Stand with Israel

We are on day 11 of a war we never wanted, but was foisted upon us by evil people, the likes we never thought could roam the earth again after the fall of the Nazi regime.

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I don't plan on mincing words in this letter. I won't give trigger warnings. The people of Southern Israel, the thousands of youngsters at the Nova peace festival - they had no warning before devastation fell upon them. I intend to be as straightforward and detailed as I can be.

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On Saturday October 7th, dozens of towns and a peaceful music festival in Southern Israel were attacked.

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The attack was the cruelest attack in modern history. It was worse than the violent pogroms of Europe. It was a Holocaust, with Mengele at the spiritual helm, directing Hamas terrorists in sadistic torture methods.

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Whole families were tied up, sexually tortured, and burnt to a crisp in their homes - in their beds, in their cribs, curled up as families in the 'safe' room.

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Children were shot in their beds, leaving mattresses and pillows soaked in their blood.

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Mothers were tied up and raped next to the bodies of their burning children, set on fire.

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Men and women were tied with zip ties and set on fire.

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Elderly men and women were brutally slaughtered in their beds.

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At least 40 babies - 40! - were slaughtered. Some were beheaded.

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Women were gang raped while tied up and at gun point, and then shot.

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A pregnant mother was sliced open, her fetus pulled from her womb and left to die slowly outside her body.

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Bodies were sexually mutilated, some while still alive.?

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People were decapitated. Tortured. Sexually tortured. Burnt. Children. Babies. Elderly. Holocaust survivors. Men. Women. Young adults. Families.

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Whole families. Mother, father, children - all slaughtered, gone. No one left to say kaddish for the children because their parents and siblings were murdered with them on that bloody Saturday.

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Some 200 people were dragged back to Gaza with the terrorists. Elderly civilians without their oxygen tanks or medication. Babies and children without their parents. Young women, dragged through the streets of Gaza, their crotches dripping blood.?

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Some people have asked where the evidence is. It is appallingly antisemitic to even consider that we would fabricate these stories. Israel has never fabricated dead civilians or soldiers, unlike the Palestinian propaganda machine. I have seen some of the pictures and videos. Hamas documented their vicious attack with glee and laughter. The videos and pictures are out there. They are verified. I suggest you don't look for them. I have seen many of them and they are difficult to watch. They are evil incarnate, literally.

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It is enough to listen to the testimony of the survivors. It is enough to see the shell-shocked ZAKA volunteers, who have spent the last 11 days sifting through the rubble that was once home to tens of thousands of innocent civilians who are now dead, hostages, or evacuated to safer areas, where missiles only occasionally rain down on them.

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ZAKA is the organization that deals mass casualties in Israel and around the world. They are used to dealing with the aftermath of terror attacks - cleaning bits of blood off the roads of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, finding pieces of skin and nails and gently collecting them for burial, putting bodies back together so their loved ones have something to bury. But despite decades of dealing with horrifying scenes, none of them were prepared for what awaited them in the South and the shock and horror in their eyes and their voices is evidence enough.

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It is enough to listen to the reports coming from Israel’s National Centre of Forensic Medicine, where pathologists are breaking down over the virtually unidentifiable charred remains of an adult tightly hugging a child.

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It is even enough to see the seasoned war reporters, who toured the villages and smelled the blood and charred bodies and subsequently broke down in tears because no one can be or should be "impartial" in the face of evil.

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It has been 11 days and we are still working to identify the 1400 bodies from the South. Not because anyone is working slowly, not because rockets rain down on the teams working tirelessly to restore an ounce of respect to the people who were so savagely treated by Hamas, but because there are so many bodies and there is so little left of some of the bodies, the charred crisps that were once beautiful innocent babies, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents - there is so little left that it is difficult to find a way to identify them at all.

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My heart is aching.?

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Every day the death toll rises because they find more bodies in the rubble, and finally manage to identify one more mutilated body, one more mutilated baby, one more bit of charred skin that belonged to a free-spirited 20-year-old who danced the night away, only to end up a victim of the worst atrocity the western world has seen since the end of the Holocaust.

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The initial outpour of support for Israel was rallying. It reminded us that we have allies. It reminded us that we have a place in this world.

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Every day since then, we are seeing cracks in that resolve, cracks that leave Jews around the world and especially in Israel, at risk.

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So called "pro-Palestinian rallies" that are nothing more than celebrations of Hamas are taking place everywhere around the world. In the streets of Toronto, New York, London, Melbourne, on campuses. Shouts of "Death to Israel" “Death to Jews” "From Jordan to the sea Palestine will be free" "Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud" are heard at these protests. Professors at respected academic institutions expressing satisfaction and delight at hearing the details of the massacre that occurred in Israel. Students participating in the decades-old practice of Holocaust denial, and still justifying the acts in the same breath.?

