Tomorrow Will Be Worse

israel palestine war
The truth is, this is not where I thought we’d be a year on, with tens of thousands dead and Israel fighting two wars, one in Gaza and one in Lebanon, and the Middle East seemingly on the brink of a regional conflagration. Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
October 9, 2024

As I write this, the sun is setting on October 7, 2024, one year since Hamas terrorists burst across the Israeli border and hunted people in their homes, raping, burning, shooting, torturing, massacring. Readers of my work have sometimes poked fun at the way I sign off my emails for Puck—“Tomorrow will be worse”—but the past few years have shown me just how inadequate that phrase is, how difficult it is to imagine or anticipate the depths to which humans can sink, and the boundless creativity with which we approach the dehumanization and annihilation of our fellow people. And October 7, in particular, has begotten a grotesque string of horrible tomorrows.