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Gaza Triumphed and Has Every Right To Celebrate
Gaza has every right to celebrate. Likewise, all the Palestinian people and Arab and Islamic nations have the right as well to not only celebrate the end of the aggression, but its victory and defeat of the aggression and all those who supported or were involved in it. That includes, especially, the Arabs who were involved, either by remaining suspiciously silent or by waiting eagerly for Netanyahu’s planes and tanks to crush the most honourable phenomenon in this nation; the phenomenon of resistance and steadfastness.
The resistance, including all of its factions, were victorious because they spread fear throughout the entire 51 days in the hearts of six million Israelis who spent most of their time in bomb shelters for fear of the rockets that were falling on them like rain. This has not been achieved by any other Arab government.
The resistance also triumphed because it achieved a balanced deterrence and displayed the ability to expertly and efficiently manage the battle in an unprecedented manner, stunning the Israelis as well as their Arab friends.
Israel has become accustomed to one of two things during most of the previous wars, either for the Arabs to surrender and wave the white flag and retreat after the first Israeli raid, or for the Arab citizens to flee in a mass migration to the nearest safe areas.
The opposite of what usually happened in Israel’s previous wars occurred during this war, and herein lies the miracle. The resistance never raised the white flag in surrender, nor were they intimidated by the American-made F-16 aircrafts and latest destructive Israeli arsenal. In addition to this, the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip did not leave home, nor would they have even if every crossing in the world was open, nor did they try to break the cordon imposed on them by the Egyptians because they decided to become martyrs while standing on the ruins and rubble of their homes.
The Israeli settlers in the settlements north of Gaza are the ones who fled and left their homes out of fear and intimidation after the Nahal Oz operation, which shook all of Israel’s military defensive theories when the resistance soldiers came at them from under the ground by means of tunnels and killed the Israeli soldiers, all the while calmly recording their heroic operation, as if they were on a picnic.
This victory was achieved not only by the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and its resistance, but also by the negotiators who courageously and firmly resisted all the pressures put on them and remained committed to their legitimate demands of lifting the siege, opening the crossings, eliminating the border buffer zone in which agriculture is banned, extending the fishing zone to 12 miles, and postponing discussions over the seaport and airport for later sessions.
Netanyahu has fallen and his political future ended, wreathed with shame. This is Gaza, who defeated Alexander the Great, and just as they defeated his predecessor Olmert, they have defeated Netanyahu and his government in a degrading and humiliating defeat.
What will Netanyahu say to the Israeli settlers to whom he made a promise to stop the resistance rockets that target them and haunt them forever and which continued to rain down on them until the final minutes of the ceasefire and how will he justify his failure to destroy the resistance’s tunnels, disarm them and completely eliminate them?
It is not strange for the cabinet ministers to be divided over accepting or opposing the ceasefire, as they realised that they are walking away defeated and that their constituents will be throwing shoes at them because this war did not achieve any of its goals. Instead, they came out as war criminals who will soon be chased by the international police in order to be brought before the International Criminal Court.
Israel lost the world public opinion, or at least most of it, and will definitely not be able to mislead the public opinion in the future, as it had always done. The entire world witnessed, both visually and in audio, the remains of children whose homes were bombed, the elderly whose shelters were demolished, and the hospitals that were destroyed while the wounded were in them; pictures don’t lie.
Those who developed these rockets and engineered these tunnels and who upheld their nerves of steel throughout the 51 days of aggression are the heroes of Gaza. The heroes also remained honourable and upheld the highest ethics of war, not killing even one Israeli child, limiting their killing to soldiers, unlike the civil soldiers who only preyed on children.
The leaders of the resistance and their men in Gaza were victorious because they gained their military skills from the academies of dignity, self-esteem, and perseverance, and not from the academies of disappointment, cowardice, and fear of the enemy, from which the Arab leaders, their sons, and fake-medal holding army generals graduated.
Thank you to the people of Gaza and thank you to the martyrs and the wounded who taught us the true meaning of sacrifice for the sake of our homeland, just as they have taught us the meaning of self-dependence and refusal to resort to the Arab leaders and their armies who they had believed had a shred of pride and dignity left in them.
Thank you to the Gazan woman who said she was from the courageous neighbourhood of Shujaya that was destroyed by Israeli aircraft, and who lost her home and her beloved children, neighbours, and relatives; the woman who represents all the mothers, sisters and grandmothers of the martyrs, who despite all of this, came out to celebrate and salute the resistance and its men for this victory that they made possible with their lives, blood, and steadfastness.
Congratulations to Gaza on this victory, which will be a prelude to an even bigger victory. The rockets are present and the minds that developed these rockets, engineered the tunnels, and planned and led the battles are still present and will stun Israel with new miracles even more dangerous than the ones they surprised Israel with during the latest attack.
The culture of the resistance is back and stronger than ever and a new generation of resistance leaders have strongly emerged from the rubble. This generation will certainly erase all that came before it and will remove all of the “dinosaurs” from their way, leading the nation to restore all of its legitimate rights from the river to the sea and to establishing a unified tolerant state in which everyone can co-exist within a framework of justice and equality.
Gaza triumphed because they deserved this victory during a time in which there have been many defeats and during which conspiracies have grown within this nation and faith. Once again, I thank Gaza, its people, its martyrs, and every grain of sand on its beach that witnessed all the defeats of the invaders throughout the centuries.
Middle East Monitor
Abdel Bari Atwan