لحظة ادراك

 They market lies as a substitute for the possibility of truth

A quote by Friedrich Nietzsche that I admire says:

“Truths are frightening; therefore we hide behind lies in order to be able to live.”

And also: “The most common lie is the one a person tells himself.”

Despite our prior knowledge—and Nietzsche also says—“Truth does not die; it merely waits for the right moment to rise from beneath the rubble.”

These sayings may serve as an entry point to understanding a world being reshaped atop the debris of facts—a world in which no one is prepared to tell the truth. An orchestra of musicians playing on the strings of lies, each knowing his part by heart, conducted by the grand charlatan Donald Trump: the man of the post-truth era, who believes that everything great in this world is built on lies. He does not merely create a virtual reality; he imposes it through sheer volume. He has his own audience that believes noise is the perfect substitute for thought. He elevated lying to a lofty rank among the arts of politics.

In Benjamin Netanyahu—fleeing his moral defeat—along with a Europe fleeing its colonial memory, two Arab and Islamic nations fleeing the confrontation with their historical responsibilities, and fragments of an axis fleeing accountability for its leaps into the void, he found willing partners. Together they produce the ugliest, most discordant symphonies. Each lies to himself, while knowing better than anyone that on this earth lies collapse under the weight of truth, and that truths are not killed—they return to take revenge.

A peace council headed by Donald Trump. An international stabilization force led by an American general. An American operations room in Kiryat Gat. A second phase that may or may not begin—on Benjamin Netanyahu’s timetable. This is what Gaza awaits, drowning between two seas: blood and water. American flour with Israeli oil—or, as the popular proverb puts it, “our oil with our flour.” Imagine what such a mixture would be like. If the introductions—or what they called the first phase—are of this nature, what will conditions be like in the second phase, with all its files?

At its core, and in Benjamin Netanyahu’s own words, it is the dismantling of Hamas, the withdrawal of its weapons, and the destruction of the infrastructure of resistance—either the easy way, at the hands of an international stabilization force under Resolution 2803, or the hard way, at the hands of the Israeli army. According to Hamas, as stated by Khaled Mashal, it is the reconstruction of Gaza and the freezing of weapons activity: Gaza has given more than it ever owed, and must now begin to recover—as if he had never heard of Donald Trump’s plan or the Security Council resolution before.

As for Donald Trump, Hamas’s weapons will be removed the easy way or the hard way as well. He is optimistic about the former, through his friends—and Hamas’s Qatari and Turkish friends. What everyone colludes in lying about is that all that has happened is merely a truce lasting two months, perhaps a little longer, titled nothing more than a prisoner exchange—one that has witnessed all this killing, justified endlessly.

In the language of facts: Hamas has no intention of surrendering its weapons, nor is it ready—after all these sacrifices—to exit the scene. Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, has no intention of moving forward with Donald Trump’s plan. He is heading toward a new round of death and destruction, and a push into the heart of Gaza City. Nothing expresses this more truthfully than what the Chief of Staff said: that the “yellow zone” is the new border of Gaza. Donald Trump fully aligns with this. All he needs is for Hamas to explicitly refuse to hand over its weapons after its first meeting with one of his envoys, so that he can fire the coup de grâce at the lie of his plan, under the pretext that Hamas failed to meet its requirements—thus drawing the curtain on all this mutual deceit, whose known ceiling is the closure of the Israeli hostages file.

In the language of facts as well: when you listen today to Khalil al-Hayya’s speech on the anniversary of Hamas’s founding, and the three “no’s” he embedded in it—no international forces except to separate Gaza and Israel; no surrender of Hamas’s weapons except within a settlement leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state; and no guardianship over governance in Palestine—only to then renew his demand that mediators pressure Israel to implement Trump’s plan, you cannot help but ask: which plan is this peculiar being talking about, and to whom is he addressing the speech he just read? If Trump’s plan is based on forming a trusteeship council to govern Gaza, withdrawing Hamas’s weapons unconditionally, and establishing an international force to disarm Hamas—reinforced by a Security Council resolution—then which plan, exactly, is he referring to? Do we have another plan the world has never heard of?

In the language of facts too: Hamas has been completely exhausted, as has Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both have become entirely losing fronts, and the daily bills of their losses will be paid first by civilians in Gaza and southern Lebanon—in every sense of the word. Their repercussions now affect the entire Palestinian and Lebanese situations alike. No one should bet that Donald Trump will stand in the middle and see with both eyes; personally and institutionally, he is neck-deep in his alliances with the Israeli right, led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

And in the language of facts again: Arab and Muslim mediators inhabit other worlds. They do not possess enough leverage to correct the course to its end in a way that secures Arab and Islamic interests and leads to the salvation of the Palestinian people. They have already placed all their eggs in Donald Trump’s basket, in pursuit of a principle: that he is all that is possible in such a historical moment.