Opinion |
It Is Not Hamas That Is Collapsing, but Israel
Some argue that withdrawing army forces from Gaza after signing a hostage deal with Hamas would be the same as being defeated and surrendering. They argue that it will return, like a boomerang, in the form of another attack by Hamas and the casualties will be 10 times those we suffered on October 7.
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10
Edele
20:29Eh sorry I don't think repairing international relations is an option, you've just committed a child holocaust.
9
Tamroi
23:30 04.09.2024Israel now has no friends.
As this continues, more and more individuals, especially we Jews abroad, are becoming acutely conscious that zionism is and always has been deeply cruel to Palestine, If Israel were ever kind to the Canaanites, jews would be loved. Instead virtually everyone around the World is becoming justifiably anti-semitic -- including we jews.
8
Margaret
19:43 04.09.2024Shlomo Sand wrote in his book, "The Invention of the Jewish People," his own suspicions that the Palestinians are most likely the indigenous Jews who never left the land. Anyone listening carefully to the prayers of the Muslim women in Gaza would have detected words that confirm they were the indigenous Jews who became Muslim. They will never submit to a Jewish state established by foreigners who have evicted them from their lands. The land is everything to them. They know it is a matter of time, that one day Israel will cease to exist as a supremacist Jewish state.
7
Scoop
07:30 04.09.2024Gen. Brik, your tone recognises that Israel is already defeated. Has always been. Could it ever possibly have won? Let's dispense with the falsehood that Israel is legitimate. Legitimacy does not come simply through declaring yourself "moral and just". There has to be at least a thread of truth supporting your moral claims. Zionism is a lie. And don't complain to me, a Palestinian, about this solid truth. I could be lying. Consult the countless anti-Zionist Jews who say so. Who show us that Zionism is anathema to Judaism, and has inflicted an "inner damage" that you now so keenly feel. Answer them. As one of your former soldiers Meital Yaniv, now anti-Zionist organizer has declared: "I want to bring the Israeli identity and Israeli state to a loving and caring death for the liberation of the land of Palestine." It would seem better for you to work towards that loving death than allow it to die agonised. Or collapse, as you put it.
6
Chaim Ben-Yehuda
06:19 04.09.2024There is a sort of bedrock sanity and accuracy to this article.
It will require some relatively peaceful time for Israel to recover from the trauma of the Oct. 7 massacre...
and the counter massacre where Israel has killed 41,000 people, perhaps 15,000-18,000 of them legitimate enemies, but 23,000 to 26,000 civilians, who were just sheltering in schools or hospitals, or at home having coffee, when the Israeli-American bombs fell on them.
Israel should pay some attention to the sane old warrior who authored this article.
5
Terez
01:52 04.09.2024It is an old truth that it is impossible to live happily if you have bought it with the suffering of others.The longer your callousness lasts and the greater the agony of the aggrieved, the worse the price you will pay .Why is it that the Israelis have never understood this.The huge booty they have secured is poisoned...
Reply to comment
Poisoned booty
04:41 04.09.2024TerezYes indeed. And the pirates are sick. Sometimes they rave like lunatics. They lash out. They hate each other. They go abroad and to the beach. They watch Reality TV. They put their government spokespeople in front of TV cameras with the sole purpose of bringing down upon themselves worldwide derision. They aspire to being the New Sparta, but don't know what to do with their ultra-orthodox non-combatants. The brightest amongst them jump ship. Their learned journalists speak endlessly of the urgent need to change the occupants of the deckchairs. And all the while they keep chained in the bilge, on weevily bread and befouled water, their brethren seafarers. And they are not happy. The booty is poisoned, but they only want more of it.
4
Roberto S
21:45 03.09.2024Maj Gen Brik is presenting a concrete proposal that is relevant and urgent TODAY NOW THIS MINUTE. Is it useful to dismiss him unless he does a long mea culpa ceremony for the misdeeds and crimes of Zionism? And I do not dispute these crimes, which have been well documented, not only by the handful of anti-Zionist Jews that you mention. Unfortunately, the "legitimacy" of Israel has become a rhetorical trade off in the Israel/Palestine conflict, which has also become a platform for a host of dogmatic moralists (anti-Zionists and Zionists) who dismiss any positive development that fails to fulfill an absolute moral purity standard that fits the "right" ideology. Maj. Gen. Brik's proposal will not solve a 100 year conflict, but the current war must end and his call for action is a welcome step in accomplishing this task. Any step that contributes to the best possible political agreement in this conflict is legitimate.
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Maj. Gen. Brik's proposal?
04:47 04.09.2024Roberto SWhat is the proposal? Withdrawal of all the over 700,000 settlers to behind the Green Line? The establishment of a "one-multiethnic-State-of-Palestine solution", with equal rights for all from the river to the sea?
I fear not, and yet nothing else will do.
RedSonya
05:05 04.09.2024Roberto SThe 700,000 Settlers can remain there, but they must apply for Citizenship of the State of Palestine.
