Suriyakmaps

It has been three years since the attack by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups against Israel—a miscalculated attack that sealed the fate of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian forces thought the rest of the resistance would come to their aid, and they were wrong. As a result, they gave Israel a pretext to intensify its policy of extermination against the Palestinians, leading to a massacre that left more than 60,000 dead in its bombing campaign and ground offensive. That offensive eventually spread to Lebanon and significantly weakened Hezbollah following the decapitation operation. As for Syria, the October 7 attack was not a death sentence, since the military leadership’s betrayal had been brewing since 2021; all that was needed was the green light for the plan to be set in motion. Three years later, the axis of resistance has been considerably weakened by the loss of the Syrian bridgehead, but this has not meant its end. Iran and the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Yemeni resistance have regained the initiative and have managed to stand up to a U.S.-Israeli operation. Hezbollah continues to resist in southern Lebanon, where the struggle has become an existential battle primarily for the Shia community, while in Syria, the resistance is building slowly but inexorably. In Gaza, however, the resistance has been defeated, with no possibility of reorganization and a strip condemned to the expansionist delusions of Zionism and its allies in the Middle East. Had the attacks of October 7 not occurred, they might have prevented thousands of deaths and the enormous instability now plaguing the region, but they would not have brought about peace in the Middle East. The clash between two models—Zionism and the resistance to it—was inevitable. However, in light of Syria’s fall and the hypocrisy hidden behind “Arab unity,” we must reconsider whether the resistance’s objectives should be changed or approached differently, choosing loyal allies and exposing traitors. Only in this way can the axis of resistance emerge victorious in a Middle East that is different from the one that existed when it was created.