On October 7, 2023, a year ago, waves upon waves of armed Hamas terrorists descended onto villages and residential enclaves in Israel for civilians, and military bases, unleashing indiscriminate devastation unparalleled in Israel’s history. The fervent Islamists exploited the Israeli military’s startling intelligence and operational shortcomings as they massacred, raped, killed, and disfigured their way deep into Israel.
Elderly people waiting for buses were shot and beheaded; young people attending a dance party were doused with gunfire; women were sexually raped, mutilated, and their bodies were spat upon and paraded as trophies; whole families were set ablaze and forced into bomb shelters. Their charred bodies interlocked in desperate, deathly embrace. Even the world was exposed to the savage, medieval barbarism by the subhuman militants of Hamas. in actual time.
Approximately 1200 Israeli people had been slain, 250 were being held as hostages, and the alarm had been raised for a conflict that would shock a region that thought it had seen it all by the time a shell-shocked Israel realized the extent of its greatest national security failure.
Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza and the mastermind behind it all, has managed to withstand a year of intense Israeli retaliation by hiding like a rat inside miles and miles of intricate, linked, reinforced tunnel systems, even as Gaza City is being reduced to dust above ground, with thousands upon thousands of people killed and the top Hamas leadership eliminated.
There was no need for this recap. One would have believed memory holing the October 7 terrorist strike that has brought West Asia to the brink of a cataclysmic conflict between Israel and Iran is an impossible job. It turns out that causal relationships aren’t always linear. The heinous violence that the Hamas invaders inflicted upon Israel was retaliatory, even amounting to “decolonization.”
The slaughter of Jews was denounced, defended, and even celebrated by leftist media, academia, students, activists, and atrocity deniers, who presented it as a retaliation against “settler colonialism.” The dehumanization led to a spate of antisemitic acts, and in a startling stroke of narrative deception, Jews were converted into Nazis.
There was no need for this recap. One would have believed memory holing the October 7 terrorist strike that has brought West Asia to the brink of a cataclysmic conflict between Israel and Iran is an impossible job. It turns out that causal relationships aren’t always linear. The heinous violence that the Hamas invaders inflicted upon Israel was retaliatory, even amounting to “decolonization.”
The slaughter of Jews was denounced, defended, and even celebrated by leftist media, academia, students, activists, and atrocity deniers, who presented it as a retaliation against “settler colonialism.” The dehumanization led to a spate of antisemitic acts, and in a startling stroke of narrative deception, Jews were converted into Nazis.
Nobody should be surprised that, given this false pretext, Israel’s campaign of retaliation against Hamas lost all moral standing and turned into an outright act of aggression against a helpless populace. The underlying message was that Israel should wait quietly to be exterminated by a murderous group of extremist Islamists rather than taking defensive action.
Hamas intended to defeat Israel through a coordinated, international public relations campaign, using civilians as cannon fodder. The operation had been planned for years. Under Sinwar’s leadership, Hamas was able to divert or siphon off a sizable quantity of humanitarian money, become self-sufficient in the production of weapons and munition, and construct an intricate underground network of tunnels that could match the New York subway.
“Served as a communications network, supply depot, highway system, logistics pipeline, bomb shelter, and field hospital,” these interconnected tunnels At a minimum cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, funds that Hamas withheld from development and humanitarian initiatives meant to enhance the lot of common Gazans, the tunnel system by October 7 had stretched over 300 miles, longer than the New York City subway and roughly the distance between Tel Aviv and southern Turkey. According to a Washington Post investigation on Hamas’ underground military apparatus, “the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) acknowledges there is no practical way to destroy the entire system.”
Through painstaking preparation, a bold attack, and a game of cat and mouse to survive, Sinwar was able to force Iran and all of its proxies, including Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias based in Iraq, into a devastating war of attrition against Israel with the goal of changing the geopolitical landscape of West Asia.
Although Sinwar got the war he wanted and started the fire, things didn’t turn out the way he had planned.
What Sinwar had failed to factor in was Israel’s creativity and resolve, as well as the cunning of its leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who saw an unparalleled chance to accomplish Israel’s security goals amid the crisis. The fact that the President of the United States is a lame duck who has been repeatedly outwitted and rendered ineffective also aided Israel’s cause.
