No Retreat, No Surrender

After more than 450 days, there is an accord of cease fire in Gaza. Whether it will be durable is anybody’s guess. If I propose a game: who has won the war up to now? The obvious answer is Israel. You can hardly be contradicted when one considers the destruction of lives by the most advanced arms in the USA arsenals, homes, properties, schools, reservoirs, roads, telecommunications, agriculture, in a word all infrastructures vital for survival.

Wait a minute. Has Israel reached its goals, any goals? Have Zionist settled in the Gaza periphery? Have all Gazans been wiped out? No. They are still there, waving flags today. Have the Israeli prisoners been freed? Only a few with the blessing of Hamas. On the other hand, Israel has lost its place on the moral high ground and is now viewed as a pariah state. It has been condemned by the International Court of Justice and its leaders are wanted to answer for genocide. If they are not protected by pariahs like themselves, they would be handed over the greatest punishment by the ICJ. Israeli soldiers are chased everywhere and have secretly fled many countries where they were wanted for detention. Is it victory when Chasers become fugitives?

Scales measuring victory have to be widened. They should not only take into account the heap of the destruction but others also. For example: has Israel destroyed the spirit of Palestinians when they were and are facing NATO’s firepower? Did they give up when Arab countries were aiding and abetting Israel? A victor will go for the kill and refuse a cease fire. Israel accepting the cease fire is paradoxical. Hamas was not in a hurry to sign the “stop the war” proposal. I would say Netanyahu’s acceptance of the ceasefire deal is the miraculous Palestinian Resistance. Israeli soldiers on the ground said several times that they were fighting ghosts in Gaza. And Ghosts are invisible.

The Israeli prisoners are gong to be freed not by arms but by the goodwill of Hamas. Observers scrutinizing the peace deal opine that all the demands put by Hamas have been accorded while it is very clear that even a single demand from Netanyahu’s has not been met.

Pax Vobiscum

Dawood Auleear