In an alternate universe, the American media would have answered 7 October by putting Jehad Abusalim on speed dial. Abusalim, who runs the Washington DC office of the Institute for Palestine Studies, is not only from Gaza, but also a Hebrew speaker who is completing a PhD in history, Hebrew and Judaic studies. Several months before the attack, he had published an essay arguing that Hamas “appears to be strategically conserving its resources for a potentially larger confrontation with Israel”. It’s hard to think of anyone within taxi distance of America’s television studios who was better equipped to help Americans understand Hamas’s massacre and Israel’s brutal military response.
In the days and weeks after 7 October , Abusalim used whatever platform he had to warn that Israel’s response would bring destruction, not safety. Again and again, he predicted that Israel would obliterate Gaza without defeating Hamas. “There is no military solution to this crisis,” he declared on X (formerly Twitter) on 11 October. “A ground invasion is unlikely to succeed,” he added on 15 October. “Israel is likely to kill ten times the number of Palestinians it has killed so far,” he predicted on 6 November. But “Israel will not achieve a military victory in Gaza.” He also warned of a wider war. “Many are assuming there won’t be a regional escalation,” he added, “but they are wrong.”
