{"id":2343734,"date":"2024-09-20T06:25:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T10:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-oct-7-changed-the-middle-east-forever-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-09-20T06:27:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T10:27:52","slug":"how-oct-7-changed-the-middle-east-forever-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-oct-7-changed-the-middle-east-forever-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"How Oct. 7 changed the Middle East forever &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-oct-7-changed-the-middle-east-forever-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2343734&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Uardrails that had long defined U.S. policy in \u200dthe Middle\u2064 East are unraveling. Countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates\u200c will reconsider\u2063 their alliances and security arrangements with Washington in light of the U.S.&#8217;s inability or unwillingness to deter Iranian aggression. <\/p>\n<p>This \u200dinstigation of\u2063 uncertainty will \u200clikely provoke a ripple effect, prompting\u2063 regional players to\u2063 reassess their defense strategies as threats mount. \u200cInstead of a U.S.-led stabilizing force in the region, we may\u2064 witness a more fragmented and chaotic landscape, \u200bwhere countries will \u200cact more \u2062independently, potentially leading to \u200cskirmishes and miscalculations.<\/p>\n<p>Israel&#8217;s security concerns will\u200c continue to escalate \u2064as it faces not only Hamas but the growing influence and\u2062 capabilities of Iran and its proxies. The realization that negotiating or \u200dmanaging\u200c relationships with terrorist groups can only lead to more violence and loss of\u2064 life is clearer than ever. The\u2062 time to rethink\u2064 defensive\u2064 and\u200c offensive strategies, support for allies, and direct \u200capproaches against threats\u2064 has arrived. \u200cIn \u200dthis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bond-market-swinging-between-rallies-routs\/\" title=\"Bond Market Swinging Between Rallies, Routs\">rapidly changing environment<\/a>, failure to adapt could \u200dlead to catastrophic outcomes, as \u200bseen on \u200cOctober 7,\u2062 2023. \u2062 <\/p>\n<p>The stakes have never been higher; it is not just Israel&#8217;s future at risk, but the broader stability of a region\u200d long plagued by conflict\u2014and a world that\u2063 may again become an unwilling witness to genocide and violent extremism if decisive measures are not implemented now.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Feature <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">How Oct. 7 changed the Middle East forever<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1764747\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>On the eve of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>United Kingdom<\/a>&rsquo;s entry into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/world-war-i\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>World War I<\/a>, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey told a friend: &ldquo;The lamps are going out across Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.&rdquo; Grey&rsquo;s warning has become famous, presciently foretelling the near century of horrors that followed in the Great War&rsquo;s wake: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/communism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>communism<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/beltway-confidential\/3037928\/if-everyone-is-fascist-no-one-is\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>fascism<\/a>, and the rise of totalitarianism.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Israel<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hamas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hamas<\/a> and other Iranian-backed proxies is an epoch-defining moment for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/middle-east\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Middle East<\/a> and American power. The assault heralds a new Middle East, one that is even more unstable and one in which American deterrence has utterly collapsed and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Islamic Republic of Iran<\/a> is surgent.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hamas&rsquo; armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, enter the Israeli side of the fence in Gaza City, Gaza on October 07, 2023. (Hani Alshaer\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A year after the Oct. 7 attacks, the United States and its allies must have an honest reckoning with their meaning. Iran&rsquo;s power has risen, while America&rsquo;s has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/beltway-confidential\/2719057\/us-deterrence-is-disappearing-in-the-middle-east\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>diminished<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the breadth and scope of the invasion was astonishing. &ldquo;The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7,&rdquo; the journalist Seth Frantzman recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/October-War-Israels-Battle-Security\/dp\/B0DBF4WJRF\/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.nhx9dtdulTHCkZMIbf22lczvnuf-cmn5yV20lw3lp2I4-NQkGeFQs6QU6FYqoGdV.yOE3o61DMfmM0abwecDF9o3kmB6iOnY_fQ6uMTdbLkM&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;qid=1726004422&amp;refinements=p_27%3ASeth+J.