Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Varda

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Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Ich bin a “Violent Settler” (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Joe Biden is on the prowl, looking for “violent settlers” in the “West Bank,” the latter a made-up name comprising part of a city, and two distinct territories lumped together for administrative purposes. Neither the city (Jerusalem), nor the territories (Judea and Samaria) are located on a river bank, while actual “settler violence,” is a rare bird, indeed, and is handled by Israel itself, which has no problem meting out severe punishment when it deems such actions necessary. Not that Joe cares.

For Joe, the geographic distinctions don’t matter a whit. Nor does the fact that “settler violence” is so uncommon as to be almost nonexistent, and that it’s not America’s place to punish the supposed criminals of a sovereign ally, an insult of the highest magnitude.

No, Joe doesn’t care about the facts. He cares only about doing the bidding of the Squad, the anti-Israel protesters, the State Department, the UN, his handlers, and of course, the voters. It is, after all, an election year. And if the people hate Israel, and by extension, the Jews, by gum, Joe is going after them. His excuse? “Violent settlers” or more to the point, violent Israeli settlers (cough cough Jews) threaten the United States.

This is no hyperbole, Biden’s “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank” issued February 1, declares “settler violence” a “national emergency.” (emphasis added)

I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, find that the situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region. These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom. They also undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional destabilization across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests. For these reasons, these actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

How many of the people who read Biden’s executive order were completely unaware of the fact that the “West Bank” includes part of Jerusalem? For that matter, how many people who read Biden’s executive order are cognizant of the fact that not only is “East Jerusalem” not on a river bank, it is also not separate from the rest of Jerusalem.

From Proofread Now:

When words like northern, southern, eastern, and western precede a place name, they are not ordinarily capitalized, because they merely indicate general location within a region. However, when these words are actually part of the place name, they must be capitalized.

The city of Jerusalem is a single, unified city under Israeli sovereignty, and it is Israel’s capital. Hence there is no such thing as “East” Jerusalem. But the Arabs say there is and that it belongs to them, and so it has become another invented paradigm forced down the throat of a sovereign nation and American ally by the enemy who threatens that sovereign nation (Israel) from within and without, with American support.

Here it bears mention that the Western Wall is located in this part of Jerusalem, as is of course, the Temple Mount, the holiest of holy Jewish sites. Just as a dog marks his territory by urinating there, so too the Arabs marked this holy Jewish territory “Muslim,” by building a mosque on a site holy only to the Jewish people. The world is only too happy to fall in with the idea of dispossessing the hated Jews from their holy sites, their holy city, and the Holy Land. So too, the world is content to go along with the fiction of an “East Jerusalem” “occupied” by "European" Jews.

Despite the alarmist rhetoric employed by Biden in his executive order, there are no “high levels of extremist settler violence.” Biden, in fact, could only locate an initial four Jews to punish—that is to say, four Jews that match his personal definition of “violent settlers.” Many Israelis are now wondering if they are next on the chopping block.

What is meant by “forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction?” Does “forced displacement of people and villages” refer to Arabs who fled of their own volition in 1948 or 1967, or perhaps to the Arab squatter evicted by a Jewish landlord for nonpayment of rent? Does the building of the Western Wall plaza or the public restrooms placed there by Israeli authorities for the convenience of visitors of all faiths who come to pray at the Wall, “property destruction?” Or is that it the little corner market in the Jewish Quarter where people buy eggs and milk?

Where are these “high levels of extremist settler violence,” and for that matter, what constitutes “settler violence?” The better question is what doesn’t? For one thing, the Biden administration relies on the UN for its facts and figures in this regard, a body not known for its philosemitism. What sort of facts and figures have been disseminated by this “august” body?

From Amit Segal at Ynet:

[When] the details on settler violence are examined thoroughly it seems like there isn’t much violence, nor much settlers. Dr. Michael Wolfowicz, a criminology researcher at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law, received the data from the UN.

At first glance, it's horrifying: between 2016 and 2022, there were no less than 5,656 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians. But delving into the numbers reveals that 1,600 of them took place in Jerusalem, with almost all of them involving Jews entering the Temple Mount or clashes between the police and Muslims who acted violently in the area.

After further filtering, there were 2,500 incidents that describe property damage or assault, but they include, for example, a terror attack in which a Palestinian terrorist attacked Jews and was neutralized. On April 8, 2018, Mahmoud Abedel Karim Marshoud attempted to stab Israeli civilians near Ma’ale Adumim. He was neutralized and succumbed to his injuries the next day. The UN reported two violent incidents following this: on April 8, a shooting at a Palestinian, and on April 9, a killing.

On July 26, 2018, Yotam Ovadia, 30, was murdered by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed him. Here too, according to the UN, the fact Ovadia neutralized the terrorists was classified as settler violence. The same goes for a stabbing attack in Mount Hebron, another one in Yitzhar, and an incident where Arab rioters clashed with security forces at Joseph's Tomb.

Even a car accident in which a settler hit a Palestinian was classified as violence. After filtering all of these, we’re left with about 20 violent incidents in a month, most of them being cases of mutual violence, and some reported only by Palestinian sources without being verified.

