We do not have the right to deal with the events as a historian deals with the war that has raged since October 7 of last year. Because the historian deals with events impartially, like someone feeling a dead body.
It is not right for us to look at the war on Gaza as if it is over, or to be astonished by the pain, grief, and anger that surround it, and to think about the following.
We do not date, but rather we examine and reflect… We are reminded of something that some people ignore, that “before” October 7 was an example of a crisis reality. For the daily suffering of the Palestinians, for continuous raids on Jerusalem, for humiliating searches at the crossings, for prisoners languishing in cells and even dying slowly, for rallying around the Palestinian cause and preparing to destroy it while it is still alive.
Do we dare to say that there is an “after,” as an Observer journalist said (Jason Burke, The Day That Changed the World, September 29)… There is a mixture of afters, because the world is no longer the same as it was, and will never be, There is now, and it is a continuous present, of killing, demolition, and displacement… and there is a tomorrow shrouded in fog and overcast.
The world is no longer what it was; Because the post-World War II architecture, including the United Nations, which was established so that what happened during the war would not be repeated, is collapsing. And the ugliness returns with greater ferocity. Everything that can be a conscience is disabled or paralyzed. The United Nations is no longer only helpless, but also accused… The General Assembly, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the firstNRoy, all in the dock.
The rising forces did nothing but rhetorical denunciation. Neither China nor Russia were able to change the outcome of matters. The United States has been the only one in the Middle East, and tomorrow it will become difficult for the Russian bear, the Chinese dragon, or the old European Union to emerge, for someone to contribute to setting the rules of the game in a volatile region.
The region will remain silent until further notice, getting used to the tunes of “American peace.” The United States is the setter of the rules of the game, and the head of the rules of the game is defending Israel and providing it with weapons, expertise, intelligence information, and diplomatic coverage.
American diplomacy, which was crude in its clarity, has changed and has become solemn in its ambiguity. It wants a ceasefire, and supplies Israel with weapons. It expresses its concern for what is happening to civilians, and does nothing actually to stop the war. The United States has become proficient in the Orwellian language, saying something that benefits its opposite, and mixing diplomacy that publicly satisfies all parties, with a military arsenal that has one and only direction: Israel’s security and its “right” to defend itself and achieve “justice.”
There are no red lines or international law that stand in the way of this trend sponsored by the United States. A new chapter is emerging from the “American peace” in the region, based on strength and the establishment of justice.
Europe is out of coverage, does not speak a single language. Britain and Germany are part of the American chorus, and France is seeking to find a role for itself without touching the ball, like an errant soccer player, running here and there, without a ball, even if he appears to be trying.
The world is no longer what it was, because the post-World War II architecture, including the United Nations, which was established so that what happened during the war would not be repeated, is collapsing. And the ugliness returns with greater ferocity
War has changed. In all wars, the dead are more soldiers than civilians, but in the Gaza war, civilians are the dead, women are the victims, and children are the dead.
Military operations take place in a focal point, which is Gaza, but they have extensions in several places, in the West Bank, and then in distant places, in Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, and adjacent areas such as Lebanon.
Thus, American soldiers are killed in Jordan on January 28, and the United States responds in Iraq. Iran launches drones at Israel on April 13 in retaliation for the killing of its military personnel in Damascus. Israeli air strikes on Syria on September 8. British-American attacks on Yemen on February 4. Israeli air strike on the port of Hodeidah in Yemen. Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran on July 31. Occupation of the West Bank and rampant killing. Then there was a cyber war on the pager devices, and one of its chapters, and when it ended, was the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The scope of the confrontation is wide, and the actors are multiple. All-out war, in multiple places. There is no longer unity like the unity of a theater: a known place, a specific time, and consistency of meaning. Space is expanding, time is non-linear, and war is inconsistent. Not because war is essentially meaningless, but because the victim is depicted as the executioner, and the executioner as the victim.
The war waged by Israel, in its rhetoric, is for the sake of civilization against barbarism. “Civilization” is the bombing of civilian facilities, the killing of children, and the demolition of hospitals. The rules of war, as modest as they are about them, disappear, and terrorism becomes part of the new war. How do we call the innocent bombing of civilians if it is not terrorism?
The media was bombed and its men were killed. The media cannot be a witness. During the war on Gaza, the media achieved what no previous media had achieved, which was to depict a war of extermination, in time zero, while it was underway. The killer refused, so the Al Jazeera office was closed. As in ancient times, genocide and ethnic cleansing should take place out of sight; In order to be circumvented and described as collateral victims.
One of the lessons of the Gaza war is that the conventional war, with armies with their three units: land, air, sea, armored vehicles, infantry, and cavalry, has ended. The final disengagement from conventional war is taking place in the Ukrainian arena, between Russia and Ukraine. Updated version for World War II.
As for the wars of tomorrow, they are an image of the Gaza war, cybernetic, smart, and its soldiers include artificial intelligence that tracks faces and disables radars. Tomorrow's wars will not have an arena of confrontation, nor will they have a specific time, nor will they have a single front. It mixes the rules of war with the practices of terrorism.
There is a tomorrow…but who will draw it? power? A new Nakba worse than the first Nakba? Israel's account is not only to eliminate the Palestinian issue, but to eliminate the Palestinians by forcing them to leave. Netanyahu's choice is to hold the Palestinians responsible for the death of detainees, in order to capitalize on the situation of oppression and seize control of Gaza, with another weapon, which is starvation.
The war on Gaza, and in Gaza, is a defeat for human conscience. Hordes of students screamed in Western universities, and human rights defenders filed complaints in international courts against those responsible for humanitarian crimes, but that did not change the reality of the situation. Because the war continues, and criminals are arriving and roaming. There is no description of what is happening except that it is an example of the law of the jungle.
It must be recognized that both the United States and Israel showed unusual determination to ignore all voices denouncing the war and denouncing killing. They held out until the storm passed. What is sad and shameful is the familiarity with death and killing. Images of destruction do not move consciences. The world has become accustomed to death… sometimes it finds justification for it. There are other places where death occurs, and it is not talked about. The height of villainy.
Gaza will not die, even if it is wounded, but the global conscience is threatened by death. Justice will die, truth will die, and dignity will falter. We do not need to read “The Two Levites” by Thomas Hobbes to realize that without a universal social contract, requiring adherence to valid rules, everything will become possible. Life will die then, hope will die, creativity will die, thinking will die, and all elements of interaction will disappear, from acquaintance, trade, and cooperation… It is the end of history, not as Francis Fukuyama envisioned it, with the dominance of Enlightenment thought, but rather with the faltering of the idea it carried, the moral defeat of the West, and the spread of Law of the jungle.
Perhaps it is worth reminding Westerners to read Shakespeare, when he said that “there is something rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark, (i.e. our world),” as in Hamlet, and that “the world is inconsistent,” as in Hamlet again, and that “the blood that flows in the Jew, It is the blood that flows through all human beings. As Palestinian, just like Shakespeare said in The Merchant of Venice. The Palestinian today, like the Jew yesterday, is a human being. He is entitled, in principle, to what a human being is entitled to, and is denied to him, in principle, what is denied to all human beings.
Gaza is no longer the door to the sun, but rather the door to hell that will come upon all green and dry, if the matter is not remedied, urgently, to reduce the damage. Humanity is facing a test of conscience that threatens it more than it threatens Gaza.
The opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera Network.