This Book

This book seeks to diagnose the perspective that should be adopted when trying to conceptualize or analyze the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and Israel’s subsequent brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip. This perspective is of great importance, as variations in how the operation is understood and comprehended reflect different adopted perspectives. This perspective should be based on a comprehensive framework that spans time, place, and historical legacy. It is neither logical nor reasonable to discuss the Al-Aqsa Flood operation or the subsequent war of extermination targeting the Gaza Strip without considering its temporal, spatial, and historical context.

This is because understanding the motivations behind the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, grasping its connotations, and anticipating its outcomes cannot be achieved without comprehending the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the Zionist project at the end of the 19th century, the appearance of the term and project of the colonial Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century, the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the Allied victories in the two World Wars—World War I in 1918 and World War II in 1945—and the establishment of a global system in their aftermath in which Arabs and Muslims had no stake. This also includes the Zionist project taking complete control of Palestine in 1948 and later in 1967 and the United States’ domination of the global order as the sole superpower since 1991.