Alexander Siagian

During speaking events at universities across the United States, I am often asked whether my assessment that Hamas's October 7 attack ultimately failed is accurate. After all, by several measures, the Islamist terror group appears to have achieved significant success. Massive "pro-Palestine" protests, campus encampments, the rise of new anti-Israel political voices in Congress, growing efforts to delegitimize Israel in mainstream discourse, and renewed global attention to the Palestinian cause all suggest that October 7 succeeded in thrusting the conflict back onto the international agenda. More importantly, Israel's overwhelming response produced devastating images of death and destruction that shifted global attention away from Gaza's internal realities and toward the rhetoric and conduct of Israel's government. My response is always the same: look at the consequences of October 7. Whether measured through humanitarian outcomes, quality of life degradation, geostrategic realities that are unfavorable for the Palestinians, or setbacks to the Palestinian national interest, the attack and the "resistance" narrative surrounding it have been profoundly damaging to the Palestinian people's legitimate aspirations for freedom, dignity, and prosperity. In winning the battle for global public opinion, Hamas lost the very people it claimed to represent; the Palestinian people of Gaza, who are now overwhelmingly against the Islamist terror group and its “resistance” agenda. Many Gazans have concluded that if advancing the Palestinian cause within the media, academic, political, activist, and social-media ecosystems requires their death, displacement, and destruction, then they want no part of such a project. If the "cause" demands the loss of their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones, many ask whether it is a cause worth pursuing at all. In other words, Hamas's October 7 attack may have generated images of Palestinian suffering that transformed public discourse in the United States and around the world, even contributing to unprecedented political debates about U.S. support for Israel; yet these developments remain largely disconnected from the daily realities of hundreds of thousands of Gazans who are displaced, impoverished, and paying the price for events over which they had little or no control. Hamas may have gained ground in the global narrative war, but in doing so, it lost the confidence of many of the people on whose behalf it claims to fight. The majority of Palestinians in Gaza do not wish to serve as cannon fodder for a nihilistic jihadist project that has brought catastrophe upon their society. Thank you to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for hosting a thoughtful discussion on Gaza's current realities, the role of the United States, and meaningful pathways forward.