‘We are Witnessing the End of Israel’ w/ Journalist Ghadi BreakThrough News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl1nO45e9XE
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, Rania, and get right into it. And obviously, one of the biggest issues that is facing the globe right now that everyone is talking about is the possibility of continued escalation by Israel into Lebanon, the possibility that they may invade or 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 Gadi Francis, who's a war correspondent based in Lebanon. Gadi, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me, Eugene. It's such a pleasure to be in the middle between you and Rania. Well, believe me, it is also our pleasure to have you here with us. And I guess, you know, just to start here, I mean, it really— 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 laying the basis to keep increasing almost terroristic-like activity on Lebanon. And from your perspective, I mean, I wonder how you are interpreting this in terms of what their goals may be and if you think it's leading to something further or really just trying to save face in the midst of what Hezbollah has been able to do in defense in relationship to what's happening in Gaza. Well, first of all, Eugene, when someone crazy is having a tantrum, you don't really look at what are they trying to do. This is a genocidal ethnic cleansing apartheid state occupation that has been 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 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 it has been a tit-for-tat exchange for the past nine months, especially on the Lebanese front. A target for a target, a kill for a kill, a base for a base. 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 complex political situation of Lebanon does not really help in opening a full-blown war as well. So right now, after the assassination of Fouad Chouker, they are waiting for Hezbollah's retaliation. And the Israelis are waiting for the retaliation because they trust the wisdom of Hezbollah and their retaliation and their strikes. They 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 collect some wins or to save face? I think, yes, I think they're trying, especially Benyamin Netanyahu is trying, like, tactical wins, which really are not wins if you go to dissect these events. I mean, Ismail Haniyeh is not the first. He's just another Hamas leader that has been assassinated. His predecessors were all assassinated. When you look at Fouad Chouker and Hezbollah, 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 Fouad Chouker, 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 expand the warfare technology for the resistance, to expand missiles and ways in fighting the Israelis for years and years. He was there in every fight. He's been in the leadership of the Al-Aqsa 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 once again in the hands or in the control of the resistance axis. They can choose how, when, and what kind of retaliation to carry on. And I think the coming days will show the world 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 the retaliatory strikes. I mean, these non-state actors that are called militias and are called the resistance axis in this part of the world have really proven to be more respectable. They respect international law, although they are occupied and they have every right to do everything they want. But they play more reasonably and more wisely and strongly and faithfully than the colonizing occupation apartheid regime. Ghadi, you know, I'm sure you saw that Hassan Nasrallah 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 fact, it makes these organizations more powerful. And he also made the point, he said that we have entered a new stage of this war where before a lot of these fronts, whether Lebanon or Yemen or Iraq were supportive fronts for Gaza, but now he called them battle fronts in their own right especially because the Israelis are directly crossing red lines. They've been targeting Lebanon. They actually targeted Yemen. They bombed Yemen last week, I believe it was. 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 we watch this battle that's played out from October till now, do you see this as a new phase in this war? And I'm talking here about beyond Palestine. Well, and also Iran. I've been to Iran. We go 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 impose sanctions. They demonize them. They character assassinate their politicians and their leaders and they pay billions of dollars to fight them every time there's any kind of elections, whether it's presidential or parliamentary. I'm talking about Iraq, Lebanon, and all these countries. So I think the new era that Sayyid Nasrallah has announced when these are all battlefields, it has been like that, but it hasn't been really declared as such 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 beasts, you know, and this is why in terms of the historical 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 grandkids 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 TikTok 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 Saudi Arabia, all of greater Syria, all the people have been antagonized and killed enough and slaughtered enough to gain one faith in fighting this oppression. I really think we are going to witness a new season of this war, but I don't think it's going to be a full-blown operation, not in Lebanon, not in Iraq, and not in any of... And by the way, Rania, you've been covering this 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 7th. 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 Baghdad International Airport? It was October 7th, but they did something very similar to what they did to Ismail Haniyeh. 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 with the times. But 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 liberated a long time ago. You know, I think one of the factors that is important, I think, especially for people watching 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 terrorist regime. So I was hoping you could also talk a little bit about that aspect is, you know, how the people of Lebanon and in these other places feel about the resistance forces because, you know, maybe it seems obvious to some people, but it's obviously going to be impossible to sustain yourself if you don't have popular 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 a million years. It's not going to change. Hezbollah is a part of the parliament. How could they hijack if they have the most voted parliamentary members ever in the history of Lebanon? 50,000 plus, Mohammad Raqqa. 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 it's very obvious that Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanese social structure. It is very obvious that this is part of the political structure and they do not acknowledge the reality and they always think of them as aliens who hijacked. 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-Hezbollah 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 Israelis, one of their ministers was on TV saying, oh they have Katyusha. I mean Rania made me listen to that on the dispatches earlier and say, oh they have Katyushas. What can they do? He can say we only have Katyushas all day all night, but the missiles are getting there. Their headquarters are being evacuated. Our drone footage is getting out there in the whole wide world. So the lies do not work anymore. Hezbollah is a part of the Lebanese structure and before Hezbollah 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 non-state actors is and they were all legalized by the people and loved and revered by the people because they emerged as their protectors. They were protecting them from the ongoing slaughter that has started with the Haganah 1948 and haven't stopped with the neo-Haganahs 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 revere the resistance groups as protectors right now, even the people who are against Hezbollah. Right now, 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 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 treat Islamophobics who kill children in the American community. 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 we could see from the college encampments. I mean, I think the truth is out there and they cannot really serve in denying facts anymore. Yeah, it's really incredible. There's just one last thing I want to touch on before we let you go here and that's the fact speaking of lies. I noticed that after, you know, I wasn't I wasn't in Lebanon when the when the killings of those children on the soccer field in the occupied Golan Heights took place and Hezbollah vehemently denied that they were involved in it. The Israelis, of course, blamed Hezbollah. Hezbollah said this was no, this was like an errant 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 likely the Israelis? I would tell you it took us a split seconds me and our friend when we read the news. We look at each other and Hezbollah doesn't kill civilians. It took split second. We look at each other. See, we all know Hezbollah doesn't kill civilians. But in the coming minutes, we all know that Golan is Syrian. We all know that Israelis hate Arabs, even the Israeli Arabs. I mean, there's no way that any sane mind could believe that lie and they want to retaliate for their kids. They really like them so much. Then why did they deny them any papers? Today? Does anyone know how the how's the livelihood of the people in the occupied Golan Heights? Does anybody know before they go and carry the Israeli claim? These are not Israeli kids. These are Syrian people who denied Israeli papers who are paying for it right now. In the middle of nowhere left, there's their Syrian government that cannot access them anywhere. And there's the occupation. And even if you really have 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 try to pay condolences. They spoke. You know, they kicked him out. They did indeed. And also Basil Smatresk. So it does say a lot and certainly we really appreciate the opportunity. Got it 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 in the freedom side. Thank you for having me guys.