Has Hamas Given Israel the Long-Sought Pretext to Justify its Hegemony?

posted on: Sep 10, 2025

By: Ghassan Rubeiz / Arab America Contributing Writer

For Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, there are still too many Palestinians between the “River and the Sea”. Has the October 7 attack handed Israel the demographic solution it has been seeking for decades?

As Israel launches its latest assault on Gaza city, ordering new evacuations of hundreds of thousands while seeking US permission to annex the West Bank, negotiations to end the war continue but regional tension is on the rise. Washington has given its qualified support to the annexation, but only after the UN General Assembly prepares to recognize a Palestinian state. The United Arab Emirates has warned that annexing the West Bank would undermine regional integration and the Abraham Accords.

One wonders who empowers Israel to fly so close to the sun, as it were: expecting “total victory” in Gaza, displacing its people and starving them, and annexing the West Bank. Without support from America and the cooptation of oil-rich Arab leaders, it’s impossible to imagine Israel taking such an aggressive stance towards its neighbors and posturing as the maker of a new Middle East.

For decades, Israel has seized Palestinian land and displaced Palestinians, oblivious to international law. Since 1967, it has sustained the occupation through the building of Jewish settlements, mostly in the West Bank. Over ten percent of the Jewish Israeli population now live in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem.

Israel has managed to seal off almost every conceivable threat except the following two inconvenient realities: Palestinian demography and their bond with their land, their territoriality – in Arabic, ṣumūd (صمود). Palestinians have large families and an abiding attachment to their ancestral lands. Seventy-seven years of land grabs and displacement have failed to turn them into a minority. Within Israeli-controlled territory, Jews and Palestinians are about equal in number: there are roughly 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Logically, the common ground is coexistence, not denial. It is simple.

Failing to marginalize Palestinians demographically has led Israel to squeeze them politically and legally. Israel has created an apartheid regime step by step, by making life more and more difficult for Palestinians and ignoring the consequences. It is hard to think of solutions, with attitudes hardening. Binational coexistence remains unimaginable for the Jewish community. But what alternative exists? Permanent occupation is equally unacceptable for Palestinians. Israel has ruled out both the one-state and two-state solutions. The basic problem? Palestinians no longer have the right to live in their ancestral homeland.

If attitudes prevent rational solutions, wishful thinking begins to take over. For decades, Israel has sought to end coexistence with a sizable Palestinian population, waiting for a chance to break the deadlock. The “miracle” came unexpectedly. It was Hamas who may have handed Israel its long-sought opportunity. Netanyahu saw the gruesome October 7 attacks on Jewish border communities as the chance of a lifetime to end the demographic stalemate between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. Hamas’ inhuman hostage-taking gave Israel an excuse to program Gaza’s destruction, making it unlivable and ungovernable.

The long-term captivity of the Israeli hostages has given Netanyahu cover to make ethnic cleansing seem like the more humane option: a solution of last resort. The extended agony of the hostages has emboldened Israel to claim that Palestinians don’t qualify as a nation, don’t deserve statehood, and are not fit neighbors.

Looking for hope? Three sources of power could influence Israel’s ultra-conservative, trapped government: the American Jewish community, the Trump administration, and the Arab Gulf States. But with all three, there is a catch. Trump depends heavily on Evangelical Christian support, which weakens his ability to pressure Israel. Jewish Americans remain divided over Gaza: most dislike Netanyahu, but many regrettably see the current situation as the least of several evils. That leaves the Gulf Arabs, who are too dependent on American economic and political security to challenge either Washington or Tel Aviv.

The prospects for the near future are grim: peace and justice have few champions left. Nonetheless, we can still hope and pray for the emergence of new leaders with rational ideas for coexistence. It is time for Netanyahu and Abbas to step aside.

Ghassan Rubeiz is the former Middle East Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Earlier, he taught psychology and social work in his country of birth, Lebanon, and later in the United States, where he currently lives. He has contributed to political commentary for the past twenty years and delivered occasional public talks on peace, justice, and interfaith subjects. You can reach him at rubeizg@gmail.com

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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