Review by Alex Miller

Towards the end of September 2023, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan declared that “the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades”. Sullivan’s complacent assessment was shown to be completely inaccurate when, a few days later on October 7^th 2023, militants from Gaza led by Hamas, launched a devastating attack on military bases and civilian communities in southern Israel. Hamas called the operation Al-Aqsa Deluge, after the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a Muslim sacred site in Jerusalem, encroachments upon which by Israeli nationalists are among the many grievances cited as motivating the October 7^th attacks.

The 13 essays in this collection were finalized in early December 2023, early in the 3^rd month of the genocidal military operation launched by Israel against Gaza in the days,  weeks and months following October 7^th. The contributors include distinguished professors, academic researchers and students from Oxford, Harvard and elsewhere; human rights workers and journalists from Gaza; and socialists and independent researchers from across the world. As this review is written, just over a year on from Al-Aqsa Deluge, Israel’s attack on Gaza continues, with one of the world’s most sophisticated militaries – armed to the teeth by the US – relentlessly pounding a trapped and defenceless civilian population, causing at least tens of thousands of deaths and casualties the majority of whom are women, children and elderly.

An indication of the insightful nature of the contributions is that none of them come across as outdated or obsolete, despite the fast pace of events in the months since their completion.

The book is in 3 sections: “Contexts” contains three essays on the nature of the occupation and siege that forms the background against which Al-Aqsa Deluge and the ensuing war have to be viewed; “Cataclysm” contains 6 essays on events on the ground in the war itself; the first two essays in “Solidarities” deal with the challenges facing organized support for the Palestinian cause in the US and UK respectively; and the final essay, by former MEP for Dublin Claire Daly, provides an excoriating account of how the (unelected) European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, completely usurped EU protocols in the course of promoting and parroting Israeli propaganda in the days following October 7^th.

One valuable feature of the book is the sober and intelligent discussion of Hamas, in particular of its motivations and aims in launching Al-Aqsa Deluge. Although the contributors have different (though sometimes overlapping) views on this, the discussions compare favourably with the cartoon-style caricatures that are standard in much of the western mainstream media. Perhaps the most moving essay is “Life and Death in Gaza”, by Gazan journalist and human rights worker Ahmed Alnaouq, who tells the heartbreaking story of the murder of almost his entire extended family at the hands of Israel.

Deluge contains a helpful timeline (starting with the Balfour Declaration in 1917), guidance on further reading, and a very useful glossary of key terms. The book is suitable for readers new to the issue as well as for those with prior knowledge. Overall, it constitutes a compelling addition to the literature on what is perhaps the defining moral issue of our times.