{"id":332037,"date":"2026-10-14T06:58:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T06:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332037"},"modified":"2026-10-14T07:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:15:11","slug":"sinwar-tore-the-mask-off-zionism-but-at-what-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332037","title":{"rendered":"Sinwar Tore the Mask Off Zionism. But At What Cost?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Mike Whitney \u2013 The Unz Review Oct 11, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Is Israel winning its war with Hamas?<\/p>\n<p>Not in the classic von Clausewitz sense of the word, because the purpose of war is to achieve a political end-state. What is the political end-state Israel hopes to achieve?<\/p>\n<p>Israel wants to remove the Palestinians from Gaza. We know that; everyone knows that.<\/p>\n<p>But that hasn\u2019t happened, and after three years of relentless brutality, Israel is no closer to success than it was on October 8. They\u2019re still stuck at Square 1. So, where\u2019s the political end-state? Where\u2019s the victory?<\/p>\n<p>But what about Hamas? Is Hamas winning its war with Israel?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, <strong>Hamas is winning its war with Israel for the simple reason that Hamas is achieving its strategic objectives which will lead to a political end-state.<\/strong> Keep in mind, we\u2019re not talking here about the horrible price that is being paid by the Palestinian people. We realize that most of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland and that hope is nowhere in sight. But that\u2019s not the issue we\u2019re addressing. We have narrowed our focus to the question of whether Hamas is achieving its objectives. That\u2019s what we want to know. But, in order to do that, we have to identify what those objectives are.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, we have the text of a speech by Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar (that was delivered on December 14, 2022) in which he presents Hamas\u2019s strategy in the simplest of terms. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cWithin a limited period of months\u2014which I estimate will not exceed one year\u2014we will force the occupation to face two options: Either we force it to implement international law, respect international resolutions, withdraw from the West Bank and Jerusalem, dismantle the settlements, release the prisoners, and ensure the return of refugees, achieving the establishment of a Palestinian state on the lands occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem; <strong>or we place this occupation in a state of contradiction and collision with the entire international order, isolate it in an extreme and powerful manner, and end its integration in the region and the entire world, addressing the state of collapse that has occurred on all fronts <\/strong>of resistance over the past years.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/arabcenterdc.org\/resource\/demystifying-how-the-hamas-leadership-works\/\">Arab Center Washington DC<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Hamas-Gaza-Leaders-Sinwar-768x432-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-332039\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Hamas-Gaza-Leaders-Sinwar-768x432-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Hamas-Gaza-Leaders-Sinwar-768x432-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Hamas-Gaza-Leaders-Sinwar-768x432-1-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 768px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>So, what does Sinwar\u2019s statement mean?<\/p>\n<p>First of all, it tells us that he\u2019s a realist who had no expectation of beating Israel militarily. That was never a serious consideration. The IDF is much too powerful.<\/p>\n<p>Second, his intention was not to terrorize or kill Israeli civilians or \u201cpush Jews into the sea\u201d. Those claims are basically propaganda aimed at demonizing Hamas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The strategy, quite simply, was to incite an Israeli overreaction in order to show the world the true face of Zionism. That was the goal<\/strong>, and a careful reading of the text above proves that that was the goal.<\/p>\n<p>So, <strong>did Israel fall into the trap and overreact?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Of course, they did, in fact, the polling shows that majorities everywhere reject the idea that October 7 provides a legitimate justification for the destruction of Gaza. No one is buying Israel\u2019s threadbare excuse that October 7 gave them a greenlight to flatten the entire 25-mile strip.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, Sinwar anticipated Israel\u2019s reaction?<\/p>\n<p>He not only anticipated it; it was integral to his overall strategy. Like we said, <strong>he knew he couldn\u2019t beat Israel militarily, so he had to create a situation where Israel beat itself. And he did that. He revealed the dark heart of the occupier and steadily garnered more support for the Palestinian cause. <\/strong>That\u2019s called \u2018winning\u2019 in my book.