
OpEds

No winners in this war
Israel will claim victory. Hamas will claim victory. But the people of Israel and the Palestinian people know that there are no winners. No-one has won this war.
This land, from the river to the sea, is full of people who are suffering, in pain, and cannot celebrate victory. There are no winners in wars, only losers – and we have lost big-time on both sides of this war.
Don’t believe those leaders who beat the drums of war and talk of victory. I assure you, they are safe as they send us and our families to war. If we don’t hold those leaders responsible for the disasters that they have led us to, and if we don’t send those leaders to the wastebins of history, our losses will be compounded and maybe even deserved.
We must make sure that our irresponsible leaders own up to their failures. We cannot continue to kill each other. There’s no military solution to the conflict. There’s no viable option of an armed struggle. This must be the last Israeli-Palestinian war. We must ensure that we start walking the path of real peace and justice. From this trauma, we’ll emerge more committed to genuine peace than ever!
On Sunday, 19 January, we saw several hundreds of Hamas militants in uniform in central Gaza while transferring the three Israeli hostage women to the Red Cross. Some Israelis were surprised to see Hamas’s demonstration of force. I was neither surprised nor shocked.
What my eyes saw was the enormous damage all around, and then I saw many videos from the flattened northern Gaza Strip – piles of debris that were once homes and public buildings.
The residents of Gaza won’t really celebrate Hamas’s temporary show of force. They see the reality around them, and though they see Israel as a war criminal, they place full blame and responsibility on Hamas for bringing them the hell of 15 months of destruction and death.
The Palestinian people must put Hamas on trial for crimes against the Palestinian people. I have said many times that the people of Israel must put Netanyahu on trial for crimes against the people of Israel. I’m not comparing Hamas and Netanyahu, but our future after this war must be without Hamas and without Netanyahu, and probably without Abbas as well. It’s the role of all of us to bring new leadership with political horizons that will bring us a future of hope.
From 7 October, we knew that in order to return all the hostages, we would have to negotiate with Hamas. Despite this, the first and most foremost goal of the Israeli government since that terrible Saturday was to eliminate Hamas from all of its military and governmental capabilities.
We knew that the army and the Shin Bet might be able to rescue some of the hostages but not all of them. We said that there was no chance of another Entebbe operation, and that ultimately, we would have to reach a deal with Hamas. In our unreal reality and in direct contradiction of the Israel war goals, if we want to return the remaining 94 hostages, we need Hamas to continue to control Gaza, at least until the last of the hostages is released.
In my opinion, this is what the Israeli government should do in the face of this unbearable reality. We must pressure the Americans to pressure Qatar and Egypt to obtain Hamas’s agreement to shorten the time frame for the implementation of the current deal.
The deal, which will extend two to three months, is a bad deal and works against the chances of survival of the hostages who are still alive. Shortening the implementation time requires Israel to agree to an end to the war, because Hamas won’t agree unless it involves an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the entire Gaza Strip.
At the same time, Israel must act, together with the Americans in co-ordination with Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Morocco, and of course Saudi Arabia, to exert pressure on Mahmoud Abbas to appoint an independent person as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA). This person cannot be corrupt, and must be morally and practically against violence and the armed struggle. This person must also be prepared to lead Gaza to a reconstruction that will allow the Palestinians to live a life of dignity.
Abbas and the PA cannot control Gaza, they barely control the West Bank. It would be best if Abbas moved aside. He could be president until his death, but the powers of government would be transferred to a worthy Palestinian person who is acceptable to the Palestinians.
Even if that isn’t possible, it would also be good if there was a temporary government in Gaza only, legally linked to the PA, but in fact independent of it, for a period of two to three years until the Palestinians could hold elections for a new government for the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
The temporary government in Gaza would be a non-Hamas government, and it would work to lead the beginning of the reconstruction of Gaza. The most important key to all of this is the understanding that eliminating Hamas as we know it isn’t a military act, it’s a diplomatic and political act.
The Palestinian struggle against Israel won’t end until the Palestinians achieve independence in a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel – mainly in the territories occupied in 1967.
This may sound delusional to most Israelis now and maybe also to most Palestinians, but it must be our main lesson from 7 October. This terrible war won’t be the last war until Israeli control over another people comes to an end.
Seven million Palestinians living between the river and the sea in the same area where seven million Israeli Jews live cannot live together in peace as long as one side has full control and full national rights while the other side doesn’t have those same rights.
If President Donald Trump is truly serious about his statement that he will bring an end to wars, he will embrace the understanding that the two-state solution is the only solution that exists that allows both peoples to receive territorial expression of their identity. It’s less important that we don’t have leaders in Israel and Palestine now who will lead us to peace. The new president’s American pressure will bring about the change that we need for Israel and the Palestinians.
And even if that doesn’t happen, we, the Israeli and Palestinian people, will be obliged to bring in these new leaders because if not, then what was until now is what will be our future, and this shouldn’t be acceptable to any of us.
- Gershon Baskin is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to peace between Israel and her neighbours. He’s a founding member of the Kol Ezraheiha – Kol Muwanteneiha (All of the Citizens) political party in Israel. He’s now the Middle East Director for ICO (International Communities Organisation), a United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organisation.

Raizel
January 24, 2025 at 12:02 pm
Here is your article from 2017 calling for Opening Gaza to Israel and the World. You are responsible for the situation and Idd love to know your financial ties to GlobalistsIf
Mohammad Dahlan is successful in bringing about the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a strategic geopolitical change will occur which will render the Israeli isolation policy of Gaza anachronistic and irrelevant. The Dahlan- Hamas-Egyptian plan includes a passenger terminal and a new cargo terminal that may offer Gaza a chance at reconnecting to the rest of the world. Gaza needs to be reconnected to Israel and to the West Bank as well and through the West Bank to Jordan and the Gulf.