What were Hamas thinking?

Whatever the objectives of Hamas in planning and executing the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the world may never know. Whatever calculations or miscalculations the Hamas leadership made before launching those attacks on Israel, again, the world may never know until Hamas comes back to explain. That said, the world has witnessed one of the most brutal and retributive responses in the history of humanity from Israel. Even with over 15000 Palestinians killed, including over 6000 children, I see the following outcomes of what Hamas did, from a personal perspective:

Galvanising the world for the Palestinian cause:

For so long, the world seemed to have forgotten about the Palestinians. The Americans have never seemed remotely interested in the real, genuine cause, of the Palestinians. US politicians have been more interested in exploiting the Israel lobby for their selfish political ends, so much so that they are often too blinded to see the suffering of the occupied and oppressed people of Palestine. The US and its allies were more interested in pushing for Israel to normalise relations with Arab countries, whose leaders are so despicable in violating the human rights of their citizens that, in a normal world, so-called Western democracies would never have dealt with those Arabic despots, except for their selfish ambitions to prop up Israeli destruction of Palestine to support their domestic political ambitions. The advent of AL Qaeda and ISIS further relegated the Palestinian cause to the background.

I have condemned the unspeakable crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. No equivocation whatsoever. Yet, as an individual, this is the first time I took the trouble to delve deep into reading about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict. And what I learned so much shook the foundations of my knowledge and convictions. Right now, I have no doubt whatsoever who is the victim and who is the guilty aggressor: Palestine and Palestinians are the victims, Israelis and Americans are the aggressors! Zero questions about that. More than that, I have had the rare occasion to examine the religious postulations that seem to galvanize many Christians and Israeli and US evangelicals to support the unjustified and illegal annexation and occupation of Palestinian lands, regardless of international law and UN resolutions.

At the global level, I have never witnessed so many people in so many countries galvanised to support the Palestinian cause (not the Hamas tactics, mind you) in a sustained level of protests. And I call out ‘Silly’ Suella Braverman, the former UK Home Secretary, for her stupid characterisation of protest marches in London in support of Palestinians being bombarded into oblivion as “hate marches”. How evil and stupid can one government minister be, to ignore thousands of women and children being killed in a carpet-bombing revenge campaign by a State actor that is a signatory to international laws and conventions? Nevertheless, one thing is clear: the events of October 7 and Israel’s response have galvanised the world to support the Palestinian cause like never before in my lifetime. And I dearly hope the end-game will be a permanent solution that will result in an independent State for the Palestinian people, free from any blockade from Israel and the US, and free to pursue the dreams and aspirations of its people, like any other nation.

Israel is no saint:

I have had several social media debates with religious fanatic supporters of Israel, who did not even know Israel holds Palestinian women and children in their jails, many of whom have not even been convicted of any ‘crime’. If anyone is remotely interested in reading the backstory of any of the Palestinians released by Israel in the current hostage swap deal, they would come to the same conclusion I have unrepentantly shared on Facebook: Israel is as guilty as Hamas, if not more guilty, in kidnapping/detaining/jailing/holding/abusing/harassing/destroying innocent Palestinian women and children. Whatever happened on October 7, however despicable, pales into insignificance compared to the number of Palestinian women and children killed, held in administrative detention without due process, jailed in kangaroo occupier courts, extra-judicially killed by settlers and IDF, et cetera. How anybody allows Israel to feel and portray itself as the victim defies any understanding. Call a spade a spade. Israel is no saint. Their actions in the occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza Strip are as despicable, if not more despicable, than whatever Hamas did on October 7.

Palestinians won’t go away:

Israel is bent on creating a desolate land in northern Gaza as a means to provide a buffer of security zone for decades to come. And the Americans are ignorantly supporting the carpet-bombing of everything in northern Gaza to achieve that. All the accusations against hospitals as ‘Hamas Headquarters’ are a lot of nonsense. The only objective is simply to evacuate every civilian facility, against international law, to be able to have an uninhibited opportunity to destroy every single infrastructure in northern Gaza so that for decades to come, there will be zero physical threat to Israel.

While that objective is physically achievable with military superiority now (and no serious analyst even thinks this is a conflict of two equal sides, anyway, as this is a conflict between a nuclear-armed army, supported by a superpower, versus a ragtag resistance force relaying on any crude weapons they can come up with), there will never be permanent security for Israel unless Palestinians can return to their internationally-recognized lands along the 1967 border. Palestinians are not going away from their lands, regardless of how many civilians Israel and the US kill in the current or future campaign.

Palestinians won’t just disappear from the face of the earth, even if Israel and the US decide to use nuclear weapons against them, as publicly advocated by Israeli Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu! As long as there is any Palestinian left anywhere in the world and the rest of the world recognises their rights, Palestinians will one day re-inherit their land occupied by Israel in 1967 – whether by negotiation and agreement or by conflict.

Shame on Arab leaders:

Need I say more? Saudi Arabia for one is more interested in exploiting Islam for commercial purposes, getting billions of Dollars from annual Hajj. Saudi Arabia is more interested in normalising relations with Israel and getting business deals with the US and other Western countries. They need the West Israel and everyone else to ignore their abhorrent human rights abuses of even their citizens to maintain the political and social control of their citizens. They care less about Palestinians. Holding a useless confab of Arab leaders that achieved ZERO results won’t wash up their despicable image, no matter how much money they throw at sports and other PR ventures.

The Palestine cause is about humanity, not about antisemitism or Arab solidarity. And while I hate religion in its stupidity of prioritising fictional narratives over humanity, I can’t bring myself to appreciate how Arab countries who profess the same faith as Palestinians will not do everything within their power and means to seek the permanent settlement of the Palestinian cause rather than seek to normalise relations with the oppressor of Palestinians. Why can’t the freedom of Palestinians be used as a pre-condition for normalising relations with Israel?

Why the hell not???

I have more to say on this subject…so help me ‘God’!