Israelis want to live, defeat terror, and build a future of peace for ourselves and Palestinians alike
Two years is a long time. In two years, a child learns to walk, to speak, to discover the world. In two years, governments change, leaders rise and fall, and societies transform.
And yet, for us, so much remains frozen on that terrible day. Families shattered. Empty chairs at Shabbat tables. Hostages still held captive in Gaza, including the brother of Eli Sharabi, who visited Australia earlier this year to share his story.
Eli’s story captures both the depth of our pain and the resilience of our spirit. His wife and children were murdered on October 7. He only learned of their fate on being released, after 491 days in captivity.
When he met with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in Canberra last month, he spoke with courage and clarity. Even after all he had endured, his message was simple yet profound: choose life. That is who we are in Israel. We are lovers of life. We want to live, we want to defeat terror, and we want to build a future of peace.
To build that future, we must be clear about the nature of this struggle. Israel’s fight is not against the Palestinian people. It is against Hamas, a terror organisation that uses its own civilians as human shields, diverts resources from schools and hospitals to build rockets and tunnels, and exploits ordinary Palestinians for its own violent ends.
Our vision is different. We want a future in which Israelis and Palestinians alike can live with dignity and security.
That vision guides our actions. Over the past two years, Israel has struck decisively against terror, dismantling Hamas’s leadership, weakening Hezbollah and constraining Iran’s regional power. We have disrupted Houthi attacks on vital shipping lanes and degraded networks that plan violence in Gaza and beyond.
These efforts protect not only Israel but the entire Western world, reducing the space in which terror can operate globally. Every strike against these networks weakens their ability to threaten civilians worldwide, from New York and Berlin to Sydney.
These achievements are steps toward something greater, durable stability and peace.
Our aim is not endless war. It is to create conditions where no child grows up under the shadow of terror. It is a world where Iran’s proxies cannot operate, because their violence does not stop at our region. Australians now know this all too well, as extremism threatens global security.
Progress on the battlefield alone is not enough. What sustains us is hope: hope for the safe return of our hostages, hope for peace within our immediate neighbourhood, hope that this war, which we did not ask for or start, can finally end once Hamas lays down its weapons, releases the innocent Israeli men and women it continues to hold, and frees the Palestinian people from its grip of terror.
This is why Israel has agreed to the latest plan advanced by President Donald Trump, an opportunity to replace fear with security, violence with stability, and despair with peace.
No plan can succeed unless Hamas surrenders both its weapons and its ideology of destruction. If that happens, then perhaps this dark chapter can finally close. Two years have passed, but we carry the memory of October 7 with us every day.
We honour the 1200 victims, stand with the families of the hostages, and recommit ourselves to the pursuit of peace. Above all, we remember Eli Sharabi’s words, words that must guide us forward: choose life.
Amir Maimon is Israel’s ambassador to Australia.
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It is hard to believe two years have passed since October 7, 2023. For so many of us, it still feels like that morning. I was there, and I can still hear the sirens, still feel the fear as the alarms went off. They continue to go off even today, each time rockets are fired at Israel.