries are bound to show reactions under these conditions, but these reactions will not solve the problems of the Palestinians.

Considering the recent conflicts between Syria and the Zionist regime in the Golan Heights, will Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip impact the developments in Syria and the possible conflict between Syria and Israel?

With regard to the issue of whether there is a possibility of conflict between Israel and Syria or not, I must say that I do not believe that conditions of war exist between these two countries. It means that Israel's dominant position in arms, strategic, and geopolitical aspects over Syria does not allow this country to enter a conflict with Israel. But if the conflict between Israel and Gaza is prolonged, it will naturally transfer the center of attention from Syria to Palestine and this can provide a more appropriate ground for the resolution of the Syrian crisis through political measures.