Finding every October 7 terrorist would provide accountability for yesterday.
It would not necessarily prevent tomorrow.
Israel could eventually cross every identifiable perpetrator off its list and still face another October 7 if Hamas–or another organization built on the same ideology–is allowed to retain weapons, financing, tunnels, command structures and the ability to recruit the next generation.
That is why the debate over Hamas disarmament is ultimately larger than the hunt for individual terrorists.
Accountability deals with the last massacre.
Deterrence warns those contemplating the next one.
But destroying the infrastructure of terrorism is what makes the next massacre harder to carry out.
Munich taught Israel that terrorism carries a long memory.
October 7 may teach an even harder lesson:
It is not enough to hunt the men who committed an atrocity.
You must also dismantle the machinery capable of producing another one.
