Irreparable: The tale of the Zionist regime’s failures

“Irreparable” – a phrase used by the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, on October 10, 2023, just a few days after the historic Al-Aqsa Flood operation, to describe the condition of the Zionist regime. He described a defeat that had inflicted such severe damage on the regime’s military, security, and intelligence structures that repairing them would not be easily possible:

"The ruling structures of the [Zionist] regime have been damaged in such a way that it is unlikely that the usurping Zionist regime will be able to restore those structures even with all the commotion that they are making and with all the support that it currently receives from the West. I would like to say that after Saturday, October 7, the Zionist regime will no longer be the regime it used to be, and they cannot easily compensate for the blow that has struck them."

Now, three years after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation of October 7, perhaps this question can be posed more seriously than ever: Was that damage ever repaired?

The signs indicate otherwise. Rather, what began on October 7 has turned into a chain of failures – a breakdown that has crossed the borders of Gaza and extended into the security, political, social, regional, and even international spheres.

From an “invincible Israel” to an Israel caught off guard

Prior to Al-Aqsa Flood, one of the dominant narratives surrounding the Zionist regime was that of a virtually invincible military and intelligence power – a regime that claimed that not even the slightest movement around its borders could escape the attention of its intelligence and security apparatuses.

But Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shattered that image.

Al-Aqsa Flood was not merely a military operation; it shattered the narrative of an “impenetrable Israel” – a narrative that, according to the regime’s founders, played a fundamental role in the continued existence of the Zionist regime. Palestinians passed through the security barriers and fences, entered the occupied territories, and caught off guard a system that had for years portrayed itself as possessing one of the most sophisticated security systems in the world.

The significance of this event lay not merely in the number of operations or the extent of the military damage; its primary significance lay in shattering an assumption: that Israel could guarantee its security indefinitely behind walls, intelligence systems, and military superiority.

From that point onward, the issue was no longer simply that Israel had been caught off guard in a single operation. The question was whether the very image Israel had constructed of its own power could ever be rebuilt at all.

October 7: The explosion of seven decades of accumulated anger

From a historical perspective, Al-Aqsa Flood can be viewed as the eruption of pent-up anger that had accumulated in Palestinian society for more than seven decades – decades of massacres, imprisonment, displacement, the loss of homes and land, and life under the shadow of occupation.

In this sense, October 7 is not merely a date. It is the point at which a historical reality once again asserted itself: the Palestinian issue had neither been erased nor could it be erased.

For years, the Zionists attempted to push the Palestinian issue to the margins. However, Al-Aqsa Flood demonstrated that an issue once thought to have been resolved had once again taken center stage in regional and global developments. The Al-Aqsa Flood operation gave renewed centrality to the issue of resistance against US-Zionist oppression, to the extent that slogans in support of Palestine shifted from merely calling for peace to expressing support for the Resistance.

A defeat that emerged from Gaza

The true depth of this defeat is best understood when we trace the repercussions of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood beyond the battlefield. The war rapidly transcended the borders of Gaza. Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and other regional fronts entered the equation, transforming the security that Israel had sought to confine within its own borders into a broader regional issue.

At the same time, political dynamics also began to shift. Countries that, prior to Al-Aqsa Flood, had been moving toward rapprochement or the normalization of relations with Israel, were confronted with a new reality. Even in countries that maintained their ties with Israel, political distancing and critical stances intensified.

Consequently, what was intended to serve as a prelude to solidifying Israel’s position in the region instead became the very factor that called that position into question.

The Palestinian issue regained its global prominence

One of the most significant political achievements of October 7th for the Palestinians was the restoration of the Palestinian issue to the center of global public attention. 

For years, concerted efforts were made to relegate the Palestinian issue to the margins of international politics. However, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, universities, media outlets, human rights institutions, and international forums once again became engaged with the matter.

From university protests in the United States and Europe to student and social movements in various countries, and from mass demonstrations in London to South Africa’s filing of a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, the Palestinian issue once again became one of the most prominent subjects of global public discourse.

South Africa, a country that has itself emerged from the experience of apartheid, filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. This development also carried political significance: Israel could no longer portray itself merely as a historical victim or a besieged democracy; its conduct had instead become the subject of a serious legal and moral dispute on the international stage.

The peak of infamy for a fictitious regime

Even within the United Nations, signs of a shift in this atmosphere became apparent.

During Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UN General Assembly, nearly two-thirds of the delegates and delegations walked out of the hall. Irrespective of the UN's practical efficacy, such a scene conveyed a clear symbolic message: even governments are no longer inclined to associate themselves with the Israeli regime and dread being associated with it.

The United Nations may not be able to alter the balance of power on its own, but global public opinion and even governments around the world are no longer necessarily willing to accept Israel’s narrative without question.

And this, in itself, is one dimension of that “irreparable defeat”: defeat in the realm of narrative.

The "end of the Palestinian issue" bubble burst

For years, Netanyahu and the political forces governing Israel operated on the assumption that the Palestinian issue could be pushed to the margins without actually being resolved – through weakening, besieging, and politically eliminating the Palestinians, followed by the normalization of relations with the Arab and Islamic world.

