Over three weeks ago, Hamas launched its Al-Aqsa Flood operation across Gaza’s border with Israel, plunging Palestine and the world into a renewed cycle of violence, bloodshed and death. It will reshape the Middle East's political landscape, not in a good way.
Israel, Iran, and their proxies are engaged in both military and diplomatic efforts to secure victories before a final ceasefire. It is crucial to recognise that some of the fiercest battles will be over control of the narrative of the war.
These narratives underpin the political initiatives involved and will influence the bloodshed that will be caused. The prevailing narrative will define any proposals to end it, obstruct potential remedies that deviate from it, and shape future confrontations.
The varying responses to the Hamas attacks reveal emerging faultlines reshaping global politics.
This pattern shows how the rise of political Islam upended a theory that the end of the socialist system, symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall, meant that democratic values and individual freedom – and the wider values of the West, such as liberalism, equality, free market economics and peace – would become globally accepted norms.
American political scientist Francis Fukuyama most famously expressed that idea in his book The End of History and the Last Man, published in 1992 but first published as an article in 1989.
