[News] Israel lost the war in Gaza but the struggle for justice goes on

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel lost the war in Gaza but the struggle for justice goes on

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 21:22
*http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lost-war-gaza-struggle-justice-goes*

There is one clear reason to celebrate the ceasefire deal Israel and the 
Palestinian resistance reached today: 51 days and nights of relentless 
Israeli massacres and destruction have come to an end in Gaza.

With reports that Israel has agreed to reopen Gaza's borders, Hamas 
announced victory and Palestinians, especially in Gaza, are celebrating. 
Among many Israelis, meanwhile, there is a feeling of bitterness and defeat.

"What Netanyahu and his colleagues have brought down on Israel, in a 
conflict between the region's strongest army and an organization 
numbering 10,000, is not just a defeat. It's a downfall," wrote 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.612641> 
/Haaretz's/ Amir Oren in a stunning admission of how much Israel has 
been set back.

Some observers are treating the latest events with understandable caution.

"I do not feel in a rejoicing mood, only glad that no more people and 
children will die," Gaza writer Omar Ghraieb 
<http://electronicintifada.net/people/omar-ghraieb> wrote to me.

In addition to the more than 2,100 killed, "so many people got injured, 
houses got bombed, towers got leveled and life got deformed," Ghraieb 
adds. "I would rather just watch closely what awaits Gaza."

Indeed, Israel has a long history of violating almost every agreement it 
has ever signed with Palestinians, from the 1993 Oslo accords to 
previous ceasefires in Gaza.

Israel agreed to open the crossings as part of its November 2012 
ceasefire deal with the Palestinian resistance, but reneged. This time 
Israel knows the stakes are much higher if it violates those terms again.


    Ceasefire terms

The reported 
<http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/109277/Egypt/Politics-/PalestinianIsraeli-truce-includes-opening-all-cros.aspx> 
ceasefire terms "include opening all crossings to Gaza, allowing 
reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, allowing the entry of 
materials needed for reconstruction and permitting fishing for a 
distance of six to twelve nautical miles from shore."

Opening the crossings -- closed or severely restricted due to Israel's 
nearly eight-year-long siege -- was a key resistance demand supported 
across Palestinian civil society 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-ceasefire-without-justice-gaza/13618>.

After a month, reports say, talks will resume to discuss additional 
Palestinian demands: the reopening of Gaza's airport and seaport.

There are still details that are unclear: who will monitor the crossings 
and guarantee that Israel abides by the agreement to open them? What 
role will be played by forces loyal to the Israeli-allied /de facto/ 
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas?

It will also be critical for Gaza civil society to be vigilant and to 
ensure that reconstruction is not controlled by corrupt forces tied to 
the Abbas PA that have profiteered from Israel's occupation of the West 
Bank.


    Israel lost

As I have noted before, if "victory" is measured in the number of 
civilians an army kills and injures, or the number of homes, hospitals, 
mosques or schools it destroys, Israel is the clear champion once again.

By that standard, the United States spectacularly "won" its wars in 
Vietnam and Iraq.

But in terms of the political and strategic balance sheet that will 
determine future relations between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel 
suffered a clear loss on the battlefield and internationally.

At a basic level, Israel has made concessions to Palestinians that it 
was not even willing to discuss before its escalation and bombardment.

A month ago, I argued 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-being-defeated-gaza-it-was-lebanon> 
that Israel was being defeated in Gaza as it was in Lebanon in 2006.

That assessment stands. Israel's limited invasion of Gaza early on in 
its assault was met with fierce resistance.

Dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed in battles with well-prepared and 
courageous Palestinian fighters.

The heavy losses convinced Israeli military leaders that total 
reoccupation of Gaza would entail further losses it could not bear.

And after dropping the equivalent of an atomic bomb 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-many-bombs-has-israel-dropped-gaza> 
on Gaza, Israel was unable to stop Palestinian resistance groups from 
firing missiles at Israeli targets.

Since Israel's ground invasion entered only a few hundred meters into 
Gaza, it is reasonable to assume that a significant part, if not the 
vast majority, of resistance assets remain intact and ready to use 
should Israel invade again.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu> and Defense 
Minister Moshe Ya'alon <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/moshe-yaalon> 
understood this and signed a ceasefire deal without putting it to a vote 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4564465,00.html> in an 
extremist and deeply split cabinet.

Justice minister Tzipi Livni 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/tzipi-livni>, who was foreign 
minister during Israel's 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza, supported the 
ceasefire but warned against 
<http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/1.2416808> allowing Hamas to have too 
many political achievements.

The heads of councils of Israel's southern settlements that were within 
range of most of the resistance rockets also slammed the ceasefire deal.

"Any concession to Hamas is a surrender to terrorism," Ashkelon mayor 
Itamar Shimoni said, according to /Haaretz./ 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.612468>.

"The residents of [the] south wanted to see this campaign resolved, but 
that will probably not happen," Shimoni added.

He meant that they wanted the war to go on until victory was reached -- 
an end to rocket fire from Gaza. But even the most hawkish and 
hard-headed Israeli analysts knew that such victory is a mirage.

Earlier this week, /Ynet/ columnist Ron Ben-Yishai, who is close to 
Israel's military and intelligence establishment, lamented 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4562624,00.html> that "What 
was supposed to be an operation or a military campaign has turned into a 
war of attrition."