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shattered this calculation.

The Palestinians demonstrated not only that they were still there, but also that the Palestinian issue could still affect the region’s security and political equations.

From this perspective, October 7 was not merely an operation. It demonstrated that walls, technology, and military superiority do not necessarily amount to invincibility.

Internal fissures: Defeat reaches behind the walls

Yet perhaps one of the most significant dimensions of this defeat lies where it is least visible: within Israeli society itself.

A regime that for years presented security as its most important advantage is now grappling with a series of internal crises, social protests, political polarization, and declining public trust.

The widespread protests of 2023 against judicial reforms, described by some analysts as one of the largest protest movements in Israel’s history, demonstrated just how deep the political and social divisions within the regime had become.

The clash between liberal and national-religious factions, disputes over Israel's political and social future, and growing distrust of governmental and security institutions all paint a starkly different picture of a society that, on the surface, ought to be more unified than ever.

Meanwhile, personal security has itself become a crisis. According to various domestic reports and polls, a significant proportion of Israeli citizens harbor low trust in the police and express deep concern over violence and insecurity.

In other words, defeat is no longer confined beyond the borders. It has reached inside people’s homes.

A society that failed to unite after Al-Aqsa Flood

It was anticipated that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood would plunge Israeli society into a prolonged state of unprecedented solidarity. However, subsequent reports indicate the persistence, and indeed the reproduction, of social and political rifts.

If a society cannot develop a shared narrative about its future in the wake of its most profound security crisis, the issue transcends a mere political crisis; it points to a deeper crisis concerning the very social cohesion of that society.

October 7 therefore exposed a profound paradox: a society that regarded itself as a secure fortress surrounded by enemies is now facing a security crisis, a crisis of trust, and an identity crisis.

When Israeli public opinion itself is uncertain of “victory”

Public opinion polls in recent years further provide a clear picture of this crisis.

According to several polls conducted in 2024, a significant majority of Israelis assessed the likelihood of achieving an “absolute victory” in Gaza as low. Concerns regarding the protraction of the war and its potential escalation to other countries in the region were also prevalent among a substantial segment of the population.

In 2025, belief in the possibility of peaceful coexistence with an independent Palestinian state had plummeted to its lowest level in over a decade, even as the absence of mutual trust continued to be viewed by the Israeli public as one of the most significant obstacles to peace.

Even regarding the confrontation with Iran, alongside support for military action, concerns have been raised about the absence of an exit strategy and the resilience of the home front.

This is an important paradox: a society may support a war while simultaneously lacking confidence in victory.

And perhaps this is one of the clearest signs of that “irreparable defeat.”

From Al-Aqsa Flood to the confrontation with Iran

The US-Zionist aggression against Iran not only failed to heal the fatal wounds inflicted upon the crumbling body of the Zionist regime following Al-Aqsa Flood; it deepened them further.

In this confrontation, the Global Arrogance entered the fray with all its might, seeking to inflict defeat on the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yet, contrary to their calculations, the outcome reached a point where the United States and the Zionist regime themselves were seeking to halt the conflict and establish a ceasefire. Iran’s missile and drone retaliations targeted US positions and bases in the region, as well as vital facilities of the Zionist regime, once again exposing the vulnerability of the Zionist regime and its primary supporter to Iran’s missile power.

The situation has reached a point where, within global political, economic, and military analytical circles, many analysts consider the two recent US wars with Iran to be among the most critical factors in the complete collapse of American hegemony.

For this reason, it can be said that “irreparable defeat” is not merely a phrase describing a single military operation. Rather, it is a description of an erosive process whose repercussions have extended far beyond Israel, impacting even its primary backer.

In fact, Al-Aqsa Flood was the starting point of this process – a blow that shattered the regime’s aura of power and set it on a course in which every subsequent confrontation, rather than facilitating recovery, only deepened its fissures. From this perspective, what occurred in the confrontation with Iran was a continuation of that same defeat – a defeat that originated in Gaza, escalated to a direct confrontation with Iran, and placed both the United States and the Zionist regime on a steep downward trajectory toward collapse.

The future world belongs to Palestine

Three years after Al-Aqsa Flood, the meaning of “irreparable defeat” has become clearer than ever. For the Zionist regime, this operation was not merely a security and intelligence defeat. It was a fissure that extended into the regime’s projected image of power and invincibility, its social cohesion, its regional standing, and its international credibility. Palestine and the ideology of resistance – from Gaza to the universities and streets of Europe, and from global public opinion to international legal forums – have once again become a global issue.

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood demonstrated that no illegitimate security wall, regardless of the extent of its support from arrogant-colonial states, can forever confine a nation and its historical oppression, nor can any military superiority erase a reality known as Palestine.

Perhaps it is for this reason that today we can comprehend with greater depth the words of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khamenei, articulated a few weeks after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: 

“The future world belongs to Palestine. It does not belong to the usurping Zionist regime.”