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Free Palestine figure believes October 7 made the end of Israel inevitable
A conversation with Laith Marouf
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I consider the Israeli state to have committed war crimes in its subsequent assault on the civilians of Gaza since the October 7 attacks. But I also consider the October 7 attack by Hamas on innocent civilians to constitute an act of terrorism. For Palestinian people, October 7 represented an act of revolution by a repressed people. What’s clear is that that shocking event and its fallout have had much larger repercussions for Israel’s standing in the world. As a former diplomat, my concern is to create the conditions to prevent violent conflict of this nature now and in the future. Yet I remain pessimistic that the violence and bloodletting in Israel and Palestine will reduce any time soon as western nations continue to position themselves as parties to the conflict on one side, i.e. the side of Israel
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In a conversation recorded for The Peacemonger, Laith Marouf of Free Palestine TV argues that 7 October 2023 represented the most significant revolt by a besieged population in modern memory. Despite the shocking brutality of the event, its consequences have permanently damaged the legitimacy of what he calls the Zionist project.
Marouf contends that the attack succeeded in ways that previous rounds of fighting and non-violent protest had not. Earlier marches of return were met with live fire from Israel and indifference from much of the international community. Smaller exchanges of fire between Gaza and Israel produced temporary pauses but no structural change. By contrast, the scale and surprise of 7 October, he says, made it impossible to restore the previous status quo.
The event compelled Western governments to demonstrate that the defence of Israel was a higher priority than the advancement of human rights, international law and the so-called rules-based order. This has revealed western states to be hypocritical.
He extends the argument to the wider region. States that had spent years professing support for Palestinian rights—Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others—aligned themselves, in practice, with Israel’s military campaign. At the same time, members of the Axis of Resistance (Hezbollah, Iran, Yemen’s Ansarullah and Iraqi groups) accepted significant risk to their own societies in order to open additional fronts.
Marouf presents this as an “age of revelations”: formal rhetoric and actual behaviour diverged so sharply that members of the public in western society have been compelled to speak out against their governments who have responded by repressing their right to free speech and peaceful protest.
On the question of Israel’s long-term survival, Marouf argues that global public opinion has shifted decisively; the broadcast nature of the destruction in Gaza has created a memory that will not fade within the timeframe needed for Israel to restore its previous international standing.
He notes that Israel continues to exist largely because of sustained Western military, diplomatic and economic support, and he argues that nuclear threats have constrained the pace of Axis of Resistance operations. Drawing a parallel with apartheid South Africa, he suggests that the decisive moment will come when Western sponsors conclude that continued backing of Israel is more costly than withdrawal of that support, including any nuclear capabilities.
Marouf rejects the two-state framework as a form of legitimised apartheid. He argues that a just outcome would require a single political entity with equal citizenship, while acknowledging that the scale of recent violence has made reconciliation more difficult.
He expects that the majority of Israeli citizens would leave rather than accept equality with the indigenous population, with only a minority—primarily anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox communities—remaining.
Looking further ahead, Marouf sees pressure mounting on Gulf monarchies whose stability has depended on Western protection and on the recycling of oil revenues into Western economies. He anticipates continued conflict in West Asia for at least another two years, followed by a longer period of upheaval as existing structures of regional and global governance come under strain.
Europe, he suggests, is particularly exposed because of its dependence on energy imports and on Gulf investment.
The full conversation covers these points in greater detail, including the strategic calculations around nuclear weapons, the historical role of the Abraham Accords, and Marouf’s assessment of Iran’s regional posture. You can watch it here:
Wherever you are in the world, whatever your nationality and religion, I wish you much peace.
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