The October 7 attack on the State of Israel by Hamas was a misguided, fatuous and suicidal misadventure
By Sonny Ogulewe
The October 7 attack on the State of Israel by Hamas was a misguided, fatuous and suicidal misadventure. It encapsulates all the elements of a delusional leadership and a mass of pseudo-psychopathic followership pumped-up by anti-sematic rhetoric and tempestuous bile. If not, how would one have imagined that such an irrational, vicious, audacious and monstrous attack on the State of Israel would not be replied by the State of Israel with asymmetrical fire power and supported by the comity of civilized nations? Instructively, hundreds of harmless civilians who were celebrating a religious festival were either brutally murdered at an open field or dragged out of the comfort of their homes in the night and butchered or taken hostage with such a savagery never experienced in modern history. Many of the victims were murdered inside the State of Israel after the secured borders have been breached.
The attack was unprovoked, senseless and audacious that appears to confront the State of Israel’s capability to defend its citizens. It is therefore elementary to expect the kind of response from the State of Israel given its history and the value it places on the life of every Jew. Equally, the global responses to the attack are expected given the difficulty the world has faced trying to chart a sustainable peace framework for the region of which reasonable grounds have been achieved recently considering the rapprochement between the State of Israel and some members of the Arab League like UAE, Saudi Arabia and Morocco which would have been a precursor to a new Israel/Palestine peace deal.
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This attack remarkably shows the level of spurn against the Arab League by the Palestine authority and which of course has driven the final nail to the much-expected final peace in the region. It is even ludicrous Hamas’ futile attempts to drag the Arab League into war which viewed from national strategic interest holds no tangible prospects for these countries and who would rather prefer to expedite their bilateral rapprochement with the State of Israel than to be dragged into a senseless war that holds no prospects for immediate peaceful resolution. These countries would be unprepared to sacrifice such prospective bilateral relations that would benefit their countries for a Palestine that has not shown sufficient tact with its engagement with the State of Israel, a deficiency that has placed the lives of its citizens at greater risk.
One fundamental take home from this war in the main is that Hamas has given Israel sufficient impetus to decimate it sufficiently to the extent that it would be difficult for Hamas to posse any future security risk to the State of Israel or be in a position to effectively negotiate a peace process on equal terms with the State of Israel. Again, by this attack Hamas has lost significant sympathy and support of the international community that now perceives it as an irredeemable aggressor and a confirmed terrorist organization irrespective of her reasons and are now united behind the State of Israel. This has now made the prospects for peace sadly remote and almost elusive.
Another take home from this war is the fact that a new peace process may not start in the nearest future and of course must be on Israel’s terms. Whoever advised Hamas to undertake this suicidal venture that has put the lives of thousands of already suffering Palestinians into greater risk and despair has done a lot of damage to the prospects of realizing the two states solution which the United Nations has assiduously worked for.
The two-state solution is the outcome of the “United Nations Resolution 242, of the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted on November 22, 1967, in an effort to secure a just and lasting peace in the wake of the Six-Day (June) War, fought primarily between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Israelis supported the resolution because it called on the Arab states to accept Israel’s right “to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” Each of the Arab states eventually accepted it (Egypt and Jordan accepted the resolution from the outset) because of its clause calling for Israel to withdraw from “territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The Palestine Liberation Organization rejected it until 1988 because it lacked explicit references to Palestinians. Though never fully implemented, it was the basis of diplomatic efforts to end Arab-Israeli conflicts until the Camp David Accords and remains an important touchstone in any negotiated resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict” This initiative is now in serious jeopardy.
Suffice it to say that this attack was inauspicious particularly when the world is facing the challenge of peace in Eastern Europe between Russian and Ukraine, and has conversely diluted any sympathy for Hamas within context of global realities where peace and climate issues are the dominant issues rather than a senseless and unprovoked attack on hundreds innocent civilians at peace time in the volatile Middle East region. The attack did not only take place in the Gaza against the settler population but also right inside the State of Israel after breaching the territorial sovereignty of the State of Israel in peace time by Hamas terrorists.
As the world watches in awe at the level of infrastructural destruction going on in Gaza, it will certainly take decades for Gaza to be rebuilt and this is particularly worrisome given that the Strip is significantly dependent on aid and Israel’s benevolence for survival. Many countries including Germany have signaled intent to review their humanitarian aid to Palestine amidst this unconscionable attack. This portends greater danger for the lives of ordinary Palestinians living in the occupied territories.
The sad reality is the fact that the bombardment of Gaza will not cease soon not until Israel is satisfied that Hamas poses no future security risk to her and this would happen on Israel terms and when she is satisfied that every remaining Israeli hostage has been released and the perpetrators of the crime punished. This obviously will be a hard bargain for Palestine. This is a sad development and tragic misadventure.
Sonny Ogulewe Ph.D, wrote from Abuja.
