Today’s a heavy one. It’s the anniversary of October 7, 2023—the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust—and Israel is still absorbing rockets from Gaza and drones out of Yemen even today. The war isn’t over. But the question we have to ask is: how does it end—and how does Israel avoid losing the peace even if it wins the war?
Even people on the left are starting to admit the obvious: Israel is held to a different standard. Scott Galloway—no conservative firebrand—recently pointed out that when America was attacked (Pearl Harbor, 9/11) we prosecuted war hard and nobody called it “genocide.” Israel fights more humanely than most modern campaigns—yet is told it can defend itself only up to a truce, never to victory. That’s a double standard, and it costs lives.
Two Years That Rewired the Region
I flew into Israel right after the attack. The scenes at Kibbutz Be’eri and elsewhere were beyond anything I’ve covered—murder and desecration. Israel’s response was righteous self-defense against an enemy that embeds in civilian neighborhoods and counts on Western outrage to do the rest.
Two realities have taken root inside Israel:
Never again, for real this time. There will be a buffer between terrorists and Israeli families—permanently. Security is getting layered, redundant, and domestic; foreign goodwill is nice, but it won’t be Plan A.
Humility after hubris. Israel missed it. Warnings were there; they bet the north would ignite first; they were wrong. That lesson is now baked in.
Regionally, Iran’s proxies have been smashed hard—Hamas degraded, Hezbollah leaders targeted, Iraqi militias cowed, Houthis still lobbing but bloodied. It’s reshuffled politics from Lebanon to Syria, where Iranian scaffolding has wobbled and local power centers are recalculating. Meanwhile U.S. forces have quietly absorbed hits while manning missile defenses that keep Israel breathing.
Bottom line: Israel has won a lot of battles. But on the global stage—diplomatically, informationally—Israel is bleeding support. That’s how you win the war and lose the peace.