Even if all of them are accurate, here's a relevant comparison: according to the IDF, in 2019-2022 alone, there were 25,257 incidents of Palestinian attacks against Jewish settlers . . .

. . . The exaggeration of settler violence from a limited phenomenon to a widespread issue is designed to appease the world's conscience, in a strange symmetry, for the assistance it provides Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists.

In Israel, this is intended to serve the goal of expelling Jewish settlers from the West Bank and establishing a Palestinian state.

But there’s worse. It seems that the UN has compiled a list of Jews who have visited the Temple Mount, which as noted above, is located in fictitious “East Jerusalem” within the fictitious “West Bank." The Jewish Press has the report:

Hakol Hayehudi reporter Elchanan Groner on Thursday presented a UN Excel sheet depicting Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as violent incidents.
As can clearly be seen for this batch from 2019, the Incident Description is always, “Israeli settlers and other groups, accompanied by Israeli forces, entered and toured the yards of Al Aqsa Mosque compound.” The source is always “other” or UNRWA, and the region is described as “West Bank.”

הידעתם שכ-1300 מאירועי "אלימות המתנחלים" בדו"ח האו"ם הם עליית יהודים/תיירים להר הבית? הסברתי על עלילת הדם האנטישמית הזו אצל @ErelSegal בערוץ 14. פעם זה היה ילד נוצרי ששחטו למצות, היום זה "אלימות מתנחלים". ממליץ מאוד לצפות בראיון המלא👇 https://t.co/PSdE0fy5ru pic.twitter.com/1ssRDjM9dn
— אלחנן גרונר (@elchangr) February 8, 2024

@elchangr from the Jewish Voice news agency explains the lies behind the UN data on "settler violence," which as @liel exposed yesterday is adopted by LTG Mike Fenzel the US Security Coordinator in Israel and formed the basis of Pres. Biden's bigoted Executive Order last week. pic.twitter.com/y2iuIYoPm5
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) February 8, 2024

Further down, the Jewish Press elaborates on the Wolfowicz report:

According to the IDF, between 2019 and 2022, there were 25,257 instances of PA Arab assaults on Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria (without Jerusalem), with more than 20,000 incidents of stone-throwing, about 4,000 Molotov cocktails, about 400 shooting attacks, and more than 50 stabbing attacks. And the annual figure rose much higher in 2023. However, according to the UN reports on the same period, there were only 1,935 Arab-on-Jew assaults in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
It turns out that many of these Arab-on-Jew attacks were recorded by the UN as… “settler violence” . . .
. . . It can be cautiously estimated that only about 35% of the reported incidents actually describe events in which there are settlers and violence, and they too have not been examined, and include questionable descriptions such as car accidents (a settler ran over a PA Arab child), or Arabs who “ran away from settlers” and fell and hurt themselves while running.

When word of the executive order came out, like many other Israelis, I wondered whether and/or how this might apply to me and to my family members. I’ve written here about my one-time trip to the Temple Mount in 2017, during a brief Arab boycott of the site. The Arabs had attacked and killed two (Bedouin) policemen and wounded a third. Israel installed metal detectors, and the Arabs decided that this was some kind of violation of their “sovereignty” over the Mount.

As a result, I seized the chance to go while there were no Arabs to curse, spit, and throw garbage at me. I took a quick tour—Jews aren’t allowed to linger or pray—and left. But when Jews visit the Mount, they are taken to a waiting area, and are required to turn in their ID booklets. There’s a wait, while security takes down your info and likely runs it through a computer to make sure you’re not a threat. Only then are you allowed up.

Did the UN access this information? Will I now be deemed by the Biden administration, a “violent settler,” my ability to visit relatives in the States, curtailed?

Can my bank accounts be frozen? I’m employed by an Israeli company. But my bank account has branches in the US.

What about mein son the (IDF) officer and my other soldier sons who served in Judea and Samaria?

From a second Jewish Press report:

According to an internal report of Israel’s foreign ministry, the Biden administration is preparing to impose sanctions on IDF officers and soldiers who serve in Judea and Samaria, Kan11 News reported Friday night. The report cites a series of claims that have been submitted to the administration against the conduct of IDF units in the area.

The report cites a US warning that if the military attorney’s office does not submit answers to the administration’s inquiries in less than 60 days, sanctions would be imposed against IDF soldiers, including commanders. In addition, the report shows that the Biden administration warned Israel many times about the lack of enforcement against “settler violence,” and Israel’s answers have been unsatisfactory.

In addition to all my other supposed sins, I live (and work) in Judea. Will my mere presence in the “West Bank” that isn’t even a river bank at some point be deemed “settler violence?” Is residing in my rented apartment considered displacement, dispossession, and destruction?

If you ask the UN, the Red Cross, Hamas, Abbas, Qatar, et al., it most definitely is, which makes me a horrible person just for waking up in my bed, getting dressed, and washing the breakfast dishes at the sink each morning, even though no Arab ever lived here in this home or on the property on which it stands. To the Biden administration, I’m an extremist and violent criminal who should be kept from my own money and isolated from my family abroad.

