Matt Carr 31 August 2014. Posted in News
This war will
be decided not only by what the Palestinians do, but by the international
solidarity that can be mobilized to break down the walls that keep Gazans
imprisoned.
R The
destruction and suffering endured by the Gazans was too widespread, intense and
traumatic to call this outcome a victory, even by the criteria of
'asymmetrical' conflict.
After seven
weeks of horrendous violence, the third
Gaza war is over, leaving an eye-wateringly lop-sided audit of
destruction. On the Palestinian side,
more than 2,143 people have been killed, included more than 400 children, and
thousands injured. 17, 200 homes have
been destroyed, and 100, 000 Palestinians made homeless.
Israel has
levelled high rise apartment blocks and whole neighborhoods. It has attacked schools, agriculture, camel
herds, hospitals, sewage and electricity plants, in a callous and ruthless
campaign of destruction that would have earned universal condemnation had it
been carried out by any other state.
Against
this, Hamas and the other Palestinian
organizations have killed 70 Israelis, 64 of them soldiers, and damaged the
Israeli economy and tourist industry. Despite the immense firepower unleashed
on Gaza, Israel’s strategic position is little different now than it was when
it began. The rockets have stopped firing, but then they wouldn’t have been
fired in the first place had Netanyahu not done everything in his power to
provoke them.
Despite
Israel’s attempts to ‘degrade’ Hamas and its ‘terror infrastructure’, Hamas and
the Islamist fighting organizations were not crushed, but emerged from the war
with their prestige enhanced amongst Palestinians, and also in the wider world,
through a tenacious, courageous and skilful resistance that was not present in
the two previous confrontations.
Hamas could
not have resisted for so long without the support of the Gazan population,
which continued to support the armed fighters day after day through one of the
most ferocious and unrelenting assaults in modern times – an assault that was
deliberately designed to turn ordinary Gazans against them. In doing so, the Gazans won a moral and
political victory that will resonate for years to come, and will make it much
harder for Israel and its international allies to re-impose the corrupt and
compliant Palestinian Authority on the Strip..
This outcome
does not amount to a Hamas ‘victory’ however, and such claims are
overstated. The ceasefire agreement has
not ended the siege of Gaza. Despite the apparent commitments that it entails,
such as the extension of fishing limits, further discussions on the opening of
a seaport and airport etc, there is no clear framework for implementation, and
no guarantee that Israel will not renege on them in the months to come, or make
them conditional on the demilitarisation of Hamas – something that would be
political suicide for the latter.
The destruction
and suffering endured by the Gazans during the last seven weeks has been too
widespread, intense and traumatic to call this outcome a victory, even by the
criteria of ‘asymmetrical’ conflict. It
is true that ‘battlefield’ victories are not the most significant factor in
such confrontations, but moral and
political victories in conflicts against a militarily more powerful opponent
are only significant when such an opponent no longer has the political will to
continue fighting, either because its population won’t support the war or
because its allies desert it.
Neither of
these conditions applies to Israel, despite its inability to crush Hamas in
three major wars, and despite the enormous groundswell of popular sympathy from
the Palestinians worldwide. On the contrary, the Gaza war received massive
support from the Israeli population, which was more overtly racist than in any
of its predecessors. It is now clear
that many – perhaps most – Israelis are prepared to accept with equanimity some
of the more extreme and genocidal proposals that were once limited to the hard
Zionist fringe, from the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip to a new
population ‘transfer.’.
It is also
clear that many of Israel’s allies would also accept it. Despite some mild criticism and a great deal
of handwringing, neither the US, the EU or Britain, did anything significant to
stop the destruction. As in Lebanon in 2006, the ‘international community’
effectively colluded with the devastation, while pretending to be horrified by it,
in the hope that Israel would achieve its war aims and destroy Hamas.
Israel’s
supporters, from Hollywood actors to liberal columnists in the Guardian, were
equally willing to support even the most
disproportionate’ violence – while bearing their aching hearts on their sleeves
as always – by spuriously invoking Israel’s ‘right to self-defense’ and denying
such a right to the occupied population, or endlessly blaming Hamas and
reproducing Hasbara fictions about ‘human shields.’ This will continue, one suspects,
even if Israel were to completely destroy the Gaza strip.
Officially,
the Arab world has been even more pathetic than usual. Throughout the conflict, no Arab government
lifted a finger to help the Palestinians, and Egypt and its Saudi backers were
clearly more concerned with defeating Hamas. This means that, unlike the
Algerians against the French, or the Vietnamese, say, the Gazans are extremely
isolated, perhaps more so than ever before – at the level of the state. at
least
Hamas knows
all this, otherwise it would not have agreed to a ceasefire that gave it so
little, and which can so easily be undermined.
That
said, the political balance of the war
is definitely tilted towards the Palestinians.
They are the ones cheering in the streets of Gaza City, while the
Israeli public is turning on Netanyahu – a politician who combines
recklessness, incompetence and cynicism in equal measure. They are the ones who stood up to a military
superpower and gave a demonstration of resistance that recalls the defense of
Grozny and –uncomfortably for Israel – the Warsaw Ghetto.
The
condemnations of Israel’s actions from Latin American governments, politicians
like Sayeeda Warsi, and Holocaust survivors, the worldwide demonstrations in
support of the Palestinians, are only part of a wider shift in international
public opinion that may well define Operation Protective Edge as a watershed
moment, that may one day lead to real political pressure of the type that once
helped bring about the collapse of apartheid.
Hopefully,
Netanyahu’s savage war may also galvanize and reinvigorate Palestinian
resistance both in the Occupied Territories and inside Israel itself – in ways
that can mobilize the whole population not just armed fighters. Again and again the Palestinians have
demonstrated a stubborn unwillingness to do what Israel, the ‘international
community’ and the Arab world demands of them.
They know that justice – and their survival as a people – depends on
their own efforts.
Gaza has
pushed such resilience to the outer limits. But no people can continue to
resist indefinitely against military assaults of such intensity. The Gazans
have no safe havens or bases of support and resupply. Another war like this
could break Gaza to pieces. So we really can’t say that ‘Hamas won’ or that
Israel lost.
The outcome
of this war will be decided not only by what the Palestinians have done, or
will do, but by the international solidarity that can be mobilized to break
down the walls that have kept Gazans imprisoned for the last ten years, that
can help them survive the coming weeks and months and rebuild their shattered
society once again, that can ultimately isolate Israel bring down the edifice
of support that has enabled its leaders to get away with so much for so long,
and ensure that the most terrible of the three Gaza wars is the last.
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