Statement: Marking One Year Since the October 7 Massacre

Today, Lantos Foundation President Katrina Lantos Swett released the following statement, reflecting on the sober anniversary of the tragic events of October 7 in Israel:

Today we mark the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre, which saw the largest loss of Jewish life since the dark days of the Nazis’ Holocaust. Since that dark day, Israel has had to fight for its life on multiple fronts while over 100 hostages – Israeli, American and other nationalities, both dead and alive – remain in the murderous hands of Hamas. Jews around the world, including in the United States, have experienced the ominous and open rise of antisemitism. Meanwhile, heartbreaking numbers of civilians have paid for the war started by Hamas with death, displacement and destruction.

It would be easy to feel despair in the face of such great sorrow. Yet, on this sad anniversary, I find myself reflecting on an uplifting occasion 10 years ago when the Lantos Foundation awarded its highest honor, the Lantos Human Rights Prize, to Shimon Peres, a founding father, former Prime Minister and President of Israel, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. On that happy occasion, Shimon Peres told the gathered audience, which included then-Vice President Joe Biden, that in Israel, if you wanted to be a realist, you had to believe in miracles. President Peres reminded us of the many miracles that had attended the re-establishment of the Jewish homeland after two millennia, its triumph over unimaginable odds in war, and its building of a vibrant, prosperous, modern democracy under the most improbable of conditions.

At this dark and threatening time, we must be reminded that miracles can still happen in the land of Israel. The miracle that we all now seek is an enduring peace for the Jewish people in their ancient and modern homeland. We also seek the miracle of a neighborhood in which Israel is acknowledged and accepted by its neighbors and in which all nations in the region can prosper together in peace. Finally, we seek the miracle of a just solution to the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. President Peres once said, “My biggest mistake was that my dreams were too small.” On this solemn anniversary, let us heed the words of a wise man of peace. Let us dream and work for miracles in the Middle East.