Opinion
By Michalis Sophocleous
President Trump secured the ceasefire in Gaza, and this is, objectively, a major achievement. The ambitious 20-point plan he brokered is a very complex equation, with the fragile truce likely to be judged in its second phase, which requires the disarmament of Hamas. The war in Gaza has a clear loser: the Iran-backed so-called “Axis of Resistance.” Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been weakened, decimated, losing whatever moral advantage they once held among the local population, their infrastructure, and control over Gaza. Hezbollah in Lebanon has suffered setbacks in leadership, armament, and the “state within a state” status in Lebanon. The Houthis in Yemen have sustained similar losses, while the “bridge” of Syria was lost with Assad’s fall. Iran itself has been hit by Israeli strikes on its territory, with social unrest leaving even the law on the hijab hanging in the balance.
If the goal of the October 7, 2023, attack, as I personally believe, was to prevent regional cooperation and achieve an Arab coalition under a new jihad, the result has been a complete failure. The Trump agreement restores the spirit of the Abraham Accords, even stronger, broader, and, most importantly, more unashamed than ever.
But the victims of this war extend far beyond the weakened Iranian entourage. The damage touches Israel itself, international organizations, our societies, and above all, truth and information.
Israel, mainly in terms of prestige and morality, for having lacked the wisdom not to exhaust the tolerance of large segments of the population, even Western governments. It has been perceived as a bloodthirsty war machine with no humanitarian boundaries, regardless of whether the accusations of genocide are valid. If—this time—the Palestinian leadership shows realism, then a Palestinian state could become a reality. Yes, the very state that was repeatedly offered to them since 1948 and repeatedly rejected.
International organizations are also wounded: the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross, and Amnesty International have all demonstrated inexcusable one-sidedness and bias. Condemning Israel’s excesses is one thing; ignoring the unprovoked terrorist attack of October 7, its 1,319 dead, and 250 hostages—many of whom were only released just a few days ago—is another.
The same applies to much of public opinion. Those in the West who rushed to embrace and generously absolve every sin of theocratic terrorists. Murderers who, before striking their enemies, violate every human right, every freedom, and execute anyone among their own who dares express an opinion or be different. As mistaken as the blind and uncritical support for Israel was—after it overstepped limits and leveled entire cities—the support for Hamas was far more disgraceful. The “from the river to the sea” mantra, implying Israel’s annihilation, and the identification with the worst forms of dictatorship and fanaticism, are what the world witnesses today. On the very day of the ceasefire, we saw dozens of cold-blooded executions of Palestinians in Gaza.
Since the Gulf War in 1990, the theory was that we would watch wars live and have every bit of information. “The war will be televised,” they said, paraphrasing Gil Scott-Heron’s famous phrase, “The revolution won’t be televised.” Yet in Gaza, the opposite proved true. There is not a single media outlet in the world that provided objective, verified information about what was happening. All acted as propaganda machines, heralds of false and manufactured news, servants of ideology, or waiters serving unverifiable reports that “had” to be published before anyone else. All enlisted. All failed.
In President Trump’s 20 points, there is no mention of the responsibility of each citizen in the Western world: not to swallow blindly every piece of information fed into the misinformation fan of media and social networks. In the 6th century BCE, in his book The Art of War, the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrote that “all warfare is based on deception.” Two and a half thousand years later, these deceptions are larger than ever. And our “learned” and “thinking” societies run like zombie armies to embrace every such convenient, so-called deception.
