The Opposite Force
“Israel only knows the language of force” is an old saying repeated by many in the Arab world. However, time has certainly proven that force is not solely military, but rather political, economic and civil, along with regional and international influence.
The truth is, after all the crimes Israel has committed against civilians in Gaza, and the inhumane practices it has carried out — such as starvation, siege, and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure — can it stop, or rather, can it be deterred?
In reality, this can only happen if the international community succeeds in pressuring Israel to commit to the ceasefire agreement and implement the second phase of Donald Trump's plan, which will not be achieved without Arab and American effort.
Indeed, one reason for the weakness of the force opposing Israel stems from the resistance movement itself. It is a rare occurrence to find a resistance movement like Hamas, whose political leadership cannot communicate accurately with its military wing to precisely calculate the repercussions of a military operation as significant as Oct. 7 — an operation whose timing was unknown to its political leaders. Even the demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people were unrelated to Hamas' political leaders. This stands in contrast to the experiences of national liberation movements, whose political leaders had a presence worldwide — from the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the Algerian National Liberation Front, and ending with the African National Congress, which presented its leader, Nelson Mandela, as an inspiring model of this organic integration between the political and the military wings. It was he who famously said, "Unite! Mobilize! Fight on! Between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle, we shall crush apartheid!" And that is exactly what happened.
Leaving the military wing to almost unilaterally dictate the choices of a resistance movement has almost never occurred to anyone but Hamas. This is due to many factors, including its ideological structure, its being targeted by Israel, and the profound Palestinian division. Moreover, the group which chose the political path after a period of armed and public struggle led by the PLO, transformed, upon becoming a governing authority, into a body that monitors and condemns any armed actions by resistance factions. They have not attempted to guide these factions' actions nor develop a strategy to end the Palestinian division.
Deterring Israel required a militarily and politically integrated effort, but it now requires civil and political strength and legal campaigns, following the degradation of the military capabilities of the armed resistance factions.
The weight of the force opposing Israel will be tested if a new Palestinian leadership emerges that transcends the Fatah-Hamas division and if the supportive movement from the Arab world to stop the war and ensure a complete Israeli withdrawal continues. Furthermore, international pressure and the voices of conscience must persist in their efforts to pressure their governments to solidify Israel's status as a pariah state, operating outside the international law and legitimacy.
The cards of power will not come from lamenting the broken weapon of resistance, but from building a new civil weapon that documents all the crimes committed against humanity in the Gaza Strip, ensuring that none of them go unaccounted for.
The truth is, after all the crimes Israel has committed against civilians in Gaza, and the inhumane practices it has carried out — such as starvation, siege, and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure — can it stop, or rather, can it be deterred?
In reality, this can only happen if the international community succeeds in pressuring Israel to commit to the ceasefire agreement and implement the second phase of Donald Trump's plan, which will not be achieved without Arab and American effort.
Indeed, one reason for the weakness of the force opposing Israel stems from the resistance movement itself. It is a rare occurrence to find a resistance movement like Hamas, whose political leadership cannot communicate accurately with its military wing to precisely calculate the repercussions of a military operation as significant as Oct. 7 — an operation whose timing was unknown to its political leaders. Even the demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people were unrelated to Hamas' political leaders. This stands in contrast to the experiences of national liberation movements, whose political leaders had a presence worldwide — from the Palestine Liberation Organization, to the Algerian National Liberation Front, and ending with the African National Congress, which presented its leader, Nelson Mandela, as an inspiring model of this organic integration between the political and the military wings. It was he who famously said, "Unite! Mobilize! Fight on! Between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle, we shall crush apartheid!" And that is exactly what happened.
Leaving the military wing to almost unilaterally dictate the choices of a resistance movement has almost never occurred to anyone but Hamas. This is due to many factors, including its ideological structure, its being targeted by Israel, and the profound Palestinian division. Moreover, the group which chose the political path after a period of armed and public struggle led by the PLO, transformed, upon becoming a governing authority, into a body that monitors and condemns any armed actions by resistance factions. They have not attempted to guide these factions' actions nor develop a strategy to end the Palestinian division.
Deterring Israel required a militarily and politically integrated effort, but it now requires civil and political strength and legal campaigns, following the degradation of the military capabilities of the armed resistance factions.
The weight of the force opposing Israel will be tested if a new Palestinian leadership emerges that transcends the Fatah-Hamas division and if the supportive movement from the Arab world to stop the war and ensure a complete Israeli withdrawal continues. Furthermore, international pressure and the voices of conscience must persist in their efforts to pressure their governments to solidify Israel's status as a pariah state, operating outside the international law and legitimacy.
The cards of power will not come from lamenting the broken weapon of resistance, but from building a new civil weapon that documents all the crimes committed against humanity in the Gaza Strip, ensuring that none of them go unaccounted for.
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