
By Ramzy Baroud
Mordechai Kedar’s views on Palestinian resistance reveal a deep misunderstanding of Palestinian culture and resolve, which continues to defy Israeli military power and ideology.
Mordechai Kedar is promoted in Israeli media and academic circles as a leading expert on Arabic culture, literature, and the socio-political landscape of Palestine and the Arab world.
However, the former lieutenant colonel of the Israeli army is nothing more than an old-school Orientalist. He studies the “other” to understand their weaknesses, with the hope of breaking them down through a presumed deep cultural knowledge of their thinking and way of life.
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It is figures like Kedar who have completely misled the Israeli public—and many academic circles in the Western world—about the true nature of Palestinian culture and resistance. Watching a million Palestinians return to their destroyed homes in Gaza, starting on January 27, must be perplexing for Israeli Orientalist thinkers, who had assumed that Palestinians had a breaking point, and that military power—specifically, the complete obliteration of Gaza—would bring a proud nation to its knees.
Israelis, on the other hand, live behind walls, “buffer zones,” and the world’s most sophisticated defense systems. Even these precautions have proven ineffective in Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, starting on October 7 and 8, 2023.
Despite Israel’s efforts to restore its so-called deterrence, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have yet to return to the “Gaza Envelope” region or to northern Israel.
Never before have we truly "returned." Never before have Palestinian refugees from Gaza moved north.
Today, we witness the unimaginable: a million Palestinians—wounded, resilient, and carrying four generations of pain—heading north, waving flags, chanting, and smiling through… pic.twitter.com/n5R7pYwYVp
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2025
Palestinians and Lebanese, however, are returning—Palestinians to their completely destroyed homes and infrastructure; Lebanese, facing Israeli tanks, are killed in the process.
Kedar and others like him would never dare examine the reasons behind this, because doing so would force them to confront the idea that the natives of the land have deep roots—roots connected to ancestral ties that transcend time, overcome fear, and even war—or more accurately, genocide.
What made me reflect on Kedar, in particular, were statements he made on an Israeli TV channel during the early days of the war.
His remarks, delivered as if from a deep intellectual guru, stuck with me, as they crystallized how Israeli historians and intelligentsia have defined “victory”—not for Israel, but for the Palestinians.
“If there was a member of Hamas, without legs and without an arm, and in the other arm he has only two fingers, and he climbs atop a mosque and does this (flashing the victory sign), that means he won,” Kedar said, raising the question, “Why?”
“(It is because) his children will continue (on his path). His grandchildren will continue. Because he survived. Because he stayed. This is the image of victory. We must understand this,” he added.
Chants, music and Eid Takbeers (the chanting of 'God is Great') are heard as nearly one million Palestinians march north, following over 16 months of displacement and genocide. pic.twitter.com/IaEobuiuEU
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2025
Aside from Kedar’s poor understanding that not every Palestinian flashing a victory sign is a member of Hamas, and his Orientalist reference to the “mosque,” as if Palestinians can only express their culture through religious symbols, Kedar’s sentiment is shared by many Israeli intellectuals. In fact, in many ways, it defines mainstream thinking in Israel—and still does.
The fear of this specific moment – the last standing Palestinian amputee flashing a victory sign – led Israel to destroy Gaza, obliterate the vast majority of its homes, schools, mosques, churches, streets, water processing facilities, electrical grids, generators, and, of course, all of its hospitals.
Though most likely Gazans are unaware of Kedar’s comments—having no access to electricity or the internet, let alone knowledge of his existence—it seems they have collectively formed a response to his lingering fear.
Yes, thousands of them have lost their hands and legs—Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees in the world. Yet, they have all returned to the rubble of their homes, mosques, churches, and the graves of their children, while flashing the victory sign. They survived, they returned, and they stayed.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza after over 15 months of displacement and genocide. pic.twitter.com/xMHtrvhXmR
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2025
It would be interesting to see how Kedar would respond to the millions of Palestinians, and tens of millions of their supporters around the world—those who have defeated all of Israel’s strategies, and those who have never abandoned the solidarity barricades—all flashing the victory sign.
However odd such a statement, we must also be grateful to Kedar, as he has, very early in the war, drawn the line between victory and defeat, as defined by the Israelis themselves. Thanks to him and his ilk, we can assert with complete confidence that Palestinian sumud (steadfastness) has triumphed over the Israeli military machine, developed, financed, and sustained by the US and its Western allies.

– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Mr./Dr Kedar’s line of thinking is not surprising given his ideological position, but it is interesting to see Ms./ Dr. Merzen’s analysis in Ha’aretz 27.1.2025, which is based on social media, trying to convince israelis that the Palestinians of Ghaza are dissociating themselves from Hamas and dreaming of the West…