October 7th

by Eduardo del Buey

October 7^th

This date will likely become this generation’s 9/11.

The global tectonic shifts produced go far beyond a vicious terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and the holding and outright murder of hostages.

A multi-level geopolitical chess game is at play, and its ramifications are global.

And the world is deeply divided into two camps, with no sign of abating.

The first level concerns Hamas, Israel, and Hezbollah.

On October 7^th, both Hamas and Hezbollah broke their ceasefire with Israel with the horrific massacre and hostage taking in Gaza, and the bombardment of citizens in northern Israel by thousands of missiles from Lebanon.

This crisis continues to this day, nearly a year later.

Israel’s response to the Gaza attack was understandable, overwhelming and it addressed the existential threat to Israel and Israelis by the stated goals of Hamas and Hezbollah – to wipe Israel and all Jews off the face of the earth.

Israel has concluded that there is no trusting either terrorist group to respect any ceasefire or peace agreement and has acted accordingly.

Many are calling for a negotiated ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist groups. Both Hamas and Hezbollah proved on October 7^th that they have no respect for ceasefires. Can the world expect Israel to negotiate with both groups as though they were legitimate state governments, respectful of international commitments, and put its faith in any such agreement?

The Netanyahu government has proven immune to international pressure and will likely now pursue a strategy of destroying Hezbollah.

With the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of the organization’s senior management, the Lebanese now have an opportunity to return Lebanon to its former status as a majority Maronite Christian state as it was in 1970 before Hezbollah became a major political and military force.

A second level concerns Iran.

Iran has funded Hamas and Hezbollah fully, training its terrorists and supplying them with missiles, drones, weapons, and intelligence with which to manage their activities. In fact, Hezbollah is believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world!

Attacks on Israel by Iran’s proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, continue apace, as does Iran’s support for the butcher of Damascus Bashir al Assad.

Iran’s objective is to encircle Israel and eliminate it from the region.

Iran is also funding the massive protests at universities across the West, creating a new wave of antisemitism unseen since the second world war.

Students across North America and Western Europe have occupied universities and mounted massive street protests in support of Hamas and Hezbollah, making life very difficult for Jews and Jewish institutions.

University officials have been reluctant to act against antisemitism on their campuses, giving the appearance of supporting terrorism as a default position.

Their unwillingness to take strong measures on their campuses has resulted in the demise of the reputations of once great institutions like Columbia, UPenn, and others. Many are funded by Qatar, an Iranian ally, and are reluctant to see this financial tap turned off.

Iran is also closer to producing nuclear weapons due to the inability of Western powers to take decisive action and the strategic mistake of the Biden administration to unfreeze billions of dollars of Iranian assets since used to fund the Islamic regime’s terror activities.

A third level is the mainstream media’s reactions that appear to side with Islamists as they pile on false reports of Israeli actions and whitewash the activities of terrorist groups which they insist on calling “activists”.

Hyperbole on both sides of this divide is not being balanced by objective reporting. Mainstream media have become opinion makers rather than sources of factual reporting, leaving the public deprived of the information they need to take decisions on major issues.

What’s more, the mainstream media have given full credibility to information provided by Hamas and has not printed retractions when such information has been proven to be false.

They prefer headlines to the truth.

A fourth level is the demise of international institutions in the public eye. The United Nations Secretary-General, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, and others have always demonstrated an anti-Israel bias in this conflict. Indeed, UNRWA has been complicit in the October 7^th attack and in fomenting antisemitism in Gaza through its activities and many of its officers who are members of Hamas.

Indeed, both UNRWA in Gaza and UNIFIL (the UN force in Lebanon tasked with keeping Hezbollah unarmed and away from the border area with Israel) have proven that the UN is not only inept but also actually intent on casting its lot in support of the objectives of both terrorist groups and Iran.

In a further ridiculous move, the United Nations is demanding legal immunity from prosecution for UNRWA officials directly involved in the October 7^th terrorist attack on Israel! The United Nations accepts that its employees were involved and now seeks an escape route.

And a fifth level of change has been the power of Islamist fifth columnists in Western countries to drive the narrative of the current conflict.

Tens of thousands in the streets of Western cities – most of them non-Muslims – demonstrate weekly, call for jihad, intifada, sharia law, and for Iran to come to “liberate” them.

Political leaders appear wearing keffiyehs to show their support, and Islamist candidates and their supporters running for office and often winning call for the destruction of democratic institutions and for global Islamization.

Some leaders are finally starting to wake up to the threats posed in this post October 7^th world.

However, most remain focused on battling “Islamophobia” rather than in managing the dangers posed by global radical Islam.

This is the legacy pf October 7^th.

This tectonic global shift must be met with a tectonic response if Western society is to survive.

Immigration processes must be changed to ensure that potential immigrants are willing and able to adopt the values of local societies.

Radical centers of radical Islamic activities must be closed, and their imams and supporters deported as dangers to national security.

Foreign funding of radical groups must be stopped and political leaders who support radical ideologies must be outed.

Governments must foment dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims on the basis that Muslims in their countries will accept western values and commit to following them. Absent this, they should remain in countries that follow sharia and meet their religious desires.

No society can survive without basic values to which all adhere.

Leaders must enforce laws equally and not allow demonstrators to flaunt them publicly with no consequence as is happening on the streets of many of our cities today.

Finally, educational systems must focus on truthful depiction of history and teach children from a very young age to respect their society’s values and the rights of all to live in peace and in full respect for laws and values.

This will be a difficult goal to achieve.

It has gone far beyond a struggle by Israel and the Palestinians for survival.

It has become a major security challenge for the West: to fight radical Islamism when it has such a powerful toehold in Western society

We cannot simply dream these challenges away.

This reality leads me to conclude that, absent these changes, we will continue to observe a deterioration of Western values and security interests at the hands or radical Islam and all that this implies.

This is the legacy of October 7^th.