But on the bright side of things, here's how much I care:

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

What should I do with the treasure trove of Islamic thought sitting hidden in a folder in my Gmail account (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Robert Werdine was my friend. He was also a Rhodes Scholar, historian, ardent defender of Israel, serious music lover, and a devout Muslim. Robert died too soon from complications of diabetes and was buried as a Catholic, his father’s faith, but he was undeniably Muslim. Through our three years’ worth of correspondence, Robert left me with a wealth of material on Islamic thought as it relates to Jews, Judaism, and Israel. These were subjects he cared about and wrote about, but never published.

More than once, Robert alluded to being in bad odor with certain family members over his stance on Israel. He detailed an incident in which his uncle, a member of Hamas, roughed him up when he found out that Robert was writing blogs at the Times of Israel, an Israeli publication. Which is actually how I met Robert. We were both blogging there in 2012, the year that TOI was launched.

Robert also mentioned that his mother was afraid for him to say in his blogs that he was a Muslim. She didn’t know what, if any repercussions there would be for him, and for the family as a whole. After some back and forth, Robert’s mom came to see it his way, and agreed that he should no longer hide his Muslim identity or his strong affection for Israel.

Since Robert died in 2017, I haven’t known what to do with the prodigious material he sent me—brilliant material, meticulously researched. These papers should be published. And I believe that is why he sent them to me. He knew he wasn’t going to live much longer. I think he hoped I would do something with his work after he died. Yet, all this time I haven’t been sure I should.

I’m still not certain it’s the right thing to do—publish Robert’s work without his permission. But I think he felt he could not publish them while he was alive, and trusted that I would make a decision about what to do with his work, and that it would be the right decision. All of this came to mind last week during an exchange yet another confrontational antisemite on Quora.

The exchange began, as usual, with a “question” I was asked to answer, that as per usual, was some gross, not-so-thinly-veiled anti-Israel propaganda: “Why does Israel have the right to occupy land where the Palestinian have lived?”

This was my answer:

“Israel builds in very few areas where Arabs once might have lived. In those areas, the Arabs either left of their own volition, at the behest of Arab leaders preparing to extinguish the fledgling Jewish State, or the land was retaken during the course of a defensive war, in which case, it is perfectly legal.

“The Jews expelled from Arab countries were absorbed by tiny Israel, while the 22 Arab states in the region, which cover an enormous breadth of territory, refuse to absorb the Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 (and their descendants).

“It is normal for a population exchange to occur as a result of war. The shameful aspect of what happened here is the Arab refusal to absorb and resettle their brethren.”

Naturally, there were confrontational comments. One particular commenter, Esmailjee Mohamed Ali, wrote: "How can there be Judhas or Jews in Palestine when they lived in Europe for 2000 years from the time they were created by the Romans in 69BC.

It was from EUROPE after the Second World War, 5MILLION Judhas or Jews migrated to America and another 6Million was brought landed and in PALESTINE by the British Empire and the League of Nations on creating the State of Israel in 1948CE."

“It was the British Empire that was upto [sic] all the mischief. Allah wiped out the British Empire because of all their cruel acts. Today, unfortunately the PALESTINIAN PEOPLE are suffering at the hands of the Poor downtrodden criminals who came from EUROPE because of the British Empire.”

Well, I couldn’t leave that alone, now could I? So I said, “Funny, because that’s not what the Quran says,” said I thinking of all the Quranic references to the Bani Isra'il.

To which Mr. Ali took umbrage, responding, “Do not misinterpret the QURAN.”

As I am so often wont to do in these situations, I went to my Robert Werdine gmail folder to see what my dear late friend had to say on the subject. I was looking for what he had said about Muslims living under non-Muslim rule. Because really—why did the Arabs have to kick up a fuss over the establishment of the Jewish State or be in denial about Jewish history, detailed in their own holy book? The Arabs didn’t have to leave, nor did they have to “suffer” at the hands of the Jews. They could have—and would have—been perfectly happy and prosperous under Jewish rule. Instead they were turned—by their own people—into perpetual refugees, filled with hate and blood lust. And their own people didn’t—and don’t—want them.

None of this had anything to do with the British Empire. Nor did it relate to “downtrodden criminals from Europe” supposedly brought to the region by the Brits.

It had to do with Muslims who are ignorant of what their own holy books and commentators have to say on the subject. They should have stayed. They would have been free to practice their religion under the Jews, and they would have led happy, content lives. And of course, the October 7^th Massacre would never have happened. What happened on that Black Sabbath was in fact, proscribed by Islam.

I found what I needed in my “Robert Werdine” email treasure chest, and it was so perfect I quoted it word for word. I knew Robert would forgive me. And I never heard a peep back from Mr. Ali:

The Shafi’i jurist, Imam Abu Zakariyya Muhyi ’l-Din al-Nawawi (1233–1277) [stated]:

If a Muslim is able to declare his Islam openly and living therein (in a land dominated by non-Muslims), it is better for him to do so […] because by this it becomes Dar al-Islam […] (Al-Nawawi, rawda al-talibin, (Beirut: Dar ibn Hazm, 2002), p. 1819)

Al Nawawi also stated:

Where a Muslim is able to protect and isolate himself, even if he is not able to proselytize and engage in combat, in such case it would be incumbent upon him to remain in this place and not emigrate. For such a place, by the fact that he is able to isolate himself, has become a dar Islam.