+Frantzman&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>observed<\/a>, &ldquo;was unprecedented in its size and mass killing.&rdquo; The assault was the largest invasion and organized mass killing by an Islamist terrorist group against a democracy in modern history. Adjusted for population, the massacre was roughly the equivalent of more than 30,000 Americans murdered in one day &mdash; more than 10 times the number killed by al Qaeda on 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>Some 1,200 people were murdered, and around 240 others were taken hostage and brought into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/gaza\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Gaza<\/a>. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/doubling-previous-numbers-report-says-6000-gazans-including-3800-trained-hamas-terrorists-broke-into-israel-on-oct-7\/\">estimated<\/a> 3,800 terrorists from Hamas and other Gaza terrorist groups took part, along with more than 2,000 Gaza civilians who joined in the rampage, according to the Israel Defense Forces&rsquo;s Gaza Division. The border dividing Israel and Gaza was breached in 119 places. According to the IDF, 1,000 terrorists in Gaza fired rockets as part of the coordinated attack. A total of 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel in a 24-hour span &mdash; 3,000 of them in the first four hours. Terrorists used drones to disable Israeli observation posts and high-tech surveillance equipment. Terrorists on paragliders flew into the Jewish state, including the Nova music festival, where peaceful concertgoers were<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/sections\/israel-middle-east\/articles\/israel-music-festival-massacre-eyewitness-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> slaughtered<\/a> and raped en masse over the course of hours. Terrorists did dry runs with motorcycles to practice taking hostages and seizing infrastructure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An Israeli soldier stands by the bodies of Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists who entered from the Gaza Strip, in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo\/Tsafrir Abayov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The IDF would later conclude that Hamas and its minions had intended to take and hold land inside of Israel itself. Instruction <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2023\/10\/hamas-hostage-taking-manual\/675691\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>manuals<\/a> found on captured and killed terrorists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/in-coded-doc-hamas-instructed-terrorists-to-kill-civilians-take-captives-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>indicate<\/a> they intentionally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/investigations\/top-secret-hamas-documents-show-terrorists-intentionally-targeted-elem-rcna120310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>targeted<\/a> specific communities. The manuals, Israeli President Isaac Herzog noted, specified how terrorists should treat their victims: &ldquo;exactly how to torture them, how to abduct them, how to kidnap them.&rdquo; Those taken were to be used &ldquo;as human shields&rdquo; and &ldquo;electric shocks&rdquo; should be administered to force compliance. The German publication <em>Bild<\/em> recently reported that a document found on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar&rsquo;s computer<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdd.org\/analysis\/2024\/09\/06\/documents-detail-hamas-plan-to-use-hostages-to-remain-military-threat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> called<\/a> for using the hostages to &ldquo;exert psychological pressure on the families of the prisoners, both now and during the first phase [of a ceasefire deal] so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Some reports indicate that Hamas began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/hamas-planned-oct-7-from-before-2014-with-final-decision-made-by-5-leaders-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>planning<\/a> the operation as early as 2014. It couldn&rsquo;t have done so without Tehran&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/ctc.westpoint.edu\/the-path-to-october-7-how-iran-built-up-and-managed-a-palestinian-axis-of-resistance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>support<\/a>. According to the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>, 500 operatives from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-bidens-oil-policies-empowered-iran-and-its-terror-proxies\/\" title=\"Biden&#039;s oil policies bolstered Iran and its terror proxies.