Sunday, October 22, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
By Forest Rain
The IDF is the Israel Defense Force (not the Israel Attack Force) for
good reason. We have no desire to attack anyone. The mission of our military is
to defend the Nation of Israel – our State and our People. To protect our
homeland so that Jewish people everywhere know that, in a world that is
dangerous for Jews, there is one place on earth where Jews can defend
themselves and are not left to the mercy of others.
The IDF is supposed to fulfill the promise of “Never Again”.
The problem is that the world, including many Jews, have not
learned the lessons of the Holocaust. Lessons, sharp and clear (though different
for Jews and non-Jews) have been diluted and universalized to the point of
being meaningless.
The Hamas massacre of October 7th, 2023 is a harsh
reminder.
This isn’t a general issue. It’s a particular issue.
This is about me. My family. My friends. My home. And Never Again is NOW.
For Jews, the promise “Never Again” means that never again we put
our safety in the hands of others, no matter how civilized they seem. Never
Again will we wait for other people to rescue us. It is up to us to be powerful
enough to defend ourselves.
For non-Jews, “Never Again” was supposed to be a promise to never
again remain silent while Jews are being abused, tortured, and slaughtered. To
not remain silent when they see evil occurring. To never again, turn away and pretend
they don’t see what is happening – no matter how frightened they are of the
people committing the atrocities.
Because there will always be someone eager to commit horrendous
acts against Jews.
And what happened?
Jews built the State of Israel, powerful enough to defend herself from invading
armies, prevent enemy states from building nuclear bombs, and even fly across
the globe to rescue Jews, targeted for being Jewish. And then we allowed
ourselves to be convinced to hand our security over to other people and let
monsters live on our doorstep.
Over and over, we were attacked, innocent people brutally
murdered, our country bombarded with missiles and the “civilized” nations of
the world told us to stand down, that the “stronger side” can swallow abuse for
peace. That the monsters on our doorstep were our chance to live in peace.
And we, because we want peace and hate war, because we want to
live in a kind world, decided to believe them.
The problem is that this decision was immoral.
It is one thing to be proud of succeeding in eliminating murderous
terrorists without hurting bystanders because that is more moral than carpet
bombing. It is another thing to know that the people on your border want to
wipe you off the face of the earth and allow them to have hope that one day
they will succeed.
We knew the problem existed. We watched it grow. We suffered the
results of it when it was still small. Worst of all, we listened when we were
told “The world is condemning you. Don’t retaliate. Lick your wounds and
pretend it never happened.” We wanted to be loved.
The Hamas Charter states that it will eliminate the Jewish State
through jihad. On October 7th, Hamas showed the world what that
jihad looks like – they came with Go-Pro cameras and proudly filmed their
actions for posterity.
Well-trained Hamas commando units broke through our borders under
the cover of a missile bombardment. That opened the way for swarms of regular
Gazans, eager to join in.
"Crimes against humanity" is too mild and technical a term to
describe the atrocities they committed.
They slaughtered men, women, and children and chopped their heads off.
They entered homes, tortured the parents in front of their children, children
in front of their parents, gouging out eyes and chopping off fingers – all
while eating the family’s food and laughing.
They gang-raped girls and then ripped their limbs off.
They ripped open a pregnant woman’s stomach and stabbed the baby.
They tied children together and burned them alive.
They did more and worse. It is not possible to detail all the horrors.
And then they stole money from the wallets of the people they
murdered, looted their homes, taking everything from TVs to tractors, identity
cards, and passports.
And then they took as many hostages as they could get their hands
on - including babies and elderly people, entire families, and dead bodies.
They came with maps and details about homes, how many people in
each family, whether there was a dog or not - all spelled out by individual Gazans
who Israelis had employed for years, doing construction work and odd jobs in
their communities.
They didn’t come as an army trying to conquer an enemy state,
soldiers fighting against soldiers. They came as a tidal wave of death, to
exterminate everything living in its path and before doing so - humiliate and create as much suffering as
possible.
They know that we love life and hold it sacred. They know that we
honor the dead, putting supreme importance on respectful burial. This is why
they hurt us where it would be most painful.
They violated the sanctity of our homes, showing that Jews are not safe
anywhere.
They violated our past, terrorizing Holocaust survivors and bringing the
Holocaust into the present with fire and sending Jews into hiding where they
had to hold their hands over the mouths of babies, praying that they wouldn’t
make a sound so the monsters wouldn’t find them.
They committed mass rapes of women, grandmothers, and children as
more than a by-product of vicious bloodlust – in the context of people who come
from an “honor culture”, this is the deepest violation, the theft of our honor,
a display of utter disgust and domination, “dirtying” our beloved, grinding
them into the earth – and mocking our men who were not able to save them.
Dismembering bodies, scattering them, and burning people is not
just a matter of gruesome cruelty. The terrorists were given deliberate
instructions to commit these acts by people who understand how serious Jews are
about respecting our dead and bringing them to a proper burial.
They know us well and they deliberately used everything we care
about most to hurt us.
And after all this, around the world, we are seeing people
marching in the streets, chanting their support for the Hamas Massacre. Jews
are being marked in “civilized” countries. Homes marked with Stars of David,
businesses smashed, and students humiliated and abused because they are Jews.
Never Again is NOW.
For years we have said that had Israel existed, the Holocaust
would never have happened. Now it is time to make sure that is true. That is
what the IDF is for.
The IDF must fulfill the promise of Never Again. This is not about
revenge (though well warranted). This is about the survival of Jews everywhere.
It is necessary to crush Hamas so thoroughly and completely that all
enemies of Israel will learn that there is no impunity and no safe haven for
those who dream of our extermination.
And that, unfortunately, is just the beginning because they are
just one of the monsters on our doorstep. We are surrounded (and some are
within our borders) and they are watching us. Without utterly crushing them,
Israel will not survive.
Without Israel, no Jew, anywhere on earth, will ever be safe
again.
Fulfilling the promise of “Never Again” doesn’t look nice on TV.
Already the “civilized” nations are telling us to wait, delay, and consider the
humanitarian needs of Gazans. It is crucial to retain our morality and fulfill
our obligations.
Being merciful to the cruel ultimately makes you cruel to the
merciful.
Allowing our enemies to have hope that they can succeed in wiping
us off the face of the earth is immoral. We allowed this evil to grow too
large. It must be stopped now, no matter how bad the process looks, no matter
what our “friends” say.
“Never Again” is the moral obligation of the IDF.
The obligation of decent individuals everywhere is to make sure
everyone else knows this.
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