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<font size=4><b><i>A decisive loss for Israel <br><br>
</i></b></font><font size=3>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10237.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10237.shtml<br>
</a>Mousa Abu Marzook, <i>The Electronic Intifada,</i> 23 January 2009
<br><br>
<img src="http://electronicintifada.net/artman2/uploads/2/090123-gaza-marzook.jpg" width=483 height=322 alt="[]">
<br>
Thousands of Palestinians attend a rally organized by Hamas in Gaza City
days after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire, 20 January 2009.
(Mohamed Al-Zanon/<a href="http://www.maanimages.com">MaanImages</a>)
<br><br>
Israel's objectives from the war on Gaza were set long before its launch:
to remove the Hamas movement and government, achieve the reinstallation
of the Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Gaza, and end the armed
resistance. Two other objectives were not announced. First, restore the
Israeli public's wavering confidence in its armed forces after its defeat
by Hizballah in 2006. Second, boost the coalition government in the
coming elections.<br><br>
Accordingly, we declare that Israel lost, and lost decisively. What did
it achieve? The killing of large numbers of civilians, children and
women, and the destruction of homes, ministry buildings and other
infrastructure with the most advanced United States weapons and other
internationally banned chemical and phosphorous elements. Almost 2,000
children were killed and injured in desperate pursuit of political goals.
Many international organizations called these attacks war crimes, yet
barely a word of denunciation was uttered by any western leader. What
message does the European Union mean to send Palestinians by its shameful
silence on these crimes, when it speaks incessantly on human
rights?<br><br>
If anything, the last three weeks, and previous 18 months, have proved
that the Palestinians can never be broken by either starvation, economic
strangulation or brutal attack. European leaders have only one option: to
recognize the outcome of a democratic process they had called for and
supported.<br><br>
The aggression failed to undermine or weaken the Hamas-led government, or
turn Palestinians against Hamas. If anything, public support is stronger
than ever in Palestine and worldwide. Hamas's military capabilities have
not been hurt, either. This explains Israel scurrying to sign such a
strange agreement with the US to stop arms reaching Hamas. It is doomed
to fail. As the former Israeli chief of staff Moshe Yaalon and Benjamin
Netanyahu agreed, Israeli forces failed to achieve their
objectives.<br><br>
Why is Israel allowed a continuous flow of the most lethal arms,
including banned weapons, while national resistance movements are denied
the means of defense? International laws permit occupied nations to
resist their occupiers, and that is a right we aim to utilize to the
full.<br><br>
Israel must accept the reality that it is incapable of breaking the
Palestinian resistance. Similarly, Europe must accept that bringing back
Abbas on an Israeli tank is not an option. Nor are attempts to win by
"diplomacy" what the might of the Israeli military failed to
secure by force. To state that all aid for Gaza reconstruction must go
through the illegal government of appointed Palestinian Authority Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad suggests there is no end to some parties'
exploitation of Palestinians. We will never cease to pursue national
unity, but we will never allow it to be attained by compromising
Palestinian rights.<br><br>
And to President Obama we say: the wave of hope that met your election
was heavily dampened by your silence on the Gaza massacre. This was
compounded by your pre-election statement siding with the Israeli
settlers of Sderot. You would do well to know the history of the places
of which you speak. Sderot, which may be known to some as an Israeli
town, lies on the ruins of Najd, a Palestinian village ransacked in May
1948 by Zionist terrorist gangs. Villagers were forced from their beds
and homes with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, rendering them
refugees for the next 61 years. That is the story of Sderot. It is never
a good start to get your tyrant and victims mixed up, but there is still
room for a revival of passionate optimism. Only if you decide to fairly
address the issue of the 6 million Palestinian refugees and the ending of
occupation of Palestinian lands, including Jerusalem, will you be able to
start a new relationship with the Muslim world.<br><br>
<i>Mousa Abu Marzook is deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau mousa
DOT abumarzook AT gmail DOT com. This essay was first published in
</i>The Guardian's<i> Comment is Free.</i> <br><br>
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