[News] The Defeat of Israel and the Rebirth of Palestinian Agency

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com 
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/the-defeat-of-israel-and-the-rebirth-of-palestinian-agency/> 



  The Defeat of Israel and the Rebirth of Palestinian Agency

October 12, 2025
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Children in Gaza demanding an end to the Israeli siege. (Photo: Mahmoud 
Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

*By Ramzy Baroud <https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud>*


          If we are to speak of a Palestinian victory in Gaza, it is a
          resounding triumph for the Palestinian people, their
          indomitable spirit, and their deeply rooted resistance that
          transcends faction, ideology, and politics.

For decades, the prevailing notion was that the ‘solution’ to the 
Israeli occupation of Palestine lay in a strictly negotiated process. 
“Only dialogue can achieve peace” has been the relentlessly peddled 
mantra in political circles, academic platforms, media forums, and the like.

A colossal industry burgeoned around that idea, expanding dramatically 
in the lead-up to, and for years after, the signing of the Oslo Accords 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/13/what-were-oslo-accords-israel-palestinians>between 
Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli 
government.

*The Unmaking of ‘Peace’*

The problem was never with the fundamental principle of ‘dialogue,’ 
‘peace,’ nor even with that of ‘painful compromises 
<https://imeu.org/resources/resources/the-peace-process-in-focus-making-painful-compromises-for-peace-a-comparison/257>‘ 
— a notion tirelessly circulated during the ‘peace process’ period 
between 1993 and the early 2000s.

Instead, the conflict has largely been shaped by how these terms, and an 
entire scaffolding of similar terminology, were defined and implemented. 
‘Peace’ for Israel and the US necessitated a subservient Palestinian 
leadership, ready to negotiate and operate within confined parameters, 
and entirely outside the binding parameters of international law.

Similarly, ‘dialogue’ was only permissible if the Palestinian leadership 
consented to renounce ‘terrorism’ — read: armed resistance — disarm, 
recognize Israel’s purported right to exist as a Jewish state, and 
adhere to the prescribed language dictated by Israel and the US.

In fact, only after officially renouncing 
<https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/report/us-arafat-comply-oslo-agreements-or-lose-aid>‘terrorism’ 
and accepting a restricted interpretation of specific UN resolutions on 
the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza did Washington agree to 
‘dialogue’ with Arafat. Such low-level conversations took place 
<https://time.com/archive/6701446/breakthrough-after-13-years-of-silence-the-u-s-agrees-to-talk-with-the-p-l-o/>in 
Tunisia and involved a junior US official — Robert Pelletreau, Assistant 
Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

Not once did Israel consent to ‘dialogue’ with Palestinians without a 
stringent set of preconditions, driving Arafat to a unilateral series of 
concessions at the expense of his people. Ultimately, Oslo yielded 
nothing of intrinsic value for Palestinians, apart from Israel’s mere 
recognition, not of Palestine or the Palestinian people, but of the 
Palestinian Authority 
<https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo>(PA), which, over 
time, became a conduit for corruption. The PA’s continued existence is 
inextricably linked to that of the Israeli occupation itself.

Israel, conversely, operated unchecked, conducting raids on Palestinian 
towns, executing massacres at will, enforcing a debilitating siege 
<https://www.unicef.org/mena/documents/gaza-strip-humanitarian-impact-15-years-blockade-june-2022>on 
Gaza, assassinating activists, and imprisoning Palestinians en masse, 
including women and children. In fact, the post-‘dialogue,’ ‘peace,’ and 
‘painful compromises’ era witnessed the largest expansion and effective 
annexation of Palestinian land since the 1967 Israeli occupation of East 
Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

*Gaza as the Anomaly*

During this period, there was a widespread consensus that violence, 
meaning only Palestinian armed resistance in response to unconstrained 
Israeli violence, was intolerable. The PA’s Mahmoud Abbas dismissed 
<https://palwatch.org/page/897>it in 2008 as ‘useless,’ and 
subsequently, in coordination with the Israeli military, devoted much of 
the PA’s security apparatus to suppress any form of resistance to 
Israel, armed or otherwise.

Though Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, and other regions and refugee camps in 
the West Bank continued 
<https://www.972mag.com/jenin-tulkarem-armed-resistance-israeli-repression/>to 
forge spaces, however constrained, for armed resistance, the concerted 
efforts of Israel and the PA often crushed or at least substantially 
reduced these moments.

