When the Palestinian resistance group Hamas launched a masterfully planned strike and executed lightning attack called Toofan Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Flood) from Gaza into Israel on October 7, the entire world stood stunned. The attack not only busted the myth of Israel’s ‘invincibility’ but also brought the Palestine issue to centre stage. At least 100 Israelis were killed on the first day as a result of Palestinian fighters attacking Israeli military and civilian objectives by air, sea, and land. Many more Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, were held hostage. In retaliation, Israel declared a “state of war” and started indiscriminate bombing on the beleaguered Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which is facing a growing humanitarian catastrophe.
The Yom Kippur War, which lasted for 19 days in 1973 and ended with Israel accepting a ‘land for peace’ formula at the Camp David Accords six years later, and the surprise attack by Hamas’ armed wing “al-Qassam Brigades,” which took place after Israeli settlers recently took control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and a record number of Palestinians were killed by Israel in recent days, bear uncanny similarities.
The vanity of Israel’s conceited leaders, who for a long time thought they were invincible and regularly underestimated the Palestinians, has finally been revealed. The fortitude of the oppressed people has frequently shocked and startled Israeli authorities since the “surprise” Arab attack in October 1973.
Toofan Al-Aqsa’s objectives are crystal clear. First, it is necessary to retaliate in kind against Israel’s occupation, oppression, illegal settlement, and desecration of Palestinian religious symbols, particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. This is in order to release as many political prisoners from Israeli prisons as possible. Next, Arab normalization with Israel must be a priority because Israel runs an apartheid system throughout the region. The negotiation of another prisoner swap is crucial.
Undoubtedly, the strike has changed the geostrategic situation in the Middle East, which bears far-reaching implications, as Dr.Zafarul Islam Khan noted that Israel had succeeded in putting the Palestine question on the back burner. Hamas has put it on the front burner. No one will be able to disregard Palestine now. Efforts will be made to solve the issue and do some justice to the victims.
Speaking with Radiance, Dr. Khan, a noted West Asia analyst and journalist, shed light on the history of Palestine. He said Jewish people made up 33 percent of Palestine’s population in 1947, although they only possessed 6 percent of the country. UN Resolution 181 made the division of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. However, the UN plan was rejected by the Palestinians because it gave the Jewish state a 56 percent portion of Palestine, including the majority of the fertile coastal region.
Ninety-four percent of historic Palestine was then owned by the Palestinians, who also made up 67 percent of the country’s population. The Zionist movement forcibly threw out around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and occupied 78% of Palestine.
What are currently known as the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip were created from the remaining 22 percent.
Even after this illegal occupation, Dr. Khan said the PLO signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 in the hope that the Palestinians would form their own independent government, but Israel continued its aggression and stubbornness.
While the surprise attack shows the Palestinian people’s resilience and tenacity for the Palestine cause, Dr. Khan said that now the Muslim and Arab world will have to revise their strategies. “It’s now clear that the Palestinians are adamant about getting some of their rights and that Israel is not as strong as it used to claim. Even if some Muslim and Arab countries do not sever their relations with Israel, they will scale it down.”
He also said that there is a limit to everything. The world will now stop Israel from mass murdering Palestinians and flattening Gaza.
Echoing his words, journalist and international affairs commentator Asad Mirza said the Hamas’ actions in Israel have a historical context that the world must take note of.
Slamming the western media for their biased reporting, Asad Mirza told Radiance: It makes one wonder how, just within a day of the onslaught, the western media was replete with analyses and comments comparing the 6th October 2023 onslaught with the Yom Kippur War (also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab-Israeli War) and drawing parallels with Palestinians not honouring the Yom Kippur Day of the Holy Month of Ramadan in 1973 and timing of the attack this time with the joyous celebration of the Torah, which marks the concluding holiday of the Feast of Tabernacles.
If we analyze the trend of reporting carried out by the western media, including social media, it immediately becomes clear that they were trying to highlight the brutalities of Hamas, and no mention was made of an X-post showing the release of an Israeli woman along with her children. Further, the western media immediately started criticizing the Netanyahu-led right-wing government, and demands were made to form a unity government immediately, though some also questioned the failure of Israeli intelligence, he added.
