We have mentioned before how the Arab world, as a whole, looks upon every event as a win or a loss, as part of a zero-sum game, and how the honor/shame system feeds into that.
A new article by Palestinian Arab analyst Fayez Abu Shamala shows this thinking quite effectively.
He noticed a Hebrew article about Jews who were expelled from Gaza eleven years ago, and how many of them hope to return one day to their old homes.
Shamala says that the might of the Palestinian forces in Gaza (meaning, the huge number of murders of Israeli Jews) is what forced Israel to flee in a humeliliating fashion, even though Sharon tried to save face by claiming that he wanted to evacuate Gaza.
He frames the three Gaza wars since then as attempts by Israel to re-occupy the sector, and that failure ("using American arms") adds to Israel's humiliation and Palestinian honor in rising victorious over the usurping Zionist entity.
Shamala then says that the 1929 riots where Arabs massacred over 120 Jews was a similar victory, which resulted in the British enforcing restrictions on Jews visiting the Western Wall because of Arab terror heroism (teroism?)
True, he admits, Israel ended up capturing the Old City in 1967, and the Israeli army cleared out the Moroccan "quarter" to build the Kotel plaza.
But, he notes, the Israeli army that cleared out the residents of the neighborhood near the Kotel is the same one that removed the Jews from Gush Katif and other Gaza areas.
"I would argue that this is the best witness guide on the road to victory," Shamala concludes.
This is just more evidence that anyone who thinks that Israeli concessions makes the region more peaceful have it exactly, 100% wrong. Thousands of Gazan dead plus all the other problems in that area are meaningless compared to the great "victory" of Israel's withdrawal, and that withdrawal is proof not of Israeli willingness for peace but its weakness and ultimate defeat.
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