Delusions about Gaza

The US and Israel will never be able to install new rulers to replace the Hamas government

With Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip now into its third week, its only ‘achievement’ so far has been to slaughter around 5,000 civilians, mostly women and children. The infrastructure of the resistance groups remains largely intact, other than the killing of one or two of Hamas’ civilian political leaders.

The occupation state has been stepping up its air raids on the besieged enclave inexorably, killing people at the rate of more than 300 per day, while its spokesmen say these massacres are a prelude to stage two: the ground invasion, whose launch has been repeatedly postponed.

Israel obviously has total control of the air thanks to its advanced US-supplied warplanes. The resistance cannot possibly confront that air war. But it is courageous and resolute, controls the ground and underground, and is preparing for an urban guerrilla war in which it would have the upper hand.

The US/Israeli bid to drive the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants into Egypt, which was pivotal to their war plans, has been foiled. Anthony Blinken tried to promote it in Arab capitals allied to the US but failed for two main reasons.

First, the Egyptian authorities’ utter rejection of the idea of dumping two million Palestinians into refugee camps in the Sinai Peninsula. The Egyptian people would never allow their cherished land to be used for that purpose, however, many billions of dollars were paid.

Secondly, the vast majority of the Gaza Strip’s people refuse to leave and re-enact the 1946 Nakba. They don’t trust the Arab states to ensure they could ever return. Some have moved from the northern part of the enclave to the southern part in response to Israeli threats to annihilate them.

But they will not cross the border into Egypt whatever the inducements and however ferocious Israel’s murderous attacks get. Many have returned to their homes in the north, or their ruins, to await their fate there.

Israeli media report that the Netanyahu government is to set up tent cities in Eilat on the Red Sea to take in Jewish evacuees from the settlements around Gaza. If confirmed, that would be an ironic turning of the tables: the attempted ‘transfer’ of Palestinians is turning into a transfer of settlers from both southern and northern occupied Palestine, after the evacuation of several towns and settlements in Galilee.

The US is meanwhile enhancing its military readiness in the Eastern Mediterranean. After dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups and vast quantities of artillery shells and bunker-busting bombs, it announced on Sunday that it would also send more Patriot and THAAD missile batteries to the region. There are two reasons for this. To provide protection and reassurance to the Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine. And to defend US military bases in Iraq and Syria that have been coming under almost daily attack from components of the Axis of Resistance, amid fears that Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansarullah, and Iraq’s Hashd ash-Shaabi could join the battle, expanding it exponentially.

The assumptions and calculations of the US and Israel about this war on Gaza and its aftermath have all been proven wrong, with disastrous implications for the occupation state and the US’ presence in the region. Hamas, which Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to annihilate and exterminate, is still holding fast in its tunnels while firing off rockets at Tel Aviv. The expulsion scheme was foiled at an early stage. And the mass kiling of children and bombing of hospitals has wrecked the image of the US and Israel, the West in general, in the eyes of the world, unmasking their pretence to be champions of human rights. Global public opinion is changing, and a regional war is looming that the US can never win. The scenes we saw a Kabul airport may soon be repeated at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Most bizarre of all have been reports that the US and Israel are considering the formation of an interim government in the Gaza Strip to take over from the Hamas government, even before the ground invasion has begun. This is a pipe dream. All the indications are that Hamas’ popularity has grown since its audacious attack on the Israeli military outposts and settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip. No Palestinian party — whether from inside Gaza or outside (the Palestinian Authority) — would dare have any part in an administration installed by Israel’s genocidal assault.

Even if Israel does not face a regional war, it will face a protracted urban guerrilla war in which, despite the delusional boasts of its generals, its losses will outweigh its gains. It was defeated and driven out twice before when it attempted to invade the Strip and will be defeated a third time. And just as the resistance struck the surrounding bases and settlements so powerfully and unexpectedly, it will be able to strike again. The resistance groups have developed their military capabilities, and still have many surprises in store.

Delusions about Gaza