Gaza, however, consistently stood as the anomaly. The Strip’s armed 
uprisings have persisted since the early 1950s, with the emergence 
<https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/161/1956-war>of the fedayeen 
movement, followed by a succession of socialist and Islamic resistance 
groups. The place has always remained unmanageable — by Israel, and 
later by the PA. When Abbas loyalists were defeated following brief but 
tragic violent clashes 
<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-06-13/hamas-fatah-fight-to-control-key-buildings-in-gaza/67898>between 
Fatah and Hamas in Gaza in 2007, the small territory became an 
undisputed center of armed resistance.

This event occurred two years after the Israeli army’s redeployment 
<https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/14505/israel%E2%80%99s-gaza-redeployment-2005>out 
of Palestinian population centers in the Strip (2005), into the 
so-called military buffer zones, established on areas that were 
historically part of Gaza’s territory. It was the start of today’s 
hermetic siege on Gaza.

In 2006, Hamas secured 
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2006/1/26/hamas-wins-huge-majority>a 
majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, an unexpected 
turn of events that infuriated Washington, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and other 
Western and Arab allies.

The fear was that without Israel’s PA allies maintaining control over 
the resistance inside Gaza and the West Bank, the occupied territories 
would inevitably result in a widespread anti-occupation revolt.

Consequently, Israel intensified its suffocating siege on the Strip, 
which refused to capitulate despite the horrific humanitarian crisis 
resulting from the blockade. Thus, starting in 2008, Israel adopted a 
new strategy: treating the Gaza resistance as an actual military force, 
thereby launching 
<https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/29896/war-gaza-2008%E2%80%932009>major 
wars that resulted in the killing and wounding of tens of thousands of 
people, predominantly civilians.

These major conflicts included the war of December 2008-January 2009, 
November 2012 
<https://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/gaza_nov_2012_operation>, 
July-August 2014 
<https://www.unrwa.org/2014-gaza-conflict#:~:text=During%20the%2050%20days%20of,one%20child%2C%20were%20also%20killed.>, 
May 2021 
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/23/gaza-israels-may-airstrikes-high-rises>, 
and the latest genocidal war 
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds>commencing 
in October 2023.

Despite the immense destruction and the relentless siege, let alone 
external international and Arab pressures and isolation, the Strip 
somehow endured and even regenerated itself. Destroyed residences were 
rebuilt from the salvaged rubble, and resistance weaponry was also 
replenished, often utilizing unexploded Israeli munitions.

*The October 7 Rupture*

The October 7 Hamas operation, known as Al-Aqsa Flood 
<https://chs-doha.org/en/Publications/Pages/Understanding-the-October-7th-Hamas-Attack-on-Israel-and-the-War-on-Gaza.aspx>, 
constituted a significant break from the established pattern that had 
endured for years.

For Palestinians, it represented the ultimate evolution of their armed 
struggle, a culmination of a process that commenced in the early 1950s 
and involved diverse groups and political ideologies. It served as a 
stark notification to Israel that the rules of engagement have 
irrevocably shifted, and that the besieged Palestinians refuse to submit 
to their supposed historical role of perpetual victimhood.

For Israel, the event was earth-shattering. It exposed 
<https://thejewishindependent.com.au/the-failures-that-allowed-october-7-to-happen>the 
country’s vaunted military and intelligence as deeply flawed, and 
revealed that the country’s leadership assessment of Palestinian 
capabilities was fundamentally erroneous.

This failure followed the brief surge of confidence during the 
normalization campaign initiated by the US and Israel with pliable Arab 
and Muslim countries during Trump’s first term in office. At that time, 
it appeared as though the Palestinians and their cause had been rendered 
irrelevant in the broader Middle Eastern political landscape. Between a 
co-opted Palestinian leadership in the West Bank and besieged resistance 
movements in Gaza, Palestine was no longer a decisive factor in Israel’s 
pursuit of regional hegemony.

