Haaretz: The world won’t forget the Gaza massacre
A prominent Israeli writer Gideon Levy wrote on Haaretz newspaper, that US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip isn’t a peace agreement, but rather an agreement imposed by the United States on Israel.
However, he sees the plan as a sign of hope for stopping the war and saving lives, and it reflects the United States’ ability to impose its decisions on Israel, without which the situation will remain stagnant and unmovable.
Levy believes that what happened has restored relations between Washington and Israel to normal, with Israel remaining the client state and the United States the superpower.
Levy claimed that this description of US-Israeli relations had completely faded in recent years, “to the point where it sometimes seemed as if Israel was the sponsor and America was its protector, especially during the eras of Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden”.
He pointed out that this agreement will lead to the release of 20 Israeli prisoners, 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, and 1,800 Gaza residents held in Israel, most of them without trial.
According to Levy, ending the war isn’t only in Gaza’s interest, but also in Israel’s, which has suffered significant moral and strategic damage, some of which is beyond repair.
Despite the destruction “similar to what happened to the Japanese city of Hiroshima” after America bombed it with an atomic bomb at the end of World War II, Gaza remained steadfast and brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront of international attention.
Levy asserted that the world won’t soon forget the “genocide,” and that it will take generations before Gaza does.
He argued that Israel could have avoided the war or ended it in various ways, including direct negotiations with Hamas and showing good faith, adding that this might have changed the equation.
A complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the release of all prisoners would have signaled a new beginning, but Israel, he said, chose, as usual, to do only what was imposed on it.
Levy concludes that there is no consolation for the people of Gaza, “who paid an indescribable price and may be forgotten again by the world,” but they are now the focus of attention.
Despite the devastation “similar to that suffered by the Japanese city of Hiroshima after the US atomic bomb dropped on it at the end of World War II,” the left-wing Israeli writer said that Gaza remained resilient and brought the Palestinian cause back to the forefront of international attention.
He called for opening the Gaza Strip to the media so that the Israelis could see what they had done, saying, “There may be no point in crying over spilt milk, but spilled blood is a different matter”.
He concluded his article by warning that reliance on military force alone leads to ruin, and that Israeli policies in the West Bank portend a repeat of the Gaza experience.
