Vom Arabischen Frühling bis zu Donald Trump: Der Israel-Hamas-Krieg im historischen und geopolitischen Kontext

In the organizer's words:

In his lecture,Uriel Kashi will examine the consequences of the terrorist attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Both the geopolitical background and a look into a possible future will play a role.

Hamas' brutal terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent military conflict represent a turning point that will have a lasting impact on the political dynamics in the Middle East.

This only becomes understandable if the subsequent war is not viewed as an isolated event, but as the result of decades of geopolitical developments in the Middle East. Anyone who wants to understand the current developments in Israel and the Gaza Strip must therefore consider the wider historical and political context.

In his lecture, Uriel Kashi, tour guide and director of the Beit Ben Yehuda youth education center in Jerusalem, will first provide an overview of key developments in recent decades: the impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the upheavals of the Arab Spring, but also global factors such as climate change and changing raw material requirements that influence the geopolitical balance of the region.

The second part focuses on the present and future of the region: in Israel, the discussion about the responsibility of the political leadership for the failure on October 7 and the handling of the hostage crisis continues to dominate the public debate. How will Israel deal with the domestic political tensions that have intensified since October 7? What prospects are there for the Gaza Strip? What could the reconstruction of Gaza look like? Can there be a new political order for Gaza in the long term, and if so, under whose control? What impact is the war having on other countries in the region? While Hezbollah has lost considerable influence in Lebanon, Syria is going through a phase of reorganization after the fall of Assad, in which it is still unclear which actors will dominate in the long term. And, of course, what impact will Donald Trump's return as US President have on developments in the coming years?