Commemorating the October 7 Massacre
Commemorating the October 7 Massacre
And the Case for Palestinian Statehood as part of Ordering the Global Disorder
Some acts of evil are too grotesque and too eternally fresh to name.
The October 7th Massacre feels that way to me and I am happy that the press have not given it a catchy name. For me it will always be ‘The October 7’. I feel similarly about ‘the 9/11’, which is why I always refer to it with the definite article (stressing its singularity and definitiveness) and never call it the World Trade Center Attacks or ‘the 9/11 suicide plane hijackings’, as the 9/11 was all of those things but it was so much more. I am also thankful that the ensuing post-October 7th wars have not been given overly simplistic names and titles — I don’t even think the term Israel-Hamas or Israel-Gaza war has stuck much either…. these events remain unnameable and I even doubt historians will come up with names for them other then ‘The Oct 7 massacre’ and the post-Oct 7 wars. There is so much moral complexity and context needed to form judgments on what has happened and is happening and some of the horror is just so unthinkable and un-contextualizable that one can never come to grips with it.
And yet, I am in the commentariat and I have a podcast about global order/disorder, so it is nominally my job to try to contextualize the un-contextualizable and come to grips with that which you cannot comes to grips with: namely in this case the horrors of the October 7th massacre and the ensuing humanitarian and strategic catastrophes in Gaza, Lebanon, and the outbreak of a pandemic of global anti-semitism and anti-Zionism. As such, I wanted to be joined by a close friend with different opinions and different political persuasions on my pod to break down the vast complexities and also get into the root causes of the conflict and what possible solutions can be. We always need to try to Order the Disorder no matter how hard… and I would argue it is impossible to Order the Disorder on Climate Change and Tax Havens and Ukraine so long as the Israel-Palestine conflict persists and hence a Palestinian State and full international security guarantees for Israel are the only option.
So I hope you can join me on a two part audio journey with Sir Vincent Fean and I which last about an hour and a half and you can listen to here (the first ep has dropped today Oct 7 and the second part drops tomorrow Oct 8).
But how did we get to where we are now?
A year ago today, the Middle East and the world changed forever. Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians broke through the Gaza border fence into Israel and began massacring over a thousand Israelis and taking hundreds of hostages. A few weeks later, Israel began an aerial bombardment campaign and ground occupation of Gaza that has caused tens of thousands of casualties, leveled most of Gaza’s buildings, and seems to have no end in sight. To support Hamas, Hizbollah began firing missiles into Northern Israel from southern Lebanon, even before the Israeli incursion in Gaza began. This has recently led to Israeli decapitation strikes against Hizbollah’s leadership and an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon.
To mark the sober anniversary of October 7, Jason Pack is joined by Sir Vincent Fean. Over the course of a long and distinguished diplomatic career, Sir Vincent was British Consul General in Jerusalem – which is essentially Britain’s Ambassador to the Palestinians. Currently, Sir Vincent urges the British government to recognise a Palestinian state via his role as trustee and former Chairman of The Balfour Project, an NGO.
In this first part of a two-part episode, Jason and Sir Vincent seek to shine light on a few interrelated topics: firstly to provide an overview of the last year of tragedy, violence, and death in the Middle East; to unpick Israeli military strategy or lack thereof, to contextualize the vast humanitarian suffering of Gazan and West Bank Palestinians; to situate the Oct 7 attacks in the long continuum of Jewish persecution; and examine the re-emergence of previously dormant forms of conspiratorial antisemitism around the world.
Part II of the discussion btw Jason and Sir Vincent drops tomorrow and tackles:
the current state of Palestinian political institutions, the Palestinian question on the international diplomatic stage; international legal rulings against Israel’s occupation; Britain’s historic role in the Palestine question and its ensuing responsibilities to the Palestinians; the actions of Sir Keir’s government to bring about Palestinian statehood; and the longer term implications of the current conflict for the future of the Middle East and the world.
For Some Background on Oct 7, the ICC, the UNRWA scandal, Hamas’s leadership, the Balfour Project, and the Palestinian economy check out these links
A quick factual overview from Deutsche Welle on the October 7th attacks and the ensuing year of violence: https://www.dw.com/en/october-7-hamas-attacks-on-israel-a-year-later/a-70399696#:~:text=On%20October%207,%202023,%20Hamas,%20the%20Palestinian%20militant
A more detailed strategic look at what happened on October 7th: https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamas-october-7-attack-tactics-targets-and-strategy-terrorists#:~:text=Hamas%20fighters%20killed%20an%20estimated%201,400%20Israelis,%20largely
On the Nova Massacre and Oct 7th videos: https://time.com/6565186/october-7-hamas-attack-footage-film/
Listen back to ep on ICC Verdict: Ep24. What does South Africa stand to gain from accusing Israel of Genocide in Gaza? https://pod.link/1706818264/episode/7a0930e7d9052f19cd7072d72214edfb
UNRWA Imperiled by Terrorism Charges: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/world/middleeast/unrwa-israel-gaza-terrorism.html
On Bibi, Hizbollah, Yahya Sinwar and Hamas’ attempts to truly destroy Israel:
On the impact of recognising a Palestinian state: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn44j1njggjo
For more on the Balfour Project:
https://balfourproject.org/#:~:text=-%20Balfour%20Project.%20Peace%20with%20justice,%20security%20andOn the economic impacts of one year of war on the region and the globe:
