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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Israel lost the war in Gaza but
the struggle for justice goes on</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-08-26T21:22:27+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/ali-abunimah"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Ali
Abunimah</span> on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 21:22<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lost-war-gaza-struggle-justice-goes">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lost-war-gaza-struggle-justice-goes</a></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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,” <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.612641">wrote</a>
<em>Haaretz’s</em> Amir Oren in a stunning admission of how much
Israel has been set back.</p>
<p>Some observers are treating the latest events with
understandable caution.</p>
<p>“I do not feel in a rejoicing mood, only glad that no more
people and children will die,” Gaza writer <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/omar-ghraieb">Omar
Ghraieb</a> wrote to me.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Ceasefire terms</h2>
<p>The <a
href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/109277/Egypt/Politics-/PalestinianIsraeli-truce-includes-opening-all-cros.aspx">reported</a>
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.”</p>
<p>Opening the crossings – closed or severely restricted due to
Israel’s nearly eight-year-long siege – was a key resistance
demand <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/no-ceasefire-without-justice-gaza/13618">supported
across Palestinian civil society</a>.</p>
<p>After a month, reports say, talks will resume to discuss
additional Palestinian demands: the reopening of Gaza’s airport
and seaport.</p>
<p>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 <em>de facto</em> Palestinian Authority leader
Mahmoud Abbas?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Israel lost</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>By that standard, the United States spectacularly “won” its
wars in Vietnam and Iraq.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>At a basic level, Israel has made concessions to Palestinians
that it was not even willing to discuss before its escalation
and bombardment.</p>
<p>A month ago, I <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-being-defeated-gaza-it-was-lebanon">argued</a>
that Israel was being defeated in Gaza as it was in Lebanon in
2006.</p>
<p>That assessment stands. Israel’s limited invasion of Gaza early
on in its assault was met with fierce resistance.</p>
<p>Dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed in battles with
well-prepared and courageous Palestinian fighters.</p>
<p>The heavy losses convinced Israeli military leaders that total
reoccupation of Gaza would entail further losses it could not
bear.</p>
<p>And after dropping the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-many-bombs-has-israel-dropped-gaza">equivalent
of an atomic bomb</a> on Gaza, Israel was unable to stop
Palestinian resistance groups from firing missiles at Israeli
targets.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> and Defense Minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/moshe-yaalon">Moshe
Ya’alon</a> understood this and signed a ceasefire deal <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4564465,00.html">without
putting it to a vote</a> in an extremist and deeply split
cabinet.</p>
<p>Justice minister <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/tzipi-livni">Tzipi
Livni</a>, who was foreign minister during Israel’s 2008-2009
invasion of Gaza, supported the ceasefire but <a
href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/1.2416808">warned
against</a> allowing Hamas to have too many political
achievements.</p>
<p>The heads of councils of Israel’s southern settlements that
were within range of most of the resistance rockets also slammed
the ceasefire deal.</p>
<p>“Any concession to Hamas is a surrender to terrorism,” Ashkelon
mayor Itamar Shimoni said, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.612468">according
to <em>Haaretz.</em></a>.</p>
<p>“The residents of [the] south wanted to see this campaign
resolved, but that will probably not happen,” Shimoni added.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, <em>Ynet</em> columnist Ron Ben-Yishai, who
is close to Israel’s military and intelligence establishment, <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4562624,00.html">lamented</a>
that “What was supposed to be an operation or a military
campaign has turned into a war of attrition.”</p>
<p>Such a “war of attrition is ultimately worse for Israel than
for Hamas,” Ben-Yishai <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4563853,00.html">argued</a>,
“even though Hamas is drawing fire and suffering serious damage,
at rates far, far higher than Israel.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>There’s an element of racism in this – the idea that Israelis
value life more and are therefore more sensitive to individual
deaths.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“Living in Gaza and being the first line of resistance against
siege and aggression is nothing but a victory,” she said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Writing just <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4563853,00.html">yesterday</a>,
Ben-Yishai observed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The alternatives Ben-Yishai proposed were even more bombardment
and total occupation of Gaza.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Netanyahu also had to bring Israel’s aggression to an end, not
least because of the <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-24/gaza-war-risks-pushing-slowing-israeli-economy-into-contraction.html">mounting
damage</a> to the country’s economy. Among the worst hit
sectors is tourism, with the number of visitors to Israel <a
href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140811/israel-visitor-numbers-nosedive-during-gaza-offensive">plunging
to the lowest level since 2007</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>Battle for justice goes on</h2>
<p>Refaat Alareer, the Gaza writer and educator who <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/story-my-brother-martyr-mohammed-alareer/13653">lost
his brother</a> 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.”</p>
<p>Alareer adds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He reminds us too that Israel could not perpetrate such <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/world/gruesome-tales-surface-israeli-massacres-against-families-gaza-neighborhood">hideous
atrocities</a> 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.</p>
<p>A ceasefire is not enough. Rebuilding Gaza is not enough. Even
ending the siege would not be enough. It would only be the
start.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>It is crucial to understand that such violence <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-massacre-price-jewish-state">is
the price of a “Jewish state” in Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>The only way to stop the massacres is to escalate our work for
justice.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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