<\/p>\n<p>So ask yourself this: <strong>Have Sinwar\u2019s predictions come to pass? Is Israel more \u201cisolated in an extreme and powerful manner\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Has the threat of \u201cregional integration\u201d been put \u201con hold\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It has.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And is Israel facing a \u201cstate of collapse that has occurred on all fronts\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Not yet, but we are still in the early rounds of this conflict. But <strong>by any metric, the trajectory of global public opinion suggests that Israel\u2019s soft power is eroding by the day. The country is more politically isolated than anytime in its history, and more and more people are expressing their horror at the criminal behavior of IDF troops operating in Gaza.<\/strong> Check out this comment by British actress, Juliet Stevenson who speaks for many of us:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>We\u2019ve been watching something out of hell. It\u2019s like something out of hell. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Atrocities. Crimes against humanity. War crimes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>And it\u2019s all been filmed. We\u2019ve all been able to see it.<\/strong> And I know many people have chosen to look away, because it\u2019s unbearable, but I haven\u2019t been able to do that. I didn\u2019t think there was a choice to look away. I thought, <strong>if it is happening, you have to witness it.<\/strong> And, if that\u2019s unbearable, well, you have to find a way of dealing with it because the Palestinian people are dealing with it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hippyygoat\/status\/2108241781318160500\/video\/1\">Juliet Stevenson, British actress,<\/a> How can the world watch this happen?, X<\/p>\n<p>This is the uphill battle that Israel faces, the fact that <strong>people have been drenched in the dreary imagery of genocide for over three years. These are images that don\u2019t go away, and they reshape one\u2019s view of the perpetrators<\/strong>. You can\u2019t unsee a child being targeted and deliberately killed by a sniper or masses of starving people being mowed down by machine guns as they try to gather food for their starving families, or young soldiers celebrating the implosion of schools, hospitals mosques and universities. Israel has even excavated more than a dozen Palestinian graveyards in an attempt to erase every trace of the native population. It\u2019s sick! <strong>No one has ever seen this type of sadistic violence before, and it leaves an impression.<\/strong> It brings back memories of Abu Ghraib and the horrific abuse of Iraqi fighters who were tortured and tormented by twisted American servicemen. The photos were circulated widely in the global media causing huge reputational damage to the United States. But \u2013to the point\u2013 <strong>Every day is Abu Ghraib in Gaza.<\/strong> Every day some new atrocity, some new abuse, some new horror. And people wonder: <strong>How can any people be so lacking in empathy? How can they be so devoid of humanity. This is pure nihilism drowning in oceans of blood. And it never stops. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In their hubris, Israeli planners think they can tweak their information programs and remove the stain of genocide. They think that aggressive messaging on social media, pro-Israel podcasters, and glitzy advertising campaigns they will eventually change hearts and minds and garner public support for the Jewish state. But all the polling data shows the exact opposite. Israel\u2019s public approval is in freefall and there\u2019s no sign of a turnaround. <strong>People have made up their minds. They\u2019re shocked to the core by the routine cruelty that soldiers dish out gleefully on a daily basis. We\u2019ve all seen enough. We\u2019re done.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And all of this is Sinwar\u2019s doing. He tore the mask off Zionism and showed the bloodthirsty creature behind.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve all been told that \u201cZionism is a political and nationalist movement that supports the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and sovereignty in their ancestral homeland.\u201d But the only people who accept that definition is the Zionists themselves. Everyone else bases their conclusion on what they see, and <strong>what they see is mountains of carnage amid acres of rubble. That is what the world sees, and that is what they call Zionism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SinwarMW-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-332040\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SinwarMW-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"501\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SinwarMW-2.jpg 399w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SinwarMW-2-239x300.jpg 239w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Will Israel\u2019s cheery social media \u201cinfluencers\u201d change that reckoning? I don\u2019t think so. I don\u2019t think they can.