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Anyone who pretends that these attacks are about "Palestinian resistance" and in any way justifies this type of torture and terror against civilians has no place in our society. They need to be called out. Students and professors who justify terrorism should be kicked out of their universities and blacklisted by potential employers. Professionals who justify terrorism should be fired immediately and blacklisted by potential employers. Companies that justify terrorism should be boycotted. Anyone who lends a hand to terror needs to be rooted out and expelled from society in every way possible.

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There is simply no justification for what happened in Israel last Saturday.

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The fact that Israel must defend itself should be clear, it should be obvious. It would be clear and obvious if this were any country other than Israel, which is held to higher standards than any other country around the world.

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1. Israel has a right to exist. Full stop.

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2. In order to exist, it must protect its citizens from terrorists. Full stop.

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3. Hamas does not fight with conventional warfare. This cannot mean that Israel shouldn't defend itself.

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Over the past week, Israel has been bombing Gaza - targeting Hamas terrorists and infrastructure and generally getting the area ready for a ground-invasion, where we will have to fight Hamas in its underground network of tunnels.?

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Israel has repeatedly called on Gazan citizens to evacuate the area. Clear instructions have been sent out - to move south of the Gaza River as quickly as possible. It is a short distance. It is entirely possible to evacuate.?

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As a side note, Israel has evacuated the entire Israeli Gaza envelope area and Israeli towns on the Northern border with Lebanon, quickly and efficiently to keep our citizens as safe as possible.

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Hamas is doing the opposite of Israel. They are directing Gazans not to evacuate - they want human shields. They are physically stopping Gazans from evacuating. You can listen to a phone call between the IDF and a Gazan citizen who is reporting that Hamas is blocking one of the main routes out of Northern Gaza and confiscating car keys and identification documents - they want human shields.

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Hamas does not value lives. They don't value the lives of Israelis. They don't value the lives of Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Israelis, Druze-Israelis, Bedouin-Israelis, foreign workers, tourists, Palestinians, Gazan citizens, Gazan foreign nationals - no one. They don't value life.?

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For two decades, since Israel left the Gaza strip in hopes that its Arab citizens would turn it into a peaceful neighbouring country, since then Hamas has been building a network of deadly tunnels under the city so they can rule from safety as civilians die above them. They place rocket launching pads in residential neighbourhoods. They store weapons in and launch rockets from UNRWA schools and hospitals.?They conveniently blame Israel when their launches backfire and hit civilian targets in Gaza.

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UNRWA turns a blind eye, at best, aids them, at worst. Their textbooks are filled with hatred. You can watch videos of young school children in Gaza putting on a school play where they attack an Israeli military base, killing soldiers and taking some hostage at gunpoint. School children. Let that sink in. They are raising terrorists in Gaza, with the blessing and support of the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.?

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UNRWA is also the organization that yesterday posted on X (formerly Twitter) that fuel and medical supplies meant for civilians had been 'taken', clearly indicating that they had been stolen by Hamas. This is directly in line with the pattern of Hamas regularly diverting humanitarian aid for the purpose of building terrorist infrastructure.

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Water pipes that have been sent by countries around the world to build necessary civilian infrastructure in Gaza are dug out of the ground to build rockets. Food, medical supplies, fuel, water, building materials - the reason Gaza is not a thriving society despite the billions of dollars’ worth of goodwill and aid that has poured into Gaza for decades is because it is diverted by Hamas. For those who follow ethical news sources, this is no secret. This is fact and has been known for years.

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This is also why sending 'humanitarian aid' to Gaza right now is so dangerous. It will not get into the hands of Palestinian women and children and elderly. It will go straight to Hamas and undermine Israel's ability to defend itself.

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Anyone who cares about Israelis, including the 2 million Arab Israelis who live with full rights in our country. Anyone who cares about Palestinians living in Gaza. Anyone who cares about stopping a terrorist regime that stands for nothing but the obliteration of the Jewish state - should be actively opposing sending aid to Gaza right now.?

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There are two humanitarian crises happening right now in Gaza.

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The first is that some 200 innocent hostages are being held by a murderous regime. Babies ripped from the hands of their parents. Children, who witnessed the murder of their parents and siblings. Young women, raped and dragged away from a music festival. Mothers, fathers, grandparents. Wounded. In need of medication. Urgently.

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They have been in Gaza for 11 days. Only on Sunday – NINE DAYS AFTER THE HOSTAGES WERE TAKEN!!! – did the Red Cross speak out about asking Hamas for access to the hostages. They were denied.?

