First Anniversary of Ghastly Oct. 7 Attacks on Israel Is a Time To Reflect -- and To Make Amends

SAN DIEGO -- And so we arrive at the first anniversary of the hideous Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by thousands of Hamas terrorists on the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

Let's run through the three acts of this tragedy.

Act I was the acts of barbarism themselves, which left at least 1,200 people dead and hundreds more injured. About 240 people were taken hostage and transported into the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces. There is widespread evidence that countless women were sexually assaulted at the Nova music festival, as chronicled in the documentary "Screams Before Silence" produced by former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

All of this shattered the faith that many Israelis had for generations that their government would protect them. It also left behind tons of scar tissue and psychological trauma that the Israeli people -- and Jews all around the world -- will need to work through for years to come. In the United States, many of my Jewish friends and family members admit they had wrongly assumed that antisemitism was confined to the dustbin of history -- only to learn otherwise.

Act II included a scolding by the international community, much of which spent months following the attacks urging Israel to respond by doing nothing. Antisemitism surged around the globe. And Israeli leaders were getting unsolicited advice from onlookers following the events in the Middle East from thousands of miles away. As the world braced for a military response in Gaza, Israel's most important ally, the United States, sent mixed signals. Israel has the right to defend itself but only by our rules, the Biden-Harris administration seemed to say.

In the fog of war, even the so-called "experts" said and wrote some dumb things. New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman -- a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize who has covered the Middle East for almost 50 years -- tops the list. In a poorly timed column on Oct. 16, 2023 -- less than two weeks after the attacks, and before most of the dead had been buried and grieved over -- Friedman, whose personal dislike for Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu often seems to cloud his vision, urged Israel to turn the other cheek and not invade Gaza. Had Israel heeded that foolish advice, the Oct. 7 attack would likely have been followed by a dozen more attacks just like it.

Act III is where we are now. Israel is fighting seven battles and two wars. As detailed by The Times of Israel, Israel is fighting on seven different fronts: against Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza; against Hezbollah in Lebanon; against the Houthis in Yemen; against various Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria; against Iranian efforts to arm Palestinian militants in the West Bank; and now, most recently, against the nation of Iran itself, which attacked Israel with missiles in April and then again on Oct. 1. The two wars are the military offensive and the war of public opinion. It's doing much better with the first than the second.

The messaging from the Biden-Harris administration has improved. Officials such as national security adviser Jake Sullivan are finally getting the message that it's up to Tel Aviv and not Washington to decide how Israel should respond to what is a multitheater series of wars for its very existence. In response to the latest missile attack on Israel, Sullivan warned that Iran would face "severe consequences."

That's a start -- although it's worth keeping in mind that Biden and his entire team are short timers. According to Israeli political analysts, there is concern in some quarters of the Netanyahu administration that, if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election, Israel's relationship with the United States will get rockier.

Over the last year, Israel should have experienced -- from all corners of the world -- solidarity, empathy, compassion and understanding. Our friend and ally should have been given patience and a wide berth to do the messy work necessary to bring thousands of rapists and murderers to justice and fend off what turned out to be a wider threat to western civilization orchestrated by Iran and perhaps also shadowy figures behind Iran.

Instead, it's had to endure the opposite -- the strictest of scrutiny and presumptuous second-guessing from critics who watch these horrific events unfold from a safe distance.

Good people all around the world should offer the long-suffering citizens of Israel something they're due but never receive: an apology.

========

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.