The opinions of al-Ramli, al-Mawardi, and al-Nawawi are all consistent with prophetic practice in the authentic Sunnah. Two Hadiths, one from Sahih Bukhari and one from Sahih Muslim attest that the prophet would refuse to attack any non-Muslim entity that allowed for the practice of the Muslim religion by Muslims living there. Here is the Sahih Bukhari (Vol. 4, Book 52, #193):

Narrated Anas: Whenever Allah's Apostle attacked some people, he would never attack them till it was dawn. If he heard the Adhan (i.e. call for prayer) he would delay the fight, and if he did not hear the Adhan, he would attack them immediately after dawn.

Nawawi interprets the Hadiths as follows:

In this narration is evidence that verily the call to prayer forbids invading (yamna‘) a people of that area, and this is an evidence of their Islam.

This is only one tiny fragment of the material I have from Robert. Some of what he wrote was conversational. I’d ask him questions, and he’d answer. Once, for example, I asked him how he felt about the word “Palestinian.” What did he, Robert, call the Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians?”

He wrote (May 20 2015), I'm not sure what to call the you-know-who. I call them the Nowhere People; they came out of nowhere and they're going nowhere, fast. I generally call them Palestinian, but I don't remember my grandfather using that term. He just called them Arabs and refugees. Probably "Arabs" is the best word to use, or Palestinian Arabs, either word refers to the customarily delusional, intransigent, and recklessly self-destructive people whose leaders will continue the long, hard slog of hatred, violence, and deligitimization of a people who have shown them more humanity and compassion than their own Arab brethren ever will.”

Robert knew more than Islam. He ate, drank, and slept history and was always happy to share with me what he learned—especially if there were a reference to Jews. On May 27, 2015, he wrote: “I’m reading Robert Markus’ biography of Pope Gregory the Great. What a phenomenal figure. He was almost an exact contemporary of Muhammad. Gregory was a great reformer. He also wrote a six-volume commentary on the Book of Job. He was a font of wisdom, integrity and able statesmanship. The chants that bear his name are the earliest music that is written on record, and still haunts the monasteries of Italy, France, and Germany.

“He was also a great protector of the Jews. He forbade compulsory conversions that so many popes of the past had winked at, and he gave them full rights of equal citizenship—a true rarity in that day and age. When he learned that the bishops in Palermo had appropriated the local synagogues, he ordered that they make full restitution. Here is what he wrote to the Bishop of Naples:

“‘Do not allow the Jews to be molested in the performance of their services. Let them have full liberty to observe and keep all of their festivals and holydays, as both they and their fathers have done for so long.’’’

Sometimes I wonder what Robert would have said about October 7. I know that he was sickened by Arab terror against the Jews of Israel. On September 23, 2015, he wrote, “My mother and I were talking the other day about what it would be like for us to know that there were people living in the next county who would be only too happy to murder us and all our love ones, and celebrate the deed afterward. How could we help from hating such people filled to the brim with such murderous hatred for us, and who demonstrate such hatred in deeds of unmentionable horror day after day? It's a sobering thought to ponder.”

By ironic coincidence, on October 7 (!), 2015, he wrote to me in regard to the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin in front of their four young children, one of them a four-month-old infant, only one week earlier:

“Your feelings after that savage murder of the Henkin couple are completely natural and understandable. How would any person of conscience react to an act of such naked savagery? In their evil they could not be more evil. The hysterical glee that they show whenever Jewish blood is shed is like something out of a nightmare. The one, true accomplishment of the Palestinians is their societal normalizing of savagery as a virtue to be emulated: murders celebrated like weddings, streets and village squares named after suicide bombers. These people are sick. I mean: SICK.”

People don’t believe me when I tell them about Robert. They think he was pulling the wool over my eyes. That he was deceiving me the Sunni Muslim way with taqiyya. But I know that he was good. And that the scholarly works he sent me should be read by more than one person (me). Robert did not agree with the idea of “Islamic reform.” He believed that the violent, Jew-hating form of Islam all too unfortunately practiced by too many Muslims the world over, was due to ignorance of what Islam actually preached.

Believe me, I am no apologist for Islam. But I also know that it doesn’t need to be practiced in the violent way it is currently practiced by way too many ignorant, blood-crazed cretins. I would like others to at least see and wrestle with Robert Werdine’s writings.

So now I would like to ask a question of regular readers of this column: would you like to read these works sitting and doing nothing in a Gmail folder? Shall I post them here in weeks to come? Or should I keep them hidden, buried away where no one will ever see them?

I honestly seek your opinions. And I’m guessing that Robert, were he able to weigh in, would hope that you’d view the idea with favor. He wished with all his heart that more people were open to the Islam that he saw and believed—an Islam that respects the rights of people of all faiths to follow their beliefs in peace.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Antisemitism is personal—even when it’s only on Facebook (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Antisemitism is personal. Like snowflakes—no wokeness intended—no two Jews experience antisemitism the same way. Even the same Jew will experience antisemitism differently when there are multiple incidents or when exposure to antisemitism is ongoing.

