Within the Hallowed Halls of History, certain dates reign supreme: For Americans, December 7 will forever be a “date which will live in infamy.” September 11 will always mark the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans. The 11th month of the 11th day of the 11th hour will always denote the Armistice that ended World War I.
Humans are symbolic thinkers; we learn via association. Monumental happenings and civilization-altering tragedies are almost always viewed three-dimensionally: Yes, they exist as historic events, and yes, they help us make sense of the past, but they also help us understand our future. It contextualizes today’s conflicts for a modern audience.
The past influences our tomorrow.
Even 2,000 years later, the Ides of March would be a poor choice for National Friendship Day. Just too many daggers and too much “Et tu, Brute?” in the cultural aether.
Our latest date of infamy is October 7 — the day when Hamas terrorists launched a large-scale sneak attack into Israel and murdered, raped, butchered, kidnapped, and decapitated thousands of Jews. It was the single greatest one-day loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
And with the cameras recording every last detail — largely because the Hamas barbarians were so proud of their carnage, gleefully recording each and every atrocity — “Never again” became “Here again.”
Mossad was caught flatfooted; its aura of invincibility shattered. Netanyahu was on the ropes. The entire Jewish State was reeling, facing the very real possibility of a New World Order in the Middle East, where terrorist mobs slaughter civilians with impunity, Iran funds and arms terrorists to smother the skies with missiles, and Israel has no choice but to take it — and wait for Iran to achieve its nuclear dreams.
On October 7, the seeds of a second Holocaust were planted. That’s NOT hyperbole — and if you don’t understand this fact, then it’s impossible for you to comprehend the urgency of the Israelis: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the rest of the Next Gen Nazis had just planted an Evil Garden. It was the antithesis of Eden, a vile, ruinous harvest of death, hate, and heartache.
And if the harvest ever reached maturity, Israel would surely die on the vine.
Israel stood before two paths. Despite the protests and interference of the Biden-Harris administration, the choice was entirely theirs: The Israelis earned this “burden” via their 1948 War of Independence and were absolutely, 100% unwilling to give anyone else power of attorney. Not Biden — not Harris — not the United Nations.
So while pro-Hamas activists who harassed random Jews and destroyed symbols of Western Culture overran college campuses in the United States, Israel had a decision to make.
The future of its people hung in the balance. And what did it do?
Israel went back to the drawing board and plowed the whole damn Evil Garden to its roots.
Even as our Western liberals were loudly condemning Israeli “aggression” (while having precious little to say about Hamas returning the rape victims who were tortured and kidnapped), Israel set fire to the Garden and salted the earth.
The Chosen People chose to take a stand.
Today, one year later, the narrative is dramatically different: Israel is no longer retreating; it's marching forward. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are now the ones on the ropes — facing an uncertain future of assassinations, unrest, and political instability. Israel systemically decapitated the leadership of Hezbollah in the most extraordinary covert mission of our lifetime. Pagers began exploding; walkie-talkies became weapons. And now the dolts, dunces, and dullards who weren’t competent enough to handle a pager(!) in early September run Hezbollah.
It's not over. There’s still more to be done. But today, Israel is probably safer and more secure than it's been in many, many years.
There’s a lesson to all this: Public relations is a powerful tool for influencing popular opinion. If you’re a conservative, you already know this — you’ve witnessed it firsthand. The mainstream media is like an immovable, intractable monolith. Ignore it at your own peril.
But you can’t “spin” your way to victory. That’s not what PR is for.
You either win or you lose. You either succeed or you fail. You either become known for what you stand for — or you’re eulogized for what you fell for.
The single greatest PR victory of Israel’s campaign was its Pagerpalooza. The world was so amazed by Israeli ingenuity that even the harshest critics of the Jewish State had to tip their hats. Israel received more glowing press on social media, mainstream media, and alternative media for its pager prank than anything else.
That’s because victory is the best PR of all.
You should never fight a war to win a PR battle. But when you win, the PR takes care of itself. As John F. Kennedy noted, “Victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.”
That’s the lesson: Win the damn war. Worry about the PR later.
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