Michael Needham, the deputy U.S. national security advisor, said on Monday that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel and their aftermath are part of a shared civilizational war pitting the United States, Israel and other allies against enemies of the West.

The Oct. 7 attacks were met with praise and “gleeful celebration of inhuman barbarism, savagery and death” both in Gaza and around the world, Needham said in remarks at an event organized by the Israeli Embassy in Washington to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack.

“What was clear then is that each of our countries is locked in a battle between civilization and barbarism,” Needham said. “That the war between the people of Israel and the terrorists of Hamas is a war that is playing out in various forms, here in the United States and in Europe and across the whole of the Western world.”

He said that the 9/11 attacks and Oct. 7 are just a few flashpoints in that ongoing war.

“The question that all of us face is not merely whether we are on the side of civilization; it is what cost are we willing to pay to defend it?” Needham said. “For the people of Israel, this is not a hypothetical question; it is one you have answered in full. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the people of Israel revealed themselves to be a nation whose citizens were willing to answer the call, to lay down their lives if necessary, when their country needed them.”

Needham described that spirit as the essence of patriotism, to stand up for one’s nation “precisely when it calls on him to sacrifice the things that he holds most dear.”

“The forces of barbarism worship death; they seek it out as an end unto itself. Those who choose to defend civilization may be willing to die for our cause, but it is only because we love and value life that we choose to sacrifice everything to defend it,” Needham said. “Over the last three years, the people of Israel have chosen life to fight and suffer and sacrifice for it, and civilization will continue to prevail so long as our nations are blessed by heroes.”

Needham described Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter — who remains in Israel caring for his son, who was critically injured in an attack last month while serving in the West Bank — and his family as a “living testament” to that spirit of patriotism. Leiter lost another son who was killed in November 2023 while serving in Gaza.

The event, hosted by Washington Hebrew Congregation, also featured a candle lighting by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Robert Cekada, remarks by Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission Nevo Barchad and a former spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as a musical performance by musician Gilad Segev and his group, Project Heroes, which commemorates victims and heroes of Oct. 7.

The audience of several hundred included American Jewish leaders, other administration officials, military officials and international diplomats, among others.

Like Needham, Barchad emphasized that the ideology of Hamas was “glorified even in the free world.” He said that Leiter had been hoping to speak about the way that anti-Israel and antisemitic hate has proliferated through schools, social media, courtrooms, government and more.

“Facts don’t matter anymore,” Barchad said. “Hamas’ attempted genocide was minimized, and immediately Israel stood accused of genocide. Israel is then accused of deliberately starving Gaza, no matter how much humanitarian aid we facilitated into the strip.”

He also emphasized the role that Iran and Hezbollah had played in supporting the Oct. 7 attacks.

“Together with America, our greatest ally, we have worked to dismantle the threat,” Barchad said, adding that going forward, Israel must dismantle terrorist groups rather than attempt to constrain them; must work to reform education in the Palestinian territories to stop indoctrination; and cannot overlook attempts to delegitimize Israel in the United Nations, online, on college campuses and in Congress.

“We now know that many Western leaders do not understand that appealing to their domestic political bases by vilifying Israel threatens their own societies, just as it threatens ours,” he said. “The West and moderate Muslim countries must confront terrorism by pursuing terrorists, designating terrorist organizations, disrupting their funding and prosecuting those who support or enable them.”

But he also said that the attack and the ensuing war have shown the strength of Israelis and the Israeli youth — “the greatest generation of Israelis ever” — and that Israel’s enemies cannot destroy it or its “resolve, courage or resourcefulness.”