The genocide that has been experienced in Gaza in the last year and a half has reached dimensions that deeply wound the conscience of humanity. According to the data of the Gaza Ministry of Health, the number of people who lost their lives and the number of people injured has increased to 46,537 and the number of people injured to 109,500 in the attacks that Israel has been carrying out since Oct. 7, 2023. Alongside those killed with bombs multiplying what was thrown at Hiroshima, people were subjected to ethnic cleansing via means of malnutrition, lack of clean water, destruction of medical infrastructure and wiping out of cities. The prestigious medical journal, the Lancet, conservatively estimates that the death toll in Gaza has reached 186,000 or more, which is almost 8% of the total population.
While the majority of those who died were women and children, thousands of civilians were also injured and disabled. In addition, the collapse of the health infrastructure due to the blockade and attacks has increased the number of deaths caused by preventable diseases. In this process, millions of people have been left homeless and approximately 2 million people have been deprived of basic living conditions. Human rights organizations state that these death and destruction rates meet the definition of "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" and emphasize that the international community must take action.
However, in this commentary, I did not want to write about the victims but the perpetrators. With all its military machine, so-called strong political apparatus and enduring occupation, is Israel winning in Gaza? I wanted to write about this.
My answer is that, in fact, by transforming Gaza into the Warsaw Ghetto, Israel is losing. I am not taking a romantic attitude. I wanted to express Israel's failure in this piece from a realistic point of view. The State of Israel is losing its ethical, legal, diplomatic and relational power to a point that has never been lower since its establishment. In fact, this could be the start of the very end for Israel.
The tragedies experienced in Gaza reveal how fragile the myths Israel has built since its founding are. Although Israel seems to be winning on the ground with its military superiority and brute force, it is losing more and more in the conscience of humanity and the international diplomatic arena with each passing day. Expecting all to be the same after Gaza is an illusion for the Israeli people, which they need to be aware of.
Israel is a country that introduces itself as "the only democracy in the Middle East" and "the state of an oppressed people." However, the bombs dropped on Gaza, the mass killing, the genocide, which far exceeded the level of a passive apartheid regime and the deprivation of the most basic living conditions of millions of people have turned these myths upside down. Israel is no longer a state representing an oppressed people; on the contrary, it is known as a symbol of oppression. Whatever conventional international media says to you, this is the reality for the overwhelming majority of 8 billion people on Earth today.
This collapse is particularly evident in the diplomatic arena. The increase in resolutions condemning Israel's actions in the United Nations General Assembly is a concrete indicator of this. In recent votes, criticism of Israel has increased even in Western countries that previously gave unconditional support. This isolation shows that Israel's policy of brute force has reached its limits and is no longer sustainable.
Israel's claim of being an “Island of Democracy,” in fact, “the only democracy in the Middle East” has also collapsed in the face of the human tragedies in Gaza. The occupation of Palestinian lands, apartheid practices and discriminatory policies against Arab citizens render this discourse baseless.
Democracy gains meaning through not only elections but also the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as the protection and upholding of human values. Israel has systematically and utterly failed this test. The videos and reels spreading worldwide from the cell phones of people subjected to genocide are harming Israel much more than the bombs it dropped on these people.
In fact, by repeating exactly what had been done to their ancestors by the Pharaohs or Nazis, Israeli people are now becoming the very thing they are claiming to be the antidote of. This is why Israel is digging its own grave in Gaza.
On the other hand, although the people of Gaza appear to be suffering heavy losses, they are exhibiting a resistance that stirs the conscience of humanity. Even though their cities have been destroyed and their families have been torn apart, their yearning for freedom is creating a global solidarity movement. The Gazans have never won much on the diplomatic and psychological side.
Alongside worldwide rallies, symbolic events such as support events organized at leading universities such as Harvard, Columbia and Yale reveal that the Palestinian cause has now become a global struggle for justice, the medium for resistance against the regime for all the oppressed of the world.
The increasing appeal to Islam in Western countries echoes Gaza’s symbolic power and resistance. Gaza has become a mirror of conscience not just for Palestinians but for the entire world.
As another aspect of this, economic and diplomatic boycotts have never been harming the Israeli economy and polity before but now things have changed. The tragedies in Gaza have strengthened the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel. Consumers, investors and companies boycotting Israeli products are directly affecting the Israeli economy. These movements are seriously undermining Israel’s long-term strategic goals and are cornering the country both economically and diplomatically.
Modern wars are no longer won with weapons alone but by winning hearts and minds. In the age of social media, you cannot control hearts and minds only with Hollywood and news conglomerates dominance. Israel may think it has prevailed in Gaza by brute force but it is suffering a major defeat in the conscience of humanity and the international diplomatic arena.
A state losing its founding myths and its legitimacy is a loss that cannot be compensated for even if it empties its entire arsenal of weapons and ammunition on those it sees as its enemies. Israel is in exactly this situation. Bigoted, psychopath leaders of the country are exactly those who have cornered Israeli people into this situation.
It is impossible to think that it can continue where it left off after Gaza and become a legitimate actor in the international arena. It has destroyed all the arguments it has been trying to establish for 60 years with its own hands in one year, exhausted its own capital and legitimacy. With the Gaza Genocide, which will be remembered as a symbol of the world's minds and hearts, Israel has destroyed all its long-term interests and legitimacy for the sake of short-term political attractions in the hands of its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel seems to have won by dropping tens, hundreds of times the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Hamas seems to have lost by martyring all its leaders, eliminating its regional dominance and exiling millions of its people. However, history will show that the situation is exactly the opposite.
Gaza is losing today but winning tomorrow.
Sun Tzu, who is considered the father of military strategies, says, "War is best won without weapons." This saying emphasizes that war is not only a physical struggle but also a psychological and strategic game. Using brute force, instead of weakening the enemy, can fuel hostility and prolong the war in the long run; an evidence gain of the short term may be your long-term demise.
The year 1941 is considered to be the peak of Hitler’s power and Nazi Germany. In this year, Germany conquered France, took control of most of Western Europe and launched a major attack on the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa. However, four years later, the capital of Nazism fell and its leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide in the Führerbunker in Berlin on April 30, 1945. The tide of fate shows itself in very strange ways. When the waters rise, the fish eat the ants; when the waters recede, the ants eat the fish. The flow of the water decides who eats whom.
The brutal genocide – not a war, even wars have rules – in Gaza, shredding thousands of babies into pieces, is the start of the end for Israel. The struggle for a free future for Palestine represents the quest for justice not just by one person but all humanity. When a free Palestine is established, the heroes of this resistance will take their place as epics in the collective memory of humanity.