Hamas: Winning By Not Losing

Hamas: winning by not losing

I have studied various martial arts.  The last one was Shorinji Kenpo, which is a mixture of Shaolin kung fu and Aiki-Jutsu, with some Zen thrown in.

In every session, our teacher would give us a short lecture.

One day he said, “Martial arts teach you to win.  But how do you win if your opponent is bigger than you and stronger and more skilled?  How do you win against more than one opponent?  Or an opponent with a weapon?”

There was silence.

The teacher continued, “You win by not losing-- you have to learn to duck and dodge, break away, get out of reach – and, if necessary, escape.  Before you learn to kick or punch or throw, you need to learn how to get away”.

“If your opponent cannot hit you as he intends, he will get angrier and more emotional and exhaust himself. At the moment, he shows confusion—you have won.”

“At some point he makes a mistake which you can use.  To win by “not losing”, don’t rely on force-- rely on head and heart”.

“And always practice against a stronger opponent."

And that is how Hamas is winning.  By not losing.  By using “head and heart”.

Israel and the US are already confused.

Israel and the second Nakba

Israel may be a small country, but it has been militarized by the US as a proxy, with one of the world’s finest air forces and a lot of high-tech equipment-- not to mention, a recently mobilized army now totaling about 500 K.

The Zionists have to all intents and purposes taken the west and northwest of Gaza city–above ground -- although with heavy losses-- the exact number impossible to determine.

They aim—some say— to take the whole city (if you can call it that) and expel the surviving population.  Then annex all of Gaza, taking the gas reserves offshore formally.

But to do that, Hamas—the Qassam Brigade--first has to lose.  And that’s not happening.

Constant conflict over the years against its stronger opponent and help from the Qds Force have made it highly professional.

  The Hamas military remains intact because it is largely out of reach tactically. 

Palestinian losses are mostly civilian. Historically, the Palestinians have seen worse.  Yes, the carnage is awful.  But it is nothing new.

What is new is the attention being given to it!

 

Formless and Subtlety

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate. Sun Tzu

The Israelis control only part of Gaza—the part above ground.  Underneath is a subterranean matrix, hundreds of kilometers of tunnels at three levels built up over many years.

Tanks and F-16s don’t help there in this underground city. 

Hamas is both “formless and subtle”.

If the IDF tries to penetrate its tunnels, they will be at a loss, not knowing where to go. not knowing what’s around the next corner, out of their element.  So, they stick to what’s above ground—to what they can see.

Except they can't see much here either. 

Bombing central Gaza has created mountains of rubble and ruined buildings and places where snipers and rockets can take their toll.  

Controlling the rubble is a hard thing to do.  And could take months.

Of course, Israel does have 500 K soldiers. 

But most of those are fresh conscripts, Israel having just mobilized 380,000 young people -- used to getting bombed with vodka and lime juice--rather than with grenades.  Do you really want to take kids who just want to go to the beach and get laid and squeeze them into narrow tunnels in the dark against hardened, well-trained fighters? 

Body bags do not good voters make-- as Americans learned during the Vietnam War.

Israel, like the US, is not used to taking casualties in war. 

As a result, the Israelis, do as the Americans did in Iraq, and destroy everything from the air.  “Collateral damage” is rarely, if ever, “collateral” – that is, accidental -- it is intended.

In the past, Zion fought conventional wars where technologically superior Western support allowed it to get away with minimal casualties – just 776 soldiers in the Six-Day War, for example. A few over 2400 in the longer Yom Kippur war.

Published Israeli casualties in the current conflict are stated as around 1200, not counting losses in Lebanon, with perhaps less than 400 “military”.  But these numbers are for October 7. 8, and 9.

Hamas’ estimates of Israeli losses appear more accurate.  They backup their claims with video evidence – so far more than 60 IDF vehicles, including troop carriers.  One can guess that Israeli casualties are actually a lot more than 400!

As I’ve indicated elsewhere in my article on October 7, Israeli official sources are not just disingenuous-- but often outrageously dishonest. 

Which is a mistake because the truth will always out – and it has already with media reports including video showing that many of Israel’s “civilian” casualties-- were reservists out of IDF uniform but armed.  

Israeli helicopters also killed many people at that famous rave. 

Why then should we trust anything the Israelis say now?

Lie to me once?  Lie to me a thousand times? Only the legacy media allows that.

