PNN – Four experts on regional issues presented their views on Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, all of whom had the same opinion: Al-Aqsa Storm created a wave of global awareness and solidarity.
The Zionist regime had painted for itself an image of military superiority, intelligence superiority, and unchallenged control for decades. Operation Storm al-Aqsa shattered this image in a single morning. The storm irreversibly shattered the enemy’s power, and the Zionist regime was humiliated before the world.
This operation revealed what was hidden: the destruction of hospitals, schools, and mosques; the massacre of children and women; and the hypocrisy of those who claim to defend human rights. All these crimes were exposed to the world. The resistance’s ability to infiltrate Israeli-controlled areas, seize military bases, and capture Israeli forces dealt a psychological and strategic blow to the occupiers that was unprecedented since 1948.
On the second anniversary of Operation Storm al-Aqsa, we spoke with Salam Adel and Kian al-Assadi, Iraqi political analysts, Mohammad Meshik, a Lebanese international law expert, and Zeinab Asgharian, a senior Middle East expert in Iran, as detailed below.
Al-Aqsa Storm: The New Birth of Authority and Political Awareness
Salam Adel said: Operation “Al-Aqsa Storm” was not just a military event, but a moment of rupture in the media system and political hegemony that Tel Aviv had been strengthening for decades. What happened on October 7th brought Palestine back to the center of human conscience and exposed the falsehood of the image of itself as a victim that the occupiers had promoted. From that moment on, a global public opinion front began to form that rejected the crimes of the occupiers and opposed their policies of discrimination and genocide.
He added: The Al-Aqsa Storm exposed the Western responses to the Gaza massacre, the deep disconnect between the West’s rhetoric on human rights and its actual behavior in supporting the occupation. It also accelerated the contradiction and collapse of the US-led unipolar system.
According to Salam Adel, the world is moving towards a system of multiple standards and values, led by the people of the Global South, who reject Western double standards and redefine justice from a holistic human perspective, not through the criteria of power, money, and weapons. The Iraqi political analyst continued: The axis of resistance became more coordinated and coherent after the Al-Aqsa storm, because the idea of ”unity of the squares; unity of the fields” transformed from a political slogan into a unified operational reality, placing the Zionist regime in a state of constant erosion.
The resistance today is managing the conflict rationally, a long-term strategy, and has achieved asymmetric mutual deterrence that limits the Zionist regime’s ability to initiate or impose war and peacetime. The resistance is no longer just a gun, but a system of awareness, management, and balance that holds the equation of pain for pain and deterrence for aggression.
Adel added: After October 7, Israel lost its psychological superiority before its military superiority; the image of an invincible army collapsed, and the defense systems that Tel Aviv boasted of proved their limitations in the face of the creativity of the resistance. The resistance’s new deterrence equation has gripped the occupiers in fear and terror, as “time” is no longer on their side and the resistance has succeeded in dragging the battle deep into Israel politically, economically, and psychologically.
The Iraqi writer stated: Now, after the Al-Aqsa storm, Israeli society is experiencing its deepest divisions since the founding of the country, and the wave of anger and mutual accusations between the elite, the army, and the cabinet is increasing. The Netanyahu cabinet has entered a phase of political decline, while in a crisis of internal legitimacy and stifling external isolation, it governs based on the logic of survival rather than the logic of a program. Israel today resembles a body swaying under erosive internal and increasing external pressure, having lost the trust of its people before losing its ability to deter.
Salam Adel concluded his speech by saying: The Al-Aqsa Storm is not a fleeting war, but the beginning of a new birth of resistance and a new era of human and political awareness in the world. This war showed that people are capable of breaking domination and that Palestine has once again become a standard of justice and an engine of transformation towards a more balanced and just world.
Al-Aqsa Storm Exposes Occupied Territories to Fire
Kayan al-Asadi said: The Al-Aqsa Storm transformed the Palestinian front from a local issue to a global one. Through it, the Palestinian people regained their natural place in the conscience of humanity and reaffirmed that the right to self-determination is an exclusive and unique right for the Palestinians, and is neither granted nor taken away by international dictates or dubious agreements. Hence, we witnessed popular marches in the streets of world capitals, raising the voice of freedom and justice for Palestine in the face of the Zionist machine of oppression.
