What Made Oct. 7 Possible?

Mar 8, 2026 by Susan Rosenbluth

Award-winning historian Prof. Rafael Medoff (Jewish history at Yeshiva University) is the founding director of the DC-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and a leading expert on the American Jewish response to the Holocaust. His latest book is The Road to October 7: Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War against the Jews.

It demonstrates the similarities between the heinous pogrom in southern Israel in 2023 and the unspeakable horrors inflicted on the Jewish people throughout the centuries.

This scholarly work explains not only the reasons for the virulent hatred of Jews in Palestinian society that led to the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 but also the reaction of the Western world – including Israel – to the warning signs that enabled the worst attack on Israeli soil since its establishment. If one wishes to learn from history, Medoff’s book is essential reading.

The author sat down with The Jerusalem Post to discuss his work. This interview was published in the Jerusalem Post.

You describe the profound indoctrination of hate in Palestinian society leading up to October 7. What about other factors that made it possible?

Enemies of Israel watch carefully for signs of internal weakness. And it does appear that Israel’s domestic divisions may have affected the timing of the attack – seeing Israelis fighting among themselves encouraged Hamas leaders to perceive Israel as particularly vulnerable in the autumn of 2023.

But the root cause of the attack itself was the decades of anti-Jewish hate in Palestinian Arab schools, summer camps, mosque sermons, and television and radio programs.

With the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the creation of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat and his successors took control over what Palestinian Arab children are taught. For the past 33 years, they have been taught to hate Jews, idolize terrorists, and devote themselves to the goal of destroying Israel. On Oct. 7, 2023, they put what they were taught into practice.

Do you think the events of October 7 might make some Zionists lose faith in the Jewish state as a haven?

While I show the many similarities between Oct. 7 and previous antisemitic violence, going back to the Middle Ages, no two situations were ever identical. Oct. 7 was unique in many ways – as you note, it was unprecedented for an armed mob of that size to infiltrate Israel. What was also unique was how lightly the border was guarded. So yes, it would be understandable if the faith of some Israelis in their political or military leaders was shaken by what happened.

Still, there have been other episodes in the past when the faith of the Israeli public was shaken, at least for a time. For example, many people were deeply disillusioned when they learned that the Israeli government gave in to US pressure not to launch a preemptive strike on the eve of the Yom Kippur War.

Israelis typically have responded to such disappointments not by giving up on their country but by expressing their dissatisfaction on election day.

It seems that most Jews in the Western world seeking to relocate are looking at destinations other than Israel. Why is that?

Historically, there has never been a significant wave of aliyah from any country where Jews were comfortable. Even the election of an antisemitic mayor in New York City is more likely to galvanize the city’s Jews to move to Florida or California rather than Israel.

Keep in mind that although antisemitism has increased dramatically in the United States in recent years, it doesn’t directly or personally impact the lives of most Jews. They are still, for the most part, financially successful and culturally integrated. If that changes, then we can expect some will start to look at Israel as a serious option.

Is the current surge of antisemitism worldwide different from historical precedents because of social media?

Technological innovations can cut both ways. The rise of social media has revolutionized modern communication, both for good and bad – and the spread of antisemitism via social media illustrates the danger. The ability of the Oct. 7 terrorists to live-stream their atrocities added a ghoulish dimension to their crimes, one that we could never have imagined.

In the end, however, the main problem is not the technology but the quality of the human beings who are using it. Anti-Jewish pogromists in past centuries also boasted about their crimes; they just did it in different ways. In the Middle Ages, they celebrated the murder of Jews through engravings or antisemitic poetry. In the 1950s, Arab terrorists returning to Gaza after attacking Israeli Jews broadcast their atrocities by parading body parts from their victims.

The subtitle of your book is ‘Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews.’ Is it eternal? Is there hope for change?

It’s reasonable to assume that antisemitism will always exist somewhere, and there will always be somebody waging war against the Jews. But the actions taken by Israel and world Jewry can affect how much damage those wars inflict.

Rooting out hate-inciting education is the most urgent need. The Allies called it “de-Nazification.” After World War II, the American occupation forces in Germany outlawed the Nazi Party and overhauled the schools, firing pro-Nazi teachers and getting rid of pro-Nazi textbooks. The result was that entire generations of German children were raised to embrace peace and democracy, and Germany has become one of America’s closest friends in Europe.

The Oslo Accords envisioned a similar transformation of Palestinian Arab society. Terrorist groups were supposed to be outlawed and disarmed. Government-sponsored anti-Jewish incitement was supposed to stop. And most of all, antisemitism and the glorification of violence were supposed to be rooted out of the schools. Hillary Clinton once called the Palestinian Authority’s educational system “child abuse,” and she was right.

The PA has had 33 years since Oslo to stop teaching hate and violence, but it hasn’t done it – so somebody else is going to have to step in, if there’s ever going to be hope for peace.

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Dr. Rafael Medoff is the founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of more than 20 books about Jewish history and the Holocaust.