It doesn’t get more sobering than our painful memory of the horrors of Oct. 7. The heart-wrenching images are seared in our minds. Marauding invaders. The slaughter of innocents. Brutality. Savagery. Death. Torture. Hostages taken — some alive, some dead. Israel’s disturbing unpreparedness and vulnerability.
In a few days we will mark the one-year anniversary of that uniquely painful day. A yahrzeit. Our communities will gather to mourn and remember. And will do so in the shadow of continuing worry for the fate of the remaining hostages in Gaza, the safety of IDF soldiers and the security of the state of Israel. It’s still not over, and there is no end in sight.
Israel faces challenges and unrest on multiple fronts with enemies bent on the destruction of the Jewish state. Israel also faces profound internal strife. Fortunately, Israel’s defense establishment appears to have recovered significantly from its pre-Oct. 7 complacency and apparent miscalculations, having recalibrated its activities on the fly as it was propelled into a Gaza war it had not anticipated.
We are encouraged by the nation’s resolve and by the planning and execution of both offensive and defensive activities on multiple fronts that have been the historic hallmark of the country’s military and defense discipline. Israel seems to have regained its military moxie.
Israel continues to face an uncertain future in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank. Israel also faces an uncertain future internally, and everywhere else in the world. But that is how it has always been and what we have come to expect.
Israel remains a lonely nation with a few good friends — most significantly the sustaining, supportive embrace of the United States, the world’s most reliable and stalwart ally and friend. But most of Israel’s other relationships are transactional. Israel needs those relationships and needs to work harder to sustain them. That is no easy task.
If Israel learned one thing from Oct. 7, it is that nothing can be taken for granted. It was a hard and painful lesson, but one that Israelis seem to have internalized and accepted. It is a lesson that goes beyond war and peace or safety and security. Taking nothing for granted forces Israelis to accept reality while striving to make things better.
One year after Oct. 7, Israel is still in shock. Israel still mourns its fallen, prays for the release of the remaining hostages, struggles to address internal political discord that tears the country apart and fights for its survival against existential threats coming from all sides. Much of that has been the story of Israel for the past 76 years. But Israel has never had a year like the last one, and we hope that it never will again.
Israel is proud. Israel is strong. Israel is resilient. But even strong men cry. And it is possible to be proud even when one cries.
