Last week, following Iran-backed Hamas’ rejection of America’s proposal to extend the Jan. 19 Gaza ceasefire and release all 59 hostages, the Jewish state resumed military strikes. The renewed fighting makes it all the more important to recall the scope, magnitude, and goal of the jihadists’ surprise attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023. On that terrible Sabbath, Hamas gleefully executed an elaborate plan to massacre civilians in southern Israel. The terrorists killed some 1,200 persons, mostly civilians; raped women; mutilated bodies; kidnapped 251, mostly civilians; and plunged the Jewish state into a Tehran-sponsored, multi-front regional war.

Coming to grips with the deadliest and most gruesome assault on Jews since the Holocaust is about more than scrupulous historical bookkeeping and clarifying the near-term and long-term causes of today’s fighting. Grasping the jihadists’ war aims, tactics, and atrocities is crucial to understanding the threats faced not only by Israel but also by the United States and other rights-protecting democracies.

Several factors beyond the ordinary passage of time obscure the Oct. 7 horrors and their larger implications.

In general, as the digital revolution deluges the world with information, attention spans decline, intellectual standards deteriorate, and predilections for the shallow, juvenile, and vitriolic proliferate.