Three years after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel, changing American attitudes toward Israel are raising concerns among some survivors and their families that the events that sparked the war are fading from public memory.
For Iris Reff Ronen, CEO of Warriors of Israel, the anniversary is deeply personal. Her stepson was attending the Nova music festival when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel. (TNND)
For Iris Reff Ronen, CEO of Warriors of Israel, the anniversary is deeply personal. Her stepson was attending the Nova music festival when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel.
“Thankfully, after five agonizing hours, we realized he is alive, that his girlfriend is alive. And he survived,” Ronen said.
Her family was one of the lucky ones. About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza.
Ronen now leads Warriors of Israel, an organization that provides support to Israelis wounded in the war that followed.
“This horrific war created over 26,000 new wounded warriors,” Ronen said. “Most of them are very, very young.”
The war has also taken an enormous toll on Palestinians. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reports more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began. And as the death toll rose, American attitudes toward Israel shifted significantly.
New polling from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found American favorability toward Israel has fallen to its lowest level in the organization’s polling dating to 1978. Israel received an average rating of 44 on a 100-point scale, down from 58 in 2022.
That shift is increasingly visible in American politics. Prominent critics of Israel, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, have gained prominence on the political left.
Mamdani has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a war criminal and described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Israel strongly rejects allegations that it is committing genocide and says its military operations have targeted Hamas.
For Ronen, the changing political environment raises concerns that the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 are being overshadowed by the war that followed.
“Israel’s voice is not heard whatsoever in the world today,” Ronen said, arguing that younger Americans increasingly receive information about the conflict through social media, not all of which comes from verified sources.
The anniversary also comes amid continuing concerns about antisemitism in the United States.
A new Honan Strategy Group poll of Jewish voters in New York City found 51% believe Jewish New Yorkers are unsafe in the city. Forty-two percent said they have personally experienced verbal harassment because they are Jewish.
While the wound of the Oct. 7th attack is still fresh and painful for the global Jewish community, those impacted say one challenge three years later is ensuring the attack — and the people still living with its consequences — are not forgotten by the wider world.