“I had never seen, in all the wars, all the fighting, all the slurs, and the misery, anything like October 7. And I think it had a profound effect, not only on anyone who knows the Middle East and has covered the Middle East but also on all American Jews,” Miller told Ynet in an interview.
Judith Miller in Ynet interview
“I now believe that… there’s not going to be a two-state solution anytime soon. It’s just a non-starter,” she said. “After October 7, it’s going to take a long, long, long time for the pain and the suffering to subside.”
She stressed the challenge this poses, particularly for American Jews who strongly support Israel. “Israel has lost this battle among younger Americans. And it’s a huge challenge, especially for American Jews who trust Israel, believe in Israel and believe in the inseparability of Jews from Zionism,” she said.
“I don’t think you can count on Donald Trump being on [Netanyahu’s] side,” she said, adding that Trump’s isolationist tendencies and transactional approach to foreign policy make him unpredictable.
She argued that the real solution to the Iranian nuclear threat lies not in military strikes but in supporting Iranian efforts for regime change. “If you have a change of regime, you have a chance of ending the nuclear program,” she said.
“Even a military strike… I’m not sure it would destroy the program. It can set it back, that’s for sure and that would be a good thing. But the only solution to an Iran that doesn’t want a nuclear weapon is not military action, which I fear would build support for this unpopular regime, but is to get rid of the regime.”
“When your confidence in your institutions collapses, democracy is in danger,” she said. “President Trump has gone on an all-out campaign to weaken the credibility and support for these vital institutions, especially the press.”
She defended the role of journalists, recalling Thomas Jefferson’s assertion that democracy cannot function without a free press. “He calls us scum. He calls us the worst people in the world. But as Thomas Jefferson said, try to run a democracy without us. You can’t.”
“Jordan is in great danger,” she said. “And I think my country should do more to make sure that that regime is stable and secure.”
Miller also stressed that once the war in Gaza winds down, Israel must conduct a thorough review of its security failures on October 7. “Israel really needs to have a reckoning and a deeper understanding of what happened on October 7. Some of the people responsible for it should be held accountable but I don’t think all of them have been.”
As Israel and the U.S. navigate the fallout from October 7, Miller’s reflections underscore the deep challenges ahead, both in terms of security and public perception.