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The world should be shocked. The world should be demanding action. Where is the pressure to release the civilians who are being held? The second humanitarian crisis is that of the Gazan people. It is secondary to that of the innocent civilians being held hostage. Why? First, because the citizens of Gaza are longtime supporters of the Hamas regime. They celebrated in the streets when the attacks occurred. They cheered as women were dragged through the streets, dripping blood from their crotch. They were raised on hatred and they celebrate in our suffering. Many, if not most, are far from innocent.

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Second, because it is a more complex crisis that needs a long-term solution rather than a short-term one to truly alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Hamas regime. Unlike the hostage situation - which should have been resolved with international pressure 11 days ago - this can't be solved without destroying Hamas and destroying Hamas cannot be done without some amount of unfortunate suffering.

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It's a sad situation. The people of Gaza have been raised on hatred. They are raised to hate Jews and Israelis indiscriminately. They are raised to long to die as a shahid - a martyr. Until there is a way to ensure that zero aid gets into the hands of Hamas, there is no safe way to give aid at all.

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Pressure needs to be put on Egypt and Jordan to accept refugees from Gaza, but only those who prove themselves to be true refugees and not Hamas supporters. Aid can be given there.?

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Pressure needs to be put on the Hamas leadership sitting comfortably in Qatar. Qatar should cut off their water supply. Qatar should cut off their food supply. They should turn off their electricity. And demand the release of all the hostages immediately. At the very least, evict them from Qatar if they refuse to release the hostages – today.

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Pressure needs to be put on the so-called 'humanitarian' organizations that haven't condemned the Hamas attacks on civilians. That aren't doing everything in their power to reach the hostages and arrange for their release. That have forsaken their humanitarian values because Jews, in their minds, aren't worthy.

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Pressure needs to be put on the UN to slap UNRWA into shape. Dismantle it completely. Hold them accountable for the decades of supporting the Hamas regime, directly and indirectly, in Gaza. Set up a new organization that is dedicated to teaching peace and ensuring terrorism doesn't rear its ugly head again in Gaza.?

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Gaza is a beautiful piece of land. It's along the sea with long stretches of beach. The Jewish communities that thrived there before the Israeli disengagement are a testament to what Gaza could have been and still could be, if we are allowed to fight this war properly and root evil out. But we have to be committed and that commitment has to be long term and all encompassing.?

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Protect Israel from Hamas.

Free Palestinians from Hamas.

And then rebuild a better Gaza. A peaceful Gaza. With no hate in its textbooks. With no guns in school plays. With no aid diverted for evil.

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I have two brothers fighting on two different borders. One in the south and one in the north. I am terrified for them both. I am terrified for their lives and I am terrified for their souls and what they will have to endure during this war and forever after.?

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And that's the difference between good and evil.?

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Hamas happily hides behind children and women and elderly and hopes they all die so they can blame Israel. They torture and mutilate. They burn and rape. And they laugh while they do so.

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The Israeli army - secular and orthodox Jews, Druze and Israeli-Arabs - all side by side, fight evil to defend the innocent. We do it with a heaviness in our hearts. We do it because we have to, not because we want to go out and use our weapons. We put ourselves at greater risk to protect as many civilians on the other side as possible. We evacuate dangerous areas - on both sides - to minimize deaths. We celebrate life. We rally around each other and volunteer. We support each other. We cry together. We try to stay strong. We don't celebrate death; we celebrate life and unity.

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If you want to support good, here are the steps you can take. Each of them is important, see which you can do.

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1. Speak out. This is important. It matters. There is a Jewish saying - A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness. This is true and we feel it every time we see support from around the world. It helps counteract those who celebrate our deaths.

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2. Reach out. Anyone you know in Israel - they are hurting. They are scared. They are scarred. We all know someone, we all know more than one someone. We know survivors. We know the dead. We know the hostages. We are driving to and from funerals and shiva calls, ready at 15-90 seconds’ notice to duck for cover from the missiles that still rain down on our mourners and survivors. Reach out. It matters. It helps with the healing process.

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3. Speak out in your hometowns. Call out universities that have spent years cultivating "safe spaces" and calling out "microaggressions" but are unwilling to call out the torture and mutilation of 1400 Israelis and the hostage-taking of 200 more. Call out the individuals who celebrate the deaths - take screenshots of their faces, post them on social media, and help identify them when possible so they can be ostracized from civilized society.?

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4. Write to your politicians. We need international pressure from around the world on Qatar to stop treating Hamas leadership with impunity. They need to demand the release of hostages NOW. We need international pressure from around the world on every 'humanitarian' organization to condemn Hamas and demand the release of hostages NOW.?We need international pressure to stop aid from entering Gaza and inevitably reaching and thereby supporting Hamas. We need responsible leadership NOW.

