***

We’ve lost. Truth must be told. The inability to admit it encapsulates everything you need to know about Israel’s individual and mass psychology. There’s a clear, sharp, predictable reality that we should begin to fathom, to process, to understand and to draw conclusions from for the future. It’s no fun to admit that we’ve lost, so we lie to ourselves.

We constantly tell ourselves about an imaginary deadline – April, May, September 1 – and if Hezbollah keeps it up until then, we’ll give it a thorough shellacking. The deadline keeps being pushed back. The border region remains empty. The deceit continues. There now seems to be a high probability that for years, anyone driving along the border will be a target. Tel Hai will fall again.

Rafah is the newest bluff that the mouthpieces are plying to fool us and make us think that victory is just moments away. By the time they enter Rafah, the actual event will have lost its significance. There may be an incursion, perhaps a tiny one, sometime – say in May. After that, they’ll peddle the next lie, that all we have to do is ________ (fill in the blank), and victory will be on its way. The reality is that the war’s aims will not be achieved. Hamas will not be eradicated. The hostages will not be returned through military pressure. Security will not be reestablished.

The more the mouthpieces shout that “we’re winning,” the clearer it is that we’re losing. Lying is their craft. We need to get used to that. Life is less secure than before October 7. The beating we took will sting for years to come. The international ostracism won’t go away. And, of course, the dead won’t be coming back. Nor will many of the hostages.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    59·
    9 months ago

    The more the mouthpieces shout that “we’re winning,” the clearer it is that we’re losing. Lying is their craft. We need to get used to that. Life is less secure than before October 7. The beating we took will sting for years to come. The international ostracism won’t go away. And, of course, the dead won’t be coming back. Nor will many of the hostages.

    We have to make it clearer than ever that this rightwing fantasy of subjugation of a population to genocidal conditions doesn’t fulfill any aims to stop terrorism whatsoever.

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    101·
    9 months ago

    Israel still exists, and is still being supported and recognized by most countries, plus the UN. They are still building settlements, ethnically cleansing thousands in Gaza, and the PA puppet authority is the only Palestine Israel will even acknowledge. If that is what “defeat” looks like then the word is rendered meaningless.

    • blarth@thelemmy.club
      1·
      9 months ago

      Agreed. This article is an attempt to convince people that all is lost unless Israel goes all in and takes over Palestine. The war for hearts and minds rages on.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
      11·
      9 months ago

      All of that is true. But Hamas still exists as well.

      Aside from committing Genocide and destroying all of Gaza if they don’t defeat Hamas they will have technically lost.

    • Alsephina@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago

      I mean yeah, but that’s the point. Even an israeli source is admitting the defeat.

      The only thing “israel” has succeeded in doing is genocide.

    • qevlarr@lemmy.world
      193·
      9 months ago

      You’re getting downvoted not because people support Hamas’ terrorism, but because focusing on Hamas is helping Israel get away with committing genocide on innocent Palestinians

      • Alsephina@lemmy.mlEnglish
        81·
        9 months ago

        All Palestinian violence against the occupation is justified resistance, not “terrorism”

        Hamas’s tactics (attacking villages, taking hostages, using tunnels and guerilla warfare) and goals (driving out an occupying force and reuniting their country) are no different from other revolutionary armed organizations like the Viet Cong’s.

        Decolonization is violent; best way to avoid it is to not colonize in the first place.

        And anyway, Hamas has done a far better job avoiding killing civilians than the occupying force with military superiority and far more precise equipment has. The final death toll from the Oct 7 retaliation is now thought to be 695 Israeli “civilians” (mostly unarmed IDF conscripts), 373 armed IDF members, 71 foreigners and 36 children. While Israel has killed over 30 thousand Palestinians, 2/3 of whom are women and children.

        • qevlarr@lemmy.world
          21·
          9 months ago

          I don’t know why you’d pick this particular fight about calling the attacks on October 7th terrorism or not, because that is a fight you’re not going to win against the general public. Better to focus on what Israel is doing right now.