Western leftist comrades, you failed your Levantine fellows.

We knew that the Syrian crisis would be the ultimate test.

However, the Palestinian and Ukrainian issues had already given us the chance to recognize the Orientalism that permeates Western leftist circles. The genocide of our Palestinian brothers and sisters had created a false sense of unity, leading us to briefly believe that the Western left had finally understood the gravity of the colonial struggle. Except for the German radical left, which, trapped in its Christian guilt, could not perceive the presence of Ashkenazi Jews in Palestine as part of the white supremacist colonial project. Yes, German leftists, Zionism was inspired from the very beginning by German supremacist theories, particularly the concept of Lebensraum. Herzl himself wrote in his memoirs that he sought to “civilize” Eastern Jews, whom he viewed as akin to Arabs. Kibbutzim are not exempt from this legacy, even if they label themselves as “socialist.”

But never mind. We thought we were united, yet the heated debates about the “Palestinian resistance” embodied by Hamas soon led us back to discussions about the “Lebanese resistance” represented by Hezbollah. As progressive forces, we had to accept that authoritarian and ultra-conservative factions had become our allies because the settler colonialists imposed apartheid and genocide upon us. As always, just like in Ukraine, the imperialist war forced us into unbearable compromises with obscurantist and corrupt forces, eager to seize power and turn our already colonized societies into fundamentalist nightmares. Our oppressors had, as always, become the axis of resistance to American capitalist evil. Thanks to U.S. imperialism and its wars, we were forced to abandon our fight for liberation in favor of total focus on war. And war is never left-wing.

A side note: let’s not forget the visionary writings of Frantz Fanon.

But Hamas is not Hezbollah. While we do not support Hamas in its exercise of power, we have, in some respects, supported its armed struggle against the settler colonialists. It represents a national liberation struggle waged by Palestinians, for Palestinians, against their enemy. On the other hand, Hezbollah is the product of a nationalist, inter-religious civil war (1976-1990), compounded by double foreign invasions by Israel and Syria, and foreign interference by Iran, which saw Lebanon—and especially its Shiite community—as a key strategic asset. Hezbollah was conceived as Iran and Syria’s mercenary, initially tasked with eliminating progressive and secular Palestinian resistance movements in Lebanon, along with their Lebanese allies.

Recall the massacre of Palestinian refugees at Tal al-Zaatar, with the complicity of the Syrian army.

Recall Yasser Arafat’s anger at Hafez al-Assad and the breakdown of alliances between the PLO and Syria.

Remember the assassination of Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt, a friend and ally of Arafat, by the Syrian Social-Nationalist Party’s henchmen in 1976.

Remember the denial of political freedoms to Palestinians in Lebanon and Syria, enforced by Hezbollah and the Assad regime, from 1980 to today.

And if you don’t remember, please educate yourselves!

We cannot list all the betrayals of the Palestinian cause and the crimes committed against Palestinians and Syrians by Hezbollah, nor their compromises with Western capitalism. However, we encourage you to read Joseph Daher’s enlightening book, “Hezbollah, Religious Fundamentalism and Liberalism”.

Joseph Daher is a fellow Arab leftist.

Recall the kidnapping and murder of Michel Seurat in 1985 by Islamic Jihad, affiliated with Hezbollah, on orders from Hafez al-Assad. Seurat, a man of the left and author of “L’État de Barbarie”, was married to Syrian writer Marie Seurat. Their daughter, Leila, now an expert on the Palestinian issue, has written “Le Hamas et le Monde”, which you should read.

But let’s return to the main issue. The fate of the Syrians and Palestinians, two brotherly peoples, was determined by Iranian and Syrian interventions in Lebanon. Or rather, “separated” by these interventions.

Hafez al-Assad imprisoned progressive left-wing activists for years, followed by his son Bashar in continuing this counter-revolutionary effort.

When thousands of Syrians, including left-wing progressives, rose up against Assad’s fascism, Iran, Hezbollah, and eventually Russia actively joined the counter-revolution, massacring the Syrian people, making thousands disappear in regime-run concentration camps, and proliferating gangs affiliated with Hezbollah and the Syrian Social-Nationalist Party. They turned Syria into a Captagon factory and a narco-state.

When Assad released thousands of Islamists to destroy the people’s revolution, then manipulated them to destabilize local resistance, did you see any of this?