The centerpiece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy, 
and his aspiration to conclude his long political career with the 
ultimate regional triumph, was suddenly obliterated. Enraged, 
disoriented, but also determined to restore all of Israel’s advantages 
since Oslo, Netanyahu embarked 
<https://pchrgaza.org/israel-employs-mass-killings-to-forcibly-displace-palestinians-from-gaza-as-netanyahus-statements-acknowledge-genocidal-intent/>on 
a campaign of mass killing that, over the course of two years, 
culminated in one of the worst genocides in human history.

His methodical extermination of the Palestinians and overt desire 
<https://mecouncil.org/blog_posts/israels-admission-of-genocide/>to 
ethnically cleanse the survivors out of Gaza laid bare Israel and its 
Zionist ideology for their inherently violent character, thus allowing 
the world, especially Western societies, to fully perceive Israel for 
what it truly is, and what it has always been.

*Resistance, Resilience, and Defeat*

But the genuine fear that unified Israel, the US, and several Arab 
countries is the terrifying prospect that Resistance, particularly armed 
resistance, could re-emerge in Palestine, and by extension across the 
Middle East, as a viable force capable of threatening all autocratic and 
undemocratic regimes. This fear was dramatically amplified by the ascent 
of other non-state actors, such as Hezbollah 
<https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20241124-live-hezbollah-claims-missile-drone-attacks-on-naval-base-in-south-israel-tel-aviv>in 
Lebanon and Ansarallah <https://www.workers.org/2025/10/88384/>in Yemen, 
who collectively with the Gaza resistance managed to forge a formidable 
alliance that required direct US involvement in the conflict.

Even then, Israel failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives in 
Gaza, owing to the legendary resilience of the Palestinian people, but 
also the prowess of the resistance that managed to destroy 
<https://arab-j.net/28862?utm_source=chatgpt.com>over 2,000 Israeli 
military vehicles, including hundreds of the pride and joy of the 
Israeli military industry, the Merkava tank.

No Arab army has managed to exact this scale of military, political, and 
economic cost from Israel throughout the country’s violent existence of 
nearly eight decades. Though Israel and the US — and others, including 
some Arab countries and the PA — continue to demand the disarming of the 
resistance, such a demand is rationally nearly unattainable. Israel has 
dropped 
<https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2025/10/5/%D8%A3%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%A9-90-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%B9-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%85%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86?utm_source=chatgpt.com>over 
200,000 tons of explosives over Gaza over the course of two years to 
achieve that singular objective, and failed. There is no plausible 
reason to believe that it can achieve such a goal through political and 
economic pressures alone.

Not only did Israel fail in Gaza, or, more accurately in the words of 
many Israeli historians and retired army generals, was decisively 
defeated in Gaza, but Palestinians have managed to reassert Palestinian 
agency, including the legitimacy of all forms of resistance, as a 
winning strategy against Israeli colonialism and US-Western imperialism 
in the region. This explains the profound fear shared by all parties 
that Israel’s defeat in Gaza could fundamentally alter the entire 
regional power dynamics.

Though the US and its Western and Arab allies will persist 
<https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ceasefire-abbas-pa-may-regain-095702436.html>in 
negotiating in an attempt to resurrect the almost 90-year-old 
Palestinian leader Abbas and his Oslo paradigm as the only viable 
alternatives for Palestinians, the medium and long-term consequences of 
the war are likely to present a starkly different reality, one where 
Oslo and its corrupted figures are definitively relegated to the past.

Finally, if we are to speak of a Palestinian victory in Gaza, it is a 
resounding triumph for the Palestinian people, their indomitable spirit, 
and their deeply rooted resistance that transcends faction, ideology, 
and politics.

All of this considered, it must also be clearly stated that the current 
ceasefire in Gaza cannot be misconstrued as a ‘peace plan’; it is a mere 
pause from the genocide, as there will certainly be a subsequent round 
of conflict, the nature of which depends heavily on what unfolds in the 
West Bank, indeed the entire region, in the coming months and years.


/– Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The 
Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His forthcoming 
book, ‘//Before the Flood/ 
<https://www.sevenstories.com/books/4779-before-the-flood?srsltid=AfmBOorgPOepR8fLBeCXLViw_awRDNTNNerbwDJ4V2X5Jza-ajlZ6_bm>/,’ 
will be published by Seven Stories Press. His other books include ‘Our 
Vision for Liberation’, ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last 
Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center 
for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is 
//www.ramzybaroud.net/ <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>

The views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the 
editorial position of The Palestine Chronicle.
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