Who Won the Israel-Hamas War?
A genuine question
Thank you to Jill for allowing the JPF to republish this article which first appeared in The Liberal Jew.
This was written BEFORE the Trump exit plan for Gaza. I’m fairly confident if this plan comes to fruition, then Israel have ‘won’ the war. The main objective was to rid Gaza of Hamas and this plan would go a long way to achieving that goal.
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Who Won the Israel-Hamas War?
Now that Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement for the return of the hostages (and thank God), I think we can confidently say that we are in the wrap-up phase of this terrible war. It was the longest war in Israel’s history, and the deadliest (measured by total deaths from both sides combined). At this point, we still have more questions than answers about the ceasefire deal. How many of the hostages on the release list are actually alive? For the ones who are returned alive, what will their condition be after over 450 days in hell? Who is going to run Gaza after the war? I’m not sure we are going to like most of the answers when they reveal themselves in the coming weeks.
But there’s also a question that I think many of us are overlooking, but nonetheless is important to address: who won this war?
This is not a rhetorical question. Wars should always end with clear winners and losers, with the winners recognizing that they defeated the loser, and the loser openly admitting defeat. Case-in-point: the Nazis post-WWII.
The problem is that Hamas has not formally surrendered; they’ve agreed to a ceasefire that involves Israel releasing over 1000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for maybe 33 live Israeli hostages. It means that Israel values the lives of their own so much more than Hamas values theirs, they’re willing to risk their future security by releasing dangerous criminals—including convicted murderers—to rescue their innocents. Hamas has not been completely defeated, despite that being a stated Israeli goal. You can imagine my consternation when I began seeing videos like the following from Gaza after the ceasefire plan was announced:
When numerous people celebrate a top (now dead) Hamas militant as their reaction to a ceasefire, that’s a strong indication that we are nowhere near the lasting peace that many hope a ceasefire should bring. When I showed the video to my Israeli friends, they responded with the brush-off. “This is how Arabs always act when they lose.” Well, okay. But what about when the declaration of a Hamas victory comes not from an Arab dictatorship, but from the West?
Take the reaction of American Nerdeen Kiswani, a domestic terror supporter who I believe to be a certified sociopath, to the ceasefire agreement:
I know many might advise the “just ignore her” method for something like this, but this woman has millions of followers and numerous sheep who follow her around the streets of NYC to demonstrate on behalf of anti-western terrorist organizations. So like it or not, she’s an influential public figure, in a major American city. Let’s unpack this lunacy line-by-line.
“Gaza won”? Does it look like Gaza won?
“Imperialism and Zionism have lost.” Those are 2 totally different concepts, only one of which actually applies to this conflict. I can’t speak to “imperialism” because it doesn’t apply in this situation, however Zionism hasn’t lost because last I checked the State of Israel still exists, and it thrives despite everything Hamas and their Iranian-backed terrorist friends tried to do to it.
“The Democratic Party has lost.” Yes, we know that they lost the last election; that’s old news. Is Nerdeen happy about that? I get that she would have preferred Jill Stein, but since she’s gloating about the Democrats losing in the context of their handling of the war, does she find it preferable that Trump is taking over?
“The future of the Zionist state continues to be eroded.” Nope. People like her might fantasize about ridding the world of Israel, but it hasn’t happened yet. Hamas started a war, got the entire territory they governed for 17 years demolished courtesy of the IDF, endangered two million of their own civilians, and whined like pathetic victims the entire time as they saw that no other Arab countries mobilized to back them in any real way. None of that had the effect of “eroding” the Zionist state.
“Everyone who participated, aided and abetted this genocide will continue to pay the price.” This coming from someone who has yelled “ceasefire now” incessantly for 15 months. Is she saying that she no longer wants a ceasefire—since, you know, she wants the opposition to “continue paying the price”? I think it goes without saying that should Hamas break the ceasefire, Israel will respond. If she and her domestic terrorist friends continue targeting Jews in the USA, the authorities both in on-the-ground law enforcement and on social media will deal with them accordingly. That’s how it works.
If we are going to take Nerdeen’s declaration a step further: if “Palestine won,” does that mean that there is no longer famine, genocide, or deaths from hypothermia in 65-degree weather in Gaza, as has been reported daily since the war broke out? If so, can she tell Al Jazeera to stop reporting that—since they won?
I’m glad that the hostages, however many are still alive, are coming home and that the war is (ostensibly) wrapping up. Certainly, we can debate the merits of the ceasefire deal and whether or not it lends itself to a lasting truce. But no one outside of Israel/Gaza should be arguing over about who the winners are. Which leads me to the 1000-prisoner question:
No one won, sadly. As long as there is Hamas, there will be atrocities occurring. As long as there are Jews, there will be Jew haters. This is a truth.
Absolutely agree no one wins wars, we all lose. Some lose more than others.