by Mike Whitney, The Unz Review:
Everything we attempted to do has failed. We could not destroy Hamas or the Palestinians. We were powerless in preventing the Syrian revolution. We killed Nasrallah but failed to destroy Hizballah. We most certainly did not destroy the Houthis. We lost. Ori Goldberg
On one hand, the ceasefire agreement appears to be the worst deal that Hamas could have made. But on the other hand, the agreement helps to show that—after 16 months of nonstop slaughter and destruction—Israel has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives nor has it dampened the spirits of the indomitable Palestinians. On top of that, Israel has exposed itself as a thoroughly immoral rogue regime without a trace of humanity. This is how Abdal Jawad Omar summed it up at Mondoweiss:
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The war has laid bare…. Israel’s racialized supremacy, its monstrous capacity for destruction, and its deeply entangled web of ideological, psychic, and political investments in erasure and domination. This is not merely a conflict of arms but a revelation of the structures that sustain and perpetuate the machinery of violence. The war has exposed the exceptionalism surrounding Israel—not only in granting the state impunity, not only in silencing and suppressing dissent across Europe and North America, not only within academic institutions, or mainstream media but in its brazen ability to commit crimes live on air.
For Palestinians, this capacity is viewed through a bitter lens—it is seen as an Israeli strength. After all, Israel is presented as a state that can get away with anything, a reality as oppressive as the violence itself. Yet , it is also this very exceptionalism, this enforced limit on discourse, that calls attention to Israel’s unmasking as a Jewish supremacist and settler-colonial state. Gaza ceasefire reveals Israel’s fragility, and the transformative power of resistance, Mondoweiss
Still—even though Israel’s public image has been forever tarnished—the present agreement does not bode well for the Palestinians either. First of all, there is no incentive for Israel to implement all three phases of the deal. Once the 33 Israeli hostages are returned, Netanyahu can simply terminate the agreement and resume the onslaught. Which is precisely what his supporters expect him to do. Take a look at this clip from the Israeli daily Haaretz:
Here’s more on the same topic from Trump’s hawkish national security advisor Mike Waltz:
“We’ve been clear, that Gaza has to be fully demilitarized, Hamas has to be destroyed to the point that it cannot reconstitute, and that Israel has every right to fully protect itself. All of those objectives are still very much in place…..Hamas cannot have a role in governing Gaza. These are hostage-taking, murderous, torturers that should never have any role in governing….. We’ll never get to a better future until we carve out this cancer.” @mtracey :26 seconds
And here’s how uber-Zionist Ben Shapiro explained it on X:
Notes on the hostage deal:
1. It is a hostage deal, NOT an end of war deal. Phase I allows for the release of 33 hostages; it is not clear how many are alive, but some reports suggest 23.
2. Again, the ceasefire is almost certainly temporary. It is not a permanent end to the war. Phase II is, in my opinion, highly unlikely ever to materialize given how many hostages Hamas retains and given that Hamas will never disarm or agree to exile.
3. The deal does not force Israel to alter deployment along the Philadelphi Corridor (border between Gaza and Egypt).
So, what does all of this mean?
First, that some hostages will come home alive. This is an unmitigated good.
It would have been excellent to get more hostages out, but that option was presumably unavailable given Hamas’ radical intransigence and the waning health of many of the hostages.
Second, that the war will continue until Hamas has no control over Gaza. Trump’s nominees have said as much; so has the Israeli government.
The Trump team squared this circle. The Biden team undoubtedly wanted a permanent end to the conflict as a condition of hostage release.
Team Trump presumably told Hamas that wasn’t going to happen, and that this was the best deal they were likely to get. Ben Shapiro@benshapiro
So, in Shapiro’s estimation, Trump gave more away to Netanyahu than even Biden. (Biden wanted a permanent end to the conflict as a condition of hostage release whereas Trump rejected that demand.) This suggests that Trump is not going to use the leverage of his office to stop Israel’s year-and-a-half-long killing spree. In fact, Netanyahu admitted as much in a public statement delivered just hours before the ceasefire began. Here’s what he said:
