Did Hamas (and the other Palestinian Militants 🇵🇸) Act Alone?
Note:
This was originally written on Thursday November 16, 2023. It is the third and last article that I've written about the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 so far, and will be be the last one I write for a while. It is kind of exhausting and draining to talk about this war specifically, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸 as a whole. It's just really depressing. It's pretty interesting looking at these three articles that I've written about the subject, and the things that I predicted that ended up coming true.
Palestinian causalities 🇵🇸 inside Gaza went up, and Israel 🇮🇱's military offensive did create a humanitarian crisis that the international community is still trying to figure how to grapple with. And indeed, Israel 🇮🇱 has not shown any restraint in their war against Hamas, nor have they put any real effort into limiting civilian casualties since this war began and intensified, and Israel 🇮🇱 has killed more Palestinians 🇵🇸 than Hamas and other Palestinian militants 🇵🇸 killed Israelis 🇮🇱. And as a result, Israel 🇮🇱's image around the world has taken a huge hit, as people view Israel 🇮🇱 more negatively now than they did before the war. So much so that the international community (except the US 🇺🇸) have been calling on Israel 🇮🇱 to declare a ceasefire to end the war, something that of course, the Israelis 🇮🇱 have soundly rejected.
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continued to continue the war until Israel 🇮🇱's military objectives have been achieved, whatever they are at this point. I know that they've said that their stated goal is the eliminate Hamas, but if you know anything about terrorist groups like this, you'll know that's kind of a tall order. You'll never be able to eliminate these groups entirely. The best you can hope for is that you diminish and degrade these groups until the point that they've been weakened and can no longer pose a threat to you.
That what ultimately happened with both al-Qaeda and ISIS. These groups didn't go away completely, but they've severely weakened and degraded, and are no longer in a position to pose a real threat to the United States 🇺🇸 or its allies. I mean, ISIS lost its caliphate, which was the main source of its power and legitimacy. The caliphate was what made ISIS such a dangerous threat, and why the US 🇺🇸 and many Western countries saw it as their top priority to destroy that caliphate, and reverse any and all territorial gains that ISIS had made in both Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 during that short 2 year period from 2013 to 2015. The fear amongst Western leaders about the caliphate was it would make the borders of and between Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 disappear, and then it would just spread further if it wasn't stopped and eliminated.
So, if Israel 🇮🇱's goal is to eliminate Hamas entirely, so that it no longer exists in any form, with every leader and fighter within that organization dead, than that's kind of a fool's errand. We tried that with al-Qaeda and ISIS, and we had to learn the hard way that doesn't work, and the degrade and weaken strategy works a lot better and is actually achievable. But, either way, it definitely does seems like Israel 🇮🇱 is gearing up and digging in for a long war, something that they haven't had to fight in decades.
I think the last long war that Israel 🇮🇱 fought was the Lebanese Civil War 🇱🇧, and that war ended 34 years ago, and Israel 🇮🇱 was fighting in that war for about 12 years, from 1978 to 1990, in a war that lasted 15 years, from 1975 to 1990. Israel 🇮🇱 is lucky that every war they fought since then was blissfully short until this one. Now, they're possibly fighting yet another long war three decades after the last one ended. Whether or not Israel 🇮🇱 can actually handle fighting a long war at this point, when the current IDF (Israeli Defense Forces 🇮🇱) is so inexperienced at fighting a long war is yet to be seen. The IDF has had to make a lot of changes, and adapt since this war began. After all, it was a huge intelligence and defense failure that allowed the October 7 attack to happen in the first place.
Something that I probably should address here, is the concern about young people's perception of this war. A lot of experts and commentators have talked about young people (mainly teenagers and 20 something year olds) have gotten most of their news about the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 from social media, an environment that is a breeding ground for misinformation and disinformation. And yeah, it definitely is a huge problem that young people's only source of information about the world is social media, particularly X (formally known as Twitter 🐦) and TikTok, and I feel that we should be doing more to help combat any misinformation or disinformation that comes out of these platforms. Not just about the war in Gaza, but about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 as well.
But, the other big concern about young people when it comes this war is the discourse on college campuses. How, there's becoming less and less room for debate and civil and calm discussion, and how students are succumbing to tribalism, and retreating to their own groups. You got pro-Israeli students 🇮🇱 and you got pro-Palestinian students 🇵🇸 clashing with one another on the campuses of these Ivy League schools like Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT.
Both sides spewing out hatred for the other side, and even calling for genocide for the opposing side. Whether it'd be Palestinian supporters 🇵🇸 calling for genocide against Israelis 🇮🇱 and Jews ✡️ as a whole, or Israeli supporters 🇮🇱 calling for genocide against Palestinians 🇵🇸, and Muslims ☪️ and Arabs as a whole. The presidents of these Ivy League colleges and universities have been taken to task for their handling of this situation, and many of them have resigned in shame and disgrace, mostly recently, Claudine Gay, the now former president of Harvard University. Of course, she didn't just resign because of her seeming refusal to condemn the October 7 attacks, or condemn antisemitism and calls for genocide against Jews ✡️, but also because of a fake manufactured plagiarism scandal that she was accused of being involved in.
But, it is mostly the antisemitism stuff and the stuff about October 7 that has drawn the most criticism. Indeed, this one pro-Israel 🇮🇱 commentator on YouTube, Jen Rubin, on the Politicon channel suggested that parents should avoid sending their kids to these Ivy League colleges and universities to avoid being influenced by the antisemitism that's spreading on their campuses. Not that most parents in America 🇺🇸 could even afford to these schools.
I mean, Harvard, Yale, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and all of these other Ivy League schools have been perceived as "rich people colleges" or "rich people universities" because you have to be loaded 💵💵💵 to avoid attending them. So, you're average middle class family or lower middle class family probably cannot afford to their children to an Ivy League school without dedicating a significant portion of their life savings to it. So, I don't know what to say, Jen, but most Americans 🇺🇸 probably won't even go to these schools anyway, regardless of whether they are antisemitic or not.
But then again, you cannot entirely blame young people for feeling the way that they do about Israel 🇮🇱 and Israel 🇮🇱's conduct during the war. While, I certainly don't condone the antisemitism or any of the Hamas apologism or even Hamas worship (which baffles my mind and kind of terrifies me in all honesty), I do understand why younger people tend to view Israel 🇮🇱 and their offensive in Gaza in a more negative light than older people, especially those in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
When you have a conflict as morally grey as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸, it's very hard to take sides. I find myself switching sides on this conflict all the time every time I learn something new about it, and every time something drastically changes. At the start of the current war in Gaza, I was mostly on Israel 🇮🇱's side because they had suffered the worst terrorist attack in their entire history, the worst massacre of Jews ✡️ since the Holocaust. Of course, they had to right to retaliate against Hamas.
I mean, we suffered a major attack on September 11, 2001. 9/11 was the worst terrorist attack in our history and about 3,000 people had died during that attack. Even if we disagree on the US government 🇺🇸's response to those attacks, we all agree that the US government 🇺🇸 had every right to respond to those attacks and retaliate against al-Qaeda for committing them. In fact, they were morally and politically obligated to do so. That's what the American people 🇺🇸 wanted at the time. They wanted a strong response from their government, and they wanted revenge against those who planned those horrific attacks. Anything less than that would've been political suicide for the current administration.
But, imagine if we had terrorist attack similar to October 7, 2023, and just as many Americans 🇺🇸 died proportionally as Israelis 🇮🇱 did. Israel 🇮🇱 is a small country with 8 million people, and the United States 🇺🇸 is a massive country with over 332 million people (the exact number is 332, 278, 200). So, if you took the causality numbers of October 7, which was 1,139, and then balloon them percentage wise to the US 🇺🇸, like the same proportion of the US population 🇺🇸 had died as the proportion of Israelis 🇮🇱 that were killed on October 7.
And then imagine if the same proportion of Americans 🇺🇸 were taken hostage by the terrorists as Israelis 🇮🇱 (and foreigners) as were taken hostage by Hamas and other hostile Palestinian militant groups 🇵🇸. The results would be horrific. The trauma and anger from such an event would be even greater than even what was on 9/11, and we would demand of our leaders a pretty strong and violent response against those who planned and executed the attacks.
So, you can sort of get idea of how Israelis 🇮🇱 perceive the attacks on October 7, and the level of rage, trauma, and vengefulness they have. And most morally sound people can see that Hamas is a terrible terrorist organization that wants nothing more than death and destruction of its enemies, even if it comes at the expense of Palestinians 🇵🇸, and what they did on that day was horrific, evil, and goes far beyond what most would consider to be within the bounds of armed resistance.
But, as the war has gone on, and as the Israelis 🇮🇱 raked up a huge body count amongst the Palestinian population 🇵🇸 within Gaza, I've sort of turned against Israel 🇮🇱, or at the very least, I'm more critical of them than I was before the war truly started. I imagine that's how most people were during the start of the war. Like, we understand where Israel 🇮🇱 is coming from, or most of us do anyway, but we don't agree with how they're going about this. And what makes it worse is the responses that the Israeli government and military 🇮🇱 and even Israeli people 🇮🇱 themselves have given when you bring up the massive civilian death toll and humanitarian disaster within Gaza.
They usually say that the civilians don't really matter, or that civilians had it coming because they voted Hamas into power in the first place (which is sort of false, like it's only half true) and they support armed resistance against Israel 🇮🇱, or that Hamas is the only party to blame for civilian casualties because they put their bases and arm depots in civilian buildings, so if Israel 🇮🇱 bombs a school or bombs a hospital, it's Hamas's fault for using it for military purposes in the first place.
Sure, it is a war crime to use civilian buildings for military purposes like using them as bases or arm depots, or as prisons for POWs, that's what makes terrorists so despicable and so duplicitous. But, that doesn't make you blameless for bombing it and killing innocent civilians. You're just as culpable as the terrorists for that loss of civilian life.
I mean, during the War on Terror, the US 🇺🇸 was constantly being criticized for bombing civilian infrastructure, even if it was being used by terrorists for military type purposes or if they claimed it was being used by terrorists. And of course, the American people 🇺🇸 were often criticized and ridiculed by outsiders for their hateful and xenophobic attitudes about Muslims ☪️ during the War on Terror. Americans 🇺🇸 even made similar arguments for why invading Iraq 🇮🇶 when they had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks was okay because we wanted to collectively punish the Middle East and the Muslim world ☪️. A lot of Americans 🇺🇸 said that they had it coming because they were Muslims ☪️, and they didn't do enough to oppose al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Some Americans 🇺🇸 even called for genocide against Muslims ☪️ during and after the 9/11 attacks. And we were rightfully called out for this racism and xenophobia at the time, even if it wasn't anywhere close to being enough.
Why should Israel 🇮🇱 get a free pass? And indeed, very few people have bought into Israel 🇮🇱's arguments about this, nor have they been convinced by the evidence (or lack thereof) that the IDF has presented to prove that these civilian buildings were being used by Hamas and other Palestinian militants 🇵🇸 and were therefore legitimate military targets.
And isn't just the bombing of civilian infrastructure, and the "accidental" killing of civilians, it's the other stuff that Israel 🇮🇱 has done throughout this war so far that has drawn criticism. Whether it was them blockading Gaza and cutting off electricity ⚡️ and water 💦 at the start of the war (until they pressured to stop doing it by the international community), whether it's taking Palestinians 🇵🇸 prisoner and then stripping them down to their underwear and humiliating them, which is a war crime and against the Geneva Convention, whether it's Israeli settlers 🇮🇱 gunning down Palestinian civilians 🇵🇸 in the West Bank in sort of retaliatory vigilante killings, or whether it's "accidentally" killing hostages, which they have done. They've accidentally shot three hostages to death, even they were supposedly waved a white flag 🏳️ to show that they were hostages and non-combatants.
According to a video by FRANCE 24 English, Israel 🇮🇱 has allegedly been sending Mossad agents to Turkey 🇹🇷 to abduct Palestinians 🇵🇸 who they suspect are working with Hamas, and even Israeli activists 🇮🇱 who are critical of the war. 33 of which have been arrested by Turkey 🇹🇷's security service, the Ministry of the Interior. Israel 🇮🇱 has done a lot of bad stuff during this war, and will continue to do bad stuff within it, perhaps even worse stuff than what they've done already, so long as this war continues. And this has dramatically hurt their image abroad, as what usually happens when violence breaks out between the Israelis 🇮🇱 and Palestinians 🇵🇸.
So, it is understandable why so many young people here in the US 🇺🇸, particular those of my generation, are so negative about Israel 🇮🇱 at the moment. Of course, this doesn't excuse why some of them support Hamas, and I have to question their morality if they do genuinely support that group and see them as the "good guys." In truth, this is not a conflict with true good guys or bad guys. The lines kind of blur between the two. Sometimes, it feels like a conflict between two bad guys with no good guys to speak of.
But then again, it is dangerous and inaccurate to view most real-life conflict through such a black and white lens. Some conflicts do fit into that black and white dichotomy and can be viewed through that lens like World War II or the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦. But, the vast majority do not, and most have various shades of grey. And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸, and the current Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, definitely fits more into that later category than the former.
This is why I don't like it when people try to compare the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 to the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦 and try to make an equivalency between these two conflicts, or link the two conflicts together. Like, Israel 🇮🇱 is not Ukraine 🇺🇦, and Hamas is not Russia 🇷🇺. And it's doubtful that Russia 🇷🇺 had anything to do with the October 7 attacks. But, this sort of thing has dangerous ramifications because if you try to link the war in Gaza to the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, or try to compare them, it gives you a false impression of both.
It kind of gets into conspiracy theory territory, and I don't like that. That's what the pro-Russian side 🇷🇺 does, and if the pro-Ukrainian side 🇺🇦 starts doing it, then they will have lost the moral high ground, and will have lost the right to criticize the pro-Russian side 🇷🇺 for engaging in or entertaining conspiracy theory. And it leads to people excusing certain things that they wouldn't have excused otherwise. Like, if Israel 🇮🇱 is like Ukraine 🇺🇦, then they're always morally in the right, and can do whatever they want. Even if some things that Israel 🇮🇱 has done throughout the war in Gaza so far has been more comparable to what Russia 🇷🇺 has done in Ukraine 🇺🇦 so far in that war.
Luckily, most pro-Ukrainian commentators 🇺🇦 have switched back to just focusing on the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and have stopped talking about the war in Gaza. The only reason most of them started talking about the war in Gaza is that it was trendy at the time, it was all over the news, and they wanted views. That's a cynical way to look at that, but that's how most YouTubers tend to look at things, and how they act, regardless of what their channels are about. It doesn't matter if their channel's about politics, history, movies, TV, streaming, comic books, anime, manga, cartoons, video games, cooking, relationships, fashion, cosmetics, or finance and economics. They always like to talk about whatever is the most trendy in their respective field at the time to get as many clicks and views as possible.
I think at a certain point they realized that talking about the war in Gaza, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸 was kind of above their pay grade, and they aren't the most qualified to be talking about it, so they just stopped covering it entirely, and just went back to talking about just Ukraine 🇺🇦, something that's a little bit more their speed. Especially since Ukraine aid 🇺🇦 is still kind of up in the air, and is still under threat from pro-Russian politicians 🇷🇺 within Washington and within European capitals, particularly Budapest. Just because you're good at talking about one conflict, doesn't necessarily mean you'll be good at talking about another. Especially if you try to view that other conflict through the same prism as you do the conflict you mainly focus on and specialize in.
Oh, and one more thing that I sort of predicted or talked about in this piece, and the previous ones is that the Houthis and other Iranian proxy groups 🇮🇷 have ramped up their attacks against the United States 🇺🇸. Most recently, a Shia militia group launched a drone attack on a US military base 🇺🇸 inside northern Iraq 🇮🇶, which injured three American soldiers 🇺🇸, one of them critically.