\">received specialized combat training<\/a> in Iran&rdquo; in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/middle-east\/iran-israel-hamas-strike-planning-bbe07b25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>weeks<\/a> leading up to the assault. Iran&rsquo;s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force conducted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/middle-east\/hamas-fighters-trained-in-iran-before-oct-7-attacks-e2a8dbb9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>training<\/a> with top Iranian and Palestinian leaders in attendance. The IRGC, which has trained and equipped other terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and al Qaeda offshoots, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/us-news\/2019-04-11\/ty-article-opinion\/.premium\/trumps-wise-necessary-strike-against-irans-top-export-international-terrorism\/0000017f-db75-db22-a17f-fff509000000\">designated<\/a> as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-consider-enacting-statute-to-increase-punishments-for-domestic-terrorism\/\" title=\"Lawmakers consider enacting statute to increase punishments for domestic terrorism\">foreign terrorist organization<\/a> by then-President Donald Trump in 2019.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo\/Fatima Shbair)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the days and months leading up to the assault, Hamas conducted a sophisticated disinformation campaign meant to deceive Israeli officials into thinking Gaza was quiet and that should an attack occur, it would likely come from Hezbollah on Israel&rsquo;s northern border. Regrettably, this lie was swallowed, hook, line, and sinker. For years, the Israeli security establishment bought the idea, an idea pushed by many, including the Qataris and some in the U.S. State Department, that it could buy peace from Hamas with copious amounts of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/how-israel-was-duped-hamas-planned-devastating-assault-2023-10-08\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>aid<\/a>. Oct. 7 revealed this to be an illusion. As foreign affairs analysts Shoshana and Stephen Bryen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.algemeiner.com\/2023\/10\/12\/hamas-massacre-shows-that-terrorist-groups-cant-be-managed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>observed<\/a> a few days after the massacre, the Hamas-led invasion showed that &ldquo;terrorist groups can&rsquo;t be managed.&rdquo; An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that has operated in the area since the 1930s, Hamas was created in the 1980s and began receiving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/opinion\/1989-and-the-rise-of-hamas-611745\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>extensive<\/a> support from Iran in 1989. Like its paymasters in Tehran, Hamas explicitly calls for Israel&rsquo;s destruction and the genocide of its Jews. Put simply: It is the closest modern-day ideological heir to Nazi Germany. History is clear: There can be no negotiating with genocidal entities. It will not moderate its &ldquo;final solution.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oct. 7 illustrated that Hamas and Iran mean what they say &mdash; their rhetoric is not, as some press and policymakers would have it, meant purely for domestic consumption. The Hamas Covenant of 1988, the group&rsquo;s foundational <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/20th_century\/hamas.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>document<\/a>, says that &ldquo;there is no solution to the Palestinian question except through Jihad&rdquo; and &ldquo;initiatives, proposals and international conferences are a waste of time and vain endeavors.&rdquo; Hamas must be taken at its word. This must be the chief lesson from that grim day.<\/p>\n<p>The Oct. 7 massacre was the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust &mdash; an ill-omen for the non-Jewish world, as well. It is often said that the Jewish people are a &ldquo;canary in the coal mine.&rdquo; Throughout history, time and again, escalating violence against Jews has presaged something larger, something darker for the rest of the world. &ldquo;Wherever antisemitism took hold,&rdquo; the late historian Paul Johnson once observed, &ldquo;social and political decline almost inevitably followed.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Protesters rally for and against the terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas. (Lev Radin\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, the last time that Jews were massacred in the numbers seen last fall, the world itself was at war in the most destructive conflict that the Western world has ever seen. The Jewish people, Winston Churchill <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.gvsu.edu\/walll\/churchill%20and%20the%20holocaust.htm#:~:text=%27None%20has%20suffered%20more%20cruelly,of%20freedom%20and%20human%20dignity.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>remarked<\/a> in November 1941, &ldquo;bore the brunt of the Nazis&rsquo; first onslaught upon the citadels of freedom and human dignity.