Such a "war of attrition is ultimately worse for Israel than for Hamas," 
Ben-Yishai argued 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4563853,00.html>, "even 
though Hamas is drawing fire and suffering serious damage, at rates far, 
far higher than Israel."

The reason, he claimed, is "Hamas plays the strengths of the weak, and 
as long as it can launch rockets and mortars, it puts on a façade of a 
fighting force that does not surrender."

"It also doesn't need much to inflict damage, losses and pain on 
Israel," Ben-Yishai argued. "One mortar that kills a four-year-old boy 
is enough to deliver a hard emotional blow to Israelis. That's how an 
asymmetrical war goes."

There's an element of racism in this -- the idea that Israelis value 
life more and are therefore more sensitive to individual deaths.

If that were true, Israel would show its concern for life and set an 
example by not killing so many Palestinians, especially not so many 
Palestinian children.

But there is also a historic reality that in anti-colonial wars, the 
natives have had less to lose than their occupiers and far more to gain, 
and have been willing to make enormous sacrifices to achieve their 
liberation.

One can only stand in awe of how many people in Gaza said that despite 
the unbearable pain and losses, they just weren't prepared to surrender.

"Surviving this aggression is a new life. Living through 51 days of 
continuous missiles and bombs is a victory," Gaza writer Malaka 
Mohammed, currently a student in the UK, told me.

"Being forced to leave your home more than seven times and going back in 
the next day is a victory; staying strong and resilient after running 
over the corpses of your neighbors and friends as well as relatives is a 
victory," Mohammed adds.

"Living in Gaza and being the first line of resistance against siege and 
aggression is nothing but a victory," she said.

That resilience, born from a love of life and an unshakeable commitment 
to dignity and liberation, is indeed something Israel could not defeat 
even with its most horrifying weapons.

Writing just yesterday 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4563853,00.html>, Ben-Yishai 
observed:

    It is absolutely clear that all parties now want a ceasefire as soon
    as possible. The problem is that Hamas cannot agree to a ceasefire
    without any achievements to present to its people and to the
    citizens of Gaza ... Similarly, the Israeli government cannot
    justify the fighting and casualties if it agrees to give Hamas this
    achievement and if it cannot prove that Hamas will be unable to
    rebuild after the fighting ends.

The alternatives Ben-Yishai proposed were even more bombardment and 
total occupation of Gaza.

By signing the agreement, Netanyahu admitted there was not going to be 
an Israeli victory and conceding to key resistance demands was his only 
option.

Netanyahu also had to bring Israel's aggression to an end, not least 
because of the mounting damage 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-24/gaza-war-risks-pushing-slowing-israeli-economy-into-contraction.html> 
to the country's economy. Among the worst hit sectors is tourism, with 
the number of visitors to Israel plunging to the lowest level since 2007 
<http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140811/israel-visitor-numbers-nosedive-during-gaza-offensive>.

But the internal political battles within Israel and Israel's own 
predilection to inflict as much suffering as it can get away with on 
Palestinians means that it has a strong incentive to undermine whatever 
limited terms it has agreed to now.

The hardline commitment in Israel to keeping Gaza besieged and 
subjugated also means that the talks reportedly set to begin in a month 
will face enormous obstacles.


    Battle for justice goes on

Refaat Alareer, the Gaza writer and educator who lost his brother 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/story-my-brother-martyr-mohammed-alareer/13653> 
in the Israeli attack, also sees today's agreement as "a symbolic win 
over a barbaric colonial power -- one step for Gaza and a giant leap for 
Palestine."

Alareer adds:

    It is a victory because Gaza did not kneel, because Gaza proved
    Israel can be deterred and isolated, because Gaza exposed the
    hideous face of apartheid Israel and that of the US that never
    stopped sending weapons to Israel, and because more and more people
    are now uniting all over the world and are more determined to end
    this injustice by all effective means.

    This is a victory because it united Palestinians and
    pro-Palestinians from all over the world to fight for Palestine.
    It's a victory because the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
    campaign is now more powerful and more effective.

    It is a victory because a lot more people have decided to engage in
    the active support of Palestine, by being part of BDS, rather than
    only sending prayers and good wishes.

Alareer reminds us that as Palestinians in Gaza begin -- hopefully -- 
the arduous road to physical, emotional and mental recovery from the 
unspeakable horrors Israel has inflicted, the work of justice cannot 
take a break.

He reminds us too that Israel could not perpetrate such hideous 
atrocities 
<http://www.alternet.org/world/gruesome-tales-surface-israeli-massacres-against-families-gaza-neighborhood> 
without the support and complicity of so many governments, companies and 
other institutions around the world. The struggle to maintain Israeli 
occupation and racism is global, which is why the struggle to defeat 
them -- especially BDS -- must be global too.

A ceasefire is not enough. Rebuilding Gaza is not enough. Even ending 
the siege would not be enough. It would only be the start.

We have to say never again. Never again must Israel be allowed to 
massacre Palestinians as it has in Gaza in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012 and 
2014 -- the years since it decided to turn Gaza into a giant open-air 
prison.

It is crucial to understand that such violence is the price of a "Jewish 
state" in Palestine 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-massacre-price-jewish-state>.

The only way to stop the massacres is to escalate our work for justice.

An end to Israeli apartheid and colonization and the founding of a 
country for all its people -- where refugees, no longer excluded by 
racist laws, return to their land -- is the only monument worth building 
for so many people whose lives were violently stolen.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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