“Everything we attempted to do has failed. We could not destroy Hamas or the Palestinians. We were powerless in preventing the Syrian revolution. We killed Nasrallah but failed to destroy Hizballah. We most certainly did not destroy the Houthis. We lost.” —Ori Goldberg
On one hand, the ceasefire agreement appears to be the worst deal that Hamas could have made. But on the other hand, the agreement helps to show that—after 16 months of nonstop slaughter and destruction—Israel has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives nor has it dampened the spirits of the indomitable Palestinians. On top of that, Israel has exposed itself as a thoroughly immoral rogue regime without a trace of humanity. This is how Abdal Jawad Omar summed it up at Mondoweiss:
The war has laid bare…. Israel’s racialized supremacy, its monstrous capacity for destruction, and its deeply entangled web of ideological, psychic, and political investments in erasure and domination. This is not merely a conflict of arms but a revelation of the structures that sustain and perpetuate the machinery of violence. The war has exposed the exceptionalism surrounding Israel—not only in granting the state impunity, not only in silencing and suppressing dissent across Europe and North America, not only within academic institutions, or mainstream media but in its brazen ability to commit crimes live on air.
For Palestinians, this capacity is viewed through a bitter lens—it is seen as an Israeli strength. After all, Israel is presented as a state that can get away with anything, a reality as oppressive as the violence itself. Yet , it is also this very exceptionalism, this enforced limit on discourse, that calls attention to Israel’s unmasking as a Jewish supremacist and settler-colonial state. Gaza ceasefire reveals Israel’s fragility, and the transformative power of resistance, Mondoweiss
Still—even though Israel’s public image has been forever tarnished—the present agreement does not bode well for the Palestinians either. First of all, there is no incentive for Israel to implement all three phases of the deal. Once the 33 Israeli hostages are returned, Netanyahu can simply terminate the agreement and resume the onslaught. Which is precisely what his supporters expect him to do. Take a look at this clip from the Israeli daily Haaretz:
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Here’s more on the same topic from Trump’s hawkish national security advisor Mike Waltz:
“We’ve been clear, that Gaza has to be fully demilitarized, Hamas has to be destroyed to the point that it cannot reconstitute, and that Israel has every right to fully protect itself. All of those objectives are still very much in place…..Hamas cannot have a role in governing Gaza. These are hostage-taking, murderous, torturers that should never have any role in governing….. We’ll never get to a better future until we carve out this cancer.” @mtracey :26 seconds
And here’s how uber-Zionist Ben Shapiro explained it on X:
Notes on the hostage deal:
1. It is a hostage deal, NOT an end of war deal. Phase I allows for the release of 33 hostages; it is not clear how many are alive, but some reports suggest 23.
2. Again, the ceasefire is almost certainly temporary. It is not a permanent end to the war. Phase II is, in my opinion, highly unlikely ever to materialize given how many hostages Hamas retains and given that Hamas will never disarm or agree to exile.
3. The deal does not force Israel to alter deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor (border between Gaza and Egypt).
So, what does all of this mean?
First, that some hostages will come home alive. This is an unmitigated good.
It would have been excellent to get more hostages out, but that option was presumably unavailable given Hamas’ radical intransigence and the waning health of many of the hostages.
Second, that the war will continue until Hamas has no control over Gaza. Trump’s nominees have said as much; so has the Israeli government.
The Trump team squared this circle. The Biden team undoubtedly wanted a permanent end to the conflict as a condition of hostage release.
Team Trump presumably told Hamas that wasn’t going to happen, and that this was the best deal they were likely to get. Ben Shapiro@benshapiro
So, in Shapiro’s estimation, Trump gave more away to Netanyahu than even Biden. (Biden wanted a permanent end to the conflict as a condition of hostage release whereas Trump rejected that demand.) This suggests that Trump is not going to use the leverage of his office to stop Israel’s year-and-a-half-long killing spree. In fact, Netanyahu admitted as much in a public statement delivered just hours before the ceasefire began. Here’s what he said:
Out of this terrible disaster, the tremendous strength of the Israeli people’s spirit was revealed, as was the supreme heroism of our soldiers, and it’s this that leads us with a fierce determination to achieve all the goals of the war: to return all our hostages, to eliminate Hamas’s governing capabilities, and to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to our country.
As soon as he was elected, President-elect [Donald] Trump mobilized himself to free the hostages. He spoke to me on Wednesday evening. He welcomed the agreement, and he rightly emphasized that the first phase of the agreement is a temporary ceasefire. That’s what he said – a ‘temporary ceasefire,’” Netanyahu emphasized, stating that both Trump and Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to resuming the war if Israel concludes that the negotiations of the deal’s second phase are futile.
I also appreciate President Trump’s decision to lift all remaining restrictions on the supply of essential weapons and ammunition to the State of Israel.