&rdquo; Much of the globe was apathetic to the persecution of European Jewry in the 1930s &mdash; a persecution that presaged the barbarism yet to come. Regrettably, Oct. 7 illustrated that many continue to be apathetic when totalitarian movements seek to perpetrate another genocide of Jewry. The Nazis had their apologists, and so does Hamas. But that much of the &ldquo;international community&rdquo; was once again OK with, or even complicit in, another mass murder of Jews doesn&rsquo;t bode well for the fate of the civilized world. The skyrocketing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/beltway-confidential\/3143456\/antisemitism-university-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>antisemitism<\/a> in the West, including at many universities where students and faculty openly celebrated the attacks, is ominous. Clouds are gathering.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has largely managed to evade responsibility for its role. In many respects, Oct. 7 was the Iranian regime announcing that it would no longer be restrained, no longer encumbered, in its chief objective: mastery of the Middle East. At its core, Iran is an imperialist power that seeks to dominate the region and spread its perverse ideology. Antisemitism is a key component, yes, but the regime&rsquo;s ambitions go beyond re-creating the Holocaust. As the historian Ray Takeyh has noted, the mullahs see themselves as launching a new &ldquo;Islamic epoch&rdquo; with themselves at the epicenter. Regime founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for a &ldquo;revolution without borders,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2147746\/forty-years-of-misreading-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>exhorting<\/a>: &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t recognize Iran as ours, as all Muslim countries are part of us.&rdquo; This has been Iran&rsquo;s animating feature since its founding in 1979. But in many respects, Oct. 7 was its coming-out party.<\/p>\n<p>Iran&rsquo;s goals are clear enough for those willing to listen to the regime&rsquo;s words. But Tehran has a strategy, as well. The regime seeks to <a href=\"https:\/\/nationalinterest.org\/blog\/buzz\/deal-or-no-deal-iran-israel-war-coming-middle-east-203135\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>envelop<\/a> Israel in a &ldquo;Ring of Fire,&rdquo; using its proxies to surround the Jewish state on all sides and then overwhelm it in a war of attrition that will wear down its missile defense systems, military personnel, and public. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis first warned about this strategy in a March 2018 <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2626603\/israel-may-be-facing-a-five-front-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>op-ed<\/a> titled &ldquo;Israel may be facing a five-front war.&rdquo; Indeed, Tehran has spent the last two decades building up its capabilities in the region: from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/courage-strength-optimism\/2939804\/is-israel-heading-for-war-with-hezbollah\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hezbollah<\/a> in Lebanon on Israel&rsquo;s northern border to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/903877\/yes-the-houthis-are-a-terrorist-group\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Houthis<\/a> in the Red Sea and Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria. Iran has been making<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2597679\/the-palestinian-authority-is-on-the-precipice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> inroads<\/a> in the so-called West Bank (Judea and Samaria), which is nominally ruled by the Palestinian Authority. Iranian proxies have even been found operating in Israel itself and running <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishpolicycenter.org\/2022\/04\/08\/iran-is-willing-to-fight-to-the-last-israeli-arab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>weapons<\/a> to Israeli Arab communities while seeking to incite internecine violence. More recently, the regime has been increasing its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdd.org\/analysis\/2024\/04\/18\/iran-attempts-to-destabilize-jordan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>operations<\/a> to topple the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan, no doubt hoping to open yet another front in its war against Israel. In some respects, Oct. 7 and the subsequent attacks by other Iranian proxies should be viewed as a &ldquo;dry run.&rdquo; Iran is testing Israel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/articles\/how-iran-plans-to-destroy-israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>probing<\/a> for soft points.<\/p>\n<p>By destroying the Jewish state, Iran will have accomplished a feat that eluded ruling Arab monarchies of the 1940s, Arab nationalists in the &rsquo;50s, &rsquo;60s, and &rsquo;70s, and generations of terrorists from Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization to al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Tehran will then be the unquestioned dominant power of the Islamist world and will usher in a new age. This, clearly enough, is its ambition. Oct. 7 showed that the Iranian regime has more than the motive. It increasingly believes it has the means, as well.