If nothing sensational happens, it’s just a matter of time before the next war or acts of war begin.
TRUCE: A man carries children past a building that was bombed by Israel this week, before the ceasefire. Photo: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP / NTB view more
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Manager: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s views. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Published
Saturday 22 May 2021 – 09:28
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At least 243 Palestinians, including 66 children, killed in Gaza. On the Israeli side, twelve were killed, including two children. 1900 Palestinians injured in Gaza, 355 in Israel. Hundreds of buildings laid in rubble in Gaza, damaging tens of billions of kroner. Tragedies everywhere.
This is the conclusion after an eleven-day war between Israel and Hamas, the military operation the Israeli authorities called “Operation Wall Guards”. Now both parties claim that they won, but who really lost the least?
SUMMARY: Earlier this week, the world saw an Israeli police attacking Palestinian Muslims in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. A total of 90 people have now died, 83 in Gaza and 7 in Israel. view more
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In the short term Hamas. Yesterday, Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem celebrated what they thought was a victory. It is probably a bit excessive, but Hamas managed during these war days to gather the Palestinians in an almost common front. At the same time, the Israelis got a wake-up call through the rocket launches from Hamas and to some extent Islamic holy war. The Iron Dome missile defense was unable to withstand massive attacks, several rockets escaped. Hezbollah in Lebanon has probably noticed this.
What about Israel? As usual, the military forces were completely superior, but this war has not least revolved around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political future. There will probably be no new government in Israel before the deadline expires on 2 June. Thus, there will be new elections. Only when new opinion polls are published will we see if Netanyahu has benefited from the war, as he has obviously focused on.
The losers is the entire population of Gaza and the many Israelis who were indirectly or directly affected by the approximately four thousand small and medium-sized rockets fired from Gaza. But the worst thing is that this war has not solved a single problem. The Israeli isolation of Gaza continues, Hamas and Islamic War are soon producing new missiles. If nothing sensational happens, it’s just a matter of time before the next war or acts of war begin. If Israeli police once again enter the Haram-al Sharif (Temple Square) where the al-Aqsa Mosque is located, it will hardly be long before new Hamas rockets are fired at Jerusalem.
The only country who can do something to dampen the tension is the United States. President Joe Biden proved to be a true friend of Israel in the early days, but became a little more balanced as international criticism increased. Maybe he will be forced to focus a little more on the Middle East than he had planned in the time to come, and maybe he can be a little more constructive than his predecessor Donald Trump.
