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700 Days Since Oct. 7: Resilience Amid Conflict, From Gideon to Gaza
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Three thousand years ago, 300 resourceful Israelite soldiers under the leadership of Gideon defeated 100,000 Midianites. Celebrated for bravery, strategy, and integrity, the legendary victory is also a story of large-scale violence that raises questions about proportionality, accountability and the limits of even divinely guided action.
Rigid ideology can cloud judgment, and miraculous triumphs can breed overconfidence or misread moral authority. Courage alone is not enough; wisdom, restraint, and discernment are essential. Military and political leaders alike must weigh consequences carefully, balancing the survival of their people with the legitimacy of their actions.
Israel’s now nearly two-year war with Hamas is a stark reminder of these lessons.
Civilians huddle under a relentless rain of rockets, including cluster munitions aimed at Jewish communities. Homes, schools, and hospitals tremble under constant threat. Recent attacks, like the murder of six Israelis at a Jerusalem bus stop, underscore that every citizen lives in danger while national leaders confront impossible choices. These are not abstract calculations — they are matters of life and death, of protecting communities while upholding the ethical framework that gives Israel’s actions moral and legal weight.
Fighting terror while preserving legitimacy demands deliberate, disciplined action: measured responses, protection of civilians, and principled leadership. Every strike, blockade, or intervention carries consequences that ripple beyond the battlefield. Just as Israel’s political and military leaders must navigate these realities, leaders in the Diaspora must resist judgments that oversimplify the complexity on the ground.
Policy and public rhetoric must balance urgency with restraint, ensuring that responses remain ethical even in a volatile reality. Understanding this complexity is not weakness — it is the foundation of enduring strength.
History offers repeated warnings of what happens when moral clarity fades or collective punishment replaces justice. Pogroms, massacres, and decades of conflict show that indiscriminate retaliation only fuels cycles of violence and suffering. When Israel defends itself, civilians in Gaza may be harmed; yet failing to defend Israel allows terror to traumatize communities. Facing this dilemma, leaders must act decisively while resisting the impulse to scapegoat. Precision and discipline are essential to maintain legitimacy both internationally and within Israel’s own conscience.
The October 7, 2023, attack against Israel brought this tension into sharp focus. Occurring on 22 Tishrei 5784 — Simchat Torah — it killed and injured scores of civilians, leaving deep scars.
A day of exuberant celebration, Simchat Torah marks the completion and renewal of the Torah reading cycle with singing, dancing, and communal joy. A yahrzeit, by contrast, is a solemn day of remembrance, reflection, and mourning.
Judaism reconciles these realities by allowing public celebration to continue while families privately honor the victims, for example by lighting a yahrzeit candle. Rabbis emphasize that this overlap embodies resilience and ensures continuity of tradition, so that grief erases neither faith nor joy.
Even amid the chaos of war, these lessons resonate. Just as Gideon’s small army triumphed through courage, strategy, and divine guidance, national leaders today must act with vigilance and ethical judgement. Strength does not come from reckless action, but from measured responses that weigh consequences, avoid collective blame, and uphold justice.
The October 7 attack, which coincided with Simchat Torah, ensures that the victims’ yahrzeit will always fall alongside this joyful holiday. This overlap highlights the difficult realities Israel faces: even on days of celebration, the shadow of violence and loss endures. Communities must navigate mourning while maintaining the routines of daily life, and leaders must make high-pressure decisions under constant threat.
Observing the yahrzeit is not just a matter of tradition — it serves as a reminder of the importance of measured, ethical action in the face of terror, and a call for resilience and clarity in confronting the present.
Ron Katz received his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He is president of the Tel Aviv Institute. He can be reached at ronkatz@tlvi.org.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.