A year after October 7: Where does Israel go from here? - opinion

Third, we understand that the truest threat to Israel is internal, not external – and we know how to overcome that as well.

The double bedrock of Israel’s strength

In fact, the word ivri (“Hebrew”) – used in many English translations of the Jewish Bible to describe the first Jews – is etymologically derived from the Hebrew word “evr,” which described the Jews as “being the other.” When the world was polytheistic, Jews were monotheists. Even when we stand alone, as Jews we stood proud. That principle is seen today in the people of Israel.

While some would tell us that Zionism is a modern movement, born in the nationalism that grew out of the European Enlightenment, the desire and even plan to return to Zion was documented millennia ago throughout the books of the prophets. The rightful place of the Jewish homeland is Israel. While many Jews are loyal citizens of nations globally, it is neither by chance nor coincidence that Jews pray in the direction of Jerusalem and that Jewish prayers implore God to lead the Jews back to Israel. Jews have sought to return to our homeland since the Roman Empire drove us into exile in 67 CE. Zionism is inherently Jewish, though certainly one need not be a Jew to be a Zionist. That profound sense of national identity imbues Israel with enormous strength of character.

However, strength of character alone does not enable one to defend against successive attacks. The genocidal wars waged against the Jews in Israel since 1948 often had the stated goal of driving Jews into the sea. The war Israel is fighting now is only the most recent attempt by our enemies to eradicate every single Jewish man, woman, and child. On October 7, Hamas did what much of the Arab world sought to do for over 75 years. 

Which brings me to the second element of Israel’s double bedrock, namely military might forged of technological prowess. Unwilling to sell our lives cheaply, the founders of the Jewish state quickly set about building a military capable of defending its civilian population. 

While the accolades of Israel’s first-generation defenders are rightly the stuff of legend, following the Six Day War of 1967 Israel began to modernize its military. National leaders knew that if the Israel Defense Force was to employ the defense doctrine established by David Ben-Gurion, the IDF would need to create – and forever protect – a qualitative military edge (QME). Israel would never be able to field enough air force jets, artillery pieces, tanks, or a large enough infantry to out-gun our adversaries. Therefore, every pilot, soldier, and intelligence officer would have to be qualitatively more effective than his or her adversary. 

Enter Ze’ev Lev. In 1967, Lev was a professor at Columbia University (today, lamentably, a hotbed of antisemitism and Israel hatred). Following that war, he moved to Israel and in 1969 founded the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT). His vision was prescient – train religious Jews (who possess the strength of character described above) in cutting-edge engineering studies (which would empower them to create the technologies that would defend the Jewish people), and they would lead the Jewish state. That is precisely what happened.

Today, JCT is the second-largest academic institution in Jerusalem, trains nearly 5,000 students annually, and has over 15,500 alumni. It has been rated number one in Israel in women’s empowerment (training women in computer science and STEM subjects), best in integrating haredim into academia, and through it into the high paying workforce. Its Selma Jelinek Nursing School is the second-largest and top-rated school of its kind in the nation. 

But those are not what JCT is best known for. 

JCT is best known for its electronics and electro-optics departments. Why? JCT’s electro-optics department was the first in the State of Israel. For decades, the alumni of JCT’s most illustrious departments have headed the military and civilian teams developing Israel’s most remarkable defensive systems. 

Take Israel Air Force Col. S, who earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in electro-optical engineering. Col. S led the engineering team that developed the Arrow 3; the very same Arrow 3 which played a pivotal role in defending Israel on the night of April 13 when Iran launched more than 100 ballistic missiles at Israel. Many of those interceptions took place in space. Ten years ago, that would have been categorized as science fiction. The development of US-Israel missile defense programs, advanced by AIPAC and funded by the US Congress, combined with Israeli ingenuity turned science fiction into reality. That night, countless lives were saved. 

Or consider another JCT alumnus, Col. Yaniv Avitan, who was twice awarded the Israel Defense Prize and is credited by the IDF with commanding the laboratory that created the terror-tunnel detection technology that is currently being used to destroy hundreds of miles of Hamas’s infrastructure. 

Finally, two of the three project heads who are developing the Iron Beam defensive laser system are JCT alumni. Given that a Tamir interceptor fired by the Iron Dome costs approximately $70,000 and a high-intensity laser fired by Iron Beam costs around $1,000, Iron Beam is a game-changer in the field of aerial defense. And because it’s a laser, it won’t need to be reloaded or risk running out of ammunition during a barrage. 

