What one is witnessing these days in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria brings up the memories of 1967 and before. It is a Deja Vu. Although this time the Arab rout is not quick, the results so far are equally if not more disastrous.
The war in Gaza though gone on for a year is very one-sided, with Israel committing genocide by all standards including the judgments of the International Criminal Court and Amnesty. The results speak for themselves, more than 45000 are dead already in Gaza and almost 40-50 are being killed every day. Hundreds of thousands have been injured. All 2.1 million Gazans have been made homeless and their territory reduced to rubble. Israel is building in the middle of Gaza a military post for a permanent occupation of the territory.
The West Bank is faring not much better. More than 700 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, and thousands injured and imprisoned. Jewish settlements are appropriating land pushing out the inhabitants.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has failed to protect its people and land from settlements, arrests, and killings/injuries. President Mahmud Abbas is a pathetic figure dependent on Israel for revenue, services, and even personal travel. The authority is a fig leaf of Israeli occupation. It should have long ago folded itself, forcing Israel to absorb 3.3 million Palestinians and precipitating Israel’s nightmare of a majority of Palestinians in its population.
Though Hezbollah’s rockets on northern Israel displaced 60,000 residents, Israel has driven more than one million Lebanese from their homes. It has systematically eliminated its leadership and smashed its organisation. It has destroyed parts of Beirut and other cities and occupied a swath of southern Lebanon.
The leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah have proven to be unprepared for Israeli reaction to the October 2023 attack across Gaza. Yet both continue to claim their imagined successes. Their patron Iran’s strategy of building an arc of resistance has failed miserably. It has lost most of what it organised in the Middle East. Yet like 1967, the proclamations of pyrrhic victory continue. Can one believe that there have been victory parades after the ceasefire in Lebanon? Tehran Times described the Lebanese ceasefire as a success for Hezbollah. Incidentally, Israel has already violated the ceasefire about 50 times without a peep from the US and France, the guarantors of the ceasefire, or much response from Hezbollah.
The fight between Israel and Palestinians / Arabs remains a classic case of the modern and systematic mode of thought pitched against perceptions framed by self-satisfying slogans and illusionary perceptions
The Hamas’ October 7th attack has turned out to be daring but delusionary to consequences. Once again Palestinians did not fully prepare for Israel’s response. Their beliefs about Israeli reactions were more self-serving than what the experience suggested. The cult of martyrdom has overwhelmed thoughtful assessment of the Israeli response. Now the overthrow of Assad’s regime in Syria has given Israel another opportunity to destroy the armaments, navy, and air force of the country on its borders, completing the circle of domination.
The Syrian air force was good at bombing its citizens but in almost 30 years it offered no resistance to Israel’s air attacks. Now it has been turned into ashes. Its patrons Iran and Russia have disappeared from the scene. Israel has remade the neighbourhood into a wasteland of resistance.
The events of 2024 are a re-enactment of Arabs' performance in 1948,56,67. Initial loud proclamations of coming victories have been followed by rout and defeat in all cases. The fight between Israel and Palestinians / Arabs remains a classic case of the modern and systematic mode of thought pitched against perceptions framed by self-satisfying slogans and illusionary perceptions.
Israel on its part is also consistent in its behaviour. It has dehumanised Palestinians and denied their identity. Golda Meir, the fourth Israeli prime minister, maintained that there was no nationality as Palestinians, only Arabs. It is not uncommon to call Palestinians ‘animals’. This theme underlies the Israeli policy of branding Palestinian resistance as terrorism. Even the treaties that it signed, the Oslo Accord, for example, have meant nothing more than maneuvers to gain time.
Israel violates laws of war and humanitarian responsibilities with the support of its backers the US and Europe. It wantonly kills and imprisons Palestinians and bombs them in their homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques/churches, branding all such actions as the pursuit of terrorists, which its Western supporters accept without seeking any evidence.
Israel’s power derives from its own organisational and technological superiority, the US stands with it in all its actions, and European countries have provided material and political support
This has been both its rhetoric and strategy. It has maintained a kill ratio of 1 to 50 or more in its fights with Arabs. Israel has systematically pursued its aim of capturing the whole of Palestine, including the West Bank. It is going about this aim methodically, creating a 21st-century apartheid state by keeping Palestinians living under its control segregated economically, physically, and in public services.
Israel acts with imagination and a scientific approach. Its reach extends to Syria, Iraq, and Iran, while Jordan, Egypt, and UAE have been neutralised with diplomatic recognition. They often cooperate with Israel now. It wants to live by intimidating Arabs into submission and is succeeding so far. The domination of Israel in the Middle East at this moment is unchallenged.
Of course, Israel’s power derives from its own organisational and technological superiority, the US stands with it in all its actions, and European countries have provided material and political support. Arabs’ supporters have not stood by them in hours of their need, nor will they do for Iran as it becomes the target of Israel and Trump’s America.
The Western support of Israel is a condition that has remained consistent for decades. It is a given of the situation. Palestinians and their sympathisers’ challenge is not to just lament them as a basis of helplessness but to find ways of advancing their interests despite these conditions.
How might Palestinians/Arabs break this pattern of tall claims and piteous results? Not aiming to articulate a strategy, some basic points of the approach can be suggested. First, Palestinians/Arabs must have realistic goals. Israel now has 76 years of history. Most of its population is born there. Hard as it may be, Palestinians have to act on this fact and discourage unrealistic slogans. They should set their sights on a viable two-state solution.
Second, Palestinians/Arabs should put their house in order, promoting dialogue among various factions and encouraging democratic institutions. They should reduce Israel’s capability of penetrating their organisations through planted informants. It will also necessitate cultivating more technical competence to understand and block Israel’s electronic spying.
Third, Palestinians/Arabs should draw on the support of sympathetic publics in the US, Europe, and progressive factions in Israel. They may rely on civil disobedience, commercial boycotts, peaceful resistance, and inducing Arab states to put economic and diplomatic pressure. This strategy will require discipline and restraining tendencies to lash out of frustrations.
Finally, at times when armed resistance is unavoidable for defence, it must be well-thought-out with full cognisance of anticipating Israeli responses. Most of all, Palestinians/Arabs need to develop air defences ( e.g. anti-aircraft missiles) to protect against Israel’s aerial bombing.
All in all, to break out of these cyclical patterns of defeat, Palestinians/Arabs must act with realism, based on facts on the ground, and democratically evolving strategies for realising self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. No more Nakbas (losing homes and land) should be their goal.