By Morton A. Klein
(October 7, 2026 / USA Today) Oct. 7, 2023 was not just a horrific massacre. It was a warning.
The lesson is simple: Hamas must be disarmed, Gaza must be deradicalized and Israel must be allowed to defend itself. If we rebuild Gaza while Hamas remains armed and in control, we are simply helping build the next Oct. 7.
Oct. 7 was the worst slaughter of innocent Jews since the Holocaust. Arab Islamic terrorists and accompanying radicalized Gazan civilians tortured, gang-raped, mutilated, burned and murdered 1,200 people, including babies and Holocaust survivors. Forty-seven were Americans. Another 5,000 were wounded and 251 people were taken hostage, including 12 Americans.
It was the largest mass hostage-taking of Americans since the Iranian regime took 52 Americans hostage in 1979.
One-third of the hostages were murdered in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis were driven from their homes.
And we still have not fully faced what Oct. 7 really was.
Hamas and its Nukhba unit led the attack, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Palestinian Arab terrorists and terrorists from Fatah, the governing party of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Teachers and principals from UNRWA schools also participated. Some were also members of terrorist organizations.
Oct. 7 did not come out of nowhere.
Hamas deliberately chose Simchat Torah and the Sabbath for its attack. The Nazis often chose Jewish holidays for their worst attacks. Egypt and Syria chose Yom Kippur for their surprise attack on Israel in 1973. Hamas chose another Jewish holy day and turned a day of joy into a day of murder and horror.
And Oct. 7 was not the end of the attack.
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel from Lebanon. Hezbollah had 150,000 rockets pointed at Israel. Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel. Iranian-backed Houthis, militias in Iraq and Palestinian terrorist groups in Syria also attacked Israel.
Palestinian Arab terrorists continued their campaign of terror against Jews in Israel, including in Judea and Samaria.
Then came another front.
Before Israel had even buried its dead, American campuses and streets erupted with antisemitic lies, violence and attacks on Israel. Israel was accused of genocide, reversing the reality of what had happened on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, Israel went into Gaza to find its hostages and destroy Hamas. Israel also provided 600,000 polio vaccinations to Gazan children and facilitated the entry of more than 2 million tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, water, medicine and fuel.
What have we learned, three years after Oct. 7?
Three years later, the question is whether we learned the lesson.
President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan correctly called for Hamas to be disarmed and Gaza to be deradicalized.
Disarmament must come first.
You cannot build a peaceful Gaza while allowing Hamas to remain an armed terrorist organization. You cannot rebuild the infrastructure that Hamas can use to rebuild its military and then expect peace.
Yet Hamas has not disarmed.
Hamas continues to maintain military control over Gaza. It tortures opponents in hospitals, executes opponents in the streets, grows its forces and crosses Israel’s security perimeter to attack Israelis.
That brings us to the $2.45 billion plan unveiled by the so-called “Board of Peace” on Sept. 23 to rebuild Gaza’s infrastructure, transportation, communications, economy and digital capabilities.
Rebuilding Gaza is not the problem.
Rebuilding Gaza before Hamas is disarmed and Gaza is deradicalized is the problem.
Without those conditions, these projects risk helping Hamas build another Hamastan.
We have already seen what happens when terrorists are allowed to turn Gaza into a military base. Oct. 7 showed us the price.
We should not build another terror state and then act shocked when it attacks Israel again.
The lesson of Oct. 7 is not complicated.
Hamas must be disarmed. Gaza must be deradicalized. Terrorism must stop being rewarded. Children must stop being taught to hate Jews and murder Israelis.
And Israel must be allowed to defend itself.
Three years after Oct. 7, we owe it to the victims and the hostages to remember not only what happened, but why it happened.
The goal cannot simply be to rebuild Gaza.
The goal must be to make sure there is never another Oct. 7.
Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America.
This op-ed was originally published by USA Today and can be viewed here.