The executioner's scene, in which Sinwar informs his abductees, after slaughtering and murdering their families, that they are in a safe place and that no harm will come to them, raises anew the question of how and when we will know that we have won. I propose to pose the opposite question (it's easier): When did Hamas know it had lost?
Incited mobs and chants of "Allahu Akbar": Hamas' propaganda video
We have indeed defined the goals of the war as the collapse of Hamas' military and governmental capabilities and the return of the hostages, but even if we achieve this after fighting for a few more months, it is not at all certain that Hamas will recognize its loss or define it, as we do, as a loss.
Hamas is now writing a dual narrative and ethos. The first part of it is the story of the surprise that caused Israel in the mass slaughter and abduction of many as a "record achievement" that no one who has fought Israel to this day has ever been able to achieve. The second part is a prolonged "heroic stand" and months of fighting in the framework of jihad against a powerful enemy (the "Little Satan"), supported militarily and economically by the United States ("The Great Satan").
Palestinians exposed to destruction in Gaza, Photo: AP
The ruins of thinly crushed Gaza (above ground), along with the thousands of dead, including non-combatants, and the scenes of more than a million displaced persons, do not make an impression on Yahya Sinwar and the Hamas leadership. On the contrary, they incorporate these harsh landscapes into the ethos they are now writing for themselves and future generations. Their language is completely different from the "Western" language we speak and understand. They speak Gazan.
On the other hand, the real loss Hamas will feel is the loss of territory and land, not temporarily, but permanently. This is what shaped the Arab states' sense of stinging loss after the Six-Day War. This is what shaped the Palestinians' sense of loss after the War of Independence, and on the other hand, it is also what gave Egypt the sense of victory, after the peace treaties with Israel, when it regained the "holy" land of Sinai, "to the last grain" (as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat put it).
Gaza destroyed, photo: AFP
The original Hamas charter considers the land of Palestine to be the land of an Islamic waqf (i.e., land with religious validity) reserved until Judgment Day, for generations of Muslims. The convention states that this Waqf land must not be neglected, or given up, or part of it. The territory of the Land of Israel ("Palestine" in Hamas) is presented as Dar al-Islam, a religious endowment dedicated by the Muslim caliph Omar bin al-Khattab for Muslims until the day of the resurrection, of which no one has the authority to abandon even part of it.
As such, the areas of the Land of Israel between the river and the sea are sacred, and only the Muslim government is entitled to hold them. On the other hand, Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel is defined as a criminal settlement of infidels, which desecrates the Muslimness of the land, and its very presence here, within any borders, such as the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, challenges it.
Any result other than Israel's continued possession of Gaza land or part of its territory (Dar al-Islam territories) and their permanent takeover from Hamas and the Palestinians will not be considered a loss by Hamas. This is how the Hamas head works. This is the language of Gaza. We should also start talking about it.
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