ByJPOST EDITORIALJULY 3, 2026 05:58On Thursday, Israelis marked 1,000 days since Hamas’s invasion and massacre. Families of victims and the October Council marched along the Gaza border, passing sites attacked on October 7.Israelis were asked to pause for a minute of silence. Ceremonies and demonstrations took place across the country, including at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and outside the homes of elected officials.There was also a different kind of marker. The Tekuma Administration reported more than 1,000 reconstruction projects in the Gaza border region since the massacre. Some communities are preparing to return.Families are rebuilding homes, schools, synagogues, and farms. A region that Hamas tried to erase is planting itself deeper into Israeli soil.This is the Israel that deserves honor: grieving and still building, furious yet still committed to life.A memorial ceremony at the Nova festival marking two years since the October 7 massacre when Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, murdering more than 1200 people. October 07, 2025. (credit: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)Israelis call for accountability 1,000 days after Oct. 7Yet Day 1,000 also exposed a troubling truth. Much of our public conversation has slipped back into the language of October 6. The slogans are sharper.The blame is louder. The political camps are speaking again as though the other side is the central enemy.Opposition figures marked the day by attacking the government’s failure to take responsibility. MK Avigdor Lieberman wrote that October 7 “shouldn’t have happened” and that “the writing was on the wall.”Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari wrote that Israel deserved different leadership and that “we will replace them and fix them.”These are legitimate political arguments, and the demand for responsibility remains essential. Israel still needs a full, independent state commission of inquiry. The public deserves answers.But even justified anger can corrode a nation when it becomes contempt.From the coalition, the rhetoric was no better.Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed credit for the return of the hostages, a statement that former hostage Eli Sharabi called “impertinent.”Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu went further, blaming former hostage negotiator Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon for people being murdered and kidnapped on October 7.Such accusations are reckless. They cheapen grief, personalize national failure, and turn bereavement into a weapon. Have we learned nothing?The massacre was carried out by Hamas. Hamas murdered, raped, burned, kidnapped, and dragged Israelis into Gaza. The guilt for October 7 belongs first and forever to the terrorists and to the Iranian-backed ecosystem that enabled them.Still, Israel must face a painful truth.The deep division that consumed the country before October 7 weakened us. Our enemies watched Israelis accuse one another of treason, fascism, dictatorship, anarchy, and betrayal.They saw reservists, protesters, ministers, judges, rabbis, generals, and citizens torn into rival tribes. They concluded, wrongly but dangerously, that our society had lost its inner strength.Worries that people are forgetting Oct. 7 lessonsA thousand days later, the old poison is seeping back.This week’s timing should shake us. Thursday was the 17th of Tammuz, the fast that begins the Three Weeks, the period of mourning that culminates in Tisha B’Av.Jewish tradition teaches that Jerusalem was breached on this day and that the destruction of the Temples was bound up with national failure, moral decay, baseless hatred, and the loss of collective responsibility.The lesson is not quietism. Citizens should protest. Families should demand answers. Opposition leaders should challenge the government. Coalition leaders should defend their policies. Pain must be heard, and democracy requires fierce argument.But fierce argument does not require humiliation.Protest does not require hatred. Leadership does not require mocking the wounded. Grief does not grant permission to dehumanize fellow Israelis.On Day 1,001, Israel needs a new covenant of speech. Say what you believe.Fight for what matters. Demand accountability from every civilian and military leader who failed. Insist on justice for the dead, the wounded, the displaced, and the hostages who endured captivity.Then remember that the person across the street, across the aisle, or across the protest barrier is part of the same wounded people.October 7 proved the cost of illusion. The Three Weeks remind us of the cost of internal collapse. Israel can survive its enemies. It will struggle to survive a return to the hatred that weakened it before the gates were breached.The dead deserve memory. The living deserve responsibility. The country deserves a politics that can argue without tearing the nation apart.Follow us on Google