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5. Consume information responsibly. Al-Jazeera, for example, is not a news outlet. It is a Qatari-funded Hamas propaganda machine, full stop. They spew lies and misinformation. The BBC refuses to call Hamas a terror organization. They are not trustworthy. Any news outlet that uses the word “proportionality” is not impartial. There is no “proportionate” response to the massacre in Israel. Any news outlet that expects Israel to wage a war with zero casualties is not impartial, it is working to legitimize Hamas terrorism and legitimize the targeting of Israelis in future attacks.

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6. Follow good people on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram. Yoseph Haddad is an Arab-Israeli IDF veteran who understands Hamas in their own language and speaks out against the atrocities they commit. NGO Monitor is an important organization that tracks NGO activity and calls them out for antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda and duplicitous anti-humanitarian work. Eylon Levy. StandWithUs. Hananya Naftali. Lahav Harkov. Col. Richard Kemp. There are numerous reporters, influencers, organizations around the world that have unequivocally called out Hamas for the evil they are. Seek out those who are speaking the truth and helping to dispel the lies of pro-Hamas activists – follow them and support their posts so they get more widespread coverage.

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7. Support our troops. Send donations. Our reserves units are filled beyond capacity to fight this legitimate, necessary war. There are supplies they want and need that can save lives that aren’t part of their usual kits. Black TESA duct tape. Black permanent markers. White-out. Rehydration packets. Military Camelbaks. Protein bars. Tourniquets. There are flights constantly coming from North America – fill them to the brim with these items. We need them.

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8. Support our first responders – Magen David Adom and Hatzala and the hospitals that treat the wounded. They are frontline fighters in every sense of the word. They drove their unprotected ambulances into Southern Israel under gunfire and rocket attack, filled them to capacity with bodies and survivors, and drove them to safety. They are working overtime in understaffed departments to treat the injured survivors. They need supplies, they need support.

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9. Support our survivors and refugees. Israeli hotels are packed with families that had to flee from southern Israel. They left everything behind. Some have nothing to go back to, as their homes were ransacked and torched by the barbarians who slaughtered as many as they could. Their immediate needs have largely been met by the hundreds of thousands of volunteers that mobilized within hours and are running literal warehouses filled with donations. We still need support for long-term rebuilding. We need support to ensure the survivors of these catastrophic attacks have access to long-term psychological care. We need support to rebuild the communities that were burnt to the ground. (Please be careful when supporting not to accidentally fall victim to the unfortunate scams that exist even in the midst of tragedy. Vet organizations by checking them on Guidestar. Legitimate organizations will be listed and give charitable tax receipts. Smaller, individual calls for help should be given to only if you know the person collecting.)

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10. Keep supporting Israel. This is not a short battle. This is a long war. Keep rereading this letter. Keep thinking about the families from the South who were ripped apart, or perhaps worse – forced to stay together and watch each other being tortured. Remember the sexual mutilation. Remember the beheaded babies, children, and men. Remember the elderly shot in their beds. Remember the women, gang raped. Remember the mothers, forced to watch as their babies burned. Remember that fighting evil takes time. Evil cowers behind civilians. They dig tunnels underground. Remember this every time someone questions the “proportionality” of Israel’s response. Remember that ridding Gaza of Hamas is as important for the Palestinians in Gaza as it is for the Israelis. Keep supporting Israel.

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11. Call for the release of our hostages! Follow the Bring Them Home Now campaign. Write to your politicians. If you have contacts, reach out to them and ask them to donate to the campaign so the faces of our hostages are plastered on every billboard and on the front page of every newspaper around the world. Shout it from the rooftops – RELEASE THE HOSTAGES! They are babies! Children! Raped women! Elderly grandparents! Wounded youth! RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!

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I have spent 11 days at the brink of emotional collapse. I have been to ‘only’ two funerals and one flag-waving send-off of another family from our community that drove south to bury their family – parents who sacrificed their lives to save their son. I am relatively safe here in Jerusalem, with only occasional rocket sirens, where we quickly herd the kids down into our safe room. I have ‘only’ two brothers called up to reserve duty. I am one of the lucky ones, and I can hardly breathe most days. The sadness, the grief, the shock and horror, and the absolute despair comes in waves. But it’s always there, in the background. I can’t imagine what “the day after” will look like. It seems an impossible dream right now. But I look to the strength of my Bubby and Zaidy. They lost everything in the Holocaust. They lost their families and endured years of what we endured for a day. They survived the ghetto and the camps and the hiding and the hatred – they lived through evil for years, had to stare it directly in the eye. And they did survive. They emerged, somehow, strong enough to rebuild. So I have hope. If they could rebuild, so can the survivors of Be’eri, Nir Oz, Re’im, and the other towns of the Gaza envelope. We have to. We have no other choice.

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In the words of Golda Meir – “We Israelis have a secret weapon… We have nowhere else to go.”

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My prayer for the future, as it always has been, is from the book of Isaiah, Chapter 2 verse 4:

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And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.