“Al-Aqsa Flood” elects...

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

Who will vote for the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack launched by Hamas three years ago that targeted Israeli settlements in an area called the Gaza envelope? The political blockage that the region is witnessing these days at every level is the result of the “Al-Aqsa Flood,” but rather the result of years of investment in extremism, violence, and terrorism in which several parties came together.

Extremism brought together the Israeli right... and Iran, through the tools of the “Islamic Republic” in the region, including “Hamas” and “Hezbollah.” The previous Syrian regime was not far from these parties. The Syrian regime was an honorary member of the “Resistance Front” led by Tehran after ensuring long years of calm and stability on the occupied Golan front since the 1967 war.

Against this background, Israel enters the day of the general elections under several headlines, including the question: Is there a new political life for Benjamin Netanyahu, after these elections over which the shadow of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” looms? The same question arises given that the man who has held the position of prime minister for many years is a candidate to appear before the judiciary if he is no longer prime minister.

Regardless of Bibi's political future, which is difficult to find an Israeli politician who supports him, we find before us in the coming days the first Israeli elections of their kind. The Israeli elections on October 27, 2026 can be considered an election of a different kind in light of the great change that has occurred in an entire society. This society now places safe borders at the top of its priorities. These are the elections after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and its repercussions.

Safe borders have become an Israeli priority, with or without Netanyahu. Gadi Eisenkot, who has a chance to be the new prime minister, will not be less extremist than Bibi, nor will Naftali Bennett, who was previously prime minister.

Secure borders, with the consolidation of the occupation in Syria and Lebanon and more settlement in the West Bank, have replaced the search for a political settlement. There is no longer an Israeli political project that leads to a reasonable and acceptable peace in the region, a project that serves stability. Several factors played their role in arriving at the current situation. It is no longer possible to ignore that the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023 eliminated, at least in the foreseeable future, all hope for any real internal change in Israel itself.

The “Al-Aqsa Flood” was the culmination of an investment in violence in which all parties working to maintain a state of neither war nor peace in the Middle East came together. These parties worked under one title bearing the names of extremism, violence, and terrorism. There was a front that rejected peace and succeeded in taking the region to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and to radical change in Israel, a change that occurred in stages. The Israeli right participated in supporting this front. What must be remembered in this regard is that the first terrorist operation targeting the Oslo Accords was in Hebron.

On February 25, 1994, an American-Israeli terrorist named Barosh Goldstein opened fire on worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. 29 Palestinians were killed and 125 wounded. The Hebron massacre came at a time when Hamas was carrying out suicide operations in Jerusalem and other than Jerusalem. In 1994, Hamas targeted a passenger bus on Dizengoff Street in West Jerusalem. Several other operations were carried out, all aimed at serving extremism inside Israel. For example, it killed two teenagers in a nightclub in Tel Aviv in 2001. During that period, Hamas transferred terrorism into Israel in order to confirm that the Oslo Accords had no life. The Israeli right did not hesitate to support Hamas. This right-wing murdered Yitzhak Rabin, in order to kill Oslo in November 1995.

Iran has never been far from Hamas. It supported everything that would undermine the peace process and the Palestinian national project... until Hamas took control of Gaza in mid-2007.

The “Al-Aqsa Flood” crowned the victory of the Israeli right, led by Benjamin Netanyahu. This confirms the absence of any talk about a Palestinian state by any party participating in the Israeli elections. Moreover, there is no change on the horizon in Israel whether Bibi remains prime minister or not. No Israeli politician dares to say that he is ready to cooperate with any group of Arab representatives expected to reach the Knesset. This includes Mansour Abbas, who leads the “Unified Arab List,” which will have a role to play in determining the size of the majority that will allow the formation of a government in the post-election period.

Abbas refuses to submit to the Israeli fait accompli. He included a Jew named Yoav Segalovich, who was a senior police official, on his list, in order to confirm his rejection of the marginalization of the Arab voice in the Knesset. Mansour Abbas could become the “kingmaker” in Israel, as the New York Times put it, and get rid of Bibi and bring his replacement to the position of prime minister.

The importance of Mansour Abbas lies in his focus on protecting the Arab citizens of Israel and their security. Arabs constitute twenty percent of the population. He knows before anyone else that there is no Israeli desire for peace and that the Palestinian state has become a bogeyman. Israelis are united by their rejection of this state. “Resistance” succeeded in changing the nature of Israel itself. But the irony is that Mansour Abbas, the Arab-Israeli, can decide Netanyahu’s fate. It is a matter of a few days after which the results of the first Israeli elections in the period after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” will appear, which not only changed the nature of Israel, but also changed the entire region...