When Assad, the West, and Russia agreed to focus on the Islamist threat, did you not see that the rhetoric against terrorism is always used as a pretext to crush revolutions? Did you not realize that many of the recruits for Al-Qaeda and ISIS were non-Syrians, many of them from the West, recruited within your backyards ?

The Islamic State organized massacres in Paris, then beheaded people on camera in the Syrian desert, yet you ignored the much more widespread atrocities committed by Bashar’s army and Shabiha forces.

There’s an old saying: “When you point at the moon, the fool looks at the finger.” That’s what the West did, and that’s what the Left did: condemning the Syrian revolution, condemning hundreds of thousands of Syrians to death.

Had you supported our revolution, ISIS would have been stopped in its tracks, and the genocide of the Kurds would not have happened.

YOU killed our revolution through your complicity.

Have you read the writings of Yassin al-Haj Saleh?

What about his partner Samira Khalil?

Did you know they were both imprisoned for opposing the regime and their affiliation with the Syrian Communist Party?

Have you heard of Syrian anarchist Omar Aziz, whose model for local coordination committees influenced the Syrian revolution, before he was arrested and tortured to death by regime agents?

Have you heard of Raed Fares and his pacifist efforts organizing Free Citizens demonstrations in Kafranbel?

No, fellow leftists, you haven’t heard of us. You chose not to see, blinded by your campism and ignorance of the specific political realities in the Levant. Like good Westerners, you applied your ideological frameworks to our situation, including your binary analysis: “all the enemies of my enemies are my friends.”

Congratulations, Western leftists, you’ve become the best allies of Eastern fascism and its imperialist backers.

Now, let’s briefly discuss the Palestinian issue.

Have you heard of the Yarmouk refugee camp? Did you know that Palestinian militias, dissident from traditional left-wing Palestinian resistance groups like the PLO, supported Assad in suppressing Palestinian revolutionary movements in Yarmouk? Were you aware that they were complicit in bombing the world’s largest Palestinian refugee camp (with 160,000 residents) starting in 2012, and its subsequent siege from 2013?

Read also about what Assad and Russia offered the Islamists in Yarmouk (Damascus) and the Yarmouk Basin (Deraa) in May and November 2018. Just look at the consequences for the Druze communities in Suwayda.

Educate yourselves, comrades.

If you read further and remove your blinders, you’ll learn that the Syrian regime is one of the few in the world to have consistently banned all pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Even during the genocide, Assad didn’t even attempt to organize a fake demonstration to bolster his pro-Palestinian propaganda. Nothing.

Except in Idlib and Suwayda, the only two regions not under regime control. In both cities, Syrians have consistently supported their Palestinian brothers and sisters.

But you didn’t see it. You preferred to believe that Iran and Hezbollah were the Palestinians’ only hope, even when not a single one of their rockets breached the security of the Zionist regime. Empty rhetoric.

Syrians were never fooled by Nasrallah and Khomeini’s bombastic speeches, grotesque threats, and pitiful fireworks.

But you, the Western left, thought they were the true axis of resistance, the cutting edge of anti-colonial struggles.

And now that Syrians have liberated themselves (and who cares if Turkey played a role, since it has no control over the millions of Syrians liberated from Assad), you’ve joined forces with reactionaries in the West to lecture us on anti-terrorism.

“Be careful, you Arabs, your rebels are jihadists who don’t take responsibility for themselves. They will betray you and destroy you.”

Thank you, white supremacists, for your concern. But on the Syrian issue, you’re no better than the anti-Deutsche Germans were on the Palestinian issue.

We, more than anyone else, know what the Islamist danger is. You discovered it on September 11th and at the Bataclan, and suddenly, the world wept for you. But did you know that over 80% of Islamist victims since the 1980s have been Muslims and Arabs? Did you also know that it was Syrians alone who confronted ISIS on their own soil?

Where were you to protect us, you who now lecture us condescendingly, when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham achieved in a week what we’d given up on dreaming of a decade ago?

Did you read the messages of solidarity and affection from Wael al-Dahdouh, the Palestinian journalist whose entire family was decimated by Israel?

No, once again, you saw nothing. You only saw the potential for Islamism in us. We Arabs are too backward to understand how democracy, socialism, and secularism work…

While Israel has waited for its dear ally Bashar to fall before attacking Syrians in Quneitra, your campism is out in the open, along with