Three years ago today, more than 5,000 Gazans led by Hamas crossed the border into Israel with the intent of raping and killing as many Israeli civilians as possible. The invaders gleefully filmed themselves killing 1,200 people, including 47 Americans. They took 251 hostages, including 12 Americans. Investigators have documented at least 15 cases of sexual assault, including gang rape and mutilation.
It was an orgy of violence and nihilism that would ultimately cause not only the reordering of the entire Middle East but also the transformation of one of America’s political parties.
Israel’s response, backed by American force and diplomacy, has since devastated Hamas’s military organization and eliminated leaders responsible for the massacre, including Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif. The surviving hostages have been returned home, and the dead have been recovered and laid to rest. Hamas survives, but its ability to threaten Israel has been severely diminished.
To Israel’s north, Hezbollah lost Hassan Nasrallah and much of its senior leadership. Israel’s campaign weakened the Iranian proxy that had dominated Lebanon and helped create the conditions for Bashar al Assad’s overthrow by Syrian rebels. His departure deprived Tehran of an important ally and disrupted its supply route to Hezbollah. The network Iran spent decades building to encircle and terrorize Israel has been shattered.
Israel and the United States have also struck Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, further weakening a regime that has long threatened American interests and allies. The war has lasted longer and cost more than the White House anticipated, but Tehran’s setbacks offer an opportunity to build a more secure and prosperous region. Washington must now turn those military gains into a lasting settlement that prevents Iran and its proxies from rebuilding their capacity to terrorize their neighbors.
At home, however, the aftermath has pulled Democratic politics in the opposite direction. Criticism of Israeli policy has long had a place within the party, but the salience of the issue has changed dramatically since 10/7. The Democratic Party’s activist wing is now demanding that candidates brand Israel’s defense of its borders a genocide and distance themselves from the American organizations that support the alliance. Gaza has become an ideological loyalty test for Democrats, even surpassing foundational bread-and-butter issues such as Medicare for All.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic congressional primary winner Chris Rabb demanded that his rivals join him in calling the war genocide. He won backing from the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, and members of the “Squad.” In New York, Brad Lander defeated incumbent Dan Goldman in their Democratic primary after condemning the Gaza campaign as genocide and challenging Goldman’s support for Israel.
The pressure extends beyond deep-blue congressional districts. Democratic Michigan Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed attacked primary rival Rep. Haley Stevens as more committed to Israel than American schools and healthcare. Opposition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has become a credential that candidates advertise. Economic progressivism alone increasingly fails to satisfy activists who demand allegiance on Gaza.
Worse, the genocide accusation at the heart of this loyalty test is false. Israel’s war against Hamas is not genocide. The term requires an intention to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, wholly or partly. Civilian deaths, even high numbers of them, do not establish that intention. Neither does the destruction of buildings where terrorists operate. The distinction matters precisely because warfare always inflicts terrible suffering.
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Israel’s evacuation warnings and efforts to facilitate humanitarian relief are evidence against the claim that destroying Palestinians is its objective, although they do not by themselves settle the question of intent. Specific military decisions can warrant investigation without making the entire campaign genocidal. If civilian casualties and urban destruction alone establish genocide, then virtually every major modern war qualifies. That standard empties the word of meaning while making defense against terrorists morally impossible.
The events of Oct. 7, 2023, were a horrific crime. Fortunately, three years later, Israel has administered justice to thousands of those who crossed its borders that day and will not rest till all of them have been punished. But on this anniversary, we should recognize what the U.S. and Israel have accomplished and renew our determination to protect Americans from terrorism at home and abroad while building a Middle East whose future terrorists cannot dictate.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
