Conrad Black: Where Things Stand a Year on From Last October’s Terrorist Attack on Israel
AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
Almost all of Israel’s natural allies, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, have in effect pretended that the attack on Oct. 7 was just another skirmish over contested borders. In reality, it was an act of war designed to elicit an outbreak of war, and it explicitly highlighted the refusal of the Iran-backed terrorist organizations in the Middle East, including the Houthis in Yemen, and of Iran itself, ever to accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. In the circumstances, Israel had no practical alternative but to set out to eliminate the terrorist organizations that were tormenting and provoking it. If peace is the objective—but the other side will not under any circumstances accept peace other than by annihilating the country it attacks—there is no alternative but to annihilate the aggressors and seek peace with whatever comes after.