In the midst of the greatest battle of his political career, the Israeli prime minister has achieved significant tactical and strategic victories and is now putting American concerns aside to expand the war’s scope in order to concentrate attention on Iran, dubbed “the head of the octopus.”
Netanyahu is taking advantage of the political climate in the United States and the partisan hostility toward the Ayatollahs in Washington, D.C., in the run-up to the presidential elections, by openly discussing regime change in Iran. Bibi is aware that neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump can afford to publicly oppose his position.
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, has actually supported the Israeli prime minister’s stance, even though Trump has advocated for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities—some of which are located underground.
Israel was caught off guard by the October 7 attacks, which also made West Asia’s formidable military power seem less formidable. Nevertheless, Israel has now gained the upper hand in the attrition battle.
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The greatest achievement of Netanyahu has been to decapitate Hezbollah, the jewel in Iran’s crown. By deposing Hassan Nasrallah, eliminating nearly three tiers of Hezbollah leadership, demolishing its organizational framework, and instilling apprehension and bewilderment among the Lebanese terrorist group’s membership, Netanyahu has redirected Israel’s military campaign, garnered support from even his most ardent detractors, and repaired the damaged morale of Israeli intelligence and security personnel.
According to a Washington Post article, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad manipulated the supply chain to implant tiny but potent explosives inside of booby-trapped pagers and walkie talkies. The explosives stayed dormant and concealed inside the devices for more than a year until the day of detonation, which resulted in thousands of Hezbollah operatives being killed or severely injured.
Subsequently, Israeli fighter jets launched a huge attack on Hezbollah headquarters, delivering bombs capable of smashing bunkers and eliminating the group’s reclusive leader, Nasrallah, who was last seen in public in 2006. Following that, Israel launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon, destroying Beirut and eliminating two more significant figures from the anti-Israel front.
The first is Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, and Hashem Safieddine, the anticipated heir to former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who has been declared “untraceable” since Friday and is thought to have been dead, according to Reuters.
An academic and researcher on Islamic organizations named Hassan Hassan was cited by the news agency as claiming that “What Israel did to Hezbollah in two weeks is almost equal to a whole year of degrading Hamas in Gaza.” Three tiers of Hezbollah leadership have been removed, its military command has been severely diminished, and its key figure, Nasrallah, has been slain.
Most significantly, Iran is now in an unwinnable situation as a result of the Hezbollah leadership’s beheading, heavy bombing in Lebanon, and the entrance of troops. Iran feels vulnerable and torn with its most potent proxy, a fearsome force possessing an extensive arsenal, out of commission and without direction.
It was compelled to launch a barrage of ballistic missiles that did considerable damage on Israel without causing any substantial shift in the course of war, and is now afraid about an Israeli retaliation that may be coordinated with the US.
Iraj Elahi, Iran’s ambassador to India, continued, sounding as though he was in dire need of a way out, saying, “If Israel stops, we will stop.” Iran is opposed to war. Although we would prefer peace in the area, we are forced to retaliate if our national security is threatened, and that is exactly what we did.
Iran’s predicament is understandable. The missile attack served primarily as a political prop to appease the regime’s supporters back home and its proxies, who had started to view the regime’s “restraint” in response to Israel’s provocations as “weakness.”
Iran believes it lacks the capabilities to confront one of the most formidable war machines in the world and lacks the deterrence to dissuade Israel because it is still a long way from possessing a nuclear weapon. On the opposite hand, Israel is dominating the escalation matrix.
Despite its best efforts, the Biden administration is unable to effectively discourage Netanyahu since he is a lame duck president. Biden wants Israel to refrain from attacking Iran’s nuclear installations or energy infrastructure, but the Israeli prime minister is aware that such a scenario may wind up setting oil prices on fire and lowering the likelihood of a Democratic government keeping office.
Thus, the West Asian issue teeters on the brink. Much will depend on Netanyahu’s strategic acumen, which is prone to hubris. Although Bibi could believe he is succeeding, trying to overthrow the Iranian government or underestimate the country could have unintended effects.
