Vote on LGBT rights in the UN General Assembly

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A Leaked Call from 2008: When the Siege Was the “Price of Calm”

A leaked phone call from 2008 between Hamas political leader Khaled Mishal and former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh sheds light on the international logic imposed on Gaza during Israel’s assault that year.

In the call, Khaled Mishal appeals for political and diplomatic support at the United Nations and on the global stage, urging Arab leaders to pressure Israel to halt its aggression against Gaza and lift the siege strangling the Strip. Mishal makes clear that a ceasefire without ending the blockade is not peace, but merely the consolidation of collective punishment.

Ali Abdullah Saleh’s response reflects a familiar refrain. Rather than confronting Israeli aggression or the legality of the siege, he rebukes Mishal, insisting that Palestinian resistance must abandon its rockets. “Your rockets haven’t solved anything,” Saleh tells him, framing Palestinian self-defense as the core problem rather than occupation, bombardment, or blockade.

Mishal pushes back. He explains that Israel is seeking a ceasefire precisely to stop the fighting while maintaining the siege on Gaza. Egypt knows this, he says. The negotiators know this. Israel wants quiet, not justice — calm skies over Israel, and suffocation on the ground in Gaza. Accepting such terms, Mishal argues, would normalize the siege and turn it into a permanent reality.

Saleh, however, doubles down, once again attacking Mishal and insisting that resistance — not the siege — is the obstacle to peace.

This exchange is revealing. It exposes how, even during moments of mass killing and destruction in Gaza, Palestinian leaders were pressured not to end the siege, but to surrender leverage. Rockets were condemned; starvation was tolerated. Resistance was scrutinized; Israeli policy was normalized.

Nearly two decades later, the same logic persists. Gaza is repeatedly offered “ceasefires” that freeze injustice in place, while Palestinians are asked to disarm under blockade. The leaked call is not merely a historical artifact — it is a reminder that for Gaza, the struggle has never been only about stopping bombs, but about refusing a peace that comes at the cost of dignity, freedom, and survival.

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