Why would Netanyahu want to emphasize the “temporary” nature of the ceasefire if he was seriously committed to ending the hostilities?
He wouldn’t. He’d make every effort to end the dispute through diplomacy and negotiations, which is the literal meaning of the term “ceasefire”: (def—a temporary suspension of fighting, typically one during which peace talks take place.) But the present ceasefire bears no resemblance to the dictionary definition. There are no peace talks scheduled nor will there be, which means that Israel is simply using the current agreement to get its hostages back without giving up anything in return. (The return of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to the Gaza warzone where food, water and basic security are no longer available, does not appear to be a fair trade-off. But there’s more going on here than meets the eye.)
Even so, we should not ignore “Trump’s decision to lift all remaining restrictions on the supply of essential weapons and ammunition to the State of Israel.” What does that mean?
It means that Trump is even more eager than Biden to provide Israel with the bombs and lethal weaponry they need to kill more women and children in Gaza. What else could it mean?
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Keep in mind, Trump’s supporters still believe they elected a non-interventionist who wants to end America’s destructive foreign wars, and yet, that clearly is not the case. Trump is not only the most Zionist president in US history ; he’s already given Netanyahu a green light to “finish the job” in Gaza and the West Bank; just as he is already on record saying that Israel should strike nuclear sites in Iran. He has repeatedly showed his willingness to provide ‘unconditional’ support for his constituents in Israel who—by the way—contributed $100 million to his presidential campaign. How much of that money will be spent promoting America’s interests?
Not a dime, I’d wager. Here’s more on Trump’s role in the ongoing genocide from Mondoweiss:
For Donald Trump, the agreement is less a diplomatic breakthrough than a carefully wrapped narrative gift. It hands him a clean storyline of triumph—the return of Israeli captives, the cessation of conflict—crafted perfectly to match his populist brand of politics. It slots seamlessly into the mythology of his presidency: the consummate dealmaker, the leader who succeeds where others fail, the disruptor who shakes the foundations of entrenched stalemates and deadly status quos. Gaza ceasefire reveals Israel’s fragility, and the transformative power of resistance, Mondoweiss
Trump knows what is expected of him and he will undoubtedly comply. Otherwise, Bibi’s allies on Capitol Hill will launch a third impeachment that will either terminate his presidency or derail his ambitious political agenda. In any event, it will be very hard to prevent the resumption of hostilities in Gaza mainly because key players in the current government are fully committed to the eradication of the native population. For example, Israeli Minister of finance Bezalel Smotrich stated the following on Army Radio:
I will bring down the government if it does not return to fighting in a way that [leads to us] taking over the entire Gaza Strip and governing it…. Israel “must occupy Gaza and create a temporary military government because there is no other way to defeat Hamas.”….
If I were the prime minister, I would tell the chief of staff, ‘This is my policy; if you don’t execute it, go home,’” Smotrich says. Times of Israel
What we’re trying to show is that a resumption of the killing and destruction is a near certainty. But that doesn’t mean that the ceasefire isn’t a significant victory for the Palestinians. It is! IMHO, Netanyahu never would have agreed to the truce had he anticipated the triumphalist celebrations that have taken place in Gaza along with the outpouring of sympathy and support from people around the world.
Israeli forces stormed the home of Palestinian hostage Zeina Barbar in Silwan, warning her family against celebrating her expected release on Sunday, enforcing Israel’s policy to suppress any “expression of joy within Israeli territory.”
The videos emerging from the warzone of abused women and children (even a 4-year-old for godsakes!) being released by heavily armed Israeli goons, is a propaganda coup that Bibi never expected. The imagery goes way beyond the confines of a territorial dispute that has persisted for more than 7 decades and speaks directly to the human spirit that seeks liberation whatever the cost. And the Palestinians have certainly paid that cost in full. Alon Mizrahi summed it up best in a comment he posted at X:
What is getting clearer at this unique moment, is that Hamas, a small Palestinian movement, defeated not only Israel, but the entire West. All of it. It won on the battlefield, and it won in public opinion. It managed to make spectacular use of its reading of Israeli mentality, and it employed every asset it had with extreme efficiency.
It won hearts for the Palestinian cause the world over.
It has not been destroyed or dismantled. It kept virtually every captive it took 6 months ago. It yielded to no pressure. It remains functional and lethal, in a besieged and bombed to oblivion tiny strip if land
History will judge the last six months as one of the most genius and unbelievable achievements in all military history. This is beyond unfathomable.
By waging this war this way, by not thinking or feeling, Israel made Hamas a legend of resistance that will live in cultural memory for ages.
No one believed they could pull this off. But they did. And they changed history forever. Palestine is never returning to the shadows again. Hamas won. Alon Mizrahi, Jewish Arab who no longer lives in Israel @alon_mizrahi
Beautifully stated. Bravo, Alon!
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
All images in this article are from TUR
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