Who has won the diplomatic battle following Gaza war?

Mehdi Shakibayi: The Gaza Strip with an area of 360 square kilometer and an estimated population of 1.5 million is considered one of the most densely-populated residential areas of the world.

The Palestinian area is considered strategic in that it is the only Palestinian area which has links to the world outside; it is the breathing mouth of the West Bank and the 1948-occupied areas. The stakes of the area turned even higher after Hamas took its control in 2007.

The Gaza Strip was last year subject to a heavy offensive by the Zionist regime with a stated aim of releasing a seized Zionist soldier (Gilad Shalit) and punishing the Gaza population for their vote to Hamas. Over 1450 Palestinians were martyred during the carnage.

22 days after the crime, the regime was forced to withdraw from Gaza under world public opinion pressure, seeing none of its stated goals materialized. Shalit is still in seizure and Gaza stands under the control of Hamas. Inside 'Israel', the coalition cabinet desperately seeks a national unity government, exposing wide rifts in the Zionist political system.

Benjamin Netanyahu's invite to the winning party of 2009 elections (Kadima) to join his coalition government was categorically rejected by Kadima's head, further underlining the crisis within the regime.

Hamas perseverance against the Israeli conditions for Shalit release has also been among the achievements of the movement following the war. Gaza in the past two years has been under toughest economic and political embargoes by Israel and Egypt however the insistence of the Palestinian side on the release of 1000 captives in return for Shalit release points to a higher status for the Resistance.

The release of UN Goldstone report despite their diplomatic siege was another diplomatic victory for the Resistance. In the report, Judge Richard Goldstone, denounced Israeli measures during the Gaza war as war crimes and called for the trial of the regime's leaders.

Though facing a US veto before being put to implementation, the report opened the way for humanitarian delegations to go to Gaza to show their solidarity with the people in Gaza.

A review of the post-war developments shows that the Resistance trend has largely confronted the Compromise trend in e diplomatic field. Hamas showed it is well-trained in the field.

Egypt's pressure over Hamas to concede to Cairo reconciliation project, Abu Mazen's stated withdrawal from next elections and his call for an election only in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority's ill-thought siding with some Arab countries in delaying the Goldstone report were among the diplomatic tests which only promoted the status of the movement in the Palestinian eye.

Now, people in 110 countries across the world are expressing solidarity with Hamas, helping determine the real winning party of the diplomatic battle.