The web we weave when we practice deceiving is so very tangled and not just that-- very very sticky.

But again —what could we expect? Israel is a country based on a lie.  

Actually, a lot of lies.

A little history goes a long way 

Between 1945 to 1948, the Zionist population of Palestine was mostly Ashkenazi Jews from Europe.  They came to power through terrorism and violence-- forcing out the “natives” just as white people did with Native Americans in North America.

Netanyahu’s policies align with Israel’s brutal history -- which was not moderated by independence.

After 1948, in fact, things got worse.

As some had predicted, many Arab states forced out their Jewish populations who then migrated to Israel.

Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine … When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens, and you will find a population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants, taking all the best in the country.  Sir Edwin Montagu (Jewish) reacting to the Balfour Declaration

These new Israelis were Arabic speaking – culturally Arabic also—and looked down upon by European Jews.  They were angry.  First, at the countries that had dispossessed them.    Then against the Israeli majority that dismissed them.  The bullied become bullies themselves. The abused become abusers.

They became what are now called the Mizrahim the core of the Israeli Right-- and a driving force for settlements in the West Bank and annexation.  Still angry. They hate although they are not sure what they hate. They just need victims.

Neverending Nakba and AIPAC

The Nakba really continued after 1948. The Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur war enabled Israel to expand its territories to include all of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights.  Southern Lebanon was in the crosshairs.

But Israel’s rise was almost entirely dependent on American and European support-- not to mention, the support of rightwing American Jews.

AIPAC was founded in 1953 as the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs –the lobbying division of the American Zionist Council in an effort to whitewash reports of Israeli atrocities—specifically the Qibya massacre. 

 In 1963, it was reconstituted as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – AIPAC—which has had immense influence in congress—despite being out of step with mainstream Jewish opinion. Zionism also made inroads in the media and entertainment industries.   Not to mention academia.  As we can see in today’s censorship of those in those fields who are pro-Palestinian-- many of them Jews!

How is it that a small country like Israel holds sway over a large country like the US? What if Americans start blaming the Jews for its problems, as the Germans did under Hitler?  AIPAC generates both hate and antisemitism.

Yet, even without American support, Israel might still have won in the Six-Day War.  But it would’ve had to follow the UN resolutions and surrender its territorial gains.   It would also have had to honor the Oslo agreement later. And there would have been comeuppance for the attempted sinking of the USS Liberty

Israel is an artificial construct.  Ultimately it is the love child of American imperialism.   “The sins of the fathers”.  You know the rest of it.

A melting pot where nothing melts

The US is supposed to be a “melting pot”, which belies its many racial and ethnic divisions-- a certain societal promiscuity.  

Israel imitates Daddy. including Daddy’s social diseases—which like the physical equivalents eventually end up in the brain.

Population shifts, social rifts…

Israeli demographics in the 1990s changed with the huge influx of Russian Jews – or at least Russians claiming to be Jews.  As it turns out, many were not Jews at all, not that many Ashkenazi were either. This has led to problems.  30 years later, Russian Jews are still discriminated in against in Israel and work, society and government.

Israel was always a fragmented society. In the first century BC you had the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Sicarii who all believed in the One God and the Torah just as the various Muslim sects believe in the one God and the Quran—but that did not mean unity—they hated each other.  Jesus did not seem to get along with any of the four major sects. He was hated by the Pharisees, although the Sanhedrin which judged him were Sadducees, who didn’t like him much either.  

Pilate was smart enough to wash his hands of Israeli sectarian hate – the Americans should do the same.

Today Israel is as divided as it was in Roman times.

It is divided between Jews and non-Jews, including the Druze, Israeli Arabs and others not to mention the Russians.  It is also divided between secular Jews and religious Jews with various interpretations of the Torah.  It is divided on the basis of ethnicity—European, Russian, Arab, African and American.  It is divided politically between Right and Left.  

It is a mess. 

How to achieve unity? 

War of course.   That’s what Americans do.  Find an enemy. If you can’t find one – make one. 

The war is not meant to be won, it meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance... The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact. George Orwell, 1949, from "1984"

Maybe a war can be justified if there is a threat to home and hearth – your family, your friends, if you like – your “right to life”.  But this is not that kind of war except for the Palestinians who are defending their “right to life”.  Their homes, their families.

This war is Orwellian. It is a tool of social cohesion.

The Israelis are just entitled and greedy.

