30 years after Oslo, which provided everything to Israel and nothing to the Palestinians, October 7 came to confirm that the only solution is the establishment of the State of Palestine. Is this victory considered the most important in 75 years?

October 7, 2023 witnessed Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” which is the name given by the Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” to its comprehensive military operation against the occupation army, which has been imposing a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip for 17 years. At exactly six o'clock in the morning local time in Palestine that day, Hamas launched a Palestinian invasion of the cover settlements adjacent to the besieged Gaza Strip, where fighters from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades stormed the towns adjacent to the Strip, after they penetrated the iron wall and crushed the Gaza Division of the Israeli army, Under air cover from thousands of rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the cities of the south.

Amid the state of panic and shock that gripped the Israelis, the spread of video clips and pictures of tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the Israeli army, either burned or under the control of Palestinian resistance fighters, the capture of dozens of Israeli army soldiers and settlers, and complete Palestinian control over settlements, the occupying state declared that it was “in a state of war.” For the first time since the October War of 1973, it is an acknowledgment that the Palestinian resistance attack is a military attack.

What did Hamas' victory over Israel achieve?

Although the brutal Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip is perhaps the most violent and destructive ever, it has not changed anything in the facts that have been established on the ground, most notably that the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas achieved a military victory on October 7, and this victory is the most important of all since the establishment of the Jewish state in the land of Palestine in 1948, according to most experts and analysts.

An analysis by the American magazine Foreign Policy entitled “What Was Hamas Thinking” monitored how the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7 represented a planned strategic coup from the part of Hamas in light of a number of facts that were present on the ground and which Israel has been seeking to consolidate for many years.

Since the Palestinian elections, which were held about 20 years ago in which Hamas won a majority over the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has worked to contain the Hamas movement and besiege it inside the Gaza Strip until it completely ends the occupation based on the idea of armed resistance and continues the process of swallowing up the occupied territories in Jerusalem and the West Bank through policies of Settlement and displacement.

For nearly two decades, Hamas has tried to present diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state on the lands of June 4, 1967 (East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip), but all the initiatives and endeavors it presented were met with arrogance and rejection by the occupation, amid complicity of entire international community led by the United States of America.

Israel built its strategy in dealing with Hamas and the rest of the resistance factions in Gaza on the basis of its experience with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the “Oslo” process, under the illusion that the “containment” policy is successful and that what Hamas wants is to continue to “rule” Gaza, even in light of it being “the largest open prison in the world", as described by the international community and human rights organizations.

In this context, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation and the military victory that was achieved on that day, which became an established fact despite the attempts of Israel and its supporters in the Joe Biden administration and the rest of the Western capitals to downplay it and label it “terrorism,” came to turn things upside down and demolish all “illusions which surrounded the Palestinians’ desire to be liberated from the Israeli occupation and establish their independent state in exchange for some “economic gains,” as promoted by Israeli leaders, especially Netanyahu, Western leaders, and some Arab leaders as well.

It is necessary to mention here some facts related to the Al-Aqsa Flood operation:

- First: Hamas’s main goal in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was to capture soldiers from the occupation army to force Israel to free the Palestinian prisoners, which Israel delayed for a long time, and was one of the conditions for a ceasefire in the last confrontation in 2021. Hamas has already confirmed that its fighters did not capture Israeli settlers  on October 7, and that these settlers were captured by Gazan civilians and fighters from other factions who were not aware of the flood of Al-Aqsa and crossed the gaps in the iron fence after it was penetrated by Hamas fighters.

- Second: The myth of Israeli security that was promoted by the occupation leaders over the past years has been shattered and the equation that Netanyahu has always marketed specifically to the Israelis, the world and the region has been completely demolished. It is “peace in exchange for peace”, meaning that Israel is not obligated to withdraw from the Palestinian territories in implementation of the Arab initiative “land for peace”, and it has already appeared that Netanyahu is fulfilling his illusions, as normalization with some Arab countries has already begun without any return from Tel Aviv, and the Palestinians have become forgotten. Completely from the accounts of all parties.

Third: Since the formation of the current government in Israel, which has been described in the West and even by Israel as the most extremist government in the history of the Hebrew state, plans to Judaize Jerusalem, plunder the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and expand the settlement policy in the West Bank have accelerated in an unprecedented manner. All of this without any party, neither regional nor international, moving to stop this systematic and accelerated liquidation of what remains of the Palestinians in their land, despite thousands of Western and international reports monitoring this liquidation and describing the occupation as an “apartheid regime without anyone taking action or stopping the oppressive practices

Fourth: The leadership of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas had to either submit to this ugly reality and completely abandon the dream of a Palestinian state and freedom from occupation, or continue the option of armed resistance, but with different conditions that would break the Israeli “containment” policy and impose a new equation that would unite all Palestinians under the banner of national liberation along the lines of the first and second intifadas.

