Who can forget the heartbreaking and cruel images that emerged from the Middle East one year ago?
On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced a large-scale attack by the militant group Hamas. Early in the morning, Hamas launched a barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, deliberately targeting civilian areas. Simultaneously, Hamas fighters crossed into Israeli territory by land, sea, and air using paragliders, motorcycles, and vehicles. They breached Israeli border defenses and carried out deadly raids on several towns and communities near the Gaza border.
The American Jewish Council says that Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — slaughtering babies, raping women, burning whole families alive, and taking hundreds of innocent civilians hostage. Since October 7, more than 1,200 Israelis have been killed. Terrorists are still holding over 100 men, women, and children in captivity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately declared that Israel was at war, and in response, the Israeli military launched intense airstrikes on Gaza, targeting Hamas positions, infrastructure, and leadership. The attack marked the most significant escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict in years, triggering widespread international reactions, with concerns about a broader regional conflict, which is happening today. It was unprecedented in its scale, coordination, and impact, leading to a state of emergency in Israel.
The first anniversary of those horrific attacks marks a solemn day with so many innocent people dead and wounded. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in August that 40,000 Palestinian lives have been lost, with most of the dead being women and children.
Simple-minded politicians speak about the conflict as one between good and evil. Attempting to find out who is at fault - or even better, who started it all - has eluded American administrations for over 75 years, since the day the state of Israel was formed.
Some argue that Western powers, led by the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, should not have facilitated the establishment of Israel in that part of the world, pointing to the Arab conquest of the region in 636 CE during the rise of Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate.
Others believe that it was the Arabs who conquered what rightfully belonged to Jews - as identified in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible), parts of which were written in perhaps the 10th century BCE, more than 3,000 years ago. The Old Testament says Israel is not just a geographic location but a divinely chosen nation with a unique role in God's redemptive plan. Its mission is to reveal God's holiness, justice, and mercy to the world and to be the nation through which the ultimate plan for humanity's salvation unfolds.
Today, the Old Testament's hopes lie shattered for people all over the Middle East. There's no justice, mercy, or salvation - and certainly no holiness as the death toll increases each day. But a lingering question always haunts us: Why are we in this situation? Could the October 7 attacks have been prevented?
Just as American intelligence agencies did not anticipate 9/11, Mossad, the highly secretive Israeli intelligence arm, did not foresee the October 7 attack. While the contexts of the two events differ, both were devastating in their impact and caught the intelligence communities by surprise. The agency appeared to have underestimated Hamas' capabilities. It seemed to be focused on other threats, including Iran and Hezbollah, both of whom are currently at war with the Jewish state. Hamas' use of tunnel networks and rockets surprised Israel, and it did not help that there were deep political divisions within the Israeli government that the Hamas terrorists exploited.
Whatever the reason, today is not the time to conduct a post-mortem on what went wrong on that fateful day. What is a lot more worrisome is that no one has a clue how to de-escalate and bring peace to the region.
Israel, having tasted phenomenal successes with its pager bombs and laser-focused targeting of the Hezbollah leadership with intelligent weapons, has decimated the top and mid-tiers of that Iranian-backed terror organization. Hamas, meanwhile, has been forgotten as an enemy as it has been severely wounded. The conflict has shifted focus away from Gaza and toward Israel's confrontation with Iran, a far more formidable adversary. Russia and China are closely monitoring the situation and appear to be ready to help Iran if a regional war breaks out, if only to spite the United States.
This was not what American officials anticipated even a year ago. The Biden-Harris administration is running out of options and has lost all of its influence in the region despite spending over $20 billion in the last year alone.
Vice President Kamala Harris was asked on CBS News' 60 Minutes on Sunday what America should do because Israeli leader Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. Her response lacked clarity: "The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region." It was a horrifying response from someone who could be the leader of the free world 31 days from now.
Other than saying that America is putting diplomatic pressure on Hamas to return the hostages and on Israel to cease fire so that humanitarian aid can resume and reconstruction can start, Harris has had no answer for months.
Meanwhile, President Trump insists that October 7 would never have happened if he were in the White House. He has a point - after all, he has an excellent record of not prosecuting any new wars during his presidency and building close personal relationships with the Israelis and leaders of the Arab world that resulted in the Abraham Accords. However, now that the region is in a military and diplomatic mess, Trump has not revealed how he would resolve the situation. No one would expect Trump to show his cards, either, given that he is the challenger and not privy to intelligence briefings.
One thing is certain: America cannot afford to let the situation escalate to another full-scale war in the region, especially with Ukraine losing territory and China asserting itself in the Asia-Pacific.