In response, the US military 🇺🇸 carried retaliatory airstrikes against the Shia militia responsible for the attack in northern Iraq 🇮🇶, which the Iraqi government 🇮🇶 condemned since the airstrikes happened on their soil, and no country likes having their territory bombed, even if the bombing was carried out by a country that they're hosting military bases for. And of course, the Houthis have been attacking international shipping in and out of the Red Sea, forcing the US 🇺🇸 to create an international maritime security force to protect the shipping routes in the Red Seas from the Houthis. This maritime task force includes countries like the UK 🇬🇧, Australia 🇦🇺, Bahrain 🇧🇭, Canada 🇨🇦, Greece 🇬🇷, Denmark 🇩🇰, the Netherlands 🇳🇱, Norway 🇳🇴, Singapore 🇸🇬, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, and the Seychelles 🇸🇨. The operation to stop the Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea is called Operation Prosperity Guardian.
Just today, I saw a video from CNN saying that Iran 🇮🇷 sent a naval vessel to the Red Sea, I don't remember if they said it was a destroyer or what, but it was an Iranian vessel 🇮🇷 from the Iranian navy 🇮🇷. And understandably, people are worried that this Iranian naval presence 🇮🇷 may embolden the Houthis to ramp up their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since they are an Iranian-backed organization 🇮🇷. This is the one area, the one part of this whole conflict that could escalate, and turn this relatively small conflict between Israel 🇮🇱 and Hamas in Gaza, to a larger regional conflict including some of the largest players in the region.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this article. As you read by the title, it's about the debate over whether or not Hamas and all of the other Palestinian militant groups 🇵🇸 that participated in the October 7 attack did it all on their own, or whether they had help from an outside party, meaning Iran 🇮🇷. In this article, you'll see that I mostly take the side of Hamas acting alone, rather than Hamas getting help from the Iranians 🇮🇷, or the Iranians 🇮🇷 being the primary architects of the October 7 attacks. I think that this was mostly Hamas's doing, and Iran 🇮🇷 had little, if nothing to do with it. The podcast video that I saw that I'm mainly responding to in this makes a very convincing argument to support that point of view that Hamas and the other Palestinian militants 🇵🇸 did it alone, and Iran 🇮🇷 had nothing to do with it.
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I just watched an episode from a podcast by the New York Times called The Daily. It was discussing Hamas, and what Hamas's rationale was for launching the attack on Israel 🇮🇱 on October 7, 2023. It was from a guy, a journalist named Ben Hubbard who managed to interview a few of Hamas's political leadership outside of Gaza. Hamas's political leadership is scattered throughout the Middle East in places like Lebanon 🇱🇧 and Qatar 🇶🇦. And it was very informative, I learned a lot more about Hamas, and the history of Hamas than a lot of other videos talking about the current Israeli-Hamas war 🇮🇱. One of the big takeaways is that Hamas is an organization that's firmly dedicated to the destruction of Israel 🇮🇱. They aren't just opposed to the occupation of the Palestinian territories 🇵🇸, Gaza and the West Bank. They're opposed to Israel 🇮🇱 as a whole because they see the entire State of Israel 🇮🇱 as an occupation.
The way they interpret things is that the Jews ✡️ stole Palestine 🇵🇸 from the Arabs when they declared the State of Israel 🇮🇱, and they want it all back, not just Gaza and the West Bank. So, they want to completely destroy Israel 🇮🇱, and replace it with a Palestinian state 🇵🇸, probably under Sharia law since Hamas is an Islamist organization ☪️. What they intend to do with the Jews ✡️ living there, I'm not sure.
My guess is that they'd probably just kill them or expunge them, forcefully deport them in some sort of ethnic cleansing campaign. They aren't willing to negotiate or compromise or concede like other more moderate Palestinian groups 🇵🇸, it's either all or nothing for them. And they don't care how many Palestinians 🇵🇸 die in the process of them achieving their goals of wiping Israel 🇮🇱 off the map. That's what makes them more dangerous than any other Palestinian group 🇵🇸, besides maybe Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Hubbard also explained that when Hamas's top military leader, Yahya Sinwar, was imprisoned by the Israelis 🇮🇱, he was studying Israel 🇮🇱, reading a lot of books in Hebrew, trying to learn as much as he could about Israel 🇮🇱 and the Israeli people 🇮🇱, so that he could learn their weaknesses. So, when he was released in a prisoner exchange in 2011, he began putting his knowledge to use, and building up Hamas's military capabilities, as well as trying to boost the Gaza economy, and trying make life in Gaza, a little less miserable.
This made the Israelis 🇮🇱 believe that Hamas was manageable, that it could be contained, and they wouldn't do anything too brash or too crazy that would endanger the people in Gaza or endanger their position politically. In hindsight though, this was all meant to lure Israel 🇮🇱 into a false sense of security, and hide Hamas's true intentions. Sinwar never accepted the status quo, and he always wanted to change it, using the knowledge he gained while in prison. That's why he spent so much time trying to build up Hamas's military capabilities after he was released and became the administrator of Gaza.
This leads me to the main big takeaway from this podcast, Hamas acted alone in the October 7 attacks. I know a lot of people after the attacks happened kept saying that Russia 🇷🇺 was behind it or Iran 🇮🇷 was behind it, like those two countries somehow orchestrated the attacks and told Hamas to do it. I know, Ben Hodges, a retired US Army general 🇺🇸, keeps saying that Russia 🇷🇺 is the main beneficiary of the attacks on Israel 🇮🇱 by Hamas, and the subsequent war. But, I don't really buy into this idea, I never really did. I always thought people like Hodges, Jake Broe, Vlad Vexler, and Jonathan Fink were stretching it when they try to directly link the war in Gaza to the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 in any way, even tangentially. So, this information from Hubbard, or this take from Hubbard just confirms what I already kind of believed.