According to Kian al-Asadi, since the Al-Aqsa storm, the wave of international rejection of the occupiers’ actions has increased day by day, not only among ordinary people, but also in official, academic, and media circles in the West. There has been unprecedented criticism of the Zionist entity, and political elites in Europe and America have found themselves facing increasing public pressure to reconsider their absolute support for “Israel” and its aggressive policies.
Al-Assadi added: The global reactions, especially those of the West, to the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza have revealed a deep moral and political crisis in the structure of the global order that has existed since World War II. When the West, which has long presented itself as the “guardian of human values,” complicitly accuses Israel of genocide against civilians in Gaza, it effectively loses the moral and political legitimacy on which it has based its hegemony for decades.
He said: The first reflection of this is the erosion of the credibility of the Western system in the eyes of the people. Societies that once believed in the slogans of “human rights” and “freedom” are now witnessing the trampling of these values in the case of Palestine. This has led to the collapse of the Western moral narrative and the emergence of a new global discourse that links ancient colonialism with contemporary Israeli practices.
According to him, the second reflection is that the collapse of the unipolar system led by Washington has accelerated. The West’s biased positions have revealed the depth of the gap between the countries of the global South, which adopt positions of solidarity with Gaza, and the Western camp, which justifies crimes under the pretext of “self-defense.” This divide is fueling the rise of powers like China, Russia, and Iran that present themselves as more balanced and equitable alternatives in international relations.
Kian Al-Asadi added: The third reflection is that the war crimes in Gaza have contributed to the formation of a new global consciousness that rejects Western tyranny in defining good and evil and calls for a reshaping of the rules of international order based on justice, not force. Signs of this change have emerged in the United Nations, international courts, boycott movements, and even in Western public opinion itself, as younger generations in Europe and America have begun to reject their governments’ policies toward Israel.
Al-Asadi added: The Al-Aqsa Storm helped increase the level of trust and deterrence within the resistance axis and showed that the Palestinian resistance is capable of delivering a strategic shock deep within this entity. The logistical and political support provided by the Axis of Resistance powers made Israel realize that any large-scale confrontation would not be limited to Gaza, but would become a multi-front regional war. This understanding reinforced the concept of a balance of terror between the Zionist regime and the Axis of Resistance.
According to Kayan al-Assadi, the Al-Aqsa Intifada not only united the arena, but also united consciousness and destiny, and redrawn the boundaries between those who stand on the front of truth and resistance and those who align themselves with the front of submission and normalization. After this operation, the axis of resistance entered a stage of strategic maturity, where ideas became reality, slogans became actions, and resistance became a unified axis with will, weapons, and vision.
He concluded his speech by saying: The October 7 Hamas operation shattered the defensive stereotype of the resistance and created a new concept among the Palestinian factions and other resistance forces; we no longer have to be alone in a defensive position, but are able to take the initiative, create surprise, and inflict heavy losses on the enemy, far beyond what has been recorded in a defensive position. This doctrinal shift removed historical fear from within the opposing side’s combat systems and demonstrated in practice that the will to act could change the course.
Operation Al-Aqsa Storm undermined the image of the “Invincible Army”
Mohammed Meshik said: The Al-Aqsa Storm, despite the genocide and tragedies that affected the civilians of Gaza, and despite the positions of some official governments that went so far as to pass laws that criminalized criticism of Israel or support for the Palestinian resistance, paved the way for the formation of a global front against Tel Aviv’s occupation policies. However, the free people did not sit silent, but were moved by their living human conscience, and they took to the streets in unprecedented demonstrations of millions in a number of world capitals, expressing their rejection of Israeli aggression and their support for Palestinian rights. For example, we saw hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate in London, some of the largest demonstrations in the history of the British capital. The streets of New York, Paris, Berlin and Madrid were also filled with large crowds waving Palestinian flags, chanting slogans for freedom and justice, and challenging unjust restrictions and laws.