<\/p>\n<p>(But we\u2019ll leave that question for some other time.) What we need to understand is Sinwar\u2019s strategy had dual aims. On the one hand, he wanted to expose the face of Zionism that Palestinians have experienced for the last 80 years. (He accomplished that.) But, more urgently,<strong> he wanted to derail the effort to \u201cnormalize\u201d relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel<\/strong>. The Abraham Accords, which have been vigorously promoted by Jared Kushner, are a way of establishing normal economic and diplomatic relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors while marginalizing the Palestinians. Keep in mind, all of <strong>these Arab regimes signed The Arab Peace Initiative in 2002. The agreement \u2013which was unanimously endorsed by all 22 member states of the Arab League\u2013 stipulated that no Arab state would normalize relations with Israel unless they withdrew from the occupied territory, resolved the refugee issue, and accepted the creation of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The Abraham Accords (which already included 3 countries in the Gulf) threatened to bypass this agreement which would put Palestinian aspirations on the fasttrack to extinction<\/strong>. This is the part of the story that is never told in the western media. Until now. For some reason (I don\u2019t know why?) a number of news organizations have starting leaking information about \u201cnormalization\u201d which was the main driver of the October 7 attacks. Check out this headline from the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/middle-east\/hamas-wanted-to-torpedo-israel-saudi-deal-with-oct-7-attacks-documents-reveal-a70ec560\">Hamas Wanted to Torpedo Israel-Saudi Deal With Oct. 7 Attacks, Documents Reveal<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Militant leader Yahya Sinwar feared progress on peace would doom the Palestinian cause<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Summary: Internal Hamas documents recovered by the Israeli military from a tunnel in Gaza show that a <strong>primary motivation for the October 7, 2023, attack was to sabotage advancing U.S.-brokered normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia<\/strong>. Hamas leaders, particularly Yahya Sinwar, <strong>feared that a successful deal would marginalize the Palestinian cause<\/strong> and open the door to broader Arab and Islamic recognition of Israel. The key evidence is the minutes of an October 2, 2023, meeting of Hamas\u2019s political bureau in Gaza. According to the documents reviewed by the WSJ:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Hamas\u2019s military leader Yahya Sinwar noted that \u201cthe Saudi-Zionist normalization agreement is progressing significantly.\u201d which left \u201ca door open door for the majority of Arab and Islamic countries to follow the same path. \u201c<strong>He added that an \u201cextraordinary act\u201d was needed to derail the negotiations and \u201cto bring about a major move or a strategic shift in the paths and balances of the region with regard to the Palestinian cause.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Okay, will someone please explain to me why it took the editors of the WSJ three years to report on the primary motive behind October 7? You\u2019d think that they\u2019d be eager to cover an issue so critical to our understanding of a history-shaping event. But that clearly isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n<p>But the point is,<strong> the official storyline was wrong. Deliberately wrong<\/strong>. Hamas did not want to terrorize Jews, topple the government, or push Israel into the sea. <strong>The real goal of the October 7 was to sabotage Saudi normalization which was designed to sidestep earlier commitments by Arab leaders to demand concessions on Palestinian statehood<\/strong> before improving economic or diplomatic relations with Israel. It is no overstatement to say that Hamas was fighting for its life and the future of its people. The Abraham Accords posed a existential threat to every Palestinian. <strong>If the Saudis signed the agreement, the Palestinian cause would be \u201cvanished\u201d forever, which is why Sinwar settled on a desperate plan to put Palestine back on the regional agenda<\/strong>. Not surprisingly, Israeli leaders KNEW what Hamas\u2019s real objectives were but never divulged the information to the media. Instead, they stuck with the same, tedious \u201cHamas hates Jews\u201d gobbledygook. Just listen to this blurb from the former chief of Shin Bet, Ami Ayalon, and you\u2019ll see what I mean:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>The New Middle East presented by Biden<\/strong>, several weeks before, from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean, <strong>without Palestinians. The Palestinians were not mentioned. <\/strong>Now, if you ask me, the way I understand Palestinians; they see themselves as a people and a nation. And, second, they feel alone, abandoned. <strong>They feel like they were abandoned by all the Arab states who signed a peace (treaty) with us (Israel) without doing anything about it<\/strong>. And now America along with the state that founded the Arab peace initiative, (Saudi Arabia) they are going to give up all the holy places in Jerusalem and on a Palestinian state. This is what they felt. And my friend Khalil told me, \u201cAmi, you do not understand,<strong> they choose the \u2018Samson Option\u2019 because they felt they had nothing to lose, and this was the only way for them to show the world that \u201cYou will not be able to create stability in this region if you bypass the Palestinians.