Swords of Iron Day 1076: The Shocking Price of Terror
The October 7 anniversary is almost here. It comes back around every year, and this time it arrives carrying a very different weight. So look at what has happened. The hostages came home. So did the bodies of our brothers and sisters who were murdered. And the men who carried out that massacre are being dealt with, one by one. What goes around comes around.
The October 7 Anniversary Arrives With a Reckoning
Israel eliminated an October 7 terrorist who kidnapped three of our soldiers. He was a Nukhba commander who took part in the attack on a tank crew and in their abduction.
That is not revenge. It is justice arriving late, but arriving.
Still, every one of those men believed he would never face a consequence. Every one of them was wrong.
Terror Does Not Pay in Judea and Samaria
Meanwhile, in Judea and Samaria, we are making the message simple. Terror does not pay.
Soldiers are rappelling from helicopters near Hebron and Yata. We are not waiting for terror cells to mature into attacks, because by then it is already too late. We are reaching them first.
In short, that is the entire doctrine in one sentence. Do not wait.
People who have never lived here call that aggression. People who have buried a neighbor call it Tuesday morning.
Striking Threats Before They Grow
In Gaza, our forces eliminated the commander of the Hamas Rafah Brigade, Al Abuid.
In southern Lebanon, our forces found terrorists in a tunnel shaft with rocket launchers and thirty two rockets ready to fire. Those launchers were pointed at our homes, our schools, our children. Israel said no. Boom.
Every one of these operations means one less rocket aimed at our children on the next October 7 anniversary. I pray the world finally understands the lesson. Terror is not the way. Making peace with Israel is.
America and Israel Are Still Allies
Vice President JD Vance says the conflict between the United States and Iran is entering a different phase, with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz restored.
There is also a quiet campaign of misinformation designed to split Israel from America. Our prime minister recently corrected Jared Kushner’s claim that American pressure and Israeli diplomatic isolation pushed Israel toward a ceasefire with Hamas.
The prime minister says Hamas capitulated for a very different reason. Pressure from President Donald Trump, and Israeli military pressure. That combination made Hamas drop its demands and agree to release the remaining hostages.
We are allies. And we need to stand together, and never more than in the weeks around the October 7 anniversary.
Antisemitism Does Not Get a Stage
Meanwhile, I am glad that Ed Sheeran and others removed Macklemore from the stadium tour in the United States after he used his platform to push a message that told only one side.
At MetLife Stadium he wore a keffiyeh onstage and called for “Free Palestine.” Pink said she was not trying to silence him, but that she did not want a divisive message that could leave Jewish people feeling endangered.
She is right, and for good reason. There is no place for antisemitism. Not through inflammatory rhetoric, and not through Hitler and swastika imagery, as we saw with Kanye West.
A stadium is not a neutral space. Tens of thousands of people are listening, and most of them have never met an Israeli. What gets said from that microphone follows Jewish kids to school the next morning, and it lands hardest as the October 7 anniversary comes back around.
Thirty Three Years of Oslo and the October 7 Anniversary It Produced
We are now looking at thirty three years since the Oslo Accords, a peace process that promised to end the conflict for good.
Isaiah 28 speaks of a covenant with death. When the Al Aqsa Flood came, the agreements did not protect us.
Even so, we have to be honest about results. Oslo brought more terrorism, more intifadas, more rockets. The Abraham Accords brought expanded diplomacy and real cooperation between Arab states and Israel.
We left Gaza in 2005. Then we left southern Lebanon in 2000. Both times we were told the withdrawal would buy quiet. However, both times conflict came back, and it kept coming back until October 7.
In fact, land did not buy peace. Strength and partnership did. That is not an opinion. That is thirty three years of evidence, and the October 7 anniversary is the receipt.
Where We Place Our Trust This October 7 Anniversary
So where do we place our trust? Not in foreign powers. Not in agreements alone.
Therefore we place it in the God of Israel. We do our part, and we will keep doing it, because that is our duty, but He is the one who watches over us.
As we approach Yom Kippur, Psalm 104 reminds us: “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.”
What goes around comes around. Our enemies are learning that lesson now, and the world should learn it with them.
If you missed it, here is the previous Swords of Iron update.
Watch the full update here: Swords of Iron Day 1076, What Goes Around Comes Around
