October 6th used to belong to the Yom Kippur War. This year it falls between the government’s official October 7th memorial, held on the Hebrew date, and the ceremonies the families will hold tomorrow in Yarkon Park and at Kibbutz Re’im.
On this in-between day, Marc Schulman reads from the October 7th chapter of his new book, “Between Hope and Fear: Israel from Oslo to October 7th.” The readings follow the morning hour by hour. Sergeant Roni Eshel reports the breach from the Nahal Oz surveillance room. Civilian security squads hold off hundreds of attackers at Be’eri and Nir Oz. Aner Shapira throws grenades back out of a roadside shelter near Re’im. Paramedic Amit Mann treats the wounded in Be’eri’s dental clinic until the end. The chapter then asks the question that still haunts Israel: where was the army?
Marc then reads from his assessment of what he calls Israel’s three-and-a-half-front war, including the policy of treating Hamas as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking in his own voice, Marc asks why, three years on, there is still no commission of inquiry of any kind. He connects that failure to Meron, to the submarine affair, and to the FlyDubai incident. He considers the two narratives October 7th left behind and argues that both are true. He explains why Israel should aim to be Athens rather than Sparta, and why he is backing Gadi Eisenkot in the coming election.
