What If October 7 Had Happened Here? Israel’s Courage Stands as a Beacon

Commentary

Canadians could scarcely imagine living beside people who wish them wiped off the face of the Earth. Yet that is Israel’s daily reality—and the only possible way to understand the barbaric Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. The slaughter of 1,405 innocents, including 370 young people at a music festival, was not a “conflict.” It was an eruption of pure hatred against the world’s only Jewish state.

For Israelis, survival itself has always been an act of courage. But for many westerners, comfort has replaced conviction. So as Israel continues its just war against Hamas, we might well ask: What would we do if the same horror unfolded in Canada?

A little perspective… The Holocaust, when six million Jews were murdered, is well known. But centuries of persecution came before it. Understandably then, Holocaust survivors rejected returning to hostile homelands; instead, they sought refuge where their story began—ancient Israel, then a British mandate under the new United Nations Organization.

After Great Britain’s mandate ended, the United Nations voted to partition the territory into Jewish and Arab zones. However, on May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence. The next day, five Arab armies invaded; a nation of 800,000 Jews, armed with little more than resolve, faced annihilation. Yet amazingly, they prevailed—securing Israel’s survival and expanding its borders. Twice more within a generation, in 1967 and 1973, Israel had to fight for its very survival—and again, prevailed against overwhelming odds.

How?

Years later, touring Israel, I met a young Israeli unit commander who told me the secret. It was a single word: “Heart.” The Oxford dictionary defines courage as strength in the face of pain. The Latin root “cor” means “heart.” The Jews who built Israel knew they had nowhere else to go: they had heart.

Heart indeed. Moments after the commander said that, Hezbollah attacked near her base and she ran to her waiting helicopter.

In the decades that followed those early victories, Israel turned a desert into a powerhouse of freedom and innovation. Eight million Jews now live alongside two million Sunni Muslims who enjoy full civil rights. An Arab, Khaled Kabub, serves on Israel’s Supreme Court. Minority communities such as the Druze are not merely tolerated, but embraced; their sons and daughters serve proudly in the Israel Defense Forces. During my visit, I met a Druze family whose hospitality and patriotism embodied Israel’s spirit. They spoke of their protection by the Jewish state even as their kin in Syria and Lebanon faced persecution. Few nations in the Middle East could claim such pluralism.

Technologically, Israel is dominant. Much of the modern digital world runs on Israeli ingenuity; Nvidia, Apple, and Intel design their chips in Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome and Arrow systems that shield Israel from missile attack are locally designed and manufactured.

Yet no technology could stop the evil of Oct. 7. Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s security barrier, descended on a festival, and committed atrocities too grotesque to describe. They filmed themselves torturing, raping, mutilating and murdering civilians. One killer used a victim’s phone to boast to his parents: “I killed ten with my own hands.” His mother replied, “God bless you.” These are not soldiers—they are monsters.

So, imagine that in Canada a horde of terrorists poured through a border fence to slaughter families, abduct survivors, and drag them into a network of tunnels built with foreign aid. Imagine discovering that employees of a United Nations agency had abetted the massacre. Would Canadians not demand their army strike back with full force?

Israel did exactly that. Its troops entered Gaza to rescue hostages—many raped, tortured or starved—while trying to spare civilians being used as human shields. Yet instead of gratitude, Israel faced condemnation from the very democracies that once swore “Never Again.” And across the West, pro-Hamas rallies fill the streets while politicians equivocate; after all mass immigration from Muslim nations has created electorally powerful blocs sympathetic to Israel’s enemies. Moral clarity has yielded to fear of losing votes.

If Oct. 7 had happened in Canada, would our leaders respond with Israel’s courage—or apologize for defending us? Would we still accept others calling it “resistance” if it was our own children butchered?

Israel’s prime minister has admitted that his nation now stands more isolated than ever. Yet isolation has never defeated Israel; it has only made her self-reliant. Two years after Hamas’s atrocity, Israel’s mission remains unchanged: to crush the terrorists, recover any remaining hostages, and secure recognition from Arab neighbours of its right to exist in peace.

This is not merely about survival. It is about moral clarity. Surrounded by hatred, Israelis built a free, tolerant, and technologically brilliant society. Confronted with barbarism, they fight not for conquest but for life itself.

The world should take note. Evil will always test the weak-hearted. Israel’s response shows that courage—heart—still exists. It is what stands between civilization and savagery.

If that courage ever fades in Canada or elsewhere in the West, Oct. 7 will not remain an Israeli tragedy. It will become everyone’s.

Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who was a director of five global corporations.

The original, full-length version of this article was recently published in C2C Journal.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.