Unprecedented: Regional superpower caught with pants down by “ragtag” freedom fighters

On the second day of Hamas’ “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, your editor received a WhatsApp text message from a friend who in turn received it from his friend, stating that the current conflagration in Gaza was an Israeli false flag.
“When the inside job agents destroyed the twin towers in 911, it gave the US the justification to invade Afghanistan and parts of the Middle East.
“You see a pattern here in the latest attack on Israel i.e. justification to start a war against Hamas and to wipe out the Palestinians,” the text message said.
On the surface it looks very convincing this theory of an Israeli false flag.
Notwithstanding that Israel is the superpower of the region, it is proven that they are impotence when it comes to wiping out the Palestinians for otherwise this conflict would not have dragged on for more than 70 years.
Hence it is a proven fact that despite its mighty armed forces, Israel ALONE cannot “wipeout” (coincidentally the name of an insecticide popular here in Malaysia) the Palestinians.
It can only do so with the assistance of its patrons – the US and the collective west.
So the best that Israel can do is to create a false flag depicted in the text message above.
And events in the next 48 hours of Op Al-Aqsa are prescient in terms of the response of the US and the collective west in that all are condemning the Hamas resistance movement for this conflagration, and coming to the fore to assist Israel with some announcing a review of aids given to the Palestinians.
“The US unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel …Israel has a right to defend itself and its people,” said US president Joe Biden.
“The UK unequivocally condemns the horrific attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The UK will always support Israel’s right to defend itself,” said the “clever” UK foreign secretary James Cleverly.
French president Emmanuel Macron said: “I strongly condemn the terrorist attacks which are currently hitting Israel. I express my full solidarity with the victims, and their families and those close to them.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Terrifying news reaches us today from #Israel. We are deeply shocked by the rocket fire from Gaza and the escalating violence. Germany condemns these attacks by Hamas and stands by Israel.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) condemned “terrorist attacks by Hamas against Nato partner Israel … Israel has the right to defend itself,” a spokesman for the defence alliance said.
Notice the similarity in all the statements of the US and EU leaders as if they have a common Zionist statement writer writing for all.
Of course Israel have the right to defend itself. No one including Hamas will ever dispute this.
But what about the right of the Hamas group of freedom fighters to defend themselves?
From all these statements we can see that suddenly Biden, Macron, Scholz and Cleverly seem to be suffering from dementia. They have forgotten how worshippers in the Al-Aqsa mosque were beaten and shot to death including women worshippers by the Israeli security forces.
The sanctity of the mosque is also desecrated oftentimes when Israeli security forces barge in, sometime destroying the entrance doors of the mosque and thrown in grenades.
This was followed by asking worshippers who are in the midst of their prayers to stop praying and go out, and discarded them like rag dolls if they refused to stop praying.
All these go on year-on-year just like GDP figures announced by their economic ministers especially during the month of Ramadan (sometimes as Ramadan approaches, sometimes during early Ramadan, and at other times during end Ramadan).
Compare this pathetic US and the collective west’s response to that of the stateman-like response from China and Russia. Beijing said it was “deeply concerned” by the weekend’s dramatic escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging all sides to show “calm”.
“China is deeply concerned about the current escalation of tension and violence between Palestine and Israel,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said, adding it “calls on all parties concerned to remain calm and exercise restraint, cease fire immediately, protect civilians and prevent further deterioration of the situation”.
Russia said it is in contact with Israel, the Palestinians and Arab countries in connection with the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said. “It goes without saying that we always call for restraint,” he added.
This kind of stateman-like response is the reason why China and Russia will always have social capital with countries in the Middle East and the Global South, making it easier for them to be peace makers.
It is important to note that the anti-Hamas narrative in the statement of the leaders of the collective west reflects their government stance, and not the people of the collective west.
There seems to be a disconnect between the government and the people there judging by the strong support for Hamas during pro-Palestinian protests in these western countries each time Israel attacked Palestinians.

