Israel is devastated! The October 7 (2023) terror attacks carried out by the Palestinian Hamas Movement not only claimed the lives of thousands of Israelis, but also caused a great emotional shock to the West Asian nation. The latest terror attacks have exposed the unpreparedness of the Israeli Armed Forces five decades after the Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War or the Fourth Arab-Israeli War. It was an armed conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab States, led by Egypt and Syria, that had taken place from October 6 to 25, 1973.

As per reports received, close to a thousand of Israelis have been killed, several thousand injured and few hundreds have been kidnapped. An armed conflict between the Hamas members and the Israeli Armed Forces is still going on. Hours after members of the Palestinian outfit fired 5,000 rockets at Israel and infiltrated into several Israeli towns on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu declared that his country was at war.

Although the entire world is against the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, such a terrible and bloody attack by the Hamas Movement has prompted top statesmen to back Tel Aviv’s actions against the Palestinian group. It may be noted that although India maintains cordial strategic ties with Israel, the former still backs the Palestinian cause. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed on October 9 that the South Asian nation stood by Israel in such a difficult time.

It is surprising that Hamas successfully carried out such terror attacks in spite of the fact that the Israeli Intelligence Department is widely considered as one of the best in the world. The responsibility of this intelligence failure rests largely on the Netanyahu Administration. As the Government of Israel has been trying to interfere with the impartiality of the judiciary (which has led to unprecedented public protests) in recent times, the Israeli security and intelligence agencies have diverted their attention from Hamas’ activities in Gaza. Furthermore, the Netanyahu Administration was engaged in complex trilateral negotiations with Washington DC and Riyadh in order to secure diplomatic recognition from Saudi Arabia.

Foreign policy experts are of the opinion that Hamas carried out the attack mainly for two reasons: to garner popular support in Gaza and elsewhere, and to maintain its prominence in West Asia. The Palestinian outfit is well aware of the fact that such terror attacks would not prompt Israel to bow down and to change its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories. Experts believe that one of the objectives of the latest attacks was to disrupt the possibility of a US-brokered normalisation of relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh. It was basically a well-planned move by Hamas in response to Israel’s continued military offensive in the occupied West Bank, including the Gaza Strip.

It is also a great loss to the Palestinians. The terror attacks undermined the West Bank’s access to special concessions created by the planned peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Surely, Israel would respond in an appropriate manner, and many more innocent Palestinian lives would be lost. As a result of the conflict between the policies of the two sides, it has not been possible to enforce the Two-State Policy so far. In such a scenario, the Hamas attacks have wiped out even the smallest possibility of initiating a peace process. Bloody conflict cannot lead to peaceful coexistence. Most importantly, outfits, like the Hamas, do not believe in peaceful coexistence. With the terror attacks, the hope of reducing the level of danger is also defeated.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das