The events of 9/11 instilled an overwhelming sense of vulnerability, insecurity and rage inside the privileged power structures that uphold the global system, marking it as an apocalyptic date. This significant historical occurrence precipitated a profound break. In the aftermath, both intellectual circles and popular media frequently reiterated the phrase "nothing will be the same again" in response to the attacks. Over two decades after the al-Qaida attacks, Oct. 7, 2023, has become a new date, symbolizing another "apocalyptic day" that heralds a new era of profound change.
The Israeli state and the U.S. deemed both attacks a breach of their red lines, portraying them as vicious manifestations of rising evil. In a post-apocalyptic context, the military forces of both states brutally killed, wounded and tortured civilians, including children, the elderly and women, while presenting themselves as heroic, virtuous and at times merciless heroes engaged in a just war against "human animals." Unlike the original victims and the fighters of self-defense, theirs were dispensable lives. To prevent the emergence of new terrorists and to inhibit the transformation of regular individuals into militants, preventative steps were considered necessary, regardless of whether they were Palestinian, Iraqi or Afghan.
In this regard, it is obvious that the bloodstained legacy of the post-9/11 war on terrorism serves as a guideline for the criminal actions of the Israeli state. This is why those who are accountable for the murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen are more than ready to support the war against Palestinian people following the Hamas attacks. The beneficial old "unconditional support" extended to the U.S. post-9/11 is available again to ensure the immunity and impunity of the Israeli state.
Partner states, while dutifully expressing their concerns about civilian casualties, have no qualms about weaponizing the Israeli army, subverting the already ineffective international law, manipulating media influence to propagate Israeli narratives through deception and censorship, and violently stifling freedom of speech and protest. Even the religious references to and quotations from the Old and New Testaments, which fit the situation, are ready for the Israeli prime minister, who is inspired by the post-9/11 public speeches of the former president of the U.S.
The proximity of strategic and tactic violence stemming from those so-called wars on terror, along with the methods employed to legitimize the war crimes, are remarkable. In discursive warfare, where the reason of the strongest is the best, the discourses and narratives constructing a truth effectively dehistoricize the time by initiating the entire story with a certain date. Disregarding the history before and after that date would legitimize the brutal violence orchestrated by governmental authority and military forces, which are bolstered not just by weaponry but also by a coalition of states through media endorsement. Framing the picture with a calculated emphasis on an apocalyptic day is both misleading and sinister, obscuring the extensive history of colonialization, state terrorism, occupation, displacement, dispossession and continuous humiliation.
Those who criticize the Israeli state's genocidal war crimes face a dismissive and reductionist sincerity test: "Do you condemn Hamas?" Should this not be the case, the justification for the deaths of over 43,000 Palestinians within a year due to intense bombardments, starvation, epidemics, the killing of journalists and humanitarian workers, including U.N. personnel, the obstruction of health services and humanitarian aid, the cessation of electricity, gas and water supplies in the Gaza Strip, as well as acts of rape, torture and indiscriminate detention, would be warranted. If this is indeed the case, we have already validated it as justified.
This is so familiar to all the victims of the post-9/11 and post-Oct. 7 wars just highlight that nothing started on Oct. 7, just as nothing began on 9/11. The apocalypse following the Oct. 7 attacks is for those who have endured occupation, displacement, dispossession, torture and state terror for decades. Since the Nakba (catastrophe) on May 15, 1948, Palestinian people have been enduring a continuous state of apocalypse, waking up to a new one each day.
