There is no point in comparing October 7, 2023 to any other event in history. Neither the Six-Day War in 1967, nor the 1973 war, which gave the Arabs some relief and contributed to establishing a kind of status quo centered around Israel, nor September 11, 2011, or other events.
October 7 is also a unique event in the history of the resistance against the occupation. For decades, Hamas has been leading the resistance against Israel, which receives unconditional support from the civilized world. However, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation remains its specificity, whether in terms of the way the resistance men worked, or in terms of the historical-political context in which it took place, and of course in terms of the effects that it will have.
It is known that the Palestinians have been maintaining their resistance at a reactionary level until now. On October 7, they took the initiative, perhaps for the first time, and launched an attack of this scale against the genocidal occupation forces. If they were not able to escape the label of “terrorism” despite their content with reacting in the face of barbaric attacks, then it is natural that voices will rise today to direct the same accusation against them after they carried out their first offensive initiative, but these voices will not have an effective impact this time.
On the surface, nothing seems to have changed. Israel will play – as it is accustomed – the role of the victim of despicable terrorism, and will beg for global sympathy with its half-finished tragedies. Whenever it receives some of this support, it will use it to raise the level of its brutality and crimes against humanity, and to continue the massacres from where it left off.
But there is something different this time. Israel’s increase in its aggressive practices indicates that it has lost control of the strategic mental power that regulates its use of force. As we know, uncontrolled force is not power. Israel’s use of this uncontrolled force demonstrates Hamas’s goal in carrying out its surprise attack at this time, which everyone finds difficult to understand and explain.
We can say that Hamas, which is leading the struggle, in the issue of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Palestinian issue as a whole, achieved strong and undeniable gains after October 7. We were in a situation where most Arab countries surrendered to an international system with Israel at its center. It has begun to accept the process of “normalization,” which means recognizing a Middle East based on Israel’s centrality, meaning that the complete annexation of Jerusalem occupied by Israel would have been considered “natural.” Israel’s violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque – one of the most important Islamic sanctities mentioned in the Qur’an – will eventually be accepted as a “natural” right of Israel, and will no longer be challenged. Where did the sanctity of this mosque come from anyway? Did you say Surah Al-Isra? How can we know that this mosque is what is meant in that Surah? Where are the religious scholars who will prove otherwise?
Israel’s 17-year blockade of Gaza will also not be objected to, nor will it be put forward on any grounds, and leaving the Strip at Israel’s mercy until the people of Gaza – 2.5 million people in all – surrender will be considered normal. Aren’t the people of Gaza continuing their futile resistance that leads to no results? It now seemed like just empty stubbornness, and instead, he should have given up resistance, surrendered, and given everyone a soothing face.
Frankly, there were winds blowing to make the Palestine issue boring to the entire world, and to push everyone into the illusion that Israel is right. Of course, these were the winds that Israel and its protector, the United States and Europe, had tried to stir up for years with their media, policies, and machinations.
With the October 7 operation, Hamas first showed that the Palestinian issue would not end with this status quo. There is a violation that is horrific enough to last a century, continuous massacres, a violation of Islamic sanctities, a fanatical religious rule that does not tolerate other religions, and most importantly, the Zionist occupation plans will not end at the borders of Palestine, but will gradually spread to the countries of the region.
As of October 7th, Palestine, the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem are once again the most important issue in the entire world. In the face of this aggression and indifference, there is increasing pressure to achieve solidarity, cooperation and rapprochement among the Islamic world, now that the West has united with Israel.
Thus, Hamas also showed that the Palestine issue is a warning of a criminal mentality that threatens security not only in Palestine, but in the entire Middle East, and even in the entire world. Not only did Hamas show Israel’s true face to the world once again, but it showed them in the ugliest forms of their intentions, conspiracies, and truths that they had been hiding behind cosmetics until now.
The operation also dropped a fig leaf for the rest of the “civilized world,” as this tolerance and even encouragement of Israeli genocidal practices on their part destroys the humanitarian, progressive, democratic, and libertarian narrative of Western civilization that they pay lip service to.
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For Westerners, human rights are the rights of people only belonging to their species. The rest are not considered human. Western silence regarding this description given by the Israeli Defense Minister to the Palestinians is an acknowledgment of this idea.
As of October 7th, Palestine, the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem have once again become the most important issue in the entire world. In the face of this aggression and indifference, there is increasing pressure to achieve solidarity, cooperation and rapprochement among the Muslim world, now that the West has united with Israel. It is impossible for all Islamic countries not to feel insulted and excluded by the United States, which prefers Israel over all Islamic peoples and countries. The state of exclusion and humiliation inevitably leads to the search for new alliances.
Then there is another social consequence of October 7 that no one has taken into account: it is a moment of end to the trend toward secularism. Here is the United States and Europe – which claim secularism – standing in solidarity with Israel, based on what was stated in the Holy Books, according to distorted interpretations. America, and behind it the West, impose this religious vision on the world without allowing opposition. As a result, there is an inevitable religious backlash in the Islamic world, which also pushes Muslims to turn to their religion and history in confronting Israel.
We now see the vastness of the teachings we have that Islam brought to accommodate all people and take into account their rights, regardless of their different religions, which is what we see the opposite of from these people.