As Hubbard said in this podcast, there's no actual evidence to suggest that Hamas had any help in planning or coordinating this attack from any outside party, whether that be Iran 🇮🇷, or Hezbollah, or Russia 🇷🇺, or even China 🇨🇳. People just write off Hamas as just being an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷, and they just assume that the Iranians 🇮🇷 had something to do with it, but that's not really the case. Sure, Hamas is backed by Iran 🇮🇷, no question about that, and they worked with Iran 🇮🇷 and Hezbollah in the past to learn certain capabilities or gain some technology that they didn't have before. But, that doesn't mean that Iran 🇮🇷 and Hezbollah had any direct or indirect involvement in the October 7 attacks.
The October 7 attacks were purely a Hamas operation, it was something they planned themselves, and didn't tell Iran 🇮🇷 or Hezbollah about it ahead of time. People just assume that just because Hamas is backed by Iran 🇮🇷 that must mean that Hamas is an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷, and is apart of their Axis of Resistance. But no, Hamas is a lot more independent than that, and is able to do things without Iran 🇮🇷 directly helping or telling them what to do.
I mean, think of it like this, Hamas is a Sunni organization, while Iran 🇮🇷 is a Shia theocracy, and Iran 🇮🇷's approach to Islamism ☪️ is very sectarian, and all of their proxies are also Shia, including Hezbollah. So really, how close is Hamas to Iran 🇮🇷? They are apart of different sects of Islam ☪️, and don't really share that much in common as far as ideology is concerned, other than that they both hate Israel 🇮🇱 and want to see its total destruction.
I mean, Iran 🇮🇷 doesn't really care about the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸 at all, they just hate Israel 🇮🇱, and want to see it destroyed, and if groups like Hamas can help make that happen, then so be it. But, they don't support Hamas, and other Palestinian terrorist groups 🇵🇸 because they themselves care about the Palestinian cause 🇵🇸. They couldn't care less if there's a Palestinian state 🇵🇸 or not. And it does actually make sense why because Iran 🇮🇷 is not an Arab country, it's a Persian country; the original name of Iran 🇮🇷 was Persia. They're a different ethnicity from the Arabs, and they speak a different language than the Arabs, including the Palestinians 🇵🇸.
When people just blame Iran 🇮🇷 for everything, and just dismiss Hamas as an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷, it takes away the agency of Hamas in any of this. They just can’t appreciate or comprehend the idea that Hamas was even capable of pulling off such a complex and daring attack all by themselves without any outside help. So, they just assume it has to be because they had outside help from Iran 🇮🇷 or Russia 🇷🇺 or both. And people make a bigger deal out of Iran 🇮🇷’s Axis of Resistance in the Middle East than it actually is.
Iran 🇮🇷 talks a big game about how all their proxies in the Middle East are united, they coordinate with each other, they share intel, they share technology and capabilities, and they plan things out together. And if a war with Israel 🇮🇱 were to ever break out, the entire Axis of Resistance would come together and fight Israel 🇮🇱 as one unified force, the “Voltron of militias” as Hubbard himself put it.
And people have bought into this, including some well educated people who should probably know better especially after Russia 🇷🇺’s military proved to be a lot less capable than they imagined after they invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦, despite how much Russia 🇷🇺 talked up its military and made it seem more impressive than it actually was. But, now that Hamas has initiated a war with Israel 🇮🇱, Iran 🇮🇷’s proxies are not joining the fight.
Hezbollah is mostly staying on the sidelines, just attacking Israel 🇮🇱 along the Lebanese border 🇱🇧, but not launching any sort of offensive into Israel 🇮🇱, and opening a second front in the war. The only militias involved in the fight alongside Hamas are the Palestinian militias 🇵🇸 that are already in Gaza and the West Bank. No Shia militias from Iraq 🇮🇶, and no Houthis from Yemen 🇾🇪.
Sure, the Houthis in Yemen 🇾🇪, and the Shia militias in Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 have been launching attacks on the United States 🇺🇸, ever since the war in Gaza started, but none of these groups have actually joined the war in Gaza, and have directly helped Hamas in any way. The US 🇺🇸 has been retaliating against these groups with airstrikes ever time they attack our military bases, or attack our troops, or attack our ships, but so far, none of this has resulted in this wider regional war that everyone’s afraid of happening. So, Iran 🇮🇷’s talk is just that, talk. The Axis of Resistance is not as unified as Iran 🇮🇷 says it is, and they and Iran 🇮🇷 itself are not as willing to go to war with Israel 🇮🇱 over the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸 as their bluster would suggest.
From it seems like, Iran 🇮🇷, Russia 🇷🇺, China 🇨🇳, Hezbollah, and all of Iran 🇮🇷’s proxies scattered throughout the Middle East were all just as surprised by Hamas’s attack on Israel 🇮🇱 on October 7 as the rest of the world was. But, once it happened, and once the war started, they all tried to figure out ways they could use this situation to their advantage; whether it’d for diplomatic reasons, propaganda reasons, or military reasons.
I mean, Putin’s Russia 🇷🇺 is very opportunistic, they like to exploit anything that they believe can benefit them, even if they had nothing to do with it. They’re one to plan things out like this. And when they do plan things out, and orchestrate things themselves, it usually does go according to plan, such was the case with the invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦. That invasion was supposed to only last for a few days, or a week at most, and here we are, it’s been going on for 2 years going on 3 years.
