Deterrence Is Cheaper Than Weakness
This article was originally published by AFPI Faith. Republished with permission by the author.
Three years ago, on a Sabbath morning and on the Jewish holiday that marks the completion of the reading of the Torah, Hamas terrorists broke through Israel’s border and murdered about 1,200 people, most of them civilians. They slaughtered families in their homes and young people at a music festival, and they dragged 251 hostages into Gaza. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Memory is essential to our religious and civic life. It grounds our identity, reminding us who we are and where we come from. It also deepens our civic obligations. We remember the moments we have shared and the duty we owe our neighbors, answering yes to Cain’s question: we are our brother’s keeper. That is why, on this third anniversary, we must never forget three lessons.
First, October 7 reminds us that evil is real. Many progressives have embraced an ideology that denies intrinsic evil. When unthinkable crimes against humanity occur, they hesitate to condemn the perpetrators and reach instead for explanations: the circumstances, the structures, the grievances of the past. Such a worldview has no room for sin, for evildoers, or for darkness in the human soul.
To be sure, many condemned the attacks. But too many hesitated, qualified, or explained, and the hesitation itself was revealing. Some went further: all too predictably, several governments blamed Israel itself. October 7 shattered the illusion that there is no such thing as sin. The sight of killers descending on paragliders to butcher families revealed how dark the human heart can be apart from grace. We live east of Eden, and life here is dangerous because evil is real.
Second, we remember that a common enemy makes strange bedfellows, and consistency isn’t required. Hatred for Western values has aligned groups like “Trans for Palestine” and Code Pink with Hamas, even though Hamas would gladly kill them for the very identities they celebrate. Hatred does not seek consistency; it seeks only a common enemy.
That is because, as the apostle Paul wrote, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Flesh and blood belong to the human realm, where reason and consistency still apply. Spiritual forces are bound by no such logic; hatred seeks only to devour. The West must remember October 7 because the hatred that struck Israel is not confined to a small patch of land in the Middle East or even to the Jewish people themselves. It targeted the civilizational values that emanate from Jewish history: the dignity of every human life, the rule of law, and freedom of conscience. The Islamist ideology that drove the attackers that day seeks to conquer the West and replace it with a system that knows neither freedom nor mercy.
Finally, the war that followed reminds us that peace requires strength. In the 1930s, Western pacifists believed they could appease evil. They learned too late that no concession satisfies a soul fixed in hate. In a fallen world, restraining evil requires strength; as Paul reminds us, the governing authority “does not bear the sword in vain.” Peace is not the mere absence of fighting. True peace is built on security, and security depends on the will to defend the innocent. Israel is fighting a multi-front war against enemies from Hamas to Iran and its proxies, who are committed to exterminating not only the Jewish people but Americans as well. Israel’s hard lesson is one that Western civilization must learn: those who cannot or will not defend themselves do not get peace.
On this October 7, we remember these hard truths. But above all, we remember the innocent men, women, and children whose lives were taken, and those who were carried into captivity. We are creatures of memory, and memory is why we grieve. As we mourn all that has been lost these past three years, we are reminded that healthy grief refines us. God often uses grief to draw communities closer together and equip us to endure in a fallen world. October 7 shocked the world into remembering that evil is real. But it also reminds us of something stronger: love calls us not only to remember, but to find the courage to fight for peace.
