Why Israel will never again forget who its neighbors are

The two decades preceding the Oct.7th Hamas attack had been spectacularly good to Israel.

Miraculous even.What was once an inflation-plagued, war-prone pariah state had evolved into a global center of economic and cultural excellence — a soft-power success story whose complicated political situation no longer dominated every headline. Crowned the “start-up nation” thanks to a tech sector worth nearly $100 billion, Israel’s economy more than doubled between 2010 and 2022.

Today, the country is home to nearly 10,000 tech firms, almost 150 of them listed on the NASDAQ — the most of any nation after the US, China and Canada. Meanwhile, Israel’s tourism industry hit near-record numbers before the Hamas invasion, while the nation’s culinary scene brought shakshuka to every city as chefs like Eyal Shani and Yotam Ottolenghi became international foodie sensations.Across Tel Aviv, Pritzker Prize-winning architects like I.M.Pei and Richard Meier built sleek skyscrapers while the city’s distinctive Bauhaus architecture lured design pilgrims from across the globe.

And Tel Aviv’s high-throttle club culture — and annual Mediterranean-front Pride Parade — helped crown it the world’s top LGBT party capital.Back in the US, “Wonder Woman” Gal Gadot became Hollywood’s first bona fide Israeli superstar, celebrated in an April 2020 Vogue cover feature for her easy Israeli cool and backstory as both a former IDF soldier and Ms.Israel winner.

Israeli television shows such as “Fauda” and “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” became global streaming smashes, part of a robust production industry that included “Prisoners of War” — remade in the US as “Homeland” — which The New York Times crowned the best international television series of the decade.Most astoundingly, Tel Aviv — a place I had lived for years but had not visited for close to a decade — was declared the world’s most expensive city by the Economist a few months before I a...