Roberto S
05:15 04.09.2024Roberto SBrik proposes to end the war now. It is just a step in the right direction, not the 1000 steps to the best possible solution of the many problems including the settlers. But going back to Oct 6 will not be so easy, the end of the war is just necessary but not sufficient. By demanding an absolute utopia ("one-multiethnic-State-of-Palestine solution") as a precondition for even first steps you might feel having the moral high ground, but has little utility on the ground
A step in the right direction?
05:37 04.09.2024Roberto SNo "moral high ground". No "virtue signalling". No "demonising". No "binary thinking". No "There's a lot to unpack there". Etcetera. Etcetera. Enough of group-speak.
The "1,000 steps" you feel are necessary won't lead anywhere unless they know in which direction to head.
The "one-multiethnic-State-of-Palestine solution" is not a precondition. It's the ultimate destination.
Not a destination Maj. Gen. Brik would countenance. What he wants is for the army to refresh and regroup, change leadership, in order to jump back into the fray with renewed vigour.
In previous articles he has written: "Let's end the war in Gaza immediately". A call for peace, perhaps? No. He continues: "When the army is ready, it will be able to meet every challenge".
In his last article he wrote: After 2,000 years of exile, we returned and established a glorious country (...) It's still possible to do something before it's too late".
So, in which direction are Maj. Gen. Brik's "first steps" heading?
Roberto S
09:00 04.09.2024Roberto SI'm not agreeing with Maj Gen Brik's political stance, but people like him are the people in the ground with whom in the end Palestinians will negotiate, and Israelis like Brik would have to negotiate with Palestinian versions of Brik. The task is not to exclude them beforehand, but to pressure them not to remain in the first step, or to avoid perpetuating the steps (as in Oslo). Regarding the the 1000 steps, it is counterproductive to demand a single direction as an exclusionary precondition.
3
Ben Alofs
12:45 03.09.2024Reposted after it was deleted earlier.
I am currently reading "A Savage War of Peace. Algeria 1954-1962" by British historian Alistair Horne. The similarities between he struggle of the Palestinians against Zionist colonialism and the struggle of the Algerians against French colonialism are evident. I even recognise 7 October 2024 in the events in Sétif on 8 May 1945 in Algeria. A people fighting against colonialism will never give up its struggle for freedom. Algeria was occupied by the French in 1830 and declared a part of France. It was all over in 1962.
It beggars belief that western imperial powers and governments, including Israel, still refuse to learn the lessons contained in Horne's book, which was first published in 1977. Brik is far too optimistic that everything can be rebuilt after the Gaza Genocide. One thing is sure: there will be no going back to the status quo ante.
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A savage war of ...
05:06 04.09.2024Ben AlofsWhat on earth could have led to the deletion of your comment? Mine are constantly subjected to the same arbitrary suppression.
I listened to "A Savage War of Peace" as an audiobook. It's very good.
The French settlers and settlements in Algeria (the "facts on the ground") were indeed withdrawn to France.
"A people fighting against colonialism will never give up its struggle for freedom". Australia's indigenous population may not have given up, but it has been defeated. Such is the gravity of its defeat, that its art and culture are now the official face of Australia to the world.
2
Sound advice
06:33 03.09.2024If by some miracle it is enacted, it should be part of a two tiered plan — the second tier being an honest assessment of what led to 10/7. Not just the security lapses of that day or the days before. But a more comprehensive examination of the decades preceding 10/7. The terror campaigns that led to the founding of the state. The Nakba. Occupation. Apartheid. The systematic dehumanization of Palestinians, stemming from daily indignities, detention without due process, abuse/torture/rape of detainees, including children. Because it is not only the ceaseless fighting in Gaza that is contributing to Israel's collapse, but also its astounding moral blindness.
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To "Sound advice"
06:13 04.09.2024Sound adviceYou'll be leaving behind Major General Brik when you launch your "second tier". The Major General has written previously in Haaretz: "After 2,000 years of exile, we returned and established a glorious country (...) It's still possible to do something before it's too late".
If I catch your drift, I think you are suggesting that the establishment of Israel was somewhat inglorious. With this suggestion I would certainly concur.
1
Lorraine
02:41 03.09.2024A healthy society has infrastructure that is composed of more than just visible hardware. It requires public trust between government and people, and attention to various needs of the public that are not necessarily material in nature. The current government, with its ramming of Hamas at the expense of everything else (including Gazan innocents) can break a society just as assuredly as material breakdowns can do--and Israel is currently suffering from both the material and nonmaterial rotting as noted here. What is notable is that nothing is really new here. The rot has been setting in for some time, as some of us constantly tried to warn in the past. For years we have been warning the occupation and settlements bring corruption--but as that is not so visible, it was long ignored. Now we hear laments from various voices absent in the past--and it will be harder now than it would have been previously to cut the rot out.
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Keith Tunstall
22:38 03.09.2024LorraineIt's the old old story. The votes of millions count for less than the money from a few in US elections.
michael canada
01:39 06.09.2024LorraineThe rot also needs to be cut out of the US by getting rid of AIPAC. Every US politician grovels to win their favour. They tied the hands of every US president who could have done the 2 state solution 30 years ago. Now it is 30 years too late. AIPAC have contributed to the demise of the third Jewish commonwealth. Your money did not make you smart. Cry the beloved country.
