Today’s version of “screaming from our rooftops” is flooding our social media feeds; but, it feels like the noise just continues to reverberate in an echo chamber of like-minded Jews. We have said it at every inflection point since October 7, 2023, and yet, the silence is STILL defeaning. NEVER AGAIN IS NOW. Period. Hard stop. No qualifications or caveats. If you have the ability to speak out against injustice, racism, inequality, rape, torture and any other crime against humanity, are you? If yes, thank you. The mountain of antisemitism feels insurmountable at times, like now. Imagine that Kanye has over 33 million followers on X, a huge audience to spew his vitriol, especially given there are only about 15 million Jews globally. We need others to amplify our voices!
The latest images of Eli, Or and Ohad are chilling. They have rocked me to my core. In fact, their skeleton-like bodies and hollow eyes are reminiscent of the visuals we have seen from concentration camps during the Holocaust. Upon reflection, this is why I am so gutted today. Having visited Holocaust memorials all over the world and watched numerous documentaries on the atrocities of the Nazi regime, I have become conditioned to expect to see visuals of my ancestors appearing as the walking dead. It never gets easier to see, but since I was not alive during the war, I previously observed as a witness of history. There was an inherent distance that protected me from the hatred and ugliness of the monsters who perpetrated the desired extermination of my people. That no longer exists.
Look into Eli Sharabi’s eyes. The anguish is palpable; a man that technically survived 484 days in captivity, but what does the term survived even mean? Yes, he physically returned alive, but barely. And, that is what we can see. The psychological barbarism of the evil terrorists can only be imagined. He shared that even as late as the morning of his release the captors had him making a statement about looking forward to seeing his wife and two daughters, since he was unaware they had been savagely murdered by these animals on October 7. How does one even process that information and navigate that pain?
When the Hamas attack first occurred and the discussion of an Israeli retaliation was being discussed, I admittedly worried about the ramifications of an increased escalation in the region. I saw the images of young children in the streets of Gaza and believed some of them were “innocent.” Are those the same children proudly saying they want to kill all Jews, or holding machine guns taller than them? While they may look too young to even know what they are saying and doing, that doesn’t make them innocent. It’s not their fault, hate is taught. But once you are indoctrinated into the ideology of hate, you are no longer innocent. Real change and our desired peace only stands a chance when the endless cycle of hate is broken. But how?
Talking heads have excelled in the mental gymnastics of analyzing the stipulations of the deal and whether it is palatable enough for each side. Even amongst the Jewish community we lack consensus. Intellectually, it feels insane to have to return terrorists that were responsible for purposefully killing many Israelis in exchange for truly innocent civilians kidnapped out of their beds. And, giving so many Palestinians in exchange for one Israeli feels unjust, but we don’t have a choice. Those are our children, our sisters and brothers, our grandparents that we want home. Their lives are worth everything. As Jews, we are taught that saving one life is equal to saving the world. That ideology can never square with the strategy of using your civilians as targets and collateral damage to further your twisted agenda, like Hamas does. One is a democracy and one is a terrorist group, yet the world is holding the democracy accountable to play by diplomatic rules while the terrorists are given a completely free pass to be savages over and over, while we watch and too many comply.
This weekend I watched the newly streaming movie September 5 about another deadly and incomprehensible day in Israel’s history and the terrifying reality of being Jewish. As Palestinian terrorists broke into the athlete’s village at the 1972 Munich Olympics and opened fire against the Israeli athletes, they immediately killed two members of the delegation and took an additional nine hostage. Tragically, all nine were murdered within the following 24 hours. I don’t want to share all of the inner workings of the infiltration and negotiations (for those who are not aware of the nuances) because I would encourage people to watch the movie. September 5 is from the perspective of the team at the ABC sports desk in Munich and their live broadcast of the Olympics. Sadly, the two terrorist attacks have many similar characteristics: Palestinian terrorists targeting innocent Israeli Jews, demanding the release of Palestinian terrorists being held in Israel and then ultimately murdering their hostages. It was reported that while negotiators were offering money in exchange for the Munich hostages, the terrorists replied that money was of no use to them, and that their own lives were worth sacrificing to kill a Jew. How do you counter that hate? While the world was stunned as aspects of the day were broadcast live by the ABC team covering the Olympics, the confluence of events mishandled by the German police and Olympic committee resulted in the complete failure to grasp the magnitude of the situation: Jews were murdered in cold blood on German soil simply for being Jewish, AGAIN.
AND SO IT GOES…we must end these historical cycles of violence. We need everyone with any sense of humanity to scream from their rooftops to stand up against this ugly hate. And, as we continue to watch skeletons of survivors paraded on stages amidst a sea of savages with cell phones and cameras commemorating the events of an exchange, our hearts are shattered. These are not images from Auschwitz during the liberation, they are from today. Yet, the chilling visuals have a horrifying resemblance. Where is the outrage? Where are the demands for humanity? Where are the advocates? Where are the two Bibas babies? We are screaming for answers, but our voices don’t seem to be loud enough.
The world held Germany accountable for the Nazi atrocities. There was collective agreement in the simplest form: Nazis were evil and should be punished and future generations could not be indoctrinated into hating the Jews for being Jewish. But, that moral clarity does not exist today. There is no difference between the hostages coming home today and the liberation of a concentration camp, and the visuals remind us of the painful similarities. We are begging the world to course correct for humanity, just as we did after WW2. Help us scream, help us teach, help us eradicate hate and help us create a future filled with lessons from history that don’t repeat themselves. Help us!