<\/p>\n<p>For years, Iran has used its proxies to wage war. Iran, while comparatively lacking conventional military capabilities, has relied on asymmetrical warfare. Iran&rsquo;s support for terrorist groups has provided the regime with plausible deniability, enabling it to mask its hand for a West that is often too willing to look the other way. But after Oct. 7, the mask is off.<\/p>\n<p>In mid-May, Iran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/courage-strength-optimism\/2965673\/the-us-must-not-obstruct-necessary-israeli-retaliation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>launched<\/a> a barrage of hundreds of rockets, missiles, and drones at the Jewish state. Tehran&rsquo;s assault marked a significant escalation. Previously, the regime used its proxies to carry out such attacks. However, this was the first time that Iran chose to launch an attack of this scale directly from its soil. Clearly, Iran no longer feels the need to keep up pretenses. If Oct. 7 didn&rsquo;t show that Iran is emboldened, the attack in mid-May, coinciding with attacks on both Israel and U.S. forces in the region, shows that the regime remains undeterred.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If Iran&rsquo;s calculus has changed, it stands to reason that Israel&rsquo;s should, too. The Jewish state has experienced the largest loss of civilian life since its founding. The barbarians are no longer at the gates &mdash; they&rsquo;ve broken through, into Israeli homes, proudly filming the horrors that they inflicted on children, families, and the elderly. Israel&rsquo;s subsequent incursion into Gaza, and its largely successful military campaign against Hamas, illustrates that, at some level, the Jewish state knows that the previous policy of &ldquo;managing terrorists&rdquo; will no longer suffice. But problems abound. <\/p>\n<p>Hezbollah, a far more dangerous foe than Hamas, sits to Israel&rsquo;s north, with more armaments and precision-guided missiles than most European nations. And like Hamas, Hezbollah uses human shields, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/courage-strength-optimism\/3061781\/disaster-awaits-if-hezbollah-is-storing-weapons-at-beirut-airport\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>hiding<\/a> its weapons and operatives in densely populated civilian communities, hospitals, and schools. A <a href=\"https:\/\/providencemag.com\/2024\/03\/the-u-s-is-losing-in-lebanon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>war<\/a> with Hezbollah would be of a type unseen in the Middle East for generations.&nbsp;Israel has made it clear that in the event of a broader conflict, the head of the snake wouldn&rsquo;t go untouched. Yet Jerusalem might not be able to wait.<\/p>\n<p>Oct. 7 likely changed Israeli <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/israels-approach-to-iran-may-be-getting-bolder-f4c2c5f2?st=fok4b1fnswn4761&amp;reflink=article_email_share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>thinking<\/a> regarding Iran&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nuclear-weapons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>nuclear weapons<\/a> program. While most Israelis, like most Americans, oppose Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, some have argued that Iran can be discouraged from using nukes should it acquire them. After Oct. 7, such optimism is a luxury that Israel can no longer afford.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Iran remains steadfast in its ambition to become a nuclear state. Organizations such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Institute for Science and International Security have chronicled the gains that Iran has been making in this regard. Tehran has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdd.org\/analysis\/2024\/08\/30\/iaea-reports-iran-increased-stockpiles-of-near-weapons-grade-uranium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>refused<\/a> to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Association and is stockpiling enriched uranium while installing hundreds of new centrifuges. Citing a recently published U.S. intelligence report that indicates the regime has &ldquo;undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device,&rdquo; FDD&rsquo;s Andrea Stricker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdd.org\/analysis\/2024\/08\/12\/iran-the-next-nuclear-weapons-state\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>warned<\/a> that &ldquo;as Iran inches across the nuclear threshold, America is wasting precious time.&rdquo; Israel may have to act to prevent the world&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-biden-gives-up-u-s-leverage-over-iran-offers-to-restart-nuclear-deal-talks\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Biden Gives Up U.S. Leverage Over Iran, Offers To Restart Nuclear Deal Talks\">leading state sponsor<\/a> of terrorism from going nuclear.