Opinion Today: On Oct. 7, looking back over a tumultuous year

The attack and Israel's response have brought fundamental changes in the region and beyond.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 7, 2024 By Kathleen Kingsbury Opinion Editor Like many Americans, I woke up early on this date last year to an alert on my phone, notifying me of the still-blurry details of an attack underway in Israel. As the hours and days wore on, the horrific contours of Hamas's assault on southern Israel came into focus: In the end, some 1,200 people were dead, about 250 people had been taken hostage, and Israelis' fragile sense of security was gone. There has not been anything easy about the year that followed. The deadly attack on Israel and the country's subsequent war on Hamas have changed the Middle East and the world. More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza as Israel has prosecuted its war, according to the local health ministry. After a year of bombardment and displacement, large swaths of the civilian population are sick or starving, and an untold number of homes have been demolished. Many Israelis still have not been able to return to their homes, or they live amid near-daily missile attacks. The ongoing conflict has divided communities in America and could play a role in the outcome of its election this fall. Solutions toward peace have also been hard to come by — as repeated failed attempts to negotiate a cease-fire have shown. And they are receding as the conflict widens, with Israel now seeking to dismantle Hezbollah in Lebanon, pursuing Hamas leadership in the West Bank and weighing its response to Iran's massive ballistic missile attack last week. Our coverage in Opinion this week will aim to reflect the solemnity of this day and how events of Oct. 7 and the past year have wrought such fundamental change in so many lives. Tom Friedman today reflects on the past year of war and explains how all wars come down to two questions: "Who wins the battle on the ground? And who wins the battle of the story" that people and history will tell? He also writes that the Netanyahu-led government has left Israelis unsure if they are at war "to save the state of Israel or the political career of their prime minister." In "The Year American Jews Woke Up," the Opinion columnist Bret Stephens describes the "palpable sense of things going backward" for the American Jewish community and asks where it must go from here. The former Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz warns in a guest essay that the world will not be safe if Iran and its proxies continue to attack Israel and its allies in the region. The Opinion columnist Nick Kristof writes about America's troubled entanglement in the conflict and how President Biden, "instead of midwifing the landmark Middle East peace that he hoped for," ended up becoming "the arms supplier for the leveling of Gaza." Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet and writer who fled Gaza during the war, reflects on why it is hard to imagine going back to teaching there after so many schools have become places where families sought shelter and came under attack. Yaffa Adar, an 86-year-old who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, writes about her long days in captivity and how neither she nor Israel will be able to recover until the remaining hostages come home. Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel analyst, writes about how "Israel is sinking deeper into an existential crisis" over the government's failure to save the remaining hostages and what that says about the nation. Throughout this week, we will add to this coverage, including new podcasts on the subject from the columnist Ezra Klein. After a tumultuous year, we hope Opinion's journalism will inform how the world can move forward from here. Read the coverage: Thomas L. Friedman What I'm Thinking About on the First Anniversary of the War One year after being attacked, Israel has not won the battle on the ground or the battle for a good story to tell about itself and this war. By Thomas L. Friedman Bret Stephens The Year American Jews Woke Up American Jews need to recover their instinct for danger. By Bret Stephens Guest Essay Benny Gantz: What the World Needs to Understand About Iran Now is the time to bolster regional cooperation and make a broad effort to confront Iran. By Benny Gantz Nicholas Kristof Biden Sought Peace but Facilitated War Netanyahu repeatedly rolled the American president, leading us all to the precipice of a much larger war. By Nicholas Kristof Guest Essay Gaza's Schools Are for Learning, Not for Dying Schools across Gaza have turned into refugee centers, and Israeli attacks on them have killed hundreds. By Mosab Abu Toha Guest Essay I'm a Great Grandmother, and a Former Hostage of Hamas. Bring The Rest Home. My name is Yaffa Adar. I'm 86 years old. I was a hostage of Hamas. By Yaffa Adar Guest Essay On Israeli Apathy The lawlessness and state violence directed at Palestinians for so long has at last started to seep into Jewish Israeli society. By Mairav Zonszein More From Opinion Gail Collins and Bret Stephens No One Said It Was Going to Be Easy for Kamala Harris Two columnists ponder: How could the election be this close? By Gail Collins and Bret Stephens Anthony Fauci Anthony Fauci: A Mosquito in My Backyard Made Me the Sickest I've Ever Been What it's like to get the neglected disease. By Anthony Fauci Susan Faludi Kamala Harris Is Turning a Trump Tactic on Its Head Trump wants to position himself as the nation's protector. But Harris is offering real-world, practical protection on the issues that matter. By Susan Faludi Tom Rachman I Was a Best-Selling Novelist. Then I Went Back to School. A writer reconsiders the value of literature and goes back to school to study behavioral change — and maybe change himself. By Tom Rachman Patrick Healy Is Trump Trying to Blow It? He seems to have given up trying to broaden his share of the vote. By Patrick Healy Margaret Renkl There Is No Climate Haven. We All Live in Florida Now. Hurricane Helene has reminded us. Climate change has stacked the deck against all of us. By Margaret Renkl Ross Douthat America Needs a President The sidelining of the White House in global crisis spots is a big red flag. By Ross Douthat David French JD Vance and the Prophets of Trumpism For this group of Christians, "Trump is good. He's been baptized by their theology." By David French Nancy Gertner and Stephen I. Vladeck The Supreme Court Itself Is This Term's Blockbuster If it loses its institutional credibility, it will be powerless when it matters most. By Nancy Gertner and Stephen I. Vladeck Melissa Febos The Sexiest Year of My Life Involved Zero Sex When I removed the option of romance, my sensual relationship to all the other aspects of my life deepened. By Melissa Febos Jessica Grose 'Nobody Wants This' Pits Jewish Women Against 'Shiksas.' Nobody Wins. Except maybe Jewish men. By Jessica Grose Oliver Jeffers An Artist Rethinks Climate Change in Words and Pictures We need to act as a single unified force to find ways to strike a lasting balance with our natural world. By Oliver Jeffers Linda Greenhouse One Big Decision Awaits the Supreme Court Will the court resume or refrain from injecting itself into the country's culture wars? By Linda Greenhouse Jonathan Reisman I'm a Doctor. ChatGPT's Bedside Manner Is Better Than Mine. My job is no longer safe. By Jonathan Reisman letters Do Careerism and College Mix? Readers respond to a guest essay by a recent college graduate. Also: New York City's new outdoor dining program; how immigrants built America. 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