Iran 🇮🇷 is kind of the same way. They don’t really plan things out, or orchestrate things like some sort of puppet master, and when they do, it usually doesn’t go according to plan. I mean, they want the world to think they are sort of puppet master, manipulating or orchestrating events in the Middle East, but they really aren’t. It’s really just embellishment, just like what Russia 🇷🇺 tried to do with its military and intelligence services prior to the invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦.
The reality is that Iran 🇮🇷 is just an opportunistic nation, taking advantage of whatever dire situation happens in the Middle East that they could benefit from in some way; or at the very least, undermine and weaken their enemies. So, when an opportunity comes their way, they take it, and just run with it. That was sort of the rationale behind their involvement in the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾, they didn’t plan it out, they didn’t orchestrate the war, they had no idea it was even coming. But, when it did come, they did everything could to use that war to their advantage. The same with Russia 🇷🇺 and their involvement in the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾.
And China 🇨🇳, they don’t plan things out either. They don’t want war in the Middle East, it doesn’t really benefit them in any way besides the fact that it makes the US 🇺🇸 look bad. Why do you think they tried to be a mediator in Iran 🇮🇷 and Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦’s little cold war? So, they would have no reason to help Hamas plan or coordinate this attack on Israel 🇮🇱. But, once the attacks happened and the war came, China 🇨🇳 chose to exploit it any way they could; mostly in the diplomatic arena. They try to make themselves look like the good guy, try to look like calm, rational, and responsible adult in the room, while they try to paint the US 🇺🇸 as irresponsible, reckless, and untrustworthy.
It’s very duplicitous and very underhanded, but that’s what the Chinese 🇨🇳 usually choose to do when situations like this happen that they had nothing to do with, and had no control over. It’s the largely the same thing that they did when Russia 🇷🇺 invaded in Ukraine 🇺🇦 on February 24, 2022. And China 🇨🇳 had no real hand in Russia 🇷🇺’s decision to invade Ukraine 🇺🇦, other than maybe giving the Russians 🇷🇺 their blessing, and wishing them luck that the invasion went well, and was as short as the Russians 🇷🇺 said it would. And despite saying over and over that their relationship with Russia 🇷🇺 has no limits, they still refuse to give Russia 🇷🇺 any military aid whatsoever. Instead, they’re just letting North Korea 🇰🇵 send military aid to Russia 🇷🇺 since North Korea 🇰🇵 is already a pariah, and can afford to be a patsy, which China 🇨🇳 wants North Korea 🇰🇵 to be in this particular conflict.
So, what was Hamas’s actual motive for launching this daring and monstrous attack on Israel 🇮🇱? Well, from what Hubbard could gather from talking to those Hamas officials, they were afraid that the Middle East and the rest of the world was forgetting about the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸. Many of the Arab Gulf states were signing normalization agreements with Israel 🇮🇱, ignoring the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸 entirely. And even the Israelis 🇮🇱 themselves were forgetting about the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸, and weren’t prioritizing it anymore.
Their focus shifted elsewhere to other things, such as the extremely unpopular judicial reforms that the Israel 🇮🇱’s new right-wing government under Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to push. And Hamas felt threatened by all of this, and felt that unless something changed, their position would be threatened, and they would be stuck in a precarious situation. So, they decided to do something big, something truly drastic that would completely shatter the status quo, and force the Palestinian issue 🇵🇸 back to the limelight, and would spark a larger regional war that would ultimately put Hamas into a favorable position where they could get what they want.
But, they didn’t really have any grand plans about what the future of Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸 should beyond that. They just thought through the attack itself, and didn’t think about what happens after. And this sort of thing isn’t just limited to Hamas itself, as Hubbard pointed out, Israel 🇮🇱 doesn’t have a grand plan for what should happen to Gaza after the war is over, and Hamas is destroyed or degraded. They don’t have any plans about who should run Gaza after all is said and done.
But, as you can see, none of Hamas’s plans or motives for launching the attack on Israel 🇮🇱 had anything to do with Ukraine 🇺🇦, or Iran 🇮🇷. The only way it connects to Iran 🇮🇷 is that Iran 🇮🇷 has the common goal of wanting to stop the normalization between Israel 🇮🇱 and the Arab world, and by extension, the Muslim world ☪️, which Iran 🇮🇷 wants to be dominant in, especially the Shia Muslim world ☪️. But, Iran 🇮🇷 had nothing to do with the actual planning or preparation or coordinating of the attack, and certainly had no knowledge of it prior to happening.
The fact that this attack happened while the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 is still going on is purely coincidental, and doesn’t suggest any direct correlation between the two. Just because these two conflicts are happening at the same time doesn’t mean they’re actually connected. A lot of pro-Ukrainian channels 🇺🇦 on YouTube try to link the two, and try to make it seem like Russia 🇷🇺 had something to do it, even like just through proxy.
Like they’ll say that Russia 🇷🇺’s behind it because Iran 🇮🇷 was behind it and Russia 🇷🇺 and Iran 🇮🇷 are allies, and Iran 🇮🇷 is helping Russia 🇷🇺 in its war with Ukraine 🇺🇦. So, clearly Russia 🇷🇺 must be helping Iran 🇮🇷 in return by trying to start a regional war in the Middle East, right? And also because Hamas officials apparently went to Moscow, and met with Russian officials 🇷🇺 after the war in Gaza started, and they were all cordial with each other. That’s their logic when it comes to trying to link Ukraine 🇺🇦 to Israel 🇮🇱 and Russia 🇷🇺 to Hamas. Quite flimsy, don't you think?
