Azmi Bishara: Palestinian resistance's performance enough to make all Arabs proud

Dr. Azmi Bishara, Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, said the performance of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza - after over two months of Israel's brutal assault - "is enough to make any Arab proud".

The most crucial aspect missing right now, he said, were major protests across the Arab world, despite the importance of this and the part it could play in ending Israel's assault.

He suggested it was possible the war could shift into a battle of attrition for months or longer and said the latest US veto against a ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council demonstrated Washington's desire for the war to continue.

Performance of the resistance

In a new interview with Alaraby TV, Bishara said the performance of the resistance which has left Israel in shock indicated that the Palestinian factions had prepared themselves thoroughly for an Israeli invasion.

This was evidenced by the number of soldiers wounded and killed, even if we go by the numbers Israel has acknowledged. While official announcements had referred to around 2,000 injured, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth had disclosed that the number was closer to 5,000.

For Bishara, the performance of the resistance "should make any Arab proud", as well as embarrassing the opponents of the Palestinian people.

He said the resistance, while not achieving victory, can be said to have "thwarted the assault".

Dr. Bishara said Israel has shown the same lack of preparedness regarding its ground invasion as it had shown in its confused initial response to the 7 October operation. This was because it had failed to define what the declared goal of the ground invasion – "eliminating Hamas" - actually meant.

Bishara noted that the settler-colonial logic which governs Israel's treatment of Palestinians – that is, with a sense of superiority, ignorance and contempt – has backfired because this mentality prevents Israel from understanding its enemy and its capabilities. This has left Israel shocked by the military performance of the resistance.

On the war's possible outcomes, Bishara stated that "we must learn exactly the extent of the damage inflicted on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people, even if we can't know how things will turn out – this could become a war of attrition and last months or more".

Regarding the arrest of civilians in northern Gaza a few days ago, who were photographed after being stripped, Bishara believes the primary goal of this act was to punish the steadfastness of those who had remained in northern Gaza (after Israel had ordered everyone to leave). He asserted that the pictures of these young men "don't diminish their dignity before us, but rather diminish the dignity of the Israeli soldiers."

Bishara also pointed out that statements implying Palestinians "love death" were insulting to Palestinians and rejected the idea that focus should be directed away from the catastrophic situation Palestinians are suffering in order to only focus on images of confrontation and resistance.

Arab protests need to be bigger

Bishara believes that one crucial aspect missing right now is major protests across the Arab world.

"For as long as the major Arab regimes taking any action is ruled out, people across the Arab world need to protest in the streets. This is what's missing right now, and which could contribute to stopping the war because if this happened, the US might actually feel that what Israel is doing is risking stability in the region and in the major Arab countries".

In general, the Arab stance is a "spectator position" says Bishara, and he fears that "we are in the process of giving Israel the opportunity to keep going until the end of this year - to completely destroy the Gaza Strip, so it becomes uninhabitable, and then to position itself inside the Strip and begin carrying out special operations and assassinations".

He concluded by saying that "the yardstick for showing support for the Palestinian people today isn't by posting on social media, but by going out into the streets".

Bishara described the tour of the ministerial delegation which had come out of the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit and has visited a number of capital cities as no more than a public relations stunt.

"The protests we have seen over the past two weeks are unprecedented. Even during the Arab Spring, we did not see such demonstrations in Jordan."

The Palestinian connection: Jordan marches en masse for Gaza: https://t.co/mf9SmrGb3c

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 4, 2023

In Bishara's view, some Arab states who had been keen on the idea of Israel eliminating Hamas, have begun now to feel that Israel is posing a danger by having embarked on a reckless enterprise that hasn’t been thought through and which could destabilise the region.

He also pointed out that the 7 October operation had derailed America's major project for the region - based on building an Israeli-Arab axis to "guard stability" in the Middle East and preparing for confrontation with China.

Cutting off the sea route to Israel

Regarding the Houthi threats against Israeli ships and those headed to Israel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea, Bishara said these had started to have a real economic impact on Israel and that they'd used a rational discourse - drawing the equation that the siege of Gaza would be met with a naval siege of Israel.

He reiterated that if the Arab states had decided to break the siege of Gaza, then space wouldn't have been opened up to a non-Arab actor like Iran to become the primary supporter of Hamas, who would have preferred Arab states like Saudi Arabia, for example, to have supported it.

Bishara repeated that the Arab states were not required to declare war on Israel - but they should take steps which would also benefit them in terms of their political influence and ability to play a role in negotiations for the "day after" and in the regional balance of power in general.

He confirmed current Arab behaviour was "harming the national security of each Arab country."

The US veto and loss of moral standing

Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter to put forward a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire, and Bishara noted that though the resolution contained provisions against Hamas, the US had rejected it.

Bishara explained the reason for the US veto was that Washington wants the war to continue. US officials have openly declared this, and the goal is to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable.

Bishara said the fact that US found itself alone in vetoing the cease fire resolution at the UN Security Council last Friday, had dealt an unprecedented blow to the moral standing of the US - perhaps more so than any instance since the Iraq War.

Bishara said the Security Council's five permanent member states are part of the body's colonial legacy (with the exceptions of China and Russia), which has made the Security Council system unviable in its current form and in need of reform. However, it is the permanent member states who have resisted and will resist any change or reform to this system.

He criticised the Arab group at the UN for its role so far, having been limited to one draft resolution rejected by one vote (by the US). He summarised the situation facing the Palestinian cause as follows: "Israel imposes its will on the US, and the US imposes its will on the world".

Regarding other central Western states, Bishara ruled out any change in Britain's official stance regarding the Palestinian issue. France, in his opinion, was "searching for a role and trying to differentiate itself foreign policy-wise".

However, he stressed that Paris's behaviour in general was still marred by incitement and the suppression of any voices showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, and France was leading when it came to the "frenzy" of whipping up antisemitism accusations.

This could be understood as part of the trend of "Americanisation" in France, which had become institutionalised since ex-President Nicholas Sarkozy's era and is more entrenched today.

Bishara said global awareness of the justice of the Palestinian cause has now seen it placed firmly within the category of global issues.

He expressed his confidence that the persecution and "intellectual" intimidation being practised by countries and institutions in the West against supporters of the Palestinian cause in universities, institutions, arts, and culture will be difficult to sustain "and what is missing, once more, is an Arab actor with any weight in the world".