An unfriendly world, 50 years on

It’s uncanny how 7 October 2023 changed the world in much the same manner as 6 October 1973. The parallels and congruencies between these cataclysmic events are apparent. Israel was left reeling after massive intelligence failures on both occasions, necessitating the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF’s) desperate efforts in what amounted to a fight for the survival of the Jewish state. However, with 50 years separating these two events, there are significant differences which have severe consequences for not only Israel but the Jewish nation at large.

The massacre on 7 October resulted in the murder of 1 200 Israeli citizens. The enormous death toll of Jews shot in a single day hasn’t been seen since the Nazis deployed their Einsatzgruppen in a homicidal Holocaust of extermination. Hamas captured more than 250 Israeli hostages. It proudly released footage of the death, mayhem, and destruction it had wrought during its bloody cross-border incursion, which served to exacerbate Jewish misery. Hamas’s actions were not only designed to wreck the Abraham Accords, but to deliver the ultimate humiliation to Israel and highlight the IDF’s impunity in protecting its citizens. In a single shocking action, Hamas registered a massive military and propaganda victory, which, like 50 years previously, severely damaged the reputation of the IDF.

Unlike the Yom Kippur War, on the eve of Hamas’s attack, Israelis were politically divided. Israel experienced many months of rowdy protest against the government’s push for wide-ranging judicial reform. In an unprecedented action, fighter pilots belonging to an elite Israeli Air Force squadron joined in the protest and pledged not to attend training. The fabric of Israeli society seemed to unravel as the external threats to its existence receded. One by one, Arab nations, fearing the might of Iran, made peace with the Jewish state. Unlike October 1973, the descent into open warfare against Israel’s enemies didn’t completely galvanise Israelis behind their government. The fractures in Israeli society and the constant threat to the hostages’ lives delayed the IDF’s invasion of Gaza by many weeks, allowing Hamas to regroup and organise a stiff resistance.

The sheer audaciousness and lethality of Hamas’s attack left the Israelis confused, divided, and slow to react. Still, it was the international reaction to the massacre that confounded Jews in Israel and the diaspora the most. The global media’s muted “outrage” over 1 200 murdered Israelis almost immediately turned, and it began to blame Israel for the tragedy. Massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations rocked the capitals of the West before the IDF took one shot against Hamas. The short span of goodwill created for Israel in the wake of Hamas’s crimes against humanity rapidly dissipated. Increasingly, Western media outlets began a relentless campaign of condemning Israel and its right to launch an offensive into Gaza. As Gazan civilian casualties mounted, an inevitable consequence of urban warfare, so too did the anti-Israel vitriol propaganda machine of the Western “anti-Zionist” lobby. The depth and breadth of Jew hatred, hiding behind the cloak of anti-Zionism, took many Jews by surprise. The world hasn’t witnessed such a widespread spike in antisemitism since the demise of Hitler’s Reich. At times, Israel’s staunchest and most important ally, the United States, seemed to waver and hesitate in the face of a relentless left-wing mobilisation of all its resources against Jews and Israel. American university campuses were no longer safe for anyone who identified as Jewish or made common cause with Israel. The terror against Jews was repeated at many academic institutions around the world.

Fortunately, the IDF eventually rose to the occasion. Its military doctrine, which relied too heavily on technology, lay in tatters. The first signs of the revitalisation of fighting spirit were the extraordinary stories emerging of off-duty personnel bravely confronting Hamas insurgents without receiving any orders to do so from a paralysed higher command. Reports ranged from over-aged, retired generals to an all-women tank company hunting down terrorists. These early acts of individual heroism signalled an end to Israeli passiveness. The IDF quickly reinvented its urban warfare doctrine and, using a combined arms approach with boots on the ground, entered the urban jungle of Gaza. Slowly, inexorably, and carefully, the IDF rooted out Hamas from its extensive tunnel system and concrete fortifications. Unfortunately for thousands of civilians, Hamas’s defensive doctrine included the use of civilian structures and proximity to schools, hospitals, religious sites, and residential areas as a fundamental component of its resistance to the Israeli incursion. Emerging from the maelstrom of a year’s worth of vicious house-to-house combat was a veteran IDF that had overcome the worst of a dangerous enemy and had re-written the book on urban warfare.

Having subdued the threat of Hamas, if not entirely removing it, the IDF turned to the undeclared war with Hezbollah on its northern border. Sixty thousand Israeli refugees from the north were a testament to the concerted daily rocket attacks that had to be endured from Lebanon since 8 October 2023. In avoiding a fully-fledged two or three-front war, Israel had taken a muted approach to the daily Hezbollah missile attacks and an enormous missile and drone attack from Iran in April 2024. On 19 September, an incredible intelligence-driven operation resulted in thousands of Hezbollah commanders being put out of action via exploding pagers. In one fell swoop, Israel decapitated the command-and-control structures of Hezbollah. Targeted and precision aerial strikes have assassinated Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine. Acknowledging that airstrikes alone cannot defeat a resolute enemy, the IDF has placed boots on the ground and invaded south Lebanon.

Jews have experienced the lesson of naked Jew hatred, particularly against the state of Israel. Antisemitism is no longer the preserve of the far right, and the latest war against Jews is being waged from the far left. The IDF, caught unawares a year ago, has been primarily responsible for rebuilding security in a nation under siege and restoring respect from its enemies for its considerable military prowess. More importantly, it has demonstrated that Jews must ultimately rely on their own resources for their survival.

• Dr David Brock Katz is a research fellow at Stellenbosch University in the faculty of military science. He has published three books and numerous academic articles dealing with aspects of South African military history and military doctrine.