Mike Huckabee, Washington’s ambassador to the occupied Palestinian territories, continuing his biased stances and servility to the Zionist regime, made remarks full of arrogance and self-superiority, claiming that the Lebanese people should be grateful to Israel for having “cell phones” and even “cherry tomatoes” and tell it: “Thank you.”
While these remarks are part of the puzzle of America’s humiliating strategy toward Arab and Islamic countries and serving the Zionist regime to justify its occupation, on one hand they reveal Washington’s dangerous plan to shape a Middle East submissive to that regime, and on the other hand, they expose the legitimacy of Iran’s positions and those of the Axis of Resistance regarding the necessity of growing powerful in all arenas, including maintaining Iran’s smart management of the Strait of Hormuz and possessing indigenous nuclear knowledge, to counter American-Zionist domination over the entire region.
Humiliation of Nations: A Fixed Pillar of American-Zionist Strategy
The thoroughly humiliating rhetoric of the US ambassador against Lebanon should be assessed not so much as a personal approach but within the framework of the strategy governing the White House, a strategy that, through degradation, blame, and threats, seeks domination and extortion from countries, especially Islamic and Arab nations.
This humiliating behavior can be seen in Donald Trump’s conduct with foreign leaders, from his meeting with Zelensky to his offensive comments about meeting the Saudi Crown Prince, the degrading treatment of European leaders at the White House and in Sharm El-Sheikh (which resembled a lord dealing with serfs), and repeated insults to Arab and Turkish leaders at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit.
This approach is not limited to Trump alone; US officials have repeatedly directed similar rhetoric against Islamic countries, particularly in West Asia. As previously, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to occupied Palestine, made controversial claims that the Zionist regime has a “divine right” to control large portions of Middle Eastern land.
Likewise, Tom Barrack, the US envoy for Syrian affairs, stated with a contemptuous view of the region’s peoples: “There is no such thing as the Middle East; rather, this region is a collection of nomadic tribes and villages, and countries were created by the British and the French.” Earlier, on August 26, in a press conference after meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, he asked journalists to “behave civilly and not act like animals.”
These kinds of statements reflect America’s lord-serf view toward other nations, just as during the Ramadan War (Yom Kippur War), Washington repeatedly stressed the irrelevance of Arab countries’ security and conditions, considering the Zionist regime its only priority.
Media Provocation: Washington’s Defensive Shield for Tel Aviv
The US ambassador’s provocative claims that Lebanon should thank the Zionist regime for “cherry tomatoes” are part of America’s media design to serve that regime, create diversions around its occupations in Gaza and the West Bank, and cover up its dire situation in the face of Hezbollah’s resistance.
While the regime’s leaders are under pressure from domestic criticism due to successive wartime failures on one hand, and facing a global wave of revulsion over continued genocide in Gaza and regional crimes from Lebanon to Iran, as well as the attack on the “Sumud” aid flotilla, on the other hand, figures like the US ambassador are using media distractions to downplay this critical situation.
An important point is the timing of these remarks coinciding with the anniversary of Hezbollah’s victory over the Zionist regime in 2000, a victory that can still serve as a model for today’s Lebanon in confronting occupation. The attempt to belittle the resistance’s achievements and cover up the humiliation suffered by the Zionist regime in 2000 is clearly visible in the regime’s widespread attacks and massacres in Lebanon coinciding with the anniversary of that historic event.
Such actions once again reveal the importance of the resistance’s role in restoring nations’ rights and the fear that dominators have of it becoming a model for Lebanon and the entire region.
Joint Washington-Allies Project to Exhaust Lebanon
The US, alongside certain European countries like France, the Zionist regime, and some Arab governments including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, under the pretext of mediation and resolving Lebanon’s crises, are in practice seeking to disarm Hezbollah. This process, while leaving the Zionist regime’s hands free for military aggression and terrorist operations, also pursues a chain of actions to undermine public trust and distance people from the resistance.
Blaming Hezbollah and its supporters for Lebanon’s economic problems, tying Lebanon’s security to disarming the resistance, imposing sanctions, most recently violating Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence by sanctioning Hezbollah officials and even Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, and the US ambassador’s humiliating statements about Lebanon needing to thank Tel Aviv for “cherry tomatoes,” are all pieces of the puzzle to create crisis and subjugate Lebanon.
What is currently underway against Lebanon is not merely a political or security confrontation, but a multi-layered war with extensive dimensions of perception warfare, a war that, through accusation, humiliation, bribery, threats, intimidation, and offering some superficial promises, seeks to break Lebanon’s resistance and force it into submission.
Indigenous Security: Only Way to End American Humiliation
Given what has occurred in Lebanon’s equations from 2000 to the present and the course of regional developments, it can be said that the only way to counter American humiliations and destructive interventions is to change the region’s security strategy from dependence on America’s false security-selling to indigenous security based on regional convergence.
This is the framework that the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently emphasized, identifying the withdrawal of the US from the region and unified confrontation with the Zionist regime as the ultimate solution to achieve lasting security, end humiliations, and attain independent global agency, a resistance that Iran proved to the world during the Ramadan War and presented a new model of security.
An important point is that given the persistence of America’s humiliating treatment of regional countries, the continued aggressiveness of the Zionist regime, and the deceptive role of ceasefires orchestrated by the US and that regime, Iran’s smart management of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as adherence to its negotiating conditions, are fundamental principles for maintaining regional security and stability, principles through which those concerned with security and opposed to crisis-mongering can, by cooperating and participating, play an effective role in shaping a new global order.
NOURNEWS