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The Gaza war is not an Israeli triumph but a strategic and moral failure disguised as success. The U.S., led by Donald Trump, is attempting to stage-manage defeat into victory through political theater, while the realities on the ground tell a different story-Gaza's resistance endures, Israel's unity fractures, and the regional order built on American dominance falters. This interpretation is presented by Ramzy Baroud and Robert Inlakesh.
Their discussion portrays this moment as a historical inflection point: Gaza stands devastated yet unbroken; Israel's military supremacy is eroded by asymmetrical warfare; and Western and Arab political elites scramble to choreograph a "peace" that conceals the depth of their loss of control.
The episode opens by exposing the disconnect between political optics and military reality.
Israel failed to meet any of its declared objectives: it did not destroy Hamas, did not disarm the resistance, and could not impose postwar rule over Gaza.
Despite this, the U.S. and allied Arab governments seek to portray the outcome as victory-a controlled narrative designed to protect Israel's image and Trump's political legacy.
The Sharm el-Sheikh "peace summit" is emblematic of this illusion: major actors like Hamas, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are absent, while the gathering centers on Trump's self-congratulation rather than policy substance.
Baroud and Inlakesh argue that these optics are an attempt to rewrite failure as success, concealing the fact that Israel's regional project has collapsed.
The so-called ceasefire agreement is not peace but suspension.
Phase I: a temporary truce and prisoner exchange. Israel remains in control of large portions of Gaza.
Phase II: vague promises of reconstruction and political transition, with no clarity on sovereignty, borders, or demilitarization.
Both sides interpret the deal differently:
Hamas views it as a tactical pause, refusing disarmament without a credible statehood path.
Israel hopes to freeze Gaza's front, keeping it pacified while shifting focus elsewhere (Lebanon, Iran).
The result is a "frozen war"-an unstable equilibrium sustained by exhaustion and external manipulation. History shows such pauses tend to precede renewed escalation rather than resolution.
Inlakesh reframes Gaza's endurance as a strategic success in itself.
For an isolated, besieged population with no air force, navy, or external supply chain, survival equals victory.
This mirrors the logic of asymmetric struggles such as Vietnam: the weaker side wins by outlasting the occupier's political will.
The Palestinian concept of sumūd (steadfastness) becomes not merely cultural but a weaponized form of resilience, where collective endurance undermines the occupier's objectives.
Despite the physical devastation, Gaza's social cohesion and refusal to surrender reveal a psychological and moral victory: Israel has the means to destroy but not to subdue.
The war, the panel argues, has shattered Israel's dream of regional dominance.
Israel sought to integrate into the Arab world through normalization while sidelining Palestine.
Instead, the Gaza war rekindled the centrality of the Palestinian issue globally, undermining years of diplomatic investment.
Israel's attempt to project power-by simultaneously striking Gaza, Hezbollah, and Iran-has only exposed its strategic overreach.
The vision of a "Greater Israel" controlling or influencing the region without resistance is revealed as untenable. Instead, Israel faces growing internal division, global isolation, and strategic paralysis.
Baroud highlights the complicity of Arab regimes aligned with U.S. power.
These governments-motivated by regime preservation rather than moral principle-support Washington's framing of the war.
Public opinion across the Arab world, however, strongly supports Gaza, widening the gulf between rulers and ruled.
This disconnect is politically dangerous: authoritarian regimes that suppress pro-Palestinian sentiment risk internal instability.
Inlakesh adds that Arab states are not autonomous actors; their dependency on U.S. military and economic support keeps them subordinate to the American-Israeli agenda.
The discussion underscores the domestic cost of endless war.
Israel faces deep internal fractures-economic strain, political polarization, and moral fatigue.
The myth of Israeli unity ("the world is against us") once reinforced cohesion; now it masks fragmentation.
Tens of thousands of businesses are closed, tourism is collapsing, and emigration reportedly rises as citizens lose confidence in leadership.
The guests suggest that Israel's internal crises-judicial reform protests, societal rifts, and ideological extremism-pre-date the war but have been magnified by it, potentially sowing the seeds of long-term decline.
Trump's handling of the crisis epitomizes what Baroud calls "ego diplomacy."
Trump claims to have solved an "ancient conflict" through a ceasefire he barely understands.
The U.S. role has shifted from dominant architect to reactive manager-capable of brokering pauses, not peace.
The contradiction is stark: Washington bankrolls Israel's war machine while simultaneously pretending to mediate calm.
For Inlakesh, this shows a deeper truth: the U.S. no longer dictates outcomes in the Middle East-it merely choreographs illusions of control.
While Gaza burns, the West Bank remains eerily subdued.
Widespread arrests, killings, and settler violence continue, yet large-scale uprising has not erupted.
Reasons include Palestinian Authority repression, economic dependency, and public fear of losing livelihoods.
But this quiet is deceptive: with annexation and ethnic cleansing accelerating, the panel foresees an inevitable future explosion.
The contrast between Gaza's defiance and the West Bank's restraint symbolizes two faces of Palestinian struggle-one openly confrontational, the other trapped under internal collaboration and occupation control.
The analysts agree that the conflict has entered a long, open-ended phase.
Unless a genuine path to sovereignty emerges, violence will recur in cycles-each round widening Israel's isolation and delegitimizing Western policy.
Freezing Gaza will not stabilize the region; instead, it may trigger new confrontations in Lebanon, Syria, or the Red Sea.
The geopolitical map is shifting: U.S. credibility declines, multipolar influence (Iran, Russia, China) rises, and the Palestinian cause reclaims global attention.
This war, they suggest, ends not with treaties but with narrative transformation-a contest over whose story defines legitimacy, justice, and survival in the post-American Middle East.
Illusions cannot replace legitimacy. No summit or spin can disguise Israel's strategic failure or U.S. hypocrisy.
Endurance as defiance. Gaza's ability to persist-socially, politically, and spiritually-transforms weakness into strength.
Power's moral collapse. Western and Arab complicity erodes their moral authority; "stability" bought with injustice is temporary.
History re-centers Palestine. Decades of normalization and distraction failed to erase the issue; it has returned as the moral axis of global politics.
A new paradigm emerging. The Middle East is shifting from U.S.-imposed order to a plural, contested landscape defined by resistance, realism, and exhaustion of imperial control.
"The Choreography of Israeli Defeat" is not about a single battle but a civilizational moment-the exposure of power without purpose. Gaza's ruins illuminate a paradox: those who sought to erase a people instead revived their cause, and those who claimed victory now struggle to explain their own defeat.
Gaza and the Ummah: Silence of the Rulers, Strength of the People