Dr. George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), wrote the letter below to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah after Hezbollah’s victory in the July War, 2006. It first appeared in Habash’s 2009 autobiography Al-Thawrīyūn La Yamūtūn Abadan (Revolutionaries Never Die) and has been translated by Louis Allday

August 17, 2006

To our Great Brother,
His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,
Secretary General of Hezbollah,
Salute to the valiant resistance. Salute to Palestine and Lebanon. Salute to Arabness.

Allow me to extend to you my congratulations and blessings on the historic victory achieved by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, the steadfastness of the heroic fighters of Hezbollah, and the sumud of the great Lebanese people, the people of pride, dignity, and defiance. I also extend, through you, my salutations to all the mujahideen and fighters among the cadres and leaders of Hezbollah who, with their blood, have inscribed a noble chapter in the history of the nation.

The brutal Zionist aggression against Lebanon has added yet another chapter to its record of heinous crimes, attempting to undermine the steadfastness of [Lebanon’s] resistant people. The Zionist targeting of civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon and Palestine is but another example of the policy of massacres and genocide pursued by the Zionist enemy throughout its long and bloody history.

The steadfastness of Hezbollah and the Lebanese people has provided great support and a new revolutionary awakening to the entire Arab nation, revealing the naked truth about the Zionist occupation army — an aggressive army defeated from within, pursuing an illusory achievement over limited territory, thwarted by the steadfastness of a resistance which has achieved a strategic victory that the Lebanese and the Arab nation have a duty to uphold and preserve.

This war has stripped away all masks from the official Arab regimes and unveiled the schemes of this Zionist aggression, orchestrated by America and directed by the neoconservatives in the White House. But the wagers of the American administration have failed, and they have reaped nothing but shame and disgrace. The blood of the innocent and the martyrs, children and women, in Qana, Marwahin, Qaa, Dahiyeh, the Bekaa Valley, and every inch of the defiant land will remain a testament to their history stained with the blood of children.

The victory of the resistance in Lebanon is a victory for the resistance in Palestine and Iraq, and a victory for confronting and thwarting the American-Zionist project in the region. This victory pours into the current of strategic orientations which we have long struggled to consolidate. For rights are seized, not given freely, and just peace is forged only by the strong. This battle has exposed the falsehood of the deceptive peace rhetoric and has once again demonstrated with clarity the imperialist and Zionist ambitions to erase the alphabet of resistance from the Arab region’s lexicon.

This battle, and the very experience of this struggle, has opened new horizons for the future, but this will not be the end of the matter. Rather, I say that in the coming phase, we will face confrontations more difficult than before, on both the internal and external fronts in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and throughout the entire Arab homeland. We will face another scenario and a new chapter in the American-Zionist scheme. In the face of all the conspiracies hatched by the American administration in what has been termed the “New Middle East” and is being constructed through sectarian wars and the fragmentation of the region, Arab national consciousness has become the primary bulwark against these new colonial projects led by the Bush gang in the White House.

Now we say: The defeat of the Zionist enemy’s generals and soldiers in the battle gave a tremendous incentive and driving force for us to advance and develop the resistance experience and protect it through this open conflict. Today, the awareness of the masses has become the most important pillar of the confrontation.

With its victory, Hezbollah has opened a window of hope and light in a moment of complete darkness, reviving the spirit and raising the head of the Arab and Islamic nation high. This harsh and painful experience that Hezbollah underwent will remain a source of pride and honour for us and for generations to come.

Together and united on the frontlines.
Together and united in the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.
Together and united with the weapon of will that embraces the weapon of resistance.
Together and united on the path to the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.
Glory and eternity to our righteous martyrs.
Freedom for the prisoners and detainees.
And may you remain a symbol of pride and dignity.

Your brother, Dr. George Habash,
Founder of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

This piece appears in the twenty-second issue of The New York War Crimes.