These two words mean the capacity to gaze unblinkingly at the reality of what we’re dealing with

Photo: Flash90

Along with the hundreds murdered on October 7, one slogan died as well: “Never Again,” the rallying cry of the postwar generations went up in smoke.

That was part of the day’s trauma — the revelation that Israel, whose very premise was elementary safety for the Jewish People, should prove such an unsafe place for Jews.

Never Again — possibly the only words that united Meir Kahane and his Jewish establishment critics — was always hubristic, forgetting the Divine role in Jewish history. Now it’s outdated hubris.

I’d like to propose another watchword.

Never Forget.

These two words should be emblazoned all over our communal agenda, both in Israel and beyond. They don’t mean memorial services, although those are important. They don’t mean honoring the murdered, the tortured and the fallen, however crucial that may be.

These two words mean the capacity to gaze unblinkingly at the reality of what we’re dealing with. They mean the maturity not to fall once again for the wishful thinking that gripped us in the past.

You have to go back many decades to find an Israel so beset by external enemies. Iran’s main proxies have been humbled, but the regime itself is on the cusp of a bomb — and America seems worryingly close to capitulating.

Having reportedly ceded the key demand that Iran give up its nuclear program, why is Trump’s proposed deal better than Obama’s version?

Yes, massive amounts of American ordnance have been flown to Israel to bolster the credibility of a possible attack, but do the Iranians believe that an attack is likely? Do they actually think that a president who built his career on opposition to war would risk one in the Straits of Hormuz, sending oil to $200 a barrel on top of his other tzaros?

Without knowing what has been said in the smoke-filled back rooms, it very much looks like Israel’s hands are being tied.

If some half-baked deal is signed, Trump will get his victory lap, but Israel will have to live on the edge of a volcano, lest Iran dash for a bomb. Short of concrete evidence that Tehran is doing that, Israel wouldn’t be able to strike Iran, for fear of rupturing relations with Trump.

Then there’s the northern border. What’s happening in Syrian is a textbook case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire — or at the very least, into another large frying pan.

It wasn’t great to have to deconflict with the Russians over Syrian airspace, or to play whack-a-mole with Iran. But Assad was the devil we knew, and with him in power, there was a manageable balance of terror.

Now in Turkey’s Erdogan, we have a neo-Ottoman despot equipped with a powerful NATO army who seems bent on challenging Israel in Syria.

Closer to home, does anyone have the faintest idea what comes next in Gaza? The price for getting hostages out is almost certainly Hamas remaining in power, perhaps under another name.

Beyond the pipe dream of exporting millions of Gazans, the future seems to be raids and more raids, and an army on constant standby to take on a resurgent Hamas.

Maybe I’m wrong and Trump really does have a plan for Iran, Turkey, and Gaza that we can live with.

But to paraphrase a great Jewish thinker, these are my doom-laden prognostications, and if they’re wrong — well, unfortunately I have others.

Which is where Never Forget comes in.

For two decades, we lived with all the tranquility of an ostrich, head cozily inserted into a beach-worth of sand. We deluded ourselves that having done the hard bit, Israel’s future was a tech-fueled boom, and irritants like Hamas could be managed with the occasional air campaign.

As long as the money times kept going in most of the country, the fact that a bunch of killers were trying to tunnel into a kibbutz or two didn’t make anyone in Tel Aviv or Yerushalayim lose too much sleep.

That state of self-delusion continued up to 6:29 a.m. on October 7. If at any time before then, Bibi had said that Israel needed to invade Gaza, the country’s attorney general would have ordered his removal due to incapacity, even faster than she’s trying to do today.

Why? Because Israeli society was in a deep, peaceful slumber — blissfully unaware of the dangers all around.

So, post-October 7, the most important memorial for the victims is never to forget the collective self-delusion through which they were lost.

Memory is an area where democracies often stumble. Leaders who live from election to election can be tempted to make a flashy deal to take home to their voters — as Israel learned to its cost throughout the Oslo era.

That’s where voters come in. If a leader knows that his voters aren’t duped by the superficial sparkle of a short-term fix, he’ll be less likely to trade the family jewels for some fool’s gold.

Never Forget doesn’t mean that the Americans won’t force a bad deal on us, or tie our hands in Gaza or Syria.

But it means that when a leader has the backing of a society that’s clear-eyed about the dangers it faces, he has the mandate to confront those dangers. If he doesn’t, then society can elect another leader who will.

Never Forget is a duty of memory. Remember Egypt, remember Turkey, remember Iran, remember Gaza.

Remember, and don’t engage in wishful thinking or be fooled by soothing words.

That’s not an easy undertaking. It means staying focused even when liberal Jewish bigwigs criticize Israel’s war effort because it’s led by Netanyahu — as happened last week in Britain.

It means being prepared to speak up if the Trump deal proves weak — despite the inevitable backlash from his supporters.

It’s a basic form of hishtadlus. Not Never Again, but Never Forget.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1058)