Fifth: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood achieved a decisive victory that some within the ranks of the resistance itself may not have expected. The iron wall and the strongest army in the region collapsed, and Israel trembled to its core. Over the course of about 50 days of “revenge” and committing war crimes and genocide under the eyes of the entire world, Israel achieved nothing significant from a military standpoint, and was forced to negotiate with Hamas to liberate its prisoners through a deal and truce that began on Friday, November 24, for a period of 4 days. All observers, without exception, believe that even if Israel continues its barbaric aggression against civilians in Gaza, and even if it succeeds in reducing Hamas' military capabilities as it hopes, Hamas has become the most important Palestinian figure on the political and strategic level, not only military.

What did Oslo achieve for the Palestinians?

“All the Palestinians got from Oslo is Kentucky,” this is the title of a report by the American magazine Foreign Policy published on September 30, 2023, that is, one week before the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, and it monitors the course of the peace process that was supposed to produce An independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967. According to those agreements, which were sponsored by Washington, it was assumed that the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital would have been born in 1999.

The report monitors how, for 30 years, Israel exploited the negotiating path “that it preferred” to achieve its goals of swallowing Palestinian lands and demonizing them on the one hand, and integrating into the Middle East region through recognition and normalization on the part of the rest of the Arab countries, without offering anything in return, neither the Palestinians nor even those who normalized with it.

In 2000, years after the signing of the first Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority headed by Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in the West Bank, the second Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada) broke out after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, defying everyone. Then in 2002, Israeli tanks invaded the cities of the West Bank, including Ramallah, and the goal was to eliminate the leadership of the Authority headed by Arafat.

Not only did Israel ignore the agreements signed with the Authority headed by the international community, but it revealed early on its intentions behind entering into “peace” negotiations with the Palestinians, which is to exploit those negotiations to completely eliminate any signs of armed resistance and subject the Palestinians to its conditions, which can be summarized simply under the title “You should completely forget Palestine.”

For 30 years, Israel seemed to be very close to achieving its “wishes.” Gaza, which all the occupation leaders dreamed of and wished would be “swallowed by the sea,” has become completely besieged, and the process of Judaizing Jerusalem and displacing the remaining Palestinians in it is in full swing, and changing the status quo in the mosque in preparation for its demolition is on a fast track, and swallowing up the West Bank or at least most of it through settlement. It has become the most important issue for the  government headed by Netanyahu.

On the other hand, the normalization process began with the Arab countries, and relations were established with the Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in 2020, and preparations were being made in full swing for other Arab countries to join the free normalization train so that Joe Biden would have an important electoral card that would help him maintain a second presidential term during the elections in  November 2024.

The "two-state solution" prevails

But everything has completely changed since October 7, 2023. Palestine has become the talk of the whole world again, and all other issues have disappeared, whether the war in Ukraine, the conflict between America and China, or even climate change issues and others.

Now Palestine and the Israeli occupation have become the most important issue on the international and regional scene. Despite the Israeli propaganda about what happened that day to justify its brutal aggression against the people of Gaza, the main reason for what happened and is happening has become strongly present, even in the statements of the Western leaders most supportive of the occupation, which is the American administration headed by Joe Biden.

It is true that talk about a two-state solution by Biden in particular is sometimes coupled with talk that Hamas “cannot be part of the future,” so how realistic or even possible is achieving this goal? The response came from a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which concludes that “Hamas is part of the new Palestinian spirit that Israel cannot change.” It monitors the discussions currently taking place in Palestinian and Israeli circles regarding the future, not only in Gaza but in the entire Palestinian territories, and at the heart of this conversation is Hamas and its pivotal role.

The conclusion here is that the "two-state solution" has now become the main headline in all axes of discussion, inside the region, outside it and around the world, even though the dust of aggression has not yet settled and no one can predict when or how this round of conflict of wills between the occupation and the resistance will end. There is no doubt that this particular point makes the “Al-Aqsa Flood” the most important Palestinian victory ever since the founding of Israel 75 years ago.

Before October 7, the establishment of a Palestinian state had become like a “talk of the distant past,” and was replaced by talk of normalization, Israel’s integration into the region, and many other issues, none of which include the abuse, displacement, arrests, and martyrdom to which the Palestinians are exposed on a daily basis at the hands of the most extreme governments ever.

source: Arabic Post