The management of the aftermath of war, is more important than managing the war itself

What is certain so far is that the Gaza war moved the Palestinian issue from a secondary position among the emerging regional and international issues, to a central position, such that it was established as a primary issue that attracted the world’s attention.

Never before has talk of a two-state solution become so widely circulated as a way out of the state of wars that are devastating the Middle East and severely damaging the interests of the world therein.

This is one of the most important gains that have been achieved since the first day of the outbreak of the war until the present day, and whatever its results will not detract from this gain.

On the balance of profit and loss, another gain can be recorded, which is reviving the morale of the Palestinian people, who have long stood on the brink of despair, and see their cause, which was classified as central, has declined greatly to the point where it has been absent from regional and international agendas.

As for the solutions that were being discussed before the war, they were very far from the solution he sought, as the real state on the ground was replaced with an imaginary state on paper, and the inalienable rights that the world described as inalienable were replaced with a package of facilities that is much less than what any other people obtained, even in the form of Autonomy.

As for the Holy of Holies, which the Palestinians embraced as their eternal capital, it was reduced to the village of Abu Dis, with a closed corridor used for prayer only.

As for the remaining elements of the larger issue, they have been forgotten. In this case, who is talking about refugees and their return?

This was the situation of the Palestinians before this war, except that what happened and we hope will continue has revived in the hearts of the Palestinians confidence and hope for a political solution that the world will adopt and talk about at a greater pace, with a clearer promise that the world will work on it as an inevitability from the first day of the end of the war.

However, these qualitative and important gains are not without caveats surrounding them, and there is no guarantee that they will not turn into the opposite, if the results of the Gaza war are as the Israelis want and design them.

What is known about the day following the cessation of the war are the urgent needs that cannot be postponed even for one day, which is the emergency work that precedes the larger process of “reconstruction.” The urgent and urgent relief is for hundreds of thousands of people to find shelter with the minimum conditions for living in it, even if it is tents that protect from the cold and rain, and for school students who were prevented from obtaining their education to find shelter for months, and no one knows how long it will be when it is agreed that the war has actually ended. Not to mention providing food, medicine and clothing for millions who will have to start their lives from scratch, which is required before the reconstruction process can begin.

This is a process that requires collecting double-digit billions to begin immediately, starting with removing the rubble and throwing it into the sea, then providing the supplies to rebuild hundreds of thousands of destroyed homes. The issue in this case is not an earthquake that destroyed a city as much as it is an earthquake that destroyed a country.

The question, the answer to which is not yet known, is where Israel will be in those days following the end of the war. Will it be in all of Gaza, or in some of its areas, or will it maintain a siege that is more horrific and harsher than it was before the war?

In this regard, there is talk about the third stage, which is the product of old American theory, which was not taken into account, and it means that the war will continue, but with less blood and destruction. This also means that Israel will remain in Gaza, directly or by controlling it with siege and fire.

Questions to which it is too early to find an accurate answer because their affairs are in the hands of many overlapping and conflicting forces with their own agendas.

In this preliminary analysis, I did not address the time factor, the extent of which no one knows, in the event of fighting or its reduction or transition from it to the final conclusions, and then what will be the condition of the Palestinians the next day? Will they respond to urgent calls to reform the state of power? Will Hamas be part of the temporary and final Palestinian composition?

The Palestinian gains were mentioned at the beginning of this article, but as for the losses, if it is possible to quantify the material aspect of them, their final conclusions are still very ambiguous. As Palestinians, we must improve the management of the aftermath of the war, because it is much more important than managing the war itself, because the Palestinian fate is not decided by one war or several wars, but rather by a political achievement made by an organized and qualified people who are able not only to withstand but also to advance.