Though nothing, perhaps, asserts JCT’s impact on Israel’s security as succinctly as a remark recently made by the commander of Unit 8200 (the Israeli equivalent of the US NSA), Brig. Gen. Yossi Sariel: “If Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon today, it is thanks to the genius of JCT alumnus Lt. Col. K.”

The threats Israel faces from Iran – now directly – and its regional proxies remain critical. Israel must continue to train successive generations of engineers to ensure that our qualitative military edge is maintained. JCT is doing just that. 

But as is so often the case, the greatest threat to Israel’s future is not external. 

Before October 7, Israel was on a terrifying path of hyper-polarization, divided over judicial reform. The narratives were simple. 

The political Right posited that because a small number of non-elected officials (i.e., Supreme Court justices) could overrule the laws passed by the democratically elected Knesset, Israel was not a true democracy, where the rule of the people prevailed. The political Left posited that Israel – just like every liberal democracy in the world – has a strong, independent court, and weakening that court would threaten minority rights in Israel and even threaten the very nature of Israeli democracy.

So why was it irrelevant that most Israelis supported some form of judicial reform? Because in a hyper-polarized society, each side ascribes the most extreme position of the other to the entirety of the “other side.” By that logic, while a significant majority of the Left and Right could agree on some reform, neither side would cede anything to the opposition. With such mutually exclusive narratives, neither side would budge.

We let it get worse. We had forgotten our shared values and began labeling those who disagreed with us as evil. As a society, we reached a terrifying and dangerous precipice. Civil discourse eroded, friendships broke down, and political battle lines were drawn. Some spoke of the potential for significant civil violence. 

The October 7 attack shattered these divisions. Suddenly, left-wing and right-wing, religious and secular, we all fought side by side to protect our home. The war united Israel in a way unseen in a generation and in ways far too numerous to name here. So, I will share just one story. 

I served in the IDF’s Phoenix Unit. The unit recommissioned old, decommissioned Merkava tanks and took them into combat in defense of the State of Israel, our homes, and our families. Within my unit were two men, Nir and Shimon. 

Nir is a 40-something, Tel Aviv-based, hi-tech CEO. A serial start-up founder, he currently has a company with 35 employees. Married with kids, Nir regularly marched on Kaplan Street in opposition to judicial reform. He couldn’t have fathomed finding common ground with a proponent of judicial reform, much less loving one. Shimon is a 30-something physical therapist. He lives with his wife and family in Afula and was an adamant advocate of judicial reform.

Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, Nir and Shimon climbed onto a tank as strangers and spent months together. Conversations over weeks progressed, and a deep respect formed between the men. Eventually, they created a bond of brotherhood. While it is true that war builds bonds unseen elsewhere in society, the humanizing conversations which helped each of those men “see, hear, and understand” the other are possible outside of a tank and outside of the army.

As a society, we have a fateful choice to make. 

Recently, some politicians have again started promoting judicial reform, and very regrettably many are already speaking in polarizing terms. Some have even begun blaming their political opponents for the barbarous attacks of October 7. When one views their political opponents as evil, then one can justify saying (and doing) nearly anything to defeat them. That is precisely the way to tear Israel asunder.

Israeli political leaders have different ideas of how to move our nation forward. That’s appropriate. We are proud to be a robust democracy. Political differences should be debated. Political differences should be settled with a ballot box, not through polarization and demonization. 

Before the Phoenix Unit was disbanded and integrated into established units of the IDF reserve, our commander, Lt. Col. Erez Sadon, addressed the unit. “Look at the person with whom you disagree and picture him in uniform. We are proud to don and remember what we did here. Remember who the real enemy is. And remember that if the time comes, each of us will rush back into service. We will not hesitate to defend our lives and homes, as well as the lives and homes of our political opponents.”

We must never again let disagreements tear our society apart. History shows the devastating consequences of such division.

As a nation, we have a choice to make. Will we let the political vitriol of the last 20 years destroy our nation and again bring us to the brink, or will we forge a new way forward? Not to a utopia of uniformity but a future State of Israel rooted in unity and shared values. 

Leadership demands the latter. The next generation will judge what we do next. ■

Doni Fogel is the vice president of the Jerusalem College of Technology and sergeant first class in the IDF. He earned an MA in government, public policy, and administration from Reichman University and a BA in Jewish studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. He was twice cited for bravery in combat in 2008 and served in Gaza during the wars of 2014 and 2023-2024.