Within 24 hours of attacks by Hamas, Israel declared a unilateral war against Palestine. According to him, it also seems perplexing that the Israeli government deemed it fit to declare war irrespective of the consequences for Palestinian civilians, and now screens are replete with pictures of infants being killed in Israeli air raids and bombings. In addition, the US immediately promised to stand with Israel, which possesses the strongest and most sophisticated force in the region, in its need for war. This all points to the hypocrisy of the western world and western media.
Meanwhile,the Palestine conflict is sparking protests, demonstrations, and rallies across the US and in several parts of the world.
A pro-Palestine rally was organized by the Michiana Friends of Palestine in Chicagoto show support to the people in Gaza, where Israel is stepping up airstrikes.
Speaking with Radiance from Chicago, former AFMI president Dr.QutubUddin Abu-Shuja said the Americans were as surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel as the rest of the world. The Muslims responded with caution and concern for what would come next. They were worried about the security of the civilian population in Gaza and elsewhere. However, it also demonstrated how weak Israel’s legendary might and invincibility were.
It was a complete disaster and debacle. Americans were stunned and in shock. They were also saddened and grieving over the deaths on both sides, especially the women, elderly, and children. They staged protests, and these took place all around the country, but especially in major cities like New York, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Washington. These rallies represented people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and various religious backgrounds.
For the most part, he underlined that US media and policy were overtly pro-Israel and anti-Palestine. However, opinions among Americans were mixed. There were significant demonstrations in support of Palestine’s beleaguered citizens and to stop the unjust occupation.
It is clear that the American media is taking a very slanted and hostile stance. It appears that the media is completely insensitive to public sentiment. In order to bring genuine peace to the Middle East, we as American citizens hope that the US government and national media will adopt a just and balanced policy towards the region, Dr. Abu Shuja said.
“American Muslims were concerned about the safety of unarmed people in Gaza due to the brutal and disproportionate response by the Israeli army. As we see the daily bombardment and constant maligning of Palestinians, it gets unnerving and frustrating,” Dr. Abu Shuja added, concluding that “the bubble of Zionist imperialism has busted; now everyone knows that the Zionist King has no clothes”.
Back home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s support for Israel came under sharp criticism. Modi, on October 7, 2023, tweeted, “Deeply shocked by the news of terrorist attacks in Israel. Our thoughts and prayers are with the innocent victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour.”
Gautam Mody, activist and general secretary of the New Trade Union Initiative, said we condemn the PM’s statement in the strongest terms, as it clearly indicates the one-sided position of the government against the Palestinian people’s struggle for nationhood for close to eight decades.
Speaking with Radiance, he said the Hamas’ actions in Israel have a historical context that the world must take note of. Not doing so amounts to erasing Israel’s history of killing Palestinians in cold blood, sustained aggression in, occupation, and annexation of Palestinian territory, and denial of the existence of the State of Palestine since 1948 with impunity and with the support of the United States and West European governments. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a state of war is being portrayed globally as Israel’s right to defend itself, while in reality it is an effort to demonize Hamas and justify Israel’s license to kill.
To suggest that Hamas actions affect innocent civilians in Israel is incorrect. Every adult ‘citizen’ of Israel, man and woman, since the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, is required to serve a fixed-term compulsory service in the Israel Defense Force. The areas of Hamas’ action are Palestinian territory occupied through the use of force by the illegal Israeli settlers, who have displaced entire communities, destroyed their homes and livelihoods, restricted their movement, and denied access to their own water, land, and other natural resources. Israeli settlers are allowed to carry weapons for ‘their protection’, and continually attack Palestinians to expand their settlements further. The establishment and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime. Over 600,000 Israeli citizens have lived in occupied Palestinian territory since 1967, and over 4.9 million Palestinians face daily restrictions on their movement, he added.
Defending the Hamas strike, Mody said the Palestinians have tried the peaceful way for decades despite the violence unleashed on them. The root cause of the present situation arises from the sustained violence against the Palestinian people.
“It is a telling commentary that when oppression and violence cross a line, the oppressed strike back and strike hard. The unity of purpose and determination of Hamas’ action even missed the attention of Israel’s espionage and surveillance machinery, which is believed to be the fiercest and sharpest in the world. This conflict can only be resolved if Israel and its western allies want peace, not war, respect freedom, and stop occupation”.