Over the past two years since the tragic events of October 7 and the war that followed, I’ve travelled to Israel seven times. The first was in November 2023, fifty days into the war, and the most recent in September 2025, 690 days in. Each visit has been an act of connection – of breathing the same air as our people and drawing strength from their e resilience. As a Jew living in Australia, our life here once felt peaceful and secure, but since October 7 that sense of ease has fractured.