Did Hamas Ruin Netanyahu’s Plans?

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza—and across all of Palestine—is the natural product of a century-long occupation that began in the early 20th century under various forms, names, and waves of popular uprising.

After the two great catastrophes in Palestinian history, the Nakba of 1948 and the Naksa of 1967, resistance did not cease. It evolved into more organised and precise forms of armed struggle against the occupier. For decades, the Palestinian struggle persisted in different shapes until the First Intifada erupted in 1987. It lasted about seven years, accompanied by waves of martyrdom operations that prompted the occupation’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, to admit: “I cannot stop a person who wants to die.” That intifada entered both Arab and Western political lexicons, and became a nightmare haunting the occupier, so much so that neutralising it became a strategic necessity.

While the official Palestinian delegation was negotiating in Madrid to capitalise on the Intifada’s momentum, secret talks were taking place in Oslo between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the occupation. The result was the September 1993 “Declaration of Principles,” known as the Oslo Accords, in which the PLO renounced armed struggle, recognised the occupier’s legitimacy in Palestine, and amended its charter under the guise of “phased” politics and tactical compromise.

The most dangerous aspect of Oslo was that the rightful owner—Palestine—granted the occupier undeserved legitimacy.

Among its clauses was an agreement to hold Palestinian elections in 1996 for the presidency and the Legislative Council. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, regarding the elections as a product of Oslo, boycotted the vote. Yasser Arafat, may Allah have mercy on him, became President of the Palestinian Authority.

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From Boycott to Participation

A decade later, after years of fluctuating tension between resistance factions—particularly the Islamic movements—and the Palestinian Authority (PA), new elections were scheduled for 2006. This time, Hamas chose to participate, seeking to combine governance and resistance, similar to Hezbollah’s model in Lebanon.

The results shocked many: Hamas won a majority in the Legislative Council, enabling it to form a government. This did not sit well with the architects of Oslo. Western and Arab conditions poured in: recognise Israel if you want to be part of politics. Hamas refused.

PA security forces intensified pressure on Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with waves of arrests, torture, political prosecutions, and long prison terms. By 2007, clashes in Gaza between Hamas and PA security forces culminated in Hamas taking full control of the Strip. The blockade on Gaza tightened thereafter.

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Preparing for the Flood

Hamas is a resistance movement with a clear ideological foundation, but one that allows political ijtihad (independent reasoning) within the bounds of Sharia and real-world circumstances. Its organisational discipline predates its formal founding, rooted in years of structured social and institutional work in Gaza under various banners.

Once in control of Gaza, Hamas moved methodically to build its resistance project:

• Human development: training fighters and leaders spiritually, ideologically, and militarily to face the occupation’s forces.
• Tunnel network: constructing hundreds of kilometres of underground passages, decisive in every war, most recently in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
• Operational freedom for resistance factions: allocating land for military training, particularly for Islamic Jihad.
• Armament: developing rockets, explosives, mortars, and drones.
• Counterintelligence: dismantling occupation spy networks through offensive security operations.

These efforts drew harsher siege measures and successive wars—2008, 2012, and 2014—aimed at eradicating Hamas and the resistance in Gaza.

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Two Conflicting Projects

Any objective observer can see the stark difference between the PA’s project in Ramallah and the resistance project in Gaza. Two root causes explain this:

1. Ideological and political background:
   • The PA’s framework accepts coexistence with the occupation.
   • The resistance’s framework seeks total liberation of Palestine.
2. Binding agreements: Oslo shackled the Palestinian cause under the occupier’s terms.

The PA’s path sustains the occupation; the resistance’s path aims to end it.

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Al-Aqsa Flood: Shattering the Myth

Before answering how Al-Aqsa Flood relates to the Palestinian national project and the “New Middle East,” one fact is critical: the operation shattered, forever, the myth of the invincible occupier.

For decades, minds—especially in the Arab and Islamic world—were conditioned to believe that defeating the occupation was impossible. Al-Aqsa Flood proved otherwise. If besieged Gaza alone could break the “invincible” army’s image, what could a united Palestinian national project achieve, backed by Arab and Islamic liberation movements?

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Netanyahu’s New Middle East

Just before the Flood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at the UN holding a map of the “New Middle East,” envisioning a region cleansed of all resistance movements, with Israel as the dominant power.

Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, later revealed it had intelligence that the occupation was preparing a major offensive against Gaza’s resistance—followed by regional action against all who support armed struggle. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched Al-Aqsa Flood pre-emptively, derailing Netanyahu’s plans and delaying the “New Middle East” project.

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Building on the Flood

Despite its high cost for the Palestinian people, the operation must be leveraged to:

1. Inside Palestine:
   • Restore the Palestinian liberation project.
   • Expand it to include all resistance-oriented political forces.
   • Rehabilitate the PLO as the unifying national home under a liberation mandate.
2. Outside Palestine:
   • Cooperate with global liberation movements and sympathetic states under a unified Palestinian framework.
   • Secure all forms of support from governments committed to Palestine’s cause.
   • Operate under the banner: “Palestine Unites Us.”

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Exposing the “New Middle East” Requirements

For Netanyahu’s vision to succeed, four conditions are essential:

• Political will and determination from its architects.
• Supportive regional regimes.
• Elimination of all resistance movements.
• Removal of the masses from active participation.

Al-Aqsa Flood has reinforced the resistance’s presence, especially in Gaza, and re-energised the masses—though their mobilisation fluctuates with circumstances. It has also imposed historical responsibility on Arab and Islamic states to stand with Palestine.

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Conclusion

Defeating the occupation is not only possible—it is highly attainable, as Al-Aqsa Flood demonstrated. Allah’s laws of change remain ever-present: “And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be the likes of you” (Qur’an 47:38).

Rebuilding the Palestinian national project through the PLO—on the foundation of liberation—is the most potent answer to the deception and death exported by the West and its Zionist project.

For the sake of future generations, we must work and persevere, even if we do not live to see victory. It is enough honour to say: We were of Gaza, steadfast in faith and homeland, until we met Allah in that state.