Ebrahim Moosa | Palestine Information Network
April 2024
“Has Hamas won?” This was the question posed in an op-ed for the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, on April 9, by Sir Tom Phillips, a former British diplomat who served as Ambassador to the Zionist State from 2006-10.
Hamas has flipped the script of a militarily invincible Israel and exposed the fragility of its international support, prompting hard questions about its long-term sustainability, Phillips synopsised.
On the ground in Gaza, “Hamas has also already demonstrated that it is a force to be reckoned with, merely by surviving the IDF [Israeli army] onslaught for longer than any war Israel has ever fought,” Phillips observed.
Regionally, he noted, the effects of the Hamas resistance operation had, at least for the moment, created an effective roadblock in the way of Saudi-Israeli normalization. Furthermore, the appetite among other nations for signing up to the Abraham Accords or anything like them had been greatly reduced.
“The crisis has demonstrated America’s waning ability to call the shots in the region and created space for others to seek to expand their influence,” Phillips added.
The resistance and the subsequent genocide has also had the effect of catapulting the Palestinian issue squarely back onto the international map, with a wave of previously indecisive countries now actively considering whether the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state.
“Indeed,” Phillips surmised, “the head-spinning speed of Israel’s post October 7 delegitimization in the eyes of many in the world can be seen as further evidence of Hamas’s “victory.””
Six months into the Gaza genocide, assessments of Israeli failure akin to these of Phillips are hardly the exception.
Also in Ha’aretz, Israeli journalist Chaim Levinson, on April 11, painted a sombre picture of chronic Israeli lies about progress, and ever-shifting military timelines.
“Rafah is the newest bluff that the mouthpieces are plying to fool us and make us think that victory is just moments away. By the time they enter Rafah, the actual event will have lost its significance. There may be an incursion, perhaps a tiny one, sometime – say in May. After that, they’ll peddle the next lie, that all we have to do is ________ (fill in the blank), and victory will be on its way. The reality is that the war’s aims will not be achieved. Hamas will not be eradicated. The hostages will not be returned through military pressure. Security will not be re-established,” Levinson wrote.
“The more the mouthpieces shout that “we’re winning,” the clearer it is that we’re losing. Lying is their craft. We need to get used to that. Life is less secure than before October 7. The beating we took will sting for years to come. The international ostracism won’t go away. And, of course, the dead won’t be coming back. Nor will many of the hostages.”
This sense of Israeli failure is affirmed by the reports of consistent resistance achievements from the ground.
On April 7, Israeli military spokespersons announced the withdrawal of ground forces from the southern Gaza Strip, after a presence lasting four months. At the same time, the Al-Qassam Brigades released footage of what it called the ‘Ambush of the Righteous,’ a daring surprise attack on invading Israeli soldiers and vehicles on the afternoon of the 27th of Ramadan in the Al-Zana area, east of Khan Younis. Al-Qassam said 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in the incident.
Following the Israeli army’s withdrawal from Khan Younis, Hamas was reported to regain control over this largest city in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli journalist Amos Harel, the army withdrawal came without its two main goals of the Khan Younis operation being achieved, namely, the capture of top Hamas officials, and the rescue of the Israeli captives currently held by the Palestinian Resistance.
“The public should be told the truth: The enormous death and destruction the IDF [Israeli army] is leaving behind in Gaza, alongside quite a few losses on our side, aren’t currently bringing us any closer to achieving the war’s goals,” Harel said.
As significant as these indicators may be, Israeli failures and their long term repercussions should be considered even more broadly than just the battles being fought within Gaza.
An international isolation of Israel and Israelis is unquestionably deepening. Just one measure of this came from a recent survey of Israeli academics whose accounts of cancellation of invitations to conferences, freezing on their appointments in foreign institutions, rejection of scientific articles on political grounds, disruption of lectures internationally, and cessation of collaborative efforts with academics abroad, led observers to conclude that Israel is feeling the brunt of an unprecedented academic boycott, which is only gathering momentum.
As one Israeli academic recounted being told by a European colleague, “I don’t intend to work with you ever again. It’s not a temporary thing. You are committing genocide in Gaza.'”
The Israeli genocide has also stirred up a hornet’s nest of dissatisfaction in the wider region that is likely to outlive even any onset of relative calm in Gaza.
A mood of revolt in countries surrounding Palestine is now contagious, just as it was at the start of the Arab Spring, observes Middle East Eye editor-in-chief David Hearst. “The rallies in Amman are echoed by mass demonstrations in Morocco and the syndicates in Cairo. The dictators who suppressed the Arab Spring are worried and have begun giving each other support.
“It’s clear what is happening, and what will happen if Israel is allowed to continue this war for another six months.”