Who won the Israel-Hamas war? In the wake of last week’s open-ended truce agreement, perhaps now is the right time to seek an answer to that question (though given Hamas’ propensity for breaking ceasefire agreements, it must be noted we may not have actually reached the finale yet).
For Israel, there are significant reasons to claim victory. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) proved more than capable of neutralizing Hamas fighters and destroying the terror organization’s infrastructure, including the vast network of tunnels it spent the last few years building. In recent weeks, the Shin Bet has shown an uncanny ability to track terror leaders, and eliminate them given appropriate circumstances.
Israel’s ability to deter terrorists was further cemented by the Iron Dome, which parried hundreds of rockets aimed at major civilian centres. And while life in the south of Israel understandably drew to a halt under incessant fire, the rest of the country hummed along throughout the six-plus weeks of war. In their own unique way, Israelis displayed grace under fire once again.
On the other side of the border, Hamas leaders have declared the war a win, too, although with much less credibility than the Israelis. Thousands of Palestinians are dead, while Gaza is in ruins and will take years to rebuild, no matter how much aid comes pouring in. On top of that, Hamas failed to wrest any of the concessions it sought from Israel and seemingly took a back seat to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during negotiations brokered by Egypt (from which it also received few privileges).
Gazans are surely hesitant to question their overlords’ proclamations of victory – given Hamas’ predilection for summarily executing alleged Israeli (and Fatah) collaborators – but a few have begun to ask questions aloud. And to some extent, the media war has shifted in recent weeks, with less talk of alleged Israeli war crimes and a new focus on comparisons between Hamas and ISIS. It takes a warped worldview to deem any of this a victory for Hamas.
Still, it’s not so cut and dried. After all, while the truce does not immediately offer Hamas any of its demands, neither does it herald the adoption of one of Israel’s key planks: the demilitarization of Gaza. Without that assurance, there is every reason to believe Hamas will spend the coming months and years re-arming for yet another battle. Meanwhile, the deaths of 65 IDF soldiers, not to mention the three youths kidnapped and murdered at the start of the conflict, have left a gaping hole in the hearts of Israelis. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval rating is tumbling in the wake of the ambiguous way the war apparently concluded. Outside Israel, a significant spike in anti-Semitism can be directly attributed to this war and shows no signs of abating in Europe.
All of which begs the question: how do you decisively defeat a terrorist organization like Hamas? Or, more accurately, how do you do so without also harming yourself? On the face of it, there is no new answer to that fundamental question – and until one is found, definitions of winners and losers will remain murky at best. n — YONI