On Israel
With rare exception, I limit my LinkedIn posts to topics that pertain to my professional work. Today I am suspending that practice and am writing to share some thoughts about Israel. I will describe my personal connections and then share my impressions of the current situation.
First, thank you to everyone who has checked in with me over the past several days. I get it – I’m the guy who doesn’t work on Saturday and who sits at work dinners nursing a coffee or a Coke. In ordinary circumstances, that wouldn’t necessarily mean that I know a ton of people half a globe away. Except that this time I do. My student taking gap-year classes in a bomb shelter while watching peer reservists deploy. Young members of our extended family, men and women, who likewise have been called up for active duty. God should watch over them. These are just our blood relations. The rest of the nation is family. Where else does someone ask his local community for help housing displaced families from active combat zones – and within 45 minutes locate places for 6,000 people?
Second, the main reason for this post. I don’t always feel compelled to speak up. But more frightening is the prospect of being faced at the end of days, "Why did you remain silent?"????????????????????????
And so, I will speak.
Hamas infiltrators massacred 1,000 people last Saturday. That’s a big number to wrap your head around. About 260 were killed at a rave. That's more than five times the number killed at the Pulse club in Florida in 2016. More than 100 were killed at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, including women, children, and toddlers, whose homes were set on fire by Hamas terrorists to force residents out into the line of fire. More than 100 others missing, kidnapped into Gaza. The brutality is beyond words that I can gather (see report here https://nypost.com/2023/10/10/hamas-kills-40-babies-and-children-beheading-some-of-them-at-israeli-kibbutz-report/ ).
Not soldiers.
Civilians. Women. Children. Grandparents.
In the United States, we lost 2,977 on 9/11. That is a staggering number. A loss proportional to what Israel suffered this week would be more than 32,000.
And while the numbers are shocking, it's more than the numbers. It's the faces of the missing and murdered.
Not soldiers.
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Not military targets.
Not operational facilities.
Farms. Homes. Festivals.
A friend of mine captured our collective understanding in chilling but revealing words: "Hamas, the Iranian-supported elected government of Gaza, launched a sneak attack into Israel where their irregular soldiers murdered hundreds of non-combatants, kidnapped others, tortured and raped non-combatants to death, and went house-to-house murdering babies. What I know is that Hamas would happily and cheerfully murder my children."
This is not political activism. This is not negotiation. This is not even warfare. Hamas deliberately struck civilian targets and continues their terror with threats to execute hostages.
And shame on our prestigious universities whose elected student leaders print their "unwavering and absolute solidarity" with terrorists who massacre mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents on kibbutzes; decimate hundreds of young people celebrating music; kidnap women and children; and parade nearly naked bodies of the dead and barely living through Gaza. Is this the thought leadership our institutions of higher learning are cultivating?
Data saturation occurs when sufficient information upon which to base a conclusion has been gathered. I cannot imagine anyone who has not reached that point as news of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas continues to emerge. But even if one is convinced; even if one understands; even if one is weary of the searing pain inflicted by each story, the memory of each person lost must be sustained, and the ferocity with which their lives were taken must be noticed. There can be no equivocation as to the unconscionable evil of Hamas.
Give silence no quarter. Stand with Israel. Stand with what is right.
CEO/General Manager at SRT Communications
11 个月So glad you are sharing your voice, Josh.?
Husband | Father | Encourager of People | Technology Services Solution Explorer | Client Advocate | Kindness Promoter | People Helper | Baker
12 个月The atrocity that is happening to Israel ???? is just pure Evil. Praying for the Jewish nation and all the Jewish people around the globe. Thank you for sharing and posting this.
Experienced Government Affairs Executive | Strategic Planning | Regulatory Affairs | Public Policy | Government Relations | Organizational Leadership
12 个月Josh - This is very well done and appreciated during these difficult times.
Partner at Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP
12 个月Agree that silence is not an option #MemberoftheTribe Thank you for speaking up and lending your voice.
Senior Education Manager at NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association
12 个月Thank you for posting this Josh.