The 51-day Israeli war may not result in a paradigm shift so far as regional
politics is concerned. At least, not yet. Its lasting impact, however, can
already be felt in the collective mentality of Palestinians and Israelis, who
are beginning to realise that despite the massive death toll and destruction
caused by the Israeli war, something fundamental has changed. And it is the kind
of transformation that simply cannot be measured in numbers.
Netanyahu’s war was the Israeli leadership’s attempt to capitalise on Hamas’s
purported decline. It was, perhaps, the last push that the group needed for it
to completely collapse. “Operation Protective Edge” was most destructive,
genocidal even, not simply because it was about killing as many Palestinians as
possible, but because it was meant to be the war that would eliminate Hamas from
the political equation and allow Netanyahu to once more set the agenda without
any interference or resistance. But the war was a disaster. It failed miserably.
The Israeli army was held back by a unified Palestinian resistance front. It
lost 64 soldiers, while hundreds more were injured. It cost the Israeli economy
billions of dollars. And the war to end Hamas gave birth to the strongest
Palestinian resistance front ever.
When the war ended on August 26, Netanyahu, the keen politician who insisted on defining the political discourse of any war or major political event, simply disappeared. Two days later, he held a press conference in which he declared that Israel had “won”. But both Israelis and Palestinians disagreed. His approval ratings simply collapsed, down from 82 per cent on July 23, to less than 38 per cent shortly after the ceasefire announcement. According to a poll conducted shortly after the ceasefire announcement and reported in Israel’s Jerusalem Post, 54 per cent of Israelis believed they lost the war.
On the other hand, numbers among Palestinians have dramatically shifted as well. According to PCPSR, 61 per cent of Palestinians would now vote for Haniyeh, a huge climb from few weeks earlier; 94 per cent were satisfied with the resistance’s military performance; and, more astoundingly, 79 per cent said that Palestinian resistance had “won” the war.
When the war ended on August 26, Netanyahu, the keen politician who insisted on defining the political discourse of any war or major political event, simply disappeared. Two days later, he held a press conference in which he declared that Israel had “won”. But both Israelis and Palestinians disagreed. His approval ratings simply collapsed, down from 82 per cent on July 23, to less than 38 per cent shortly after the ceasefire announcement. According to a poll conducted shortly after the ceasefire announcement and reported in Israel’s Jerusalem Post, 54 per cent of Israelis believed they lost the war.
On the other hand, numbers among Palestinians have dramatically shifted as well. According to PCPSR, 61 per cent of Palestinians would now vote for Haniyeh, a huge climb from few weeks earlier; 94 per cent were satisfied with the resistance’s military performance; and, more astoundingly, 79 per cent said that Palestinian resistance had “won” the war.
