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I have spent years helping American leaders understand the realities of the Middle East. I have worked with policymakers, pastors, diplomats and families. On this anniversary of the brutal Oct. 7 massacre, we must all remember that day without moral confusion or political convenience.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas, other armed groups and many Gaza civilians crossed into Israel and carried out a coordinated assault on innocent people living their lives. Nearly 1,200 people were killed and 252 were abducted. Men, women, children and the elderly were hunted, murdered, tortured and kidnapped. Any honest discussion of the war that followed must begin there.
Israel responded as any sovereign nation must when its people are slaughtered and taken hostage. Governments have a primary duty to protect their citizens. That duty requires us to distinguish between a democracy defending its people and terrorists that made civilians their prey.
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A woman reacts as the community of Kibbutz Kfar Aza commemorates their members who were killed, taken hostage and who died in captivity, following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, Oct. 16, 2025. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)
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American leaders need to continue to visit the region in order to understand the threats Israel faces from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and their allies with the understanding that Israel’s enemies also attack American targets.
And, they need to continue to recall the history. The Middle East won’t be understood by removing the Jewish people from their roots. Judea, Samaria, Hebron, Shiloh and Jerusalem are places woven into the biblical record and the ageless memory of the nation of Israel.
That story still pulses through the hills of Judea and Samaria. The Jewish communities there, too often described only through accusations of “settler violence,” are alive with families, farmers, teachers, business owners and children.
Near the ancient sites that have shaped Jewish and Christian faith for generations, the Jewish residents face terrorism almost daily. Of course, the law should act against any individual who commits violence against Palestinians. But it is wrong to treat Jewish civilians collectively as criminals because of where they live.
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Christian pilgrims, carrying wooden crosses inscribed with Church Slavonic prayers, participate in a religious procession. (Ahmad Gharabli)
The threat has grown beyond rhetoric. In Europe and elsewhere, governments and institutions increasingly seek to isolate Israeli businesses and communities through boycotts, import restrictions, and punitive trade measures. Such policies punish ordinary workers and legitimate businesses, including people never accused of violence.
Collective economic punishment of Jewish businesses in the biblical heartland should alarm anyone who understands the legal legitimacy of the Jewish presence there along with their rich and ancient history.
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America must resist that drift. Dozens of states have adopted laws or executive orders opposing boycotts of Israel. Yet legislation alone is not enough. American leaders must speak clearly, reject antisemitism from every quarter and preserve the strategic alliance with Israel because it serves both moral principle and American interests.
For Christians, this responsibility goes deeper than policy. It rests on a promise. God told Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7).
Israelis visit the Nova music festival memorial site near Re’eim to mark the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks. (Saeed Qaq/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Two thousand years later, the apostle Paul affirmed that the promise still stands. Writing about the Jewish people, he said, “as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).
Everlasting means everlasting. For American Christians, standing with Israel is more than a foreign-policy preference. God’s purposes for the Jewish people and their biblical heritage have not been canceled.
Christian support for Israel does not require pretending that every Israeli decision is beyond criticism, but it does require refusing the theology of abandonment and the politics of erasure. It requires remembering that the Jewish people are not strangers in their ancestral homeland, and that Israel’s enemies openly exploit international confusion to advance their own violent aims.
The anniversary of Oct. 7 is therefore more than a date of mourning. It is a test of moral clarity.
Evangelical Christian pilgrims march during the annual Jerusalem Parade on Oct. 20, 2016 in the streets of Jerusalem, to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) and to express solidarity with Israel. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
I have seen Israel’s grief, but I have also seen its resilience. Families rebuild. Communities pray. Soldiers defend their neighbors. Leaders wrestle with impossible decisions. The Jewish people continue to live, create, worship, and hope in the land that has carried their story for millennia. That perseverance should command respect.
Americans must stand with Israel because it is in our interest, but also out of conviction. We should oppose terrorism, confront antisemitism, and affirm the enduring bond between the Jewish people and their homeland. October 7 showed where hatred leads. Our response must show what remembrance requires.
