‘Planes, planes, planes’

It was a pleasant night in Beirut. The seaside cafes were full late into the night. The city has a habit of concealing its wounds and disappointments, to challenge death and the rubble and to convince the visitor that bright days are ahead despite the challenges. We used to count the losses and gains and tried to fend off despair. However, the constant buzzing overhead hampered our attempts to forget the pain.

A wandering killer roams the skies. It never tires and it never sleeps. It counts breaths and captures photos. It searches for its prey, corners it and then makes the call to kill it. The wandering killer flies over the killing fields in Gaza and the West Bank. It violates Lebanon and does not forget to reap woes in Syria. It targets a camp in the West Bank and a car in southern Lebanon. Neither Gaza, Beirut nor Damascus can stand against it.

When the opportunity for a mass killing presents itself, the drone turns into the advanced fighter jet. Funerals ensue. Artificial intelligence is a formidable thing. It strengthens the ability of planes to kill and leave maps awash with blood. The planes are like militias: they don’t respect international law or borders.

I paused at two articles in Asharq Al-Awsat. The first said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander conveyed a clear message from the Iranian leadership to the Iraqi factions demanding that they “avoid all forms of provocations against the Americans and Israelis” to avoid the consequences. The second article reported Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein as saying: “Iraq is not part of the ‘axis of resistance’ and does not agree to the unity of arenas. We believe in the Iraqi arena alone.”

I also noted the Palestinian Health Ministry’s announcement that 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

A retired general said he feared that the Israeli jets may have broken the “balance” in the region more so and more dangerously than during the 1967 war. He noted that Benjamin Netanyahu’s planes have completely eliminated what remained of the arsenal of Bashar Assad’s army. It destroyed all weapons and facilities as if to make sure that no power hostile to it could emerge in the years to come. The current Syrian authorities had no choice but to watch as the jets struck airports, facilities and barracks.

The current Syrian authorities had no choice but to watch as Israeli jets struck airports, facilities and barracks.

Ghassan Charbel

Perhaps the jets wanted to deliver a message that there can be no stability under President Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s rule in Syria if he does not completely abandon the idea of ever waging a confrontation with Israel. He must agree to the removal of Syria from the Arab-Israeli conflict, even as the Golan Heights continue to be occupied by Israel. Israel went beyond that by demanding the establishment of a “safe zone” for itself deep into Syrian territory, even threatening to play the minority card in its favor.

The same planes changed the scene in Syria. No one had imagined back then that, when the Israeli jets were striking the positions or hideouts of the IRGC generals in Syria, that the IRGC would rush to flee Syria years later. No one imagined that the jets would cause Assad to flee and Al-Sharaa to appear from the palace where Hafez Assad and his son used to sit.

The planes carried out a complete coup in Syria. The so-called axis of resistance lost the Syrian link in the chain that took Qassem Soleimani’s dreams all the way to the Mediterranean.

The jets excessively punished Hezbollah in Lebanon after the party launched its “support front” in solidarity with Gaza following Yahya Sinwar’s Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. Hezbollah lost thousands of fighters and the most charismatic leader in its history, Hassan Nasrallah. It was an obvious coup. Gone is the “army, people and resistance” equation from Nawaf Salam’s government statement and President Joseph Aoun was clear during his inauguration speech when he spoke about the state’s monopoly over weapons.

Despite the ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel is continuing its killings. Its aerial hegemony is not being threatened. Hezbollah clearly cannot return to the war, given the new balance of power in the region.

The planes changed calculations and plans. Some of the Iraqi factions were tempted to pester Israel from afar, the same way the Houthis are doing. So, Israel threatened to turn its planes on Baghdad. Tehran cannot prevent the Israeli jets from targeting its allies in Iraq. Iran itself can no longer carry on trading blows with Israel, while its nuclear facilities file is open at the American-Israeli table. Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy declared this week that Iran cannot be allowed to acquire a nuclear bomb. “It cannot happen and it will not happen,” he said.

Israeli planes are violating several maps. They kill, destroy and impose conditions. One has to turn to the American mediator for protection. A heavy price will be demanded, starting with quitting the axis of resistance. It is a harsh but clear reality. There can be no stability in Syria unless it leaves the conflict. There can be no reconstruction in Lebanon if Hezbollah does not abandon its weapons. The strikes on Yemen will stop when the Houthis stop attacking Red Sea shipping and Israel. There can be no leniency with Iran unless it abandons its dream of a nuclear bomb and the policy of proxies.

Israel is hostile. But did we have the right to plunge our maps into bloody confrontations, all the while neglecting the massive technological gap with Israel and America’s unwavering support for it?

The planes reminded me of timeless Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who used to watch Israeli planes from his balcony as they pounded Beirut, which was then besieged by Ariel Sharon’s forces. I recalled his poem, “This is her Image and This is the Lover’s Suicide,” in which he repeatedly says, “planes, planes, planes” — a term that could not be a more fitting title for this article.

• Ghassan Charbel is editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. X: @GhasanCharbel This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.