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oct. 7 showed Israel the consequences of being reactive and indulging in wishful thinking. But it also illustrated that the press and the so<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nikki-haley-at-rjc-biden-admin-cant-be-trusted-to-stop-iran-nuclear-threat\/\" title=\"Nikki Haley at RJC: Biden Admin Can\u2019t Be Trusted to Stop Iran Nuclear Threat\">-called international community<\/a> will likely condemn Israel no matter what steps the Jewish state takes to protect itself and prevent another massacre. Many Western <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-life-arts\/3039704\/the-self-immolation-of-the-washington-post\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>media<\/a> outlets have parroted Hamas-supplied casualty figures, effectively doing the terrorist group&rsquo;s PR. The United Nations, too, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2024\/jan\/31\/un-relief-and-works-agency-perpetuates-israeli-pal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>feckless<\/a>. If Israel rightly feels that it can&rsquo;t get a fair shake, let alone redress, it is only further incentivized to take the steps it feels compelled to take. And why not? Bad headlines from biased newspapers are a small price to pay to avoid another Oct. 7.<\/p>\n<p>Another factor makes both escalation and a broader war more likely: the United States. The war launched by Iranian proxies against Israel is as much the result of Iranian ambitions as American foolishness. U.S. deterrence has utterly collapsed, and the U.S. only has itself to blame. U.S. withdrawal from the region isn&rsquo;t so much the problem as the way that withdrawal has been carried out. Instead of thwarting Iranian ambitions, too often Washington has placated and enabled them. Tehran has received sanctions relief and the delisting of its terrorist proxies, such as the Houthis, in exchange for ceding nothing of consequence and uttering transparently false promises. During the war against ISIS, the U.S. even effectively acted as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2448582\/its-obamas-middle-east-mess\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>air support<\/a> for Iranian militias. The U.S. continues to give aid and arms to the Lebanese Armed Forces, under whose auspices Hezbollah has grown. America could have withdrawn from the Middle East and propped up key regional<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2975200\/the-future-of-the-us-israeli-relationship\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> pillars<\/a> such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. Instead, too often, it has chosen to undermine them while accommodating Iran, a sworn enemy. Such impudence seldom goes unpunished, and American power has taken a hit post-Oct. 7.<\/p>\n<p>An attack on a key American ally, arguably the key American ally in the region, has not gone unnoticed by others, both in the region and far from its shores. After Oct. 7, the security guarantee offered, implicitly and otherwise, by being friends with the U.S. isn&rsquo;t what it once was. In a regional contest for influence between the U.S. and its foremost opponent, China, more nations are likely to hedge their bets. Hamas may be losing, but Iran, Beijing&rsquo;s chief <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/09\/china-the-real-winner-in-any-new-iran-nuclear-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>foil<\/a>, is on the march.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Great battles, won or lost, change the entire course of events,&rdquo; Churchill once intoned. They &ldquo;create new standards of values, new moods, new atmospheres, in armies and in nations, to which all must conform.&rdquo; Oct. 7 can&rsquo;t be accurately described as a &ldquo;battle,&rdquo; although many defenders fought bravely and pushed Hamas-led invaders back. Rather, it was a massacre of innocents. But it seems certain that the entire course of events has changed.<\/p>\n<p>An honest observer is left with one conclusion: More war awaits.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1764747\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1764747\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Magazine &#8211; Feature How Oct. 7 changed the Middle East forever On the eve of the United Kingdom\u2019s entry into World War I, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey told a friend: \u201cThe lamps are going out across Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.\u201d Grey\u2019s warning has become famous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1936,"featured_media":2343735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Fence.GettyImages-1711774908.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[32404,32726,41274,41297,32076],"class_list":["post-2343734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-geopolitics","tag-middle-east","tag-oct-7","tag-regional-conflict","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Fence.GettyImages-1711774908.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2343735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}