Social media antisemitism is probably the safest kind of antisemitism, because the antisemite hides behind a keyboard. An ugly comment, it must be acknowledged, is not the same as being beaten by gangs. Still, there is always the possibility that the online antisemite will doxx you, or use what you write to identify you to people who could do you real harm IRL (in real life).

The comments themselves range from brainless to so ugly that you gasp out loud from the shock of it. One particular antisemitic barb will make you giggle for its stupidity, while another will make you tremble, and your eyes well up with tears. Sometimes you feel a wry sense of the familiar. This is what it is. This is our lived experience, to be hated for false reasons or for no reasons at all.

Sometimes the hurt is compounded by the attitude of the people at the top. People like Mark Zuckerberg who has made his community standards such that horrific antisemitic comments and memes are left up, while our innocent pro-Israel memes and comments are removed when reported by Arabs and their supporters.

A pattern has developed wherein I report the offensive, antisemitic post and Facebook says no, it doesn’t violate its community standards. I then appeal where they allow it, and they say no again, and the vile antisemitic post stays up.

Here are some antisemitic comments and memes that I have reported over the past several weeks. Facebook has refused to take action:

In my personal experience of social media however, the worst offender in allowing antisemitic comments and online calls for genocide, is Quora. It’s all anti-Israel, antisemitic lies and propaganda posed as questions. Sure, you can report antisemitic questions and comments and they’ll be collapsed or deleted, but repeat offenders are never banned. I think about leaving or even muting Quora all the time, but I stay, mostly to encourage those still interested in learning the truth about the Jewish people and Israel.

Here’s a selection of 26 antisemitic Quora questions that have accumulated over the past 12 days and are awaiting my attention—for me to either reply or pass:

1. With the utmost respect intended, how is it possible for so many average Israelis on sites as this to defend their state's ongoing assault on Gaza, when even such mainstream " Western " sources like Oxfam attest to its singular level of brutality?

2. Why did Hamas commit terrorism against Israel which can annihilate itself entirely?

3. Does Satan support Israel victory over the people of Palestine?

4. Has Trump asked Netanyahu to cause maximum embarrassment for Biden, with Israel's assault on Gaza, by completely ignoring Biden's pleas for restraint?

5. Would there have been more outcry against Israel's actions if any major Fortune 100 companies had been headquartered in Gaza?

6. Would people who oppose Yemen's blockade of Israel-linked ships also have opposed the partisans who blew up Nazi train lines?

7. Why is Palestine more pro-American and trustworthy than Israel?

8. Are Israelis going to give the stolen land back to the Palestinians and stop their thieving ways?

9. Why doesn't Israel just give back the land it won and pretend the war never happened and we get a 2 state solution?

10. Why are Israelis basically flat out admitting to genocidal intent by calling approximately 1.15 million minors (including children) terrorists and "the enemy" when asked why Israel was withholding water, food and medicine from them if not genocide?

11. It’s only a matter of time until our generation is elected to office, and the rogue terrorist state of Israel will cease to exist, but what can we do in the meantime to stop Israel's bloodbath?

12. What is the reasoning behind Israel refusing to embed journalists to show the world Hamas is still aggressive and leaving the world to only see civilian suffering? [untrue]

13. It was just last year that Israel was funding Hamas millions of dollars in cash and weapons. What happened that made Hamas attack the people that support them?

14. Do you think Israel will rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, or do you think they will just steal the land?

15. Why does Africa love Hamas so much, should Israel start a war with them?

16. Why do the Zionists in the social media persistently seek to dehumanize the Palestinians, despite having themselves been subjected to similar dehumanization tactics by Hitler that led to genocide against them?

17. Why does America seem unable to influence or control Israel, while other countries supporting Palestine exert more control over the situation?

18. Is Israel’s attack on Gaza legitimate?

19. Why am I seeing so many Israeli propaganda posts in my feed?

20. Polls show Israel has completely lost younger Americans with 74% or more disapproving of how it has handled the Hamas-Israel war. Has Netanyahu and his right wing government permanently damaged the US - Israel relationship or can it come back? [false]

21. Why was the USA disturbed by the disruption of navigation in the Red Sea and not disturbed by genocidal crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, but rather supported it in that?

22. Is the only way of stopping Israel's slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza for ten [sic] USA to withdraw all support from Israel? If so, isn't it morally incumbent on them to do so?

23. Why is Western media calling the Palestinian genocide a war, and censoring people in support of Palestine?

24. Is Israel using artificial intelligence to deny humanity and wage war?

25. Is someone who supports both Israel in Gaza and Russia in Ukraine a pawn of the Likud?

26. Is it true that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th was relatively hilarious?

That last query was actually older, from early December 2023. I leave it in my inbox as a future reminder of a time when the world was once again overrun by masses of people rejoicing at Jewish suffering while too many watched on, indifferent. Atrocities are never hilarious. Good people know this. Yet Quora, as powerful as it is, with its 400 million active monthly users, leaves this question up on its website where it has sat now for seven weeks. Is Quora’s indifference to antisemitism evidence of malfeasance? Is Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to ban evil antisemitic memes and comments, evidence of his malfeasance?

