By Lucien Morell

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Two years after the horror of October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas gunmen burst across Israel’s southern border, murdering civilians, abducting families, and burning entire communities — the world’s attention has drifted.

What was one of the darkest days in Israel’s history has been dulled by shifting narratives, misinformation, and deliberate attempts to cast the aggressors as victims.

Israel cannot allow that to stand. The anniversary of October 7 must be a time not only of mourning but of introspection and of strategic renewal.

The attacks revealed critical lapses in Israel’s border security and intelligence networks. For decades, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the country’s intelligence services were seen as unmatched.

Yet Hamas exploited complacency, outdated surveillance methods, and fractured command systems.

In the aftermath, Israel has moved to rebuild: expanding its sensor networks, upgrading rapid response protocols, and tightening coordination between the military and civilian defense systems.

But those reforms must go deeper and be sustained, not eroded by political rivalries or shifting priorities.

At the same time, Israel must confront another battlefield, that of perception. The tragedy of October 7 has been weaponized by hostile media ecosystems that erase context and invert morality.

Online spaces and international headlines are saturated with anti-Israel narratives that downplay terrorism while framing Israel’s self-defense as aggression.

This imbalance has eroded sympathy and emboldened those who seek to delegitimize the very idea of Israel’s right to exist.

The solution lies in a more coherent and confident communication strategy. Israel must retell its story not as propaganda, but as truth.

The events of October 7 were not an abstraction of “conflict”; they were acts of deliberate terror by Hamas, a group that uses civilians as shields and human suffering as a political tool.

Israel’s story should be told by those who lived through it including survivors, medics, and communities rebuilt from ashes. The human reality must confront the propaganda head-on.

Beyond messaging, Israel’s security must be grounded in pragmatic diplomacy. The Abraham Accords remain one of the most significant geopolitical breakthroughs in the Middle East in decades.

Yet they should not be seen as the end point, but as a foundation for broader regional engagement. Israel needs to deepen ties not just with existing partners like the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but also with key regional powers including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and even states further afield such as India and Indonesia.

These relationships are not only about trade or defense cooperation, but about building a political buffer that can help temper anti-Israel sentiment across the region.

The path forward must combine deterrence with dialogue. Israel’s enemies thrive on isolation.

The more Israel is seen engaging constructively even cautiously with its neighborhood, the harder it becomes for radical narratives to gain traction.

Strategic patience and quiet diplomacy can achieve what force alone cannot.

At the same time, Israel must stay vigilant. The threats it faces are real: Iran’s proxy networks, Hezbollah’s arsenal, and the potential resurgence of terror infrastructure in Gaza. Deterrence must remain uncompromising, but it must be guided by strategy, not rage.

The IDF’s modernization from missile defense to intelligence fusion and cyber resilience is essential to ensuring that another October 7 can never happen again.

Finally, the international community must face its own hypocrisy. Western leaders who speak of human rights cannot remain silent when Israeli civilians are targeted.

There can be no moral equivalence between deliberate acts of terror and the defense of one’s people. Israel has every right and obligation to secure its borders, protect its citizens, and defend its sovereignty.

The memory of October 7 must therefore serve two purposes: remembrance and resolve. It must remind the world of what was done and remind Israel of what must never be allowed again.

Strength, clarity, and strategic partnership, these are the pillars upon which Israel’s future security must stand.

*Lucien Morell is a Southeast Asia based geopolitical observer and analyst.*