Look, just because Russia 🇷🇺 met with Hamas, and was all friendly towards them doesn’t mean that they were directly involved in the October 7 attacks. They’re just trying to take advantage of a situation, and exploit it in any way they can. I mean, Russia 🇷🇺 met with the Taliban a few months ago, and they were their enemies during the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 from 2001 to 2021. Russia 🇷🇺 supported the US-backed government 🇺🇸 in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 and didn’t like the Taliban, and the Taliban didn’t like Russia 🇷🇺.
My guess as to why Russia 🇷🇺 decided to meet the Taliban, and were all friendly towards them is that Russia 🇷🇺 was isolated by the West because of their invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦, and were losing friends. So, the only ones they could turn to are these other pariah dictatorships, including Iran 🇮🇷, North Korea 🇰🇵, Syria 🇸🇾, Myanmar 🇲🇲, Eritrea 🇪🇷, and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. And I’m sure they found a new respect for the Taliban after the managed to take over Afghanistan 🇦🇫 so quickly, and overthrow the Western-backed government, and how much they humiliated the US 🇺🇸 and NATO when they withdrew.
The Russians 🇷🇺 also met the Taliban after they ceased control over Afghanistan 🇦🇫, so did the Chinese 🇨🇳. It was mostly just them accepting the new reality, or old reality since the Taliban were already in power before, and had just come back into power, and also wanting to exploit a situation, and undermine the West. But, still, Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳 don’t officially recognize the Taliban’s government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. No country does, it remains an unrecognized government to this day.
So, don’t assume that when Russia 🇷🇺 does things like this, and meets with certain groups or governments that they were involved, or that this is apart of some grand strategy. Russia 🇷🇺 is just being opportunistic, simple as that. They don't have a grand strategy, they never did. I think the reason why so many pro-Ukrainian commentators 🇺🇦 insist on linking Russia 🇷🇺 to the war in Gaza is that they just have this desire to have Russia 🇷🇺 be responsible for every bad thing that’s happening in the world right now. Like, on almost every one of Fink’s videos, on his Silicon Curtain channel, he says that Russia 🇷🇺 opened a Pandora’s box when it invaded Ukraine 🇺🇦, and is the bringer of chaos and death in the world, and the war in Gaza is apart of that.
That to me is an extremely delusional and shortsighted worldview, and is just as wrong as suggesting that the US 🇺🇸 is responsible for every bad thing going on in the world. Like, literally what I just described how Fink thinks Russia 🇷🇺’s invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦 caused all of this chaos and violence in the world including the Hamas attack on Israel 🇮🇱 and the Azerbaijani invasion and annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh 🇦🇿, is just like what a lot of people said about the US 🇺🇸’s invasion of Iraq 🇮🇶.
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They used to say that the US 🇺🇸 opened a Pandora’s box by invading Iraq 🇮🇶, and caused all of these bad things to happen all over the world including the rise of ISIS, the Russo-Georgian War 🇷🇺🇬🇪, the Taliban re-takeover of Afghanistan 🇦🇫, and the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦. The only ones that they really have a point on is the rise of ISIS, and the Taliban retaking Afghanistan 🇦🇫 after 20 years of war and American and NATO occupation 🇺🇸.
The rise of ISIS was a direct consequence of the US 🇺🇸 led invasion and occupation of Iraq 🇮🇶 because ISIS was born from al-Qaeda in Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate that was formed after the invasion. And after it broke away from al-Qaeda and became its own separate organization, ISIS was able to grow in strength and numbers because the post-Saddam government in Iraq 🇮🇶 was a Shia one, and the Shia-led government began mistreating the Sunni minority.
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The flag on the bottom is the Syrian flag 🇸🇾. It was adopted in 1980, and it has two green stars ★ ★ in the middle, which are Ba'athist symbols. Unlike Iraq 🇮🇶, Syria 🇸🇾 still has its Ba'athist regime, with the Assad family at its center. The Assad family has ruled over Syria 🇸🇾 since 1971, when the patriarch of the family, Hafiz al-Assad took power, and then handed power to his second son, Bashar al-Assad, who has ruled the country since 2000, and is the main architect of the still on-going Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾. It was his increasingly violent crackdown on the pro-democracy protests that ultimately kicked off the civil war, and ripped the country apart. Now, Assad only controls a fraction of what he controlled before the war. But, his regime still stands, after the opposition failed to topple it during the war. And staying in power is all that really matters to a dictator like Bashar al-Assad.
It is safe to say that Saddam was planning on doing the same thing with his sons, handing reigns of power to one of them, and letting them lead the country as the next dictator of Iraq 🇮🇶, had he never been removed from power by the Americans 🇺🇸. What separated the Ba'athists in Iraq 🇮🇶 prior to 2003 and the Ba'athists that still hold power in Syria 🇸🇾 is that the Ba'athists in Iraq 🇮🇶 were predominately Sunnis and the Ba'athists in Syria 🇸🇾 are Shia. That's why Iran 🇮🇷 came to the Syrian Arab Republic 🇸🇾's defense during the civil war, and they were so determined to keep the Assad regime in power, which they and the Russians 🇷🇺 ultimately succeeded at.
