The implementation of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip provided a reminder of the armistice that ended World War I: the guns fell silent, and there was a strange slience over the battlefront. In the same way, the scream of Israeli jets overhead, and the thud of Isrtaeli canon, stopped. In a way, that reflected the inequality of the conflict. In 1918, even though they had lost, the Germans kept on firing their guns. Hamas had nothing to fire to reply to the Israeli gunfire and bombing runs. However, the ceasefire could be seen as a victory of sorts, for Hamas had shown that a ragtag bunch of militants could take on the vaunted Israeli Defence Force, and, as it did on 7 October 2023, and inflict damage on the Israeli polity, in a way that none of the Arab armies had been able to do in their clashes with the IDF in the 20th century. However, this then resulted in a terrible price, with over 46,000 Gazan civilians being killed.
Some would see this as Israeli hubris, because before the initial attack, the Netanyahu government was claiming that it had forced the Arab world to recognize it, and had thus secured Israel. However, the attack showed that Jews were not safe, even if the Israeli government might be. The tigerish ferocity of the Israeli response rapidly turned the opinion of the Arab street against Israel, and an expected wave of Arab states giving it recognition, to have been led by Saudi Arabia, fizzled out. Another consequence has been the appearance of cracks in the wall of unstinted Western support for Israel, especially among young people. As that support was crucial to Israel, it now seems impermanent, showing that the Holocaust guilt which caused that support is now fading.
Another problem that Israel faces is that it now faces a generation of Gazans which has been through the most horrendous slaughter. As Israel only too well knows, any attempt at genocide that leaves behind survivors only creates future seekers for justice. Handing the administration to the PLO, prisoner exchanges, will not stop young Gazans joining any organization that supports Palestinian freedom. After all, that is why they supported Hamas. There is no guarantee that this ceasefire will last. Even if it does, there is nothing to guarantee that the Palestinian people will stay suppressed.
