For decades, Palestinians have commemorated the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948 as their "nakba," a word that means 'disaster' in Arabic. That disaster resulted from the refusal of Arabs to accept the UN partition plan that made Israel a Jewish state, and five Arab countries attempted to eradicate Israel instead. The Israelis prevailed in that war, triggering massive displacement as Israel expelled Arabs from their country in response to the invasion. In the years since, as Arabs plotted wars against Israel, the Israelis have prevailed and punished their enemies, who insist that the lands of Israel belong to the colonists instead of the Israelis.
Also for decades, the Israelis have attempted to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means. The US and the Saudis pushed Israel into concessions in talks led by Bill Clinton that would have created a Palestinian state on 98 percent of the land they demanded. Instead, Yasser Arafat declared an intifada, and the idea of a two-state solution began to crumble to the reality of Palestinian maximalism.
Nearly thirty years after Arafat scotched the deal and angered everyone, nothing has changed except Israel's openness to Palestinian statehood. Hamas' massacres three years ago put an end to any peace efforts in Israel and led to Israel deciding to finally fight Hamas and Hezbollah to a complete end of the decades-long conflict. Until then, the pattern of 1948 has constantly repeated itself: Arabs attack Israel, Israel responds, Arabs play the victim in the wars they start.
Did October 7 break that pattern? It certainly did in Israel, and to a lesser extent in Washington, D.C. And now it might have finally broken the pattern for some Palestinians who have watched Hamas turn Gaza into a terrorist redoubt and continually provoke Israel into military responses. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib writes at The Free Press that October 7 is the true "nakba," and that the Palestinian cause will likely never recover from it:
As the grim third anniversary of October 7 befalls a decimated Gaza Strip, the state of the discourse among many in the so-called “pro-Palestine” movement remains as embarrassing, dismal, and disastrous as it was when Hamas initiated the attack in 2023. Over the past three years, I have seen countless posts by self-described Zionists criticizing the conduct of Israel’s government, the behavior of Israeli officials, and the excesses of the Israeli reaction to October 7. And yet, I have struggled to see even a dozen posts by “pro-Palestine” activists, advocates, or organizations explicitly condemning Hamas for triggering the most catastrophic chapter in contemporary Palestinian history.
And let’s be clear: That’s exactly what this is. Three years after October 7, the Palestinian people face their greatest crisis of the modern era.
I begin on the ground, in Gaza itself. The majority of Gaza’s buildings are partially or fully destroyed. Tens of thousands have lost their lives, including entire families wiped out by ferocious Israeli bombardment. People will argue to the moon and back about who was ultimately responsible for the level of devastation in Gaza. I personally believe Israel killed far too many civilians, including dozens of my own family members. Israeli air strikes destroyed both of my childhood homes. I will never not be angry or upset about this.
But I will also forever be furious at the fact that Gaza would still be standing had Hamas simply kept its terrorists at home on October 7. I will forever be rageful at the fact that Hamas not only weaponized every aspect of Gaza’s infrastructure but also held Israeli hostages in a manner that was inevitably going to invite more devastation and suffering for Palestinian civilians. I will forever be resentful of the useful idiots who ignored Hamas’s sadistic tactics, hiding behind vacuous appeals to “international law” despite there being no legal framework to justify a terrorist group entrenching itself in medical facilities, educational spaces, markets, and areas meant to shelter the displaced.
And while the West wants to keep up the pattern of blaming Israel for the conflict, Akhatib offers a much more blunt and honest assessment:
Today, despite Gaza receiving more aid and development money per capita during the nearly two decades under Hamas’s rule than any other conflict zone in the world, the West does not blame the terrorist group for the territory’s suffering; they blame Israel. They ignore Hamas’s deliberate and willful choice to militarize Gaza’s society and infrastructure for perpetual warfare against Israel; they overlook multiple opportunities presented to Gaza to develop an airport, a seaport, and economic projects; and they continue to sacrifice a nation-building agenda in favor of perpetuating Hamas’s “resistance” narrative.
Say, where did all of that development money go in Gaza? It went underground, as my Salem colleague Erin Molan discovered, both figuratively and literally. Hamas used the deluge of Western cash to build a fortified terror base for the purpose of annihilating Israel, and they built openly and defiantly under the noses of Western leaders who rush to blame Israel. This is what Western idiocy and moral inversion wrought:
INSIDE GAZA’S TERROR TUNNELS@Erin_Molan goes deep beneath Gaza and inside a Hamas tunnel near the Israeli border — one the IDF discovered just eight months ago.
— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) October 7, 2026
Inside: commanders’ living quarters, blast doors, weapons storage, and tunnels running beneath the homes, schools,… pic.twitter.com/BAbVoF3fBw
The only genocide at hand in Gaza is the one Hamas plotted for Israel and the Jews, and which it launched on October 7, 2023. Gazans may or may not support Hamas now, but they celebrated it as a national victory three years ago, and not a single Gazan did anything to free or assist the 250-plus hostages Hamas hid among them. This war is their war, and just because that war went badly for them does not absolve them of responsibility for it.
This is the Nakba that Palestinians suffered because they created it – and that's been true of every Nakba since 1948.
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