What is the curse of the "eighth decade" that Ehud Barak feared and Abu Obeida waved?

In a video speech on Saturday, the spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that "the time of the legend of the invincible army is over and that the current battle will be a watershed in the history of the nation," he said.

"The time of selling illusion to the world about the lie of the invincible army, the mirkava and superior intelligence is over, and we have broken it and destroyed it in front of the world in the Gaza envelope and in all of Palestine," Abu Obeida said.

Referring to the prophecy circulating in Israeli circles, the spokesman said that "the time of the collapse of Zionism has begun and the curse of the eighth decade will come upon them and let them return to their Torah and Talmud to read it well and wait impatiently for the time of their humiliation."

"The Curse of the Eighth Decade"

Last year, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak expressed fears that Israel's imminent demise would come before its 80th anniversary, citing "Jewish history according to which Jews have no state for more than 80 years except in two exceptional periods."

In an article in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Barak said, "Throughout Jewish history, the Jews have not had a state for more than 80 years except in two periods: the period of King David and the period of Hasmonem, both of which marked the beginning of its disintegration in the eighth decade."

He added that the current experience of the Jewish Zionist State was the third and was now in its eighth decade, and he feared that the curse of the eighth decade would descend on it as it had descended on the previous one.

Barak pointed out that they are not the only ones who were afflicted by the curse of the eighth decade; "America broke out in civil war in its eighth decade, Italy turned into a fascist state in its eighth decade, Germany turned into a Nazi state in its eighth decade and was the cause of its defeat and division, and in the eighth decade of the communist revolution the Soviet Union disintegrated and collapsed and collapsed its decade."

"Israel is located in a difficult environment where there is no mercy for the weak," Barak continued, warning of the dire consequences of underestimating any threat, saying "it has become a must of self-calculation," warning that "Israel has shown an imperfect capacity in the political sovereign presence."

He also stated that "the eighth decade of Israel heralded two conditions: the beginning of the disintegration of sovereignty and the existence of the kingdom of Beit David, which was divided into Judea and Israel, and as an entity we reached the eighth decade as if we were in storm, in blatant disregard of the warnings of the Talmud."

Barak, who previously served as Israel's defense minister and prime minister, added: "In both cases, the eighth decade heralded the beginning of the disintegration of sovereignty. In the eighth decade of its existence, the kingdom of the dynasty of David and Solomon was divided into Judea and Israel. In the eighth decade of the Hasmonean kingdom, internal polarization arose, and the representatives of the wings made a pilgrimage to Pompeius in Syria, and demanded the dismantling of the Hasmonean kingdom and their wing became subordinate to Rome until the destruction of the Second Temple."

"The Zionist project is the third attempt in history. We have reached the eighth decade and we are obsessed with obsessed with blatantly ignoring the warnings of the Talmud, hastening the end, indulging in free hatred."

"Third House"

This proposition was also adopted by journalist Ari Shavit, who reviewed – in his book "The Third House" with reference to the "State of Israel" – how the Israelis became "the greatest enemy for themselves in the eighth decade of the independence of the Hebrew state," saying, "Security challenges can be faced, but the disintegration of identity cannot be overcome," according to a previous report by Al Jazeera Net.

He questioned what he described as an "Israeli miracle" and what explains its continued existence for decades, and what is the new existential threat facing the Jewish state, pointing out that Israel is witnessing a state of internal disintegration and attempts to regroup it, saying, "There will be no fourth house. Israel is the last chance for the Jewish people."

"For me, Israel is a man-made miracle; no country in the world has done what we have done. No democratic country has achieved such prosperity as ours in such a hostile environment. Despite all the enemies, wars, troubles, failures and mistakes, the Zionist dream was realized."

"But in recent years, we've all felt something went wrong. Although Israel is a rare success story, it is torn, injured, in pain and bleeding. She lost her way and lost her compass."

Fears of demise

In a reading of the loss of this compass, Israeli writer and analyst Rogel Alver believes that Israel signed the certificate of its demise, attributing this to several reasons, including a multi-front war, in addition to internal disintegration, rampant corruption, internal conflicts between Jewish currents, and cultural conflicts in Israeli society.

Alver wrote in Haaretz that "in Israel's next war with enemies, the Jewish population of the country will receive orders to commit suicide."

He recalled that when the Egyptian army won and occupied the town of Nitzanim during the 1948 war "in the south of the Jewish state," the then IDF chief of staff ordered Jewish soldiers and officers to fight to the death. As well as killing Jewish officers and soldiers who decide to surrender to the "enemy."

The Israeli writer argues that since then a "culture of death and redemption for the homeland" has crystallized in Israel, meaning that Jews do not surrender during war, and "because of the entrenchment of this culture, Jews have been living for decades in a situation that seriously suggests to them that thousands of them will die in the event of a multi-front war."

He stressed that "the Israeli security establishment deliberately promotes to the population in the country that the next war – in which thousands of rockets from Lebanon, Iran and the Gaza Strip will fall deep inside Israel, killing thousands of residents – is only a matter of time."