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October 7 Was Driven By Hamas’ Islamist and Extremist Ideology; We Cannot Ignore This
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
In the wake of October 7, the State of Israel, its society, and all its institutions are at a critical crossroads. One path forward demands a thorough investigation and examination of everything that failed on that day so the necessary corrections can be made. The second path directs Israel towards a comprehensive inquiry across all dimensions and urges the formulation of a new and updated national narrative in the face of the existential challenge. The question is, which of the two paths is worth pursuing?
This article will focus on the roots of the failure of October 7, and Israel’s perception of the struggle on the opposing side.
Physical and cultural collapse
The situation of the State of Israel these days, however grim, is still far stronger than it was at the time of its birth in 1948. But as far as complex strategic challenges are concerned, there is a noticeable lack of coherence in both the military and political leadership regarding clarification and decision-making.
The IDF Chief of Staff and the military and security apparatus, which managed to recover within a few days and organize a full, battle-ready mobilization on all fronts, are leading the war. But the national leadership has further obligations. It must direct and confirm the goals of the war. In the process, it must mediate for both itself and the people the reality that changed in the blink of an eye. It must provide a simple and clear explanation of what Israel is fighting for and who the enemy is.
This kind of story has both a physical-military dimension and a cultural-spiritual dimension. The military dimension, as outlined in the enemy’s war concept, was described by the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, on August 19, 2022: “The Palestinians are ready for ground combat. This is Israel’s vulnerability. Missiles are excellent for deterrence … but they don’t liberate land. Ground forces must be deployed, step by step, to liberate it… Hezbollah and Palestinian forces will move on the ground in a unified military structure.” (MEMRI, Aug. 30, 2022).
In this statement lies the foundational idea of the regional warfare concept as articulated and shaped by the Iranian regime, led by Qassem Soleimani: to construct a ring of fire and station commando forces around the State of Israel. Israel, which has continued to confront the threat of war according to the pattern of conflicts from the last century, from the War of Independence to the Yom Kippur War, has struggled to grasp the implications of the new existential threat emerging from Iran’s conception of warfare. This conception has thrust Israel into a state of continuous warfare, like a chronic disease without a cure.
Just two years ago, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert argued that it was possible to reduce the size of the IDF forces: “It was Ehud Barak who said that we need a small and smart IDF. Unfortunately, the IDF is not small; it is too big and too expensive” (Maariv, April 9, 2002). Many believed that in the era of peace with Egypt and Jordan, and with the collapse of Syria’s army in the civil war, the era of threats from state armies had ended. Well-known experts explained that while there were remaining threats from terrorist organizations, they did not pose an existential threat to the State of Israel.
On a joyous Simchat Torah morning, Israel received a painful wake-up call that this was a dangerously wrong assessment. The country had become accustomed to focusing on the nuclear threat as an existential danger, and directed its diplomatic and operational attention in that direction as well as numerous resources. The threat from the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank was relegated to a secondary status. However, combined with the threat from Hezbollah in the north, Palestinian terrorist organizations now represent an overarching regional threat. Victory over this threat will require a fundamental, multi-dimensional paradigm shift for the State of Israel and its security apparatus.
In the spiritual-cultural dimension as well, a new narrative is required. For years, it has been argued that economic development and prosperity for the Palestinians and the countries in the region are the key to achieving stability and order. But Hamas’ leadership has taught us that its conduct is guided not by the Palestinians’ economic situation but by a deep religious rationale. Western cultural observers, who for centuries have separated religious motives from the political, diplomatic, and military considerations of state leaders, have no tools with which to understand the leadership of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, which are driven by religious conviction and carry out their daily work guided by faith.
The leadership of Hamas in Gaza, as an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, embodies the new Islamic integration of religious, political, civic, and military interests. The fractures and divisions within Israeli society over the past year were seen as a divine omen that this was the time when the gates of heaven would open to herald their redemption. Muslim religious leaders and military strategists predicted years ago that this period would mark the beginning of the end for Israel.
Two years ago, a conference called “The End of Days” was held in Gaza where an approach was designed to advance the “end of the occupation.” At the end of 2022, Palestinian writer Bassam Jarrar declared it the “year of reversal.” Religious dreams and prophecies among Muslims led to a belief that the time had come for the revelation, and that what was required of them was military action. Mohammad Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing, named the current war “Tufan al-Aqsa” (in Hebrew: “Mabul al-Aqsa”) in the belief that through this battle, a great cosmic salvation would unfold.
