What should have been? Calmly, and rationally

By: Omar Shaban

We said from the beginning of the assault, on many occasions, publicly and directly:

• That the war on Gaza targets the Palestinian cause and Palestinian society, present and future.
• That the government of extremism in Israel uses the fight against the “H” movement as a headline and pretext to finish off everyone.
• That the whole world stopped at the seventh of October, and everything that followed — an assault without precedent in the modern age — became a foregone conclusion.
• That international support for Israel — financial, political, military, and media — has multiplied many times over. Israel has become the region's bully, striking everywhere: Tehran, Damascus, Beirut, Yemen, Gaza… without any deterrent.
• That the university demonstrations, the international court rulings, and the rest will not move the war government an inch (Netanyahu is in Hungary today). Even a prestigious American university struck a deal with its students to buy their silence in exchange for two scholarships for students from Gaza.
• You must get off the train at the nearest station once you realise you are on the wrong train.
• The file must be handed over entirely to Egypt — a state that holds major levers of pressure regionally and internationally, and no organisation can achieve more than what a state the size of Egypt can achieve.
• That the seventh of October rolled out a red carpet for the government of extremism to complete the Judaisation of Jerusalem and the West Bank, dismantle UNRWA, and liquidate the camps, amid the absence of world attention.
• One should in no way bet on disputes inside the Israeli governing bloc or with the United States and others: they may disagree on everything, but the agreement on burying Gaza is complete.
• Inflating the image of Gaza — besieged, small, poor, dependent on the occupation for everything from water, milk, and paper to electricity — and turning it from victim into aggressor feeds directly into the Israeli narrative. No conscious mind can imagine that an organisation in an area of no more than 200 square miles, fully besieged by the occupation, is capable of defeating that occupation backed by two-thirds of the world, in control of the water tap, the electricity switch, and the infants' milk.
• No reconstruction and no humanitarian relief while “H” remains in the scene.
• The impossible must be attempted to shorten the war, for the world has begun to grow used to our dying.
• No Western, Arab, or Islamic state will fire a single bullet for your sake. Stopping the massacre is a direct interest of the Palestinian people, while some states in the region do not see it that way — so their rhetoric must be treated with caution, not obeyed.
• Since the assault targets everyone, it was a duty to form a negotiating delegation representing the whole of the Palestinian people, drawing on internationally distinguished Palestinian experts.
• Preserving people's lives, strengthening their steadfastness, and preventing their killing must be a red and sacred line.
• Do not listen to the mercenaries of the screens and the stars of social media, those who profit from the battle in money or prestige — in Ramallah, Hebron, Doha, Istanbul, Algiers, and elsewhere.
• Stopping the war by every means is not only in the interest of the people and the cause — it also serves the interest of the “H” movement itself.

Other paths must be considered, and they are available. The door is still open to stopping the slaughter…