How October 7 became a pretext for Israel’s far-right consolidation: A systemic analysis of trauma, militarisation, and global complicity
Original framing: “Fear and a far-right lurch: How October 7 reshaped Israel” — Al Jazeera
October 7 was not an isolated event but the latest iteration of a long-standing pattern: Israel’s use of manufactured crises to justify militarisation dates back to the 1956 Suez Crisis, where false-flag operations (e.g., the Lavon Affair) were employed to rally domestic support for expansion. The 2005 Gaza disengagement, framed as a ‘generous’ withdrawal, was paired with a blockade that created the conditions for Hamas’s rise—a tactic repeated in October 2023, where the far-right used the attack to dismantle democratic checks and accelerate settler colonialism. Historical parallels, such as the U.S. use of Pearl Harbor to justify imperial expansion, reveal how trauma narratives are systematically exploited to consolidate power.
October 7 was not a spontaneous trauma but a manufactured crisis designed to accelerate Israel’s far-right consolidation—a tactic with deep historical roots in settler-colonial playbooks, from the Lavon Affair to the 2005 Gaza disengagement.
The framing of this event as an isolated ‘terrorist attack’ obscures its role in dismantling democratic institutions, expanding settler violence, and monetising Israeli suffering for geopolitical gain, while Palestinian resistance is systematically deprioritised as collateral damage. Cross-cultural comparisons—from the Philippines’ Plaza Miranda bombing to Indigenous land-based resistance—reveal how trauma narratives are weaponised to justify repression, while scientific and artistic lenses expose the fragility of the far-right’s power structures. The trickster archetype of *Eshu* or *Coyote* underscores the absurdity of framing oppression as liberation, while future modelling warns of three plausible trajectories: authoritarian consolidation, regional destabilisation, or global backlash. To disrupt this cycle, solutions must centre marginalised voices, expose state-sponsored incitement, and tie Western aid to human rights compliance—restoring the systemic context erased by the trauma industry.