As it defines the goals of the war, it is crucial that the Israeli leadership understand the religious logic guiding Israel’s enemies. On the physical level, Israel must strive to dismantle the regional system that has been constructed with the support and intent of Iran. On the spiritual-faith level, Israeli victory must be decisive in a way that neutralizes the belief among the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran that the day of Israel’s destruction is at hand.
The central goal of the war for Israel should be that upon its conclusion, a profound disappointment will be instilled in the Islamic believers who started and sustained it. They must be forced to accept that once again, their time has not come, and the gates of heaven have not opened before them.
The Al-Muqawama idea
Over the last 40 years, radical Islamic organizations have formulated the idea of an ideological-religious war guided by the concept of “Al-Muqawama.” In cultural terms, this concept has been translated as “resistance.” This translation omits certain important dimensions of the ideological content that underlie the concept.
This idea represents a cultural perspective on the phenomenon of war that differs strikingly from that of Western observers. According to the Western cultural perspective, war is a deviation from the stable and peaceful order and is therefore conducted with the intention of restoring that order. The Al-Muqawama concept, by contrast, views warfare as a means of maintaining a constant momentum of conflict and struggle designed to ultimately bring about global Islamic religious conquest.
In the context of the struggle against the State of Israel, this vision is simple and clear: the goal is to completely eliminate Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel, banish any Jewish presence, and “liberate” Jerusalem. Thus, for example, when Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah named Sheba Farms as the new cause for which to fight, declaring that fighting in that area represented war for the gates of Jerusalem. He thereby drew a line connecting limited and constant fighting in the Sheba Farms area to Jerusalem, which, according to his vision, will one day be entirely in Muslim hands.
To simplify the concept of Al-Muqawama somewhat, it can be viewed as the inverse of Clausewitz’s well-known description of war as “the continuation of politics by other means.” The Al-Muqawama idea sees politics as the continuation of war by other means. Thus, negotiation is viewed not as a means to bring about the end of a war but simply as a pause that serves its continuation at a more opportune time under more favorable conditions.
Al-Muqawama as a concept of war has two ideological dimensions. The first arises from the duty of the believer to take the initiative, an idea also seen in Jewish Kabbalistic teachings that emphasize the responsibility of humans to awaken and act in the world below so as to generate a divine awakening in the world above. This duty involves practical effort and activity. For example, if a person is facing a tsunami, while it may be clear that he has no chance of defending himself armed with only a bucket, he has a duty to strive and to act with whatever he has on hand in the expectation and belief that those actions will contribute to his salvation.
This was the thinking of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when he decided to go to war with Israel in October 1973. His ultimate goal was to reclaim the entire Sinai Peninsula for Egypt. He knew he could not achieve this goal militarily. Aware of this gap, he employed a concept of war based on the expectation that through his efforts to minimize the war’s toll, something great would emerge beyond his control that would lead him to his goal.
It is from this perspective that we can understand the logic employed by Yahya Sinwar in his decision to go to war on October 7. From his point of view, after Hamas fulfilled its duty to take the initiative and act, trends would develop later that would advance the divine intention. If, for example, the war results in a situation in which Israel is forced to submit to American demands for the establishment of a Palestinian state and withdrawal from the West Bank, Sinwar will be perceived as victorious. Despite the massive destruction he has brought down upon Gaza, he will achieve a historical status no less than that of Saladin.
The second dimension in the concept of Al-Muqawama signifies an obligation on the part of the believer to recognize the reality that victory is neither swift nor guaranteed. The believer is therefore committed to patience, known in Islam as “Sabr.” This commitment entails an ability to retain the dream of victory without compromise even at the cost of great losses. Consider, for example, the “Cup of Poison” speech delivered to the Iranian parliament in the summer of 1988 by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In the speech, Khomeini said Iran had accepted the terms of the ceasefire that ended the Iran-Iraq War, explaining that even that which appears to be poison must be accepted as the will of God. In that way he accepted reality but retained his status as a believer who had not given up on his aspiration to eventually fulfill the religious vision of the Islamic Revolution.
Israeli victory will depend on the leadership’s understanding of both dimensions of the concept of Al-Muqawama. Victory is not only contingent on the magnitude of the achievement on the battlefield but on the trends in the struggle that develop in the days after the war. The Hamas vision will likely persist – but Israel’s ability to force jihadist believers to recognize their weakness, a condition referred to in Islam as “Marhalaat Al-Isda’ta’af,” increases the chances of a temporary cessation of their struggle under the obligation to heed the “Sabr” directive of patience.
This insight must be integrated into the foundations of the Israeli security perception. Israel must remain constantly aware of the eternal Islamic struggle against it. In terms of comprehensive existential considerations, this perception extends beyond the concept of deterrence, which has repeatedly revealed itself to be fragile.
