As Israel’s war in Gaza nears what could be its final stage, debate is already turning to what the conflict has taught — and what must change next. Columnist Bret Stephens offers several hard-won lessons drawn from the past two years of fighting and the tragedies that began on Oct. 7, 2023.
1. Believe People When They Tell You Who They Are
Stephens recalls that Hamas openly declared its intent to destroy Israel in its 1988 founding charter. Yet, he argues, Israel and the international community tolerated the group for decades — partly out of political convenience and partly out of misplaced optimism. The result, he writes, was catastrophic: 1,200 people killed in a single day of terror.
2. Technology Is No Substitute for Strategy
Israel’s military innovations — from Iron Dome interceptors to border barriers — fostered a false sense of invulnerability. When Hamas launched its surprise assault using paragliders and bulldozers, those high-tech defenses failed.
Stephens cites Israeli analyst Yaakov Katz, who noted that technology “lulled Israel into believing it was impenetrable.”
3. Weakness Invites Attack
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said, “Weakness is provocative.” Stephens argues the same perception emboldened Hamas before Oct. 7. Israel’s internal divisions over judicial reform, he writes, “looked like a lunge toward authoritarianism” to many citizens — and like vulnerability to its enemies.
4. Ordinary Israelis Showed Extraordinary Courage
In contrast to political turmoil, individual heroism defined Israel’s response. Stephens highlights Noam Tibon, a retired general who fought his way into Kibbutz Nahal Oz to rescue his son’s family as his wife, Gali, ferried the wounded to safety.
“All of Israel are responsible, one for the other,” Stephens writes, quoting the Talmudic principle of communal duty that, in his view, “saved the Jewish state on Oct. 7.”
5. Israel Has a Narrative Problem, Not a PR Problem
Anti-Israel demonstrations around the world often frame Israel as a colonial power, but Stephens counters that Zionism itself was one of history’s earliest anti-colonial movements, built to reclaim Jewish self-determination after centuries of foreign rule.
He argues that Israel’s defenders should center the conversation on the nation’s right to exist as a Jewish state — comparable to Ireland’s or Greece’s national identities — rather than compete over “who suffers more.”
6. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Often Overlap
Stephens points to recent violent incidents, such as the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue, as proof that anti-Zionist rhetoric frequently masks antisemitic intent. Even limited wars or policy shifts, he writes, will not quiet those “determined to accuse Israel of the worst crimes on the thinnest evidence.”
7. Palestinian Suffering Is Real — and Hamas Is the Author
Stephens stresses that Palestinian civilians have endured immense hardship, but he holds Hamas responsible for initiating war and embedding fighters among noncombatants.
He argues that true peace demands a cultural shift among Palestinians — one that rejects the fantasy of Israel’s destruction and replaces Hamas’s militant dominance with leadership focused on coexistence and governance.
8. Moral Consistency Requires Demanding Change From Hamas, Too
Criticizing those who call for an immediate cease-fire, Stephens reminds readers that a cease-fire already existed before Oct. 7, until Hamas shattered it. “Why,” he asks, “do so many peace activists make demands only of Israel and never of Hamas?”
9. To Influence Israel, Be a Friend — Not a Scold
Stephens notes that Prime Minister Netanyahu often heeded Donald Trump’s advice because Israelis believed Trump supported their security interests. European leaders, he argues, could learn from that dynamic: “If they want influence, they should hug Israel close, not lecture from afar.”
10. Liberation Through Hard Truths
Despite its devastation, the war, Stephens suggests, could prove liberating:
- For Lebanese and Syrians, freed from Hezbollah’s dominance;
- For Iranians, facing weakened hardliners;
- And for Gazans, if they can rebuild a civil society free from Hamas’s repression.
A Final Warning
For Jewish communities worldwide, the conflict serves as a grim reminder of enduring vulnerability.
“After more than 3,000 years of history,” Stephens concludes, “the Jewish condition remains the same: precarious. Survival means learning to live with it.”
