Editors at National Review Online counter harmful legacy media narratives about Israel’s recent actions.
The daily media coverage of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East makes it seem as though Israel is perpetually “escalating” — carrying on a ceaseless assault on Gaza, bombing Lebanon, and threatening Iran. It is Israel that is portrayed as the primary destabilizing force in the region, in need of restraining.
But the anniversary of October 7 is an important reminder of why Israel fights.
One year ago, … under the cover of rocket fire, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel to commit unspeakable horrors — slaughtering babies, raping women, burning homes, and kidnapping civilians. It’s hard to find a parallel to the evil depicted in videos and images recorded on that day. It’s as if the Nazis and their victims all carried cameras in their pockets. In the assault, 1,200 people were massacred and 251 were taken hostage (roughly 100, both alive and dead, remain in captivity).
On October 8 of last year, Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas, began launching projectiles at Israel — and it has now fired thousands of them, almost daily. Just last night, rockets struck Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.
As a result of the attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, about 100,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from their homes, and parts of northern and southern Israel are still uninhabitable.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired drones and rockets toward Israel.
All of these attacks were either directly ordered by, or made possible by support from, the radical Islamic regime of Iran — which itself has launched two major ballistic-missile attacks aimed at Israeli civilians.
Israel, as a sovereign nation, must ensure that its people can live in security — and the only way to do that is by neutering Hamas and Hezbollah and deterring their primary sponsor, Iran.