What did you do in the war daddy?

“I killed babies.”

Ouch. 

Backlash

Netanyahu is a Jew second. First, he is a politician.   Jewishness is not his problem; sociopathy is. He has been officially indicted for fraud and bribery.   So, the problem is for his country. Now “Bibi” murders children. He is a monster—but behind him are bigger monsters.

You can expect war in Gaza to be conducted in Bibi’s personal interest – without regard to the interests of Israel itself or the Jewish people or common morality.  You should not be surprised at the cruelty and brutality.

Israel has earned the opprobrium of most of the world, and a significant part, if not a plurality of the global Jewish community as well —with pro-Palestinian posts on alternative media 15 times those supporting Israel.

It is true that American polls show 85% of Jews supporting the Zionist state.  But the accuracy and political neutrality of those polls has been challenged.  Mass protest by Jews against Israeli genocide is fact.

As mentioned, the Hamas military is virtually untouched. 

And the more the IDF fights, the stronger Hamas’ brigades become and the stronger the resolve of the Palestinian people.  With the death of each child, 20 Palestinians will volunteer to fight.    The IDF’s actions in Gaza are obviously crimes against humanity and, at some point it is likely that Israel will face the international Court of Justice. 

Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority could invoke the genocide convention at the United Nations today —but they have not done so. Then again, Fatah was not elected to lead Palestine –-that was Hamas!  It was Israel who put them in power.

The Israelis engineered Fatah’s recognition as the Palestinian Authority while supporting Hamas to undermine it and keep it weak-- so that the two-state solution could never be implemented, and Israel could go on to annex the West Bank incrementally.

In the past, Netanyahu has attacked Gaza and Hamas; and then supported it indirectly by allowing Qatari aid—to keep the organization going -- using Hamas and its rejection of the two-state solution to undermine Fatah and support gradual absorption of the West Bank.

That was the plan that Hamas preempted in its October 7 attack and its continuing resistance, mobilizing world opinion— and asserting its legitimacy to represent all Palestinian peoples.

We may assume in this case the Israelis will do something similar.  Genocidal bombing of Gaza satisfies the bloodlust of the Israeli Right –principally the Mizrahim –and incites settlers in the West Bank to go on a rampage and destroy Palestinian villages and homes.

In the meantime, the Israelis know that to engage Hamas in the tunnels would result in too many casualties.  So, there will be hostage exchanges and cease-fires such as the one we now see-- just a four day breather.  But the process will continue.

Israel will make a show of responding to international pressure-- while extorting billions in aid from the Americans-- shifting the focus from Gaza and the West Bank to Iran and Lebanon.  Which are more appealing enemies for the Americans.

Without American money, the simple fact is that Israel cannot survive.

Structurally at least its economy is in bad shape. 

Israel suffers from a high poverty level.

Yet Israel is a rich country.  For some people.

The cost of living is high.

The GDP is sinking.

The trouble is that the US—Daddy-- has a lot of the same problems. 

Yes, the US can go bankrupt-- if the dollar loses its reserve status which is bound to happen someday.   That means Israel can go bankrupt too. Someday.

For the time being – perhaps the next decade or so – Israel needs to keep the money flowing.   It also needs distractions from its social issues. But to achieve these things, it cannot continue doing what is been doing in Palestine. As a result, it may have to accept Hamas as the rightful government of a Palestinian state and dismantle its settlements in the West Bank.   

Hamas does not need to destroy Israel.  At the same time, it need not recognize Israel and its claim to Palestinian lands.  Coexistence comes first. Lack of recognition will ironically keep the money flowing – not only to Israel but to Palestine too—to pay for an uneasy peace. Incrementalism can work for the Palestinians too.

That's the short term. Long-term, all Palestine can stand back and watch the social cancers inside Israel and the US, weaken them.   

In the end, it wins by simply not losing.

Notes

This article took a lot longer to write than I had expected— partly because I was working on companion piece at the same time, also about Hamas and its evolution as a social and political organization against the background of geopolitics. The other article will probably be entitled Hamas 4.0.

I had to do a lot of revising.

One problem with people like me, especially those with my set of autistic traits is a tendency to make connections in all different directions. Which means I have to study a lot.

And drink a lot of coffee. Christmas is coming. So, buy me a coffee. Of course, not really for me. It goes to my friends. Below, me and Cappy. I was 57.

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Julian