How did the “Al-Aqsa Flood” liberate the Arab political imagination that had been trapped for decades?

Arab and international public opinion is dominated by old stereotypes and ideas, which have contributed to making Israel in the public political mind a fortified fortress whose walls cannot be penetrated. This image was built as a result of the defeats suffered by the Arab armies in some of their wars with Israel, and the latter’s investment in perpetuating its military, security and technical superiority, which It has no counterpart in the Middle East.

This is because Israel, which was established on the lands of historic Palestine by a British decision and Western collusion in 1948, has remained governed by concerns about existential danger to this day, and its rulers realized early on that overcoming those concerns requires exclusive guarantees that make the idea of maintaining survival reasonable in an Arab environment that has raised concerns. Antagonizing it by occupying lands that belong to it, therefore, the Israeli security strategy formulated by David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, was based on building a strong, multi-front, modernly armed army, and entering into international alliances that support the presence of the Israeli occupation and its military capabilities. It is no surprise when we see the United States of America It provides political, military, legal, and media cover for its ally, Israel, the features of which are clearly evident in the ongoing Israeli aggression (as of this writing) on Gaza.

When the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip opened Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, international news agencies reported the news of resistance fighters penetrating a smart iron wall built by the Israeli occupation authorities along its border with the Strip. This was followed by specific operations carried out by the resistance factions, with tactics shocking the Israeli security and military circles. In fact, that breakthrough caused a shock in the Arab and Western political imagination, in which the image of Israel as superior in security and militarily had been established for many decades.

The preventive security theory whose provisions the Gaza Division of the Israeli occupation army was assigned to operate in accordance with its terms has failed, and that failure paved the way for the resistance factions to carry out unprecedented operations deep inside Israel (the occupied territories). Although Israel was surprised by the resistance operation, it responded with a violent aerial bombardment that led to the martyrdom of As many as more than 8,300 civilians so far, Western countries have rushed to support it for reasons related to its influence in the Middle East.

Let us go back a little. The countries of the West created Israel, and not only did they do that, but they transferred to it development factors, gave it the elements for survival, and made it an agent for their interests in the region. What confirms this is that Britain decided to establish it in the beginning, and France contributed to building its nuclear reactors, which It believes in its ability to provide regional deterrence, and Germany also supports it economically and militarily, and the United States, whose president, Joe Biden, recently said, “If there was no Israel in existence, we would work to establish it, and we will continue to stand by it.”

This evidence does not fail to confirm the fact that the Israeli occupation performs a geostrategic function through which it serves the interests of Western countries and supports its control in the region. Therefore, when the Palestinian resistance was imposed on October 7, a conflict that the occupation is not good at playing according to its rules, Washington felt Western countries realized that their regional agent might disrupt his strategic functions, so the leaders of those countries quickly flocked to Tel Aviv to show support, and moved their giant battleships to the Mediterranean Sea to establish a circumstantial deterrence equation that prevents the ignition of additional fronts that threaten their influence in the region.

Despite this, the Israeli occupation is well aware that it is not fighting a regular army whose forces are stationed in bases or camps whose geographical locations are known and can be easily bombed from the air, as it did in the 1967 war. Rather, it is fighting non-state organizations that are proficient in guerrilla warfare and fight in their field, which complicates the situation. The occupation attempts to restore respect to the concept of Israeli deterrence, which has suffered a major setback. Therefore, the leaders in Israel realize that the goal of eliminating the Hamas movement and stripping it of its combat capabilities is not realistic, especially since it is still holding the strings of war. Therefore, they rely mainly on the air force to destroy the infrastructure. Infrastructure in Gaza, and stripping it of the necessities of life, to force its residents to flee within the Strip, and to plunge the Hamas movement into a subsequent confrontation with the society it rules in Gaza after the end of the war that the Prime Minister of the Israeli occupation government, Netanyahu, seeks to prolong; To escape the entitlements that haunt him.

Finally, whatever the outcome of the ongoing war on Gaza, the square of security, intelligence, military and political failure in Israel that was revealed by the Al-Aqsa Flood operation quickly erased the image of Israel with constant security vigilance and military preparedness supported by various modern technical levers, which it bet on. Arab systems to confront dangers that Israel no longer includes.

That image, which was erased by the Al-Aqsa flood, was followed by what must precede the eradication of the Israeli occupation and the liberation of Palestine, which is the liberation of the Arab political imagination, which was besieged for decades following the peace agreements with Israel, both old and new, whose complete failure to replace the historical and logical representations of the image of the colonial and existing Israel was confirmed. With the occupation in the Arab mentality, with another based on appeasement and acceptance or alliance with it and submission to it. The sixth and seventh of October are not just two consecutive days, but rather two stages, each of which has its next, and that history will be written.

Ahmed Abdel Hafez Al-Darabaa: A writer and civil activist, interested in regional and international affairs, and a research assistant in the Jordanian National Assembly

Source: Arabic post