This is because the atrocities and barbaric acts of the Israeli security forces on unarmed Palestinian civilians, worshippers and children, even the handicaps are well-documented for a number of years in this era of the social media.
The citizens of the collective west can see for themselves how their governments have fallen on deaf ears and blind eyes to these atrocities seen in the social media.
The collective west’s response to the Hamas’ incursion inside Israel is akin to its response in the Ukraine war where it perceives democracy (the liberal one of course!) as represented by both Israel and Ukraine is under threat.
Israel as a democracy! So much for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on democracy via attacking the country’s judiciary just to prevent himself from going to jail and losing the coveted PM post because of his corruption scandals.
And the US’ response by sending warship and ensuring Israel has enough ammunition is just like its response to Russia in the Ukraine war.
The US is perversely acting as if Hamas is a superpower like Russia and bent on destroying Israel – a regional superpower which seems to be hopeless to defend all by itself against the “might” of the Hamas that it needs another superpower i.e. the US to assist it.
Could the US and the collective west’s response to the current conflagration in the Middle East a form of distraction and diversion that they are losing in the Ukraine war and are leaving Ukraine helpless to defend itself alone to face the might of a real superpower i.e. Russia?
For the US, this interference in the Middle East could also be seen as an attempt to prove wrong the observation among many geopolitical analysts that its influence is sagging in the region.
Now let’s come back again to the WhatsApp text message on false flag. The basis for this message actually comes from a viral twit in X (formerly known as Twitter) by a handle with the name of “Shadow of Ezra”.
He or she twitted: “Here is your confirmation that the events taking place in Israel are a false flag. How stupid can you be to believe that Hamas has the ability to invade Israel by land, air and sea? What happened to the Iron Dome?
“Israel is one of the most protected and well-funded nations in the world. There is no chance that cavemen invaded them by land, air and sea. They either let it happen or they made it happen.”

Very intriguing indeed! Could have well been an Israeli false flag too that clearly had contempt for the Hamas freedom fighters!
Israel would never conceive a false flag operation based on the deaths of many of its soldiers including some high-ranking officers as happened in Op Al-Aqsa Flood.

If we read media reports on what happened during the early hours of Op Al-Aqsa Flood, we can already see the “crude” sophistication of Hamas’ tactics and strategies in this unprecedented attack.
The “refined” account of the sophistication though, is ironically given by an Israeli journalist, Emanuel Fabian, working for the Times of Israel.
Fabian worked diligently to compile video clips released by Hamas on how the resistance group invaded southern Israel on Oct 8 and carried out its vast attack, killing some 500 civilians and soldiers, and kidnapping dozens more to the Gaza Strip.
Firstly the operation started at about 6am local time when almost everybody in Israel was like in a deep “comatose” sleep especially its military.
During this state of Israel’s slumber, Hamas bombed Israeli observation towers and weapons systems on the border using drones (see Fabian status on X)
So the first salvo by Hamas on that day was not launching a barrage of rockets as reported by the global mainstream media. That came later in quick succession of course, after the bombing of Israeli observation towers and weapons systems.
Fabian’s footage shows drones dropping explosive devices onto Israeli sites on the Gaza border. There was no response from Israel as obviously when one is in a state of deep slumber, there seems to be inertia in reflex actions and communications.
The timing is also reminiscent of the early hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on the eve of the entry of US in World War II, when the US military was also in a state of deep slumber.
Next, Hamas fired thousands of rockets (5,000 according to Hamas, 2,000 plus according to Israel) at southern and central Israel, as Hamas troops on paragliders flew over the border.
If Shadow of Ezra in his or her tweet is wondering what happened to the Iron Dome counter battery, the answer could perhaps be the continuous barrage of 5,000 rockets in one go had “paralysed” the AI system in the Iron Dome.
This blitzkrieg shock and awe bombardment of rockets which is akin to the shock and awe bombing of Baghdad unleashed by the US on Iraq in the 2003 Gulf war has the effect of a trauma on the Iron Dome’s AI when it was so overwhelmed that it didn’t know which rockets and rocket launchers from the direction of Gaza it had to intercept and destroy.
The “elegant” entry of the first few Hamas fighters via paragliding ala James Bond/Rambo Hollywood movies must surely caught the attention, awe and respect of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, considering that he hailed from the entertainment industry, and his army is unable to perform such a feat in the Ukraine war.
This elegant entry in a war has fired the imagination of many netizens that many versions of an artist impression of it went viral in the social media (see pictures Paragliding troops).