Which leads to another question: Are antisemitic evil, hate, and depravity still real if they exist only in the virtual halls of Quora and Facebook? The answer depends on your personal experience of antisemitism. One Jew will laugh off an antisemitic comment, or block it from their consciousness, while others may feel hurt or anger. But no matter how a Jew experiences antisemitism, some damage is done, even if the “damage” consists of absorbing the bitter lesson that not all, or even most people are good.

It’s a lesson that Jews have been forced to learn and relearn over millennia, a lesson that perhaps even Anne Frank was forced to learn in the end. We’ll never know, because Anne Frank was murdered before she could tell us, because she was a Jew.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

How I grew up respecting all people, then came to Israel and learned not to trust Arabs (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

“Never trust an Arab—even when he is dead!” So said Abu Musa to my husband some 40-plus years ago. Abu Musa was a shyster contractor who knew how to overcharge his Jewish customers and get away with it. Dov was a student in the yeshiva under the tutelage of the man who was currently being ripped off by Abu Musa. Sometimes Dov, not long in Israel, would chat up Abu Musa to learn a bit of Arabic, and something about Arab culture, too.

Well, Dov learned something, all right. He learned from an Arab, never to trust an Arab.

It’s a difficult lesson for people who grew up like me and my husband; that we dare not trust a certain, specific people. We were raised to believe that this is wrong. Our parents taught us to judge people on the content of their character and to be polite and respectful to people no matter what they look like or believe.

For example, there was a home for disabled children located not far from my childhood home. Sometimes, a caregiver would take two or three children for a walk in the neighborhood. My mother taught me that if we passed them on the street, not to stare, and to smile and be polite the same as with any other passersby. These children had obvious, moderately severe disabilities. So my mother was preparing me for a shock, at the same time telling me not to show the shock because it would be rude and hurtful to do so.

The first lesson happened in real time. My mother explained things to me quietly, as we were about to pass by some of the children with their caregiver. There was no need for a second lesson. The next time we saw a group of kids and their caregiver up ahead, my mother didn’t say a word. She gave my hand a subtle squeeze and that was a sufficient reminder and review of what—and what not—to do. Lesson learned.

There were other lessons I learned from my parents. My late father loved to quote Dale Carnegie, “Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.”

But most of these lessons were taught without words. My parents treated the few black people they knew, the same as everybody else. No one had to brief me on the subject, or nod at me when we were about to encounter someone with skin a different color, or eyes a different shape from my own. I learned by example that someone’s appearance is not a reason to hate.

This is what I was taught it meant to be a nice person. To understand that people come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, and to refrain from judging them on these things. To treat everyone as you would want to be treated, with respect.

That is how I was raised as a Jewish American from a middle class home. I know that my peers, and certainly my husband, from a remarkably similar background, were raised the same way. And still, here I am, someone who doesn’t trust an entire people, specifically the Arab people. It’s not about their ethnicity, or their color, but the fact that the Arab people have earned our mistrust. Too many times, it was that nice Arab worker who came back to rape and murder their employer.

I don’t trust Arabs and it’s not only about October 7. I didn’t trust Arabs long before that black day. I know of too many examples of trusted Arabs who proved to be terrorist monsters and of too many horrendous examples of Arab terror.

I no longer have to explain this to friends who once said, “I can’t be friends with anyone who says they ‘hate’ Arabs.”

It is sad really, how many of us Israelis feel sad that when it comes to Arabs, we are not able to apply what we learned in our homes about being nice people. We distrust Arabs, even if we don’t know them as individuals and there are no outward signs of anything amiss. With good reason. October 7 being the turning point for many good people.

The Arabs give us no choice. It’s a matter of life or death, this lack of trust. At the same time, not every Arab is untrustworthy. The problem is, there’s no way to know. And if you want to stay alive, it’s better to be safe and mistrust, than trust and be dead.

I have exactly two Arab friends. Or “had.” One of the two is now dead, and still I trust him more than most living people, despite Abu Musa. He found a way to prove his loyalty to me and my people. The other Arab friend is thankfully alive, and has proven his loyalty to the Jewish State a thousand times over (as did his father before him).

The others? In some cases, “trust, but verify” works.

For example, the nice, normal Arab clerk at the desk in dermatology at Hadassah. She’s wearing a hijab, which could be a sign of extremism, but we’re only going to have limited interaction, so I can be “normal” with her. It’s a question, I guess, of good faith. She’s being polite and professional, and deserves to be treated like a normal human being. Sure, she could self-detonate and kill herself and every Jew in the waiting room at any given moment, but me being rude to her probably wouldn’t change her mind.

Two months after October 7, with all of us more suspicious of Arabs, an Arab woman knocked into my husband and made him spill hot coffee on himself. He brushed off his clothes and muttered something under his breath and that would probably have been that. Except that the woman ran after us to apologize profusely, rummaging through her handbag and offering up a package of wet wipes. (I can still see the package in my mind’s eyes, it was an Arab brand of wet wipes we don’t see in our stores. They were lemon-scented.) She was really sorry and she was kind. And she, too, was wearing a hijab.

We would never have seen her again. She didn’t have to run up to us and apologize a gazillion times and try to give Dov her wet wipes. The possibility occurs that in the wake of October 7, she was trying to tell us, “Not all of us support terror. Not all of us are filled with hate and trying to kill you/rape you/torture you/kidnap you/shoot missiles at you/,” and etc.