<\/strong> No more.\u201d And the tragedy is, they succeeded. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiddleEastEye\/status\/1736148386393252090\/video\/1\">Ami Ayalon<\/a>, X<\/p>\n<p>So, <strong>Hamas chose the \u201cSamson Option\u201d; a last-ditch, scorched earth military campaign that would grab headlines around the world and put Palestine back on the regional agenda. What other option did they have? <\/strong>The cause of self-determination in their own land was being obliterated before their very eyes. <strong>They needed something really big the stop Israel in its tracks. They needed October 7.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And before \u2018the usual suspects\u2019 start whining about \u201cterrorism\u201d and terrorist organizations, (Note: Hamas is only designated as a terrorist organization by a handful of countries, all of which are in the grip of powerful Zionists) please, consider the comments of Ami Ayalon once again, who candidly admits that he \u201cwould do everything to achieve his liberty.\u201d Take a look:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Question\u2013 What is the reality of life for Palestinians here?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Ami Ayalon: A people who dream about a life of freedom, but don\u2019t see it.<br \/>\nWhether we like it or not, we control the lives of millions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Question\u2013 If you were a Palestinian living on the West Bank or Gaza, what your view be of Israel?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Ami Ayalon\u2013 I would fight against Israel in order to achieve my liberty. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Question\u2013 How would you fight? How dirty?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Ami Ayalon\u2013 I would do everything to achieve my liberty, and that\u2019s it.<\/strong><br \/>\nYou cannot deter a person or a group of people if they believe they have nothing to lose.<br \/>\nWe Israelis shall only have security when they have hope. (53 seconds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/status\/2108294694384152652\">Ami Ayalon<\/a>, X<\/p>\n<p>Does that mean the former Shin Bet chief would engage in acts of terror against his oppressors? Would he launch violent attacks against the government and the army? Would he kill anyone who prevented him from achieving his freedom?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Ayalon: \u201cI would do everything to achieve my liberty, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, how is Ayalon any different than Hamas?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no difference at all.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line: Sinwar had multiple reasons for launching the October 7 attacks but none of those reasons had anything to do with \u201chating Jews\u201d or wanting to \u201cterrorize innocent civilians\u201d. The real goal \u2013according to internal Hamas documents- was \u201cto bring about a major move or a strategic shift in the paths and balances of the region with regard to the Palestinian cause.\u201d The second objective was to rip the mask off the Zionist monster they\u2019ve been dealing with for decades.<\/p>\n<p>I leave you to judge whether he succeeded.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Palestinian-kids.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-image-missing-alt aligncenter size-full wp-image-332041\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Palestinian-kids.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"578\" data-warning=\"Missing alt text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Palestinian-kids.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Palestinian-kids-480x462.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 600px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unz.com\/mwhitney\/sinwar-tore-the-mask-off-zionism-but-at-what-cost\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hamas had multiple reasons for launching the October 7 attacks but none of those reasons had anything to do with \u201chating Jews\u201d or wanting to \u201cterrorize innocent civilians\u201d. One objective was to rip the mask off the Zionist monster they\u2019ve been dealing with for decades. I leave you to judge whether they succeeded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":332038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332043,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332037\/revisions\/332043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}