Moments later, Hamas approached the border fence, blew up holes in it using large explosive devices, and allowed hundreds of its foot soldiers to infiltrate into Israel, many of them in trucks and motorcycles.
They then attacked Israeli army posts along the border, and nearby communities.
Such a feat by a non-professional ragtag resistance force is a touch of class and unprecedented. We have yet to see the professional armies of Israel, US, UK and France performing such a feat.
Hamas also attempted to infiltrate via the sea, but Israel Navy forces repelled the attack, claiming it killed dozens of them.
By early afternoon on that fateful day, Israel was still having difficulty in ensuring the situation is fully under control, and grandpa Joe Biden was very concerned about this.
Israel tries to widen the conflict by insinuating on Hezbollah’s complicity in Op Al-Aqsa Flood early on in the conflict.
However just like the Israelis, the Hezbollahs were also caught off-guard, but unlike the Israelis, with their pants on.
Just like everyone else in the world, the Hezbollahs knew of this attack at 7:50am – about two hours after Op Al-Aqsa began – when the general commander of the Hamas military wing, Muhammed al-Deif, released a recorded statement declaring the start of Op Al-Aqsa Flood.
“We also announce that the first attack that targeted the enemy’s locations and military fortifications and airports during the first 20 minutes exceeded 5,000 rockets and shells,” the statement said.
Al-Deif’s also said the operation was a response to Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners and the continued attacks and violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which have seen an increase in recent days as large numbers of Israeli settlers raided the compound during the Jewish holiday season.
“The occupation forces invade our towns in the West Bank every day, they storm people’s homes while they’re safe, they kill, wound, demolish, and detain Palestinians.
“Hundreds of Palestinians were killed and injured this year. At the same time, the occupation replaced our people and took their land by force to build settlements,” he said, adding that “the criminal Israeli siege is ongoing in Gaza”.
“Amid all the Israeli crimes and violations, and their violation of international laws, with the full support of the US and the western countries accompanied by international silence, we have decided to put a halt to this state of affairs. The enemy must understand that the time of carrying out violations with impunity is over,” the statement said.
He also called for a comprehensive war against Israel, not only from Palestine but from all the regional resistance, including Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen.
“Today, the anger of al-Aqsa, the anger of the people, and the anger of all free peoples in the world, will explode. This is our day to make the enemy understand that its time is done,” added Al-Deif.

The Hezbollah heard this in the morning but because they were caught off-guard they can only offer moral support to the Hamas, and would convene a meeting soon to discuss on whether they should get involved or not.
The meeting must have said yes to involvement when in the late afternoon, Hezbollah began shelling at Israeli positions in the disputed Mount Dov area along the border with Lebanon.
A UN peacekeeping force, Unifil deployed along Lebanon’s southern border calls for “everyone to exercise restraint” and make use of the force’s “liaison and coordination mechanisms to de-escalate” and prevent a fast deterioration of the security situation.
It said it had detected several rockets fired from southeast Lebanon toward “Israeli-occupied territory,” followed by artillery fire from Israel toward Lebanon.
This is so unnerving to grandpa Joe and so, the next day he announced the US will be sending warship and ensuring Israel has enough ammunition.
Your editor is quite puzzled about sending ammunition to Israel because in past conflict the US will just send a warship to the region.
Then it dawns on your editor that some months back the US had requested the Israelis to send some surplus ammunition to Ukraine as the latter is in acute shortage of ammos.
The response from Israel then was it will do so in the fashion of the South Korean model where the ammunition will first be send to the US as a loan, and from there it will be delivered to Ukraine.
Israel also demanded that when its ammos is near depletion, the US must return the ammos to Israel.
This roundabout way of sending ammos has the advantage of telling Russia that South Korea and Israel did not send ammos to Ukraine, it’s the US who did so.
So when grandpa Joe send ammos to Israel that could also mean the Israeli ammos that is in US possession has not been send to Ukraine!
No wonder the Ukrainian counter-offensive in June against Russia was a dismal failure.
What’s more unnerving for the US is Al-Deif’s statement which also called for Palestinians in the West Bank to fight the Israelis and attack the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land while asserting elderly people and children should not be harmed in accordance with God’s will.
“Today is your day to sweep the occupier and his settlements from all of our lands in the West Bank. Organize your attacks on the settlements with all the possible tools at your disposal…today, for anyone who has a gun, it is now time to use it. Those who do not have guns, use knives, cleavers, axes, Molotovs. Use your cars, trucks, or bulldozers.
“Today, the purest and honourable page of history is being written,” the statement continued. “Put down your names and families’ names on the page of glory. Those who can’t actually join the field can join by protesting and showing support.”
So in the days ahead Israel may face an intense war on three fronts – Hamas in Gaza, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Read more on the Hamas’ incursion in Israel and the Israel-Palestine conflict:

Regards,

Jamari Mohtar

Editor, Let’s Talk!

P.S: Read our op-eds published by several news portals about Nagorno-Karabakh, Brics-11, the sanctions war imposed on Russia and the Black Sea Grain Initiative:

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/464613

https://medium.com/@letstalkcmy/nagorno-karabakh-war-games-on-a-chessboard-turned-real-cd8df5e4435a

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/462551

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/452383

https://www.thesundaily.my/local/black-sea-grain-initiative-hits-a-snag-BH11259448

https://www.businesstoday.com.my/2023/07/14/the-global-whammy-of-rising-food-inflation/

https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/672259

https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2023/09/949912/russia-has-already-won-sanctions-war