Over two years into my second term as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I have heard countless speeches and witnessed countless moments. But some words stay with you.
“Hope is still mandatory.”
Those words were spoken by Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was murdered in Hamas captivity. A few months ago, we invited Rachel to address an international gathering of counterterrorism agency heads from UN member states in New York, making her the first Israeli to address the conference in years.
I remember listening to her and asking myself: After everything she has endured, how can she still hold on to hope? The answer became clear: resilience.
Resilience: The secret to holding onto hope after October 7
Three years ago, on October 7, Hamas invaded Israel and tried to destroy the Jewish state.
It murdered families in their homes, burned people alive in safe rooms, slaughtered young people at a music festival, and fired thousands of rockets at Israeli communities. It dragged 251 men, women, and children into Gaza and subjected them to unimaginable cruelty.
October 7 changed Israel forever. It wounded us. It left scars that will never fully disappear. But it did not break us.
Three years later, the defining story of October 7 is not only what Hamas did to us. It is the resilience we showed afterward. We chose to rebuild.
Resilience is part of our DNA. Our history has taught us that resilience is more than surviving tragedy. It is the strength to rise from it, rebuild, and choose life.
We have seen that resilience throughout our history. We saw it in the generations that survived persecution and exile. We saw it in Holocaust survivors who, after losing everything, dedicated themselves to rebuilding Jewish life and building the State of Israel.
On October 7, we saw that same resilience. Parents protected their children. Soldiers rushed into battle. Ordinary citizens became heroes, saving strangers and carrying the wounded to safety.
While Israel fought against its enemies, its people refused to leave its hostages behind. That determination showed who we are: a nation that leaves nobody behind. A nation that couldn’t move forward until all our loved ones came home.
Eliya Cohen and Ziv Abud exemplified that resilience better than most. On October 7, the couple was at the Nova music festival when Hamas terrorists attacked. They fled to a bomb shelter, where they faced grenades and gunfire. Abud survived by hiding among the bodies of those who had been murdered. Cohen was taken hostage and spent 505 days in captivity.
For months, Abud advocated relentlessly for Cohen’s return. When Cohen finally came home, their ordeal was not over. They had to begin the difficult process of rebuilding lives that were shattered by an experience neither of them should ever have endured.
And yet, they chose to build. On August 19, they celebrated their wedding and the future they had fought so hard to reach. Their marriage was not a denial of their pain or an attempt to leave October 7 behind. It was a declaration that what happened to them would not determine the rest of their lives. They chose each other. They chose a future. They chose life.
This year, I invited Abud and Cohen to speak together for the first time as a married couple at the United Nations. I wanted their resilience to be heard.
Their story is also the story of thousands of Israelis carrying invisible wounds. It is the families who spent sleepless nights with their children in bomb shelters, and the parents who still flinch when they hear a siren. It is the soldiers who lost lifelong friends and returned from battle with life-altering injuries. It is the families who lost sons and daughters and nevertheless found the strength to keep raising their children and moving forward.
Their sacrifices were not in vain. Three years after October 7, Israel is stronger than it was on that terrible morning. We have confronted threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other forces determined to destroy us. We have strengthened our alliances and expanded our circle of peace.
Despite these accomplishments, Israel still faces challenges. Hamas and Hezbollah must be disarmed. Iran continues to seek Israel’s destruction.
At the United Nations, the campaign to demonize Israel continues. The country that suffered one of the worst terrorist attacks of the 21st century now faces accusations of genocide, war crimes, and starvation. Those who should be defending the truth have instead turned the victim into the accused.
Today, we have one message: Israel is still here. We are raising our children, building our communities, developing our hi-tech sector, strengthening our alliances, and expanding our circle of peace.
After everything we have endured, we continue to choose life.
Three years later, we remember the victims. We honor the survivors. We stand with the families who continue to carry unimaginable pain because hope is still mandatory.
We do what the Jewish people have always done. We rise. We rebuild. And we choose life.
The writer is the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.