A Year After October 7, Israelis Ask, ‘Where Is the State?’

For Israelis, October 7 is, in a phrase that’s taken root in the country, “the day that never ends.” After 365 iterations of that interminable day, life in Israel is unrecognizable from that of a year earlier, reduced to a sort of survival mode.

The wail of air-raid sirens is constant. Streets are largely empty. In Jerusalem’s southern neighborhoods, where Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin brought up their son, Hersh, his scraggly, bearded face is ubiquitous...