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen is a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He served in the IDF for 42 years. He commanded troops in battles with Egypt and Syria. He was formerly a corps commander and commander of the IDF Military Colleges. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.
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Jewish Nominees for 2025 Golden Globes Include Adam Brody, Jesse Eisenberg, Adam Sandler
A scene from “Nobody Wants This.” Photo: Adam Rose/Netflix
The nominees for the 82nd annual Golden Globes were announced on Monday and a number of performances by Jewish actors and Jewish-themed stories received nominations.
Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for Best Screenplay and also Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Musical or Comedy for “A Real Pain,” a film he directed, produced, wrote, and starred in alongside Kieran Culkin. The duo play estranged cousins who reunite for a Holocaust tour through Poland to honor their grandmother who survived the Nazis. The film itself, which is based on Eisenberg’s own family ties to the Holocaust, is nominated for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. Gabriel Labelle was also nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in “Saturday Night.”
Adam Brody was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy for his starring role in “Nobody Wants This,” a Netflix series also starring Kristen Bell. Jason Segel was nominated in the same category for his role in “Shrinking.”
Brody stars in “Nobody Wants This” as a rabbi named Noah who falls in love with a non-Jewish woman, Bell’s character Joanne. The couple want to make their relationship work, but the biggest obstacle standing in their way is Noah’s Jewish faith. The series, which has been renewed for a second season, received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy. The show was co-created by Erin Foster and is loosely based on her own personal life. Her husband is Jewish and Foster has said that the series is based on the “only good decision I ever made: falling for a nice Jewish boy.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s role in “Presumed Innocent” garnered him a nomination for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series –— Drama. Adrien Brody’s performance in “The Brutalist” and Timothée Chalamet’s starring role in “A Complete Unknown,” as American Jewish singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, garnered them nominations for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama.
“The Brutalist” follows the life of Hungarian-born Jewish architect and geologist László Tóth (played by Brody), after he survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the US. Tóth became notorious for taking a hammer to Michelangelo’s Pietà in 1972. The film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture — Drama and its contenders in the category include “A Complete Unknown” and “September 5.” The latter film is a historical drama that follows an American sports broadcasting crew as they report live from on the ground in Munich about the Palestinian terrorist attack and hostage crisis targeting the Israeli delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Mikey Madison, who was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Los Angeles, was nominated for best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy for her role in the film “Anora.” In the category of Best Original Score, Daniel Blumberg was nominated for “The Brutalist” and renowned German-Jewish composer Hans Zimmer received a nomination for “Dune: Part Two.”
Jewish actress and comedian Hannah Einbinder was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television for her role in “Hacks.” Harrison Ford, whose mother was Jewish, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach were both nominated in the category of Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television for their roles in “Shrinking” and “The Bear,” respectively. Adam Sandler was nominated for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television for “Adam Sandler: Love You” and in the same category, Seth Meyers, who discovered his family’s Jewish lineage in a 2019 episode of “Finding Your Roots,” was nominated for “Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking.”
The 82nd Annual Golden Globes, hosted by Nikki Glaser, will air live on Jan. 5, 2025, at 8 pm ET on CBS and stream on Paramount+ in the US.
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Rebel-Backed Figure Takes Charge as Syria’s Interim Prime Minister
A drone view shows people walking near a statue in Damascus, after Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Syria, Dec. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano
Syria’s new interim leader announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad three days ago.
In a brief address on state television, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.
“Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation government that was working in Idlib and its vicinity, and the government of the ousted regime,” he said.
“The meeting was under the headline of transferring the files and institutions to caretake the government.”
Behind him were two flags — the green, black, and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing, typically flown in Syria by Sunni Islamist fighters.
In the Syrian capital, banks reopened for the first time since Assad’s overthrow. Shops were also opening up again, traffic returned to the roads, and cleaners were out sweeping the streets.
There was a notable decrease in the number of armed men on the streets. Two sources close to the rebels said their command had ordered fighters to withdraw from cities, and for police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) to deploy there.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington fully supports Syria’s political transition process and wants it to lead to inclusive and non-sectarian governance.
The process must prevent Syria being used as a base for terrorism and ensure any chemical or biological weapons stocks are safely destroyed, he said in a statement.
Amid the steps towards normal life, Israeli airstrikes hit bases of the Syrian army, whose forces had melted away in the face of the rebel advance that ousted Assad.
Israel, which has sent forces across the border into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, acknowledged on Tuesday that troops had also taken up some positions beyond the buffer zone, though it denied they were advancing towards Damascus.