*Update Sunday July 13, 2025* This is no longer the flag of Syria 🇸🇾. As you can tell from the flag emojis, the flag of Syria 🇸🇾 has changed, and that’s because the Assad regime no longer exists. It was successfully toppled in December 2024 by a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist group ☪️, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS for short, and now there’s a new government in Syria 🇸🇾, the Syrian transitional government 🇸🇾, which still retains the name, Syrian Arab Republic 🇸🇾 from the previous government controlled by the Assad family, much to the dismay of all the non-Arab, non-Sunni, and even non-Muslim ☪️ ethnic and religious groups in the country.
They wanted the name of the country to be changed to the Syrian Republic 🇸🇾, in fact, that was part of the deal that Ahmed al-Sharaa made with the Kurds in northern Syria 🇸🇾, that they’d only join the new Syria 🇸🇾 if the name of country was changed to just the Syrian Republic 🇸🇾, and if there were provisions within the new constitution that granted the Kurds equal rights and more autonomy than what the Assad regime allowed. Al-Sharaa granted none of this, and thus, the Kurds have not agreed to join the new Syria 🇸🇾. Syria 🇸🇾 is still not a unified country, it’s still a fractured country, and there are signs that there is still trouble ahead for this war torn country on the Levant. The Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 hasn’t technically ended yet, it’s still going on, it’s just entered a new phase and one of the major belligerents has been taken off the map. But for how much longer? Only time will tell. At least Assad isn’t in power anymore.
He fled to Moscow as soon as HTS and the other rebel groups took control of Damascus, a fate he shared with Ukraine 🇺🇦’s pre-Maidan president, Viktor Yanukovych, meaning the Russians 🇷🇺 and Iranians 🇮🇷 don’t get what they want, and anytime they lose or fail is good day for all of us. All of us who care about freedom and democracy that is, even if this new Syrian government 🇸🇾 isn’t exactly shaping up to be a democracy. The reason why the Russians 🇷🇺 and the Iranians 🇮🇷 weren’t able to save Assad and prevent his government from being toppled is that they were both distracted by other matters. Russia 🇷🇺 was distracted by the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Iran 🇮🇷 was distracted by the war in Gaza and the escalating tensions with Israel 🇮🇱, which has boiled over into a couple of missile exchanges between the two countries over the past several months, almost going on for a whole year, with Israel 🇮🇱 most recently conducting airstrikes against Iran 🇮🇷, and Iran 🇮🇷 launching missiles at Israel 🇮🇱 in return.
The US 🇺🇸 even got involved, conducting airstrikes of its own against what they claimed to be one of Iran 🇮🇷’s nuclear sites ☢️, though they didn’t really succeed in destroying the site, and they only managed to set Iran 🇮🇷’s nuclear program ☢️ back by a few months. It’s the Trump administration, so you can expect failure and exaggeration to cover up failure 😒. Not only that, but one of Iran 🇮🇷’s proxies, Hezbollah was severely crippled in a series of attacks conducted by Israel 🇮🇱 and even an invasion of southern Lebanon 🇱🇧 by Israel 🇮🇱 in 2024 to severally weaken the organization, which they succeeded at. So, Assad was left all alone, no allies to protect him, and thus his government was toppled by the very rebels that he needed Russia 🇷🇺 and Iran 🇮🇷’s help to stave off in the first place, showing just brittle the Assad regime really was, and how vulnerable it was without Russia 🇷🇺 or Iran 🇮🇷 propping it up.)
Plus, the government was pretty weak and wobbly without the Americans 🇺🇸 there to prop it up, and the Iraqi president 🇮🇶, Nouri al-Maliki purged all of the Iraqi military 🇮🇶's best generals simply because they were Sunni. With a somewhat wobbly and unpopular government and a weak military, Iraq 🇮🇶 was ripe for the picking for ISIS, which had already swept through Syria 🇸🇾, which was going through a civil war at this point; a civil war that's still on-going to this day. They had taken swaths of territory there, and had declared the city, Raqqa as the capital of their self-declared caliphate. The US 🇺🇸 and NATO lost the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 partially because we let ourselves be distracted by the Iraq War 🇮🇶.
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We lost Afghanistan 🇦🇫 because Bush decided to start another war, open another front in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), and also finish the job that his father started in 1991 with the Gulf War; and he used the flimsiest justification to do it. Iraq 🇮🇶 was an unnecessary war that diverted attention, men ♂︎, women ♀︎, and resources away from Afghanistan 🇦🇫, which was a necessary war and a just war. Had we never invaded and occupied Iraq 🇮🇶, we would've had a better a chance at succeeding in Afghanistan 🇦🇫. Of course, Iraq 🇮🇶 wasn't the only reason why the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 failed, but it was a huge contributing factor. It was dumb then when it was said about the US 🇺🇸, and it’s dumb now when it’s said about Russia 🇷🇺.
The world doesn’t revolve around the United States 🇺🇸, nor does it revolve around the Russian Federation 🇷🇺, and things can happen independently from anything either of those two countries do, or don’t do, including bad things, especially bad things. This is one of the reasons why I think the pro-Ukrainian community 🇺🇦 has become just as clownish 🤡 as the pro-Russian community 🇷🇺.
I don’t really watch pro-Ukrainian channels 🇺🇦 anymore, at least not any of the big ones. Every once in a while I’ll pop in, and watch one of their videos, but if they say something really stupid, then I just click away. I’ve become a lot more selective about which geopolitical and foreign policy content I watch on YouTube, especially as it pertains to Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Gaza. I guess YouTube just has a tendency to just produce the stupidest versions of everything. But yeah, this was a pretty good video on Hamas, and I do over people should watch it to have a better understanding of this organization, and what their intentions were.
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Link to The Daily podcast episode on Hamas:
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