That date remains imprinted in widespread memory and in history books for what it was: an unacceptable act of barbarism. Only the regimes and movements that make hatred of the West as a whole the glue to strengthen their own power by denying the fundamental values and rights of human beings did not denounce it or were even complacent towards that unprecedented attack, which unfortunately gave it opens up a long list of other barbaric attacks and killings of defenseless hostages by the so-called Islamic Jihad against the Western population in Europe and elsewhere.
The pogrom of 7 October 2023 against 1200 Jewish civilians and the hostage-taking perpetrated with unprecedented barbarism by the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades are in continuity with the 11 September attack in the war on terrorism Islamic leads against Western democracies, democracies that Israel represents in a Middle East dominated by theocratic and/or non-democratic regimes.
At the same time, the treacherous attack is yet another attempt to prevent a peaceful solution to the Middle Eastern conflict that recognizes Israel's right to exist. Indeed, we must not forget that Hamas, and in particular the Ezzedin Al-Qassam brigades, were born as the military instrument called upon to sabotage (with repeated targeted terrorist attacks) the implementation of the Oslo Accords of 1993, which had laid the foundations of a solution peacefully to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. A Middle Eastern region which in recent decades has been torn by a war for hegemony which sees Shiite and Sunni Islam armed against each other, but which recently also saw the emergence of new signs of a possible détente, in particular a different strategy by the Gulf countries in relations with the West and Israel.
It is no coincidence that the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 occurred not at a time of particular resurgence in the Arab-Israeli conflict but rather after the conclusion of the so-called "Abraham Accords" of 2020, which were signed - under the aegis by Donald Trump - from Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and represent the first agreement for the normalization of relations between Arab countries and Israel after those signed with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994. A prospect of normalization between Israel and the Arab Emirates, with a large Sunni majority, which resolutely opposes theocratic and Shiite Iran. Tehran uses, massively finances and arms the terrorist movements of Hezbollah (Shiite) and Hamas (anti-Zionist movement, which therefore plays a game even though it is Sunni in orientation) to strengthen the political-military axis determined to annihilate Israel and block any new possible agreement.
Due to its brutality, the pogrom of 7 October - which reawakened the trauma of the Holocaust in many Israelis - seems to have been created on purpose to prevent the inauguration of an "era of partnerships" following the "Abraham Accords" (as they had it defined as the United Arab Emirates) after a long era of intractable conflicts in the Middle East. This is exactly what happened. The Israeli army reacted with a military offensive that goes beyond the right to self-defense, placing the aim of eradicating Hamas from the vital hubs of the Gaza Strip before respecting international law, in particular that which requires the sparing of civilians during wars.
It is undeniable that the use of the civilian population as a shield and the basements of medical and educational institutions as operational headquarters of the General Staff and militias by Hamas in order to protect itself from enemy attacks is a reprehensible strategy. If the population of Gaza today pays a tremendous blood and humanitarian toll, it is the result of a brutal attack and hostage-taking that could only trigger a terrible reaction, as well as this premeditated strategy of civil shields by Hamas. The terrorist movement will likely pay the bill, regardless of the outcome of the ongoing conflict. Nonetheless, Israel also fell into Hamas's trap: antagonizing much of Western public opinion and some of the institutional support of the United States.
Here lies a significant difference between the consequences of the September 11 attack and those of October 7. In 2001, the motto "We are all Americans" immediately arose and pushed large sections of the Western population to demonstrate their solidarity with the United States struck by unprecedented aggression. Today, however, the barbaric killing of 7 defenseless Israeli civilians on 1200 October has been quickly erased from the fleeting memory of the majority of public opinion and the media. The voice of the feminist movements has not been raised to denounce sexual violence - rape and mutilation of children and women attacked, killed or taken hostage - crimes ascertained by a United Nations Commission.
Many have succumbed to the temptation to weigh the evil: to make a macabre comparative calculation of the number of deaths on one side and the other, to establish who had the most serious fault. And someone even toasted. Not only in the ranks of movements that harbor a deep hatred towards Israel seen as an occupying force (including military) of their territory. University professors in America and Europe also toasted, a couple even in Switzerland (commenting on the videos of the attack with the words “It's the best day of my life”). And in a chain, in prestigious American, European and even Swiss universities, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have loudly called not for peace between the contenders of a terrible war that has lasted for 75 years and for the arrest of the instigators who premeditatedly carried out the pogrom of 7 October, thereby blocking a possible normalization process underway. Instead, they called for a “free Palestine, from the river to the sea.” Which means denying Israel's right to exist.
It is true that quite a few voices and important movements of opinion had also condemned the indiscriminate armed response of the United States to the attack of 11 September, i.e. the declaration of global war on terrorism which (in addition to imposing liberticidal laws at home) ended up justifying the US invasion of Iraq without managing to defeat the Taliban (now in power more than ever in Afghanistan, where they impose the law of sharia).
But, after 7 October, one cannot help but be struck by the fact that what arose was a vast movement of opinion in solidarity not with those who suffered the pogrom of 7 October but with the Palestinian population who gave their support to Hamas. With slogans that reflect the desire of Hamas itself, Hezbollah and Iran, to purge Israel from the territory from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean). What is striking is the unilaterally anti-Israeli student mobilization (in some cases even anti-Semitic, albeit masked behind anti-Zionist slogans) but also and above all the complacent attitude of some academics who - confusing the principle of sacrosanct academic freedom with ideology - have judged the brutal Hamas militias to be resisters to the Israeli occupation.
In recent months, in several Western universities, academics who did not share the pro-Palestinian approach to so-called "post-colonial" studies have been dismissed or their courses have been declassified. A phenomenon that is part of the widespread tendency in many Western universities on both sides of the Atlantic to go beyond a healthy critical spirit in researching and rereading the colonial past of the West, ending up succumbing to what some now define as "hatred of towards himself."