In a sign foreigners are ready to work with HTS, the former al Qaeda affiliate that led the anti-Assad revolt and has lately emphasi`ed its break with its jihadist roots, the UN envoy to Syria played down its designation as a terrorist organization.
“The reality is so far that HTS and also the other armed groups have been sending good messages to the Syrian people … of unity, of inclusiveness,” Geir Pedersen told a briefing in Geneva.
Syria’s new interim leader has little political profile beyond Idlib province, a mainly rural northwest region where rebels had maintained an administration during the long years that Syria’s civil war front lines were frozen.
A Facebook page of the rebel administration says he was trained as an electrical engineer, later received a degree in sharia and law, and had held posts in areas including education.
ISRAELI ADVANCES
Israel’s incursion in the southwest and its airstrikes create an additional security problem for the new administration, although Israel says its intervention is temporary.
After Assad’s flight on Sunday ended more than five decades of his family’s rule, Israeli troops moved into the buffer zone inside Syria established following the 1973 Middle East war.
Three security sources said on Tuesday the Israelis had advanced beyond the demilitarized zone. One Syrian source said they had reached the town of Qatana, several km (miles) to the east of the buffer zone and a short drive from Damascus airport.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered a “sterile defensive zone” to be created in southern Syria to protect Israel from terrorism.
Military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said troops were in the buffer zone and “a few additional points” in the vicinity, the first apparent official Israeli acknowledgement that they had moved beyond it. He said, however, that there had been no significant push into Syria.
Katz also said Israel’s navy had destroyed Syria’s fleet.
Regional security sources and officers within the defunct Syrian army said Tuesday’s Israeli airstrikes had hit military installations and air bases across Syria and destroyed dozens of helicopters and jets.
Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia condemned the Israeli incursion.
CELEBRATORY ICE CREAM
Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following 13 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruin, swathes of countryside are depopulated, the economy has been gutted by international sanctions, and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.
But the mood in Damascus remained celebratory, with refugees beginning to return to a homeland they had not seen in years.
Anas Idrees, 42, a refugee since early in the war, raced from Lebanon to Syria to cheer Assad’s fall.
He ventured into the Hamidiyeh Souk in old Damascus to the renowned Bakdash ice cream parlour, where he ordered a large scoop of their signature Arabic gelato, served coated in pistachios.
“I swear to God, it tastes different now,” he said after eating a spoonful. “It was good before, but it’s changed because now we are happy inside.”
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US Seeking Ways to Engage With Syrian Rebel Groups After Assad Ouster
Rebel fighters holds weapons at the Citadel of Aleppo, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Bashar al-Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
The Biden administration is seeking ways to engage with Syrian rebel groups who ousted President Bashar al-Assad and is reaching out to partners in the region such as Turkey to help kick start informal diplomacy.
Speaking at a State Department briefing, spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington had a number of ways of communicating with various groups, one of which Washington has designated a terrorist organization.
“We have been engaging in those conversations over the past few days. Secretary himself has been engaged in conversations with countries that have influence inside Syria, and we’ll continue to do that,” Miller said.
Governments across the region as well as in the Western world are scrambling to forge new links with Syria’s leading rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the UN.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been working the phones and speaking with regional leaders and has twice over the past four days spoken with Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister of Turkey, Miller said.
Turkey has troops on the ground in northwest Syria, and provides support to some of the rebels who were intending to take part, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) — though it considers HTS to be a terror group.
When asked if the United States was looking to engage with HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani himself, Miller declined to say but he did not rule it out either.
“We believe we have the ability to communicate one way or the other, directly or indirectly, with all the relevant parties,” Miller said.
The US designated Golani a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad‘s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria, and that Nusra had carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision.
In one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations, the fall of Assad‘s government on Sunday wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world. Assad fled to Russia, after 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s rule.
US President Joe Biden and his top aides described the moment as one with historic opportunity for the Syrian people who have for decades lived under the oppressive rule of Assad but also warned the country faced a period of risk and uncertainty.
Syria policy under the Biden administration over the past four years had largely taken a backseat as Washington chose to view the civil war as a dormant issue and more pressing issues such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the eruption of Gaza war have consumed much of the bandwidth.
Over the past decade, HTS, previously known as the Nusra Front, has tried to moderate its image, while running a quasi-state centered on Idlib, where, experts say, it levied taxes on commercial activities and the population.
The group was “saying the right things” at this stage but that it was too early to say what was going to happen in Syria, a senior US official briefing reporters on Sunday said.
US Hostage affairs envoy Roger Carstens was also in the region in Beirut as part of intensive efforts to locate Austin Tice, an American journalist captured in Syria 12 years ago.
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