Or maybe she just wanted everyone in the vicinity to see that, “Oh, look. Here’s a good Arab. They still exist.”

How can I know? How can I possibly know? The answer is I can’t, and that answer comes straight from the lips of a shyster Arab contractor, “Never trust an Arab. Even when he is dead.”

For all I know Abu Musa himself, is dead. But take his advice to heart. Be he live or be he dead, he’s not to be trusted if you value your life.

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Does Gaza Belong to the Jews? (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Israel left Gaza in 2005, and now Israel has returned. Not to grow peppers and tomatoes, but to obliterate monsters. Many want to know what will happen the day after, when the war is over. Some hope and pray that Israel can once again make Gush Katif area bloom and grow, and that beautiful Jewish children can be born to live there in peace, without fear of sirens and explosions, or having their heads cut off. Is this a realistic scenario?

Probably not. Objectively speaking, it seems unlikely that the Israeli government will allow the Jews to return to Gaza. Also, the majority of Israelis may not be in favor of such a move, believing that there will be some sort of creative solution that will allow the Arab refugees to return home. Others even call into question whether the Jews have a right to this territory. Not because they want to give Gaza away to the Arabs, but because some question whether Gaza is really Jewish land: whether this territory was part of the original Land of Israel, as described in the bible.

In the months and days leading up to Disengagement, or as those of us on the right call it, “The Expulsion,” we needed a way to express our distress over this traumatic event. Orange was the color chosen to symbolize Gush Katif. You’d see orange ribbons tied to car antennae and side view mirrors, and people wearing orange t-shirts, wristbands, and other assorted orange apparel. In addition to the color orange, a slogan was adopted, “Lo nishkach, v’lo nislach.” We will not forget, and we will not forgive.

I recall a bar mitzvah I attended not long after the Expulsion. The celebrants were twins. Their mother had crocheted yarmulkes for them in Gush Katif orange, with the “we won’t forget or forgive” slogan winding its way around the border. I said something to the mother of the boys, along the lines of, “Ha ha ha. Even their ‘kippot’ are patriotic.”

The mother did not find this at all funny. She said, “Yes. We feel very strongly about this,” with a serious expression on her face.

I had made a faux pas. And I should have known better. My entire community, including me, felt very strongly about the Expulsion, and until today, pray and hope and dream to return. We don’t forget and don’t forgive. But what constitutes the Jewish right to inherit this particular territory, Gaza?

In the real estate world, it’s all about location, location, location. One could make the case that the same is true of Gaza. If it’s part of the biblical land of Israel, then it’s Jewish land, if not, not. Perhaps that why author Toby Klein Greenwald begins The Significance of Gaza in Jewish History, with an indisputable fact: “Gaza is located within the boundaries of Shevet Yehuda,” or the land belonging to the tribe of Judah.

Then, and only then, does Klein Greenwald begin to detail for the reader the marvelous history and presence of the Jews in Gaza:

Avraham and Yitzchak lived in Gerar, located near Gaza. In the fourth century, Gaza was the primary Jewish port of Eretz Yisrael for international trade and commerce. Yonatan the Hasmonean (the brother of Yehuda HaMaccabi) conquered Gaza and settled there in 145 BCE. At various times throughout the centuries, Gaza was a center of Jewish learning (a yeshivah in Gaza is mentioned in the Talmud), life and commerce. King David is featured with his harp in an elaborate mosaic in an ancient synagogue in Gaza

Rabbi Yisrael Najara, author of “Kah Ribon Olam,” served as Gaza’s chief rabbi in the middle of the seventeenth century. Rabbi Avraham Azoulay of Fez wrote his mystical work “Chesed l’Avraham” in Gaza. Other well-known scholars and mystics lived there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Sadly, this glory period was not to last:

The Jewish presence in Gaza was cut short in 1929, when Jews were forced to leave the area due to Arab riots, after which the British prohibited them from living in Gaza. Some Jews returned, however, and, in 1946, established the religious kibbutz Kfar Darom. A Jewish village by the same name existed there in the times of the Mishnah.

The Jewish Virtual Library entry on Gaza tells us that originally, Gaza belonged to the Philistines:

Gaza first appears in the Tanach as a Philistine city, the site of Samson's dramatic death. Jews finally conquered it in the Hasmonean era, and continued to live there. Notable residents include Dunash Ibn Labrat,* and Nathan of Gaza, advisor to false messiah Shabtai Zvi. Gaza is within the boundaries of Shevet Yehuda in Biblical Israel (see Genesis 15, Joshua 15:47, Kings 15:47 and Judges 1:18) and therefore some have argued that there is a Halachic requirement to live in this land. The earliest settlement of the area is by Avraham and Yitzhak, both of whom lived in the Gerar area of Gaza. In the fourth century Gaza was the primary Jewish port of Israel for international trade and commerce.

