Palestinian Groups: Barak’s Resignation Shows Israeli Defeat

Palestinian groups on Monday saw the resignation of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his quitting the world of politics as yet another victory for the Palestinian nation and Resistance.

“Barak’s resignation and his abandoning the world of politics is an endorsement of the occupying regime’s defeat in materializing its objectives,” Sama news website quoted Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum as saying on Monday.

Abu Ahmad, a spokesman of Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, also said that Barak’s resignation should be seen as his reaction to the Israeli army’s failure and defeat in the Gaza Strip.

A spokesman of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Mujahid, said that Barak’s resignation is Israel’s official admission of military defeat in the war on the Palestinian nation and resistance in Gaza.

In a surprise announcement on Monday, Barak said that he was quitting politics and would not run in the upcoming general elections in Israel on January 22. He has been defense minister since 2007 and served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001.

His resignation came after Israel suddenly dropped its warmongering tone and demanded a ceasefire with Hamas after an 8-day war on the Gaza Strip.

Israel triggered an 8-day fighting by assassinating the military chief of the ruling Hamas group on November 14 followed by dozens of airstrikes on Gaza.

In response, Palestinian groups fired over 1,500 missiles and rockets at Israel.

Palestinian resistance groups targeted Tel Aviv and areas near Jerusalem for the first time in the history of confrontations between the two sides, launching a rocket attack in a major escalation of hostilities as Israel pressed forward with relentless airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Israel called up thousands of reservists and massed troops along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion of the densely populated seaside strip could be imminent.

But the attack on the Israeli settlement, along with an earlier strike on Zionists’ capital Tel Aviv, frightened the Israeli regime, making it drop its aggression plans and ask for third party mediation.

Eventually, a Cairo-mediated ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Wednesday November 21, ended the Israeli attacks, which killed more than 165 Palestinians and injured about 1,269 others.