The fighting has stopped, for now. Although it is quite possible the violence will restart as soon as Obama starts to get comfy in his new office tomorrow, its not too early to begin to ask – how will this moment be remembered? What will the legacy of the war in Gaza be?
Clearly this war will be remembered for the monumental Palestinians death toll, the incredible physical damage in Gaza and the lingering accusations of Israeli war crimes. But there will be more than that. Early on, this blog called the war the "the anti-67 war." This has been confirmed through the massive worldwide protests against the brutal slaughter people watched in real time on satellite television and through video clips spinning around the globe. As part of this protest we saw bold and creative actions from parts of the Jewish community (although Jewish tribalism was still in full effect). In what will undoubtedly be a seminal description of what what this moment means, Ali Abunimah writes in 'Why Israel won't survive ':
its propaganda insists, "terrorism" to be defeated by sufficient
application of high explosives. Its problem is legitimacy, or rather a
profound and irreversible lack of it. Israel simply cannot bomb its way
to legitimacy. . . Gaza will likely be seen as
the turning point when Israeli propaganda lost its power to mystify,
silence and intimidate as it has for so long.
Go and read the entire article, but this speaks to the incredible weakness of Israel. The fourth largest military in the world is seen as invincible, but it cannot use that power to justify the killing of innocents. It cannot use that power to explain away starving 1.5 million people behind a wall, or the ongoing colonization of the West Bank. All the bombs in the world cannot justify the fact that at least 20% of Israeli citizens do not share equal rights with their neighbors because they are not Jewish. And lastly, this incredible power cannot justify why refugees have been sitting on Israel's borders for 60 years prevented from returning home. All the military power in the world cannot defend against one simple thing – the truth. And the war in Gaza saw the truth deployed against Israel, and its supporters, like never before. Israeli government ministers were repeatedly forced to justify the
killing the children, and the wildly disproportionate death toll
conveyed a deeper, more profound, message than any talking point could.
But what will come of this? Abunimah points out the growth in the BDS movement through the war in Gaza as one hopeful sign. We have also seen energy Obama unleashed during his historic campaign turned against him as he sat quietly and watched the killing in Gaza. Will it continue tomorrow? Next week? This moment has yet to be defined, but only because it is up to us to define it.
What do you think the legacy of this war will be? And what are you going to do to make it happen?
