Israel, Hamas, and the End of Pax Americana

On the morning of October 7, a barbarian horde of Hamas terrorists cascaded into Israel from the Gaza Strip determined to commit as many atrocities against Israelis as possible. What followed was a grotesque attack on civilization itself — the most audacious act of genocidal violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Hamas’s reavers executed senior citizens at bus stops. They shot wildly into passing cars. They infiltrated an open-air concert and massacred hundreds of its fleeing attendees. They burned people alive in their homes. They walked from house to house, methodically assassinating anyone they found. They cut the throats of civilians, raped young women and girls, and slaughtered whole families. They filmed parents soaked in the blood of their own children as they begged for the lives of their surviving young. They paraded the mutilated bodies of their victims before cheering crowds of onlookers in Gaza. The attackers took hostages — citizens from all over the globe, including Americans — whom they threatened to execute, one by one, in public and on camera, if their unacceptable demands went unmet.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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On the morning of October 7, a barbarian horde of Hamas terrorists cascaded into Israel from the Gaza Strip determined to commit as many atrocities against Israelis as possible. What followed was a grotesque attack on civilization itself — the most audacious act of genocidal violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Hamas’s reavers executed senior citizens at bus stops. They shot wildly into passing cars. They infiltrated an open-air concert and massacred hundreds of its fleeing attendees. They burned people alive in their homes. They walked from house to house, methodically assassinating anyone they found. They cut the throats of civilians, raped young women and girls, and slaughtered whole families. They filmed parents soaked in the blood of their own children as they begged for the lives of their surviving young. They paraded the mutilated bodies of their victims before cheering crowds of onlookers in Gaza. The attackers took hostages — citizens from all over the globe, including Americans — whom they threatened to execute, one by one, in public and on camera, if their unacceptable demands went unmet.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.