There are rare moments when history reveals the conflicts of our time and gives us the opportunity to choose good over evil.
October 7, 2023 was this moment in our lives.
On that day a year ago, we saw the devil on earth.
The terrorist organization Hamas invaded Israel and committed the worst genocide against Jews since the Holocaust.
With Iranian support, they killed, raped, injured, and tortured thousands of Israelis and foreigners, and took hundreds to Gaza as hostages.
Since then, Israel has been fighting for survival and justice.
There are still tens of thousands of Israelis forced from their homes in the north of our country.
Hamas continues to hold 101 innocent Israelis, Americans, and citizens from more than 20 countries hostage in horrific conditions.
Despite all our efforts to achieve border peace and bring our people home, Iran and its proxies continue to use the October 7th massacre to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. It turned into a year-long endeavor.
However, developments over the past few weeks have made it conclusively clear that the tide is turning.
If October 7th reminded us that we have no choice but to take genocidal anti-Semitism seriously, Israel's decisive response also tells us something. Ta.
Betting against Israel is a losing bet.
In fact, Israel is at the forefront of Western self-defense against attacks by domineering and illiberal jihadists.
As terrorist leaders fall like dominoes, Israel is teaching all who will listen: “The forces of evil must be defeated.” And they will be.
In 1983, the terrorist organization Hezbollah sent a suicide bomber to kill 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other U.S. military personnel in a Beirut barracks. The attack also claimed the lives of 58 French paratroopers, making it the deadliest Marine Corps casualty since the Battle of Iwo Jima.
In July, Hezbollah's autocratic leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered a missile attack on Israel that killed 12 Druze children playing soccer in the village of Majdal Shams.
Last month, this villain paid the ultimate price for his slaughter of Americans and Israelis.
Similarly, Iran, as the head of this serpent of terror, is sounding its great saber.
But with each passing day, it finds itself and its vision of an apocalyptic future increasingly isolated across the Middle East.
As it turns out, Syrians, Lebanese, and even Gazans do not enjoy being disposable pawns in Tehran's relentless quest for regional control.
Instead, millions of decent, ordinary people want to join Israel and America in a sphere of power, security, freedom, and prosperity. It became famous due to the Abraham Accords. Through the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco courageously made peace with the Jewish state. .
Signatories of the agreement are reaping incredible benefits. And the ayatollahs in Tehran are watching with envy as tomorrow's Middle East leaves them behind.
On October 7, they tried to destroy this peace the only way they knew how: with animal violence.
Through their Hamas proxy, they sent the Nukba Battalion, thousands of their most dangerous fighters, not to engage soldiers on the battlefield but to shoot hundreds of young Israelis at the Nova music festival. Ta.
Burning villages, raping women, kidnapping children, turning southern Israel into a wasteland.
Anyone who has been paying attention this past year has known that Israel did not start the fires and never wanted this war.
Well, everyone knows more, but such battles are not only terrible, but also useless.
Those who pick a fight with Israel and the free world are signing their own death warrant.
In the clearest form since the Hamas invasion, a new Middle East is emerging, free from the doomsday jihadist extremism of power-hungry “leaders” in Gaza, Lebanon and even Iran. .
And each of us has a choice.
Can we say no to the Iranian regime's bloody and unwinnable attack on Israel?
Do we support the brave Iranian people who are trying to unshackle the dictator?
Do we accept that terrorist groups chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” should be forcibly defeated rather than supported forever?
Have we internalized the fact that for citizens of the free world, siding with Israel is self-preservation and joining Israel's enemies is slow-motion suicide?
It's time to choose. The time has come to support Israel and Western civilization against the Islamic extremist axis of evil in Iran.
It will take effort, but one year after the darkest day of our lives, we have a unique opportunity. It is about honoring the memory of the fallen and guiding a broken world toward peace, justice, and healing.
Ofir Akunis is Israel's Consul General in New York.