We also learn that even the “glory period” of the Jewish presence in Gaza, was not so glorious or uninterrupted as one might have hoped. Over the centuries, various occupying powers found they liked nothing better than to expel Jews—just as today’s Arab occupiers of Jewish land hope to push the Jews into the sea. But just as many Jews hope to return to Gaza after the war on Hamas is ended, so too, the Jews returned to Gaza, again and again:

The periodic removal of Jews from Gaza goes back at least to the Romans in 61 CE, followed much later by the Crusaders, Napoleon, the Ottoman Turks, the British and the contemporary Egyptians. However, Jews definitely lived in Gaza throughout the centuries, with a stronger presence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

And now we learn the bitter history of what happened next:

Jews were present in Gaza until 1929, when they were forced to leave the area due to violent riots against them by the Arabs. Following these riots, and the death of nearly 135 Jews in all, the British prohibited Jews from living in Gaza to quell tension and appease the Arabs. Some Jews returned, however, and, in 1946, kibbutz Kfar Darom was established to prevent the British from separating the Negev from the Jewish state.

The United Nations 1947 partition plan allotted the coastal strip from Yavneh to [Rafah] on the Egyptian border to be an Arab state. In Israel's war for independence, most Arab inhabitants in this region fled or were expelled, settling around Gaza City. Israeli forces conquered Gaza, and proceeded south to El-Arish, but subsequently gave control of the area to Egypt in negotiations, keeping Ashdod and Ashkelon. In 1956, Israel went to war with Egypt, conquered Gaza again, only to return it again.

With the 1967 Six Day War, Israeli forces reentered Gaza and captured it. During the war, Israel had no idea what it would do with the territory. [Prime Minister Levi] Eshkol called it “a bone stuck in our throats.”

There is a tendency to think of the Labor Party as the party of land giveaways, but in actuality, it was a Labor government that built the first of the Gush Katif settlements:

The initial settlements were established by the Labor government in the early 1970s. The first was Kfar Darom, which was originally established in 1946, and reformed in 1970. In 1981, as part of a peace treaty with Egypt, the last settlements of the Sinai were destroyed, and some Jews moved to the Gaza area . . .

. . . There were twenty-one settlements in Gaza. The most populated Gush Katif area contained some thirty synagogues plus Yeshivat Torat Hachim with 200 students, the Hesder Yeshiva with 150 students, the Mechina in Atzmona with 200 students, Yeshivot in Netzarim and Kfar Darom, 6 Kollelim, a Medrasha for girls in Neve Dekalim and more. All of the settlements had their own schools, seminaries, stores, and doctors.

All of this was destroyed in 2005. The vibrant communities of Gush Katif are no more. We even dug up our dead—many of them Holocaust survivors—to move them out of Gaza.

From then until now with this war, the only Jews present in Gaza were captives, some of them alive, like Gilad Shalit, and some of them almost certainly dead, like Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul.

Will the Jews be allowed to reclaim and rebuild Gaza? Like so many Israelis, I wish it with all my heart, but have little faith that this will happen—even though it should. The centuries’ long Jewish presence and history in Gaza is indisputable, and certainly long predates that of the Arab latecomers.

Jews lived in Gaza long before the Arab people ever existed. In fact, the first reference to the Arabs as a distinct people comes only in 853 BCE, by the hand of an Assyrian scribe as he recorded the details of a battle. How fitting a beginning for a people who worship war and death.

Jews have more of a right to Gaza than any Arab ever did. And if return should prove impossible in the days following this wretched war, forced on us by cruel Arab two-legged beasts, I have faith that the return of the Jews to Gaza is inevitable, if at some unknown point in the future.

***

*I see no evidence to support the idea that Dunash Ibn Labrat lived in Gaza. After looking at many sources, it seems clear he lived only in Spain and Morocco.

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Survivors Turn Right: “How much hate do you have to have?” (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

On October 7 at 6:30 a.m., Meir Adoni [died]. A minute later, a new Meir was born. A Meir that repents his sin. A Meir who is ashamed that he was part of the delusion of the delusional Left who don’t understand that we are surrounded by extreme Islam monsters who have no interest in peace and normalcy, and only want to burn us alive.

He ended by asking forgiveness from Israel and God for having identified as left-wing. [1]

The kibbutzim where the slaughter occurred, by all accounts, lean to the political left. Many or even most of the kibbutz survivors would tell you they were happy when the settlers were expelled from Gush Katif. They thought the expulsion would bring peace. That was their ideology.

And their belief was unshaken, even when there were sirens and rockets and days and nights in safe rooms. They wouldn’t stop educating their children in the ways of peace. They kept on helping to transport sick children from Gaza into Israel for treatment in Israeli hospitals. The good farmers believed that in the end, goodness would prevail and there would be war no more.

Now in the aftermath of October 7, there is deep disillusionment. “We are the peaceful people,” they had thought. “No one would harm us,” as if pureness of heart were a kind of shield.

They couldn’t have imagined a people so cruel. No one could. Only what happened on October 7 could have broken the hope that peace would yet win out with the people of Gaza. The survivors now understand that Gaza is filled with monsters, and that there is no possibility of peace with the “Palestinian” people. That about-face from left to right, is a common theme in the emerging survivor testimonies.

Nir Shani of Kibbutz Be’eri, managed to hold the door of his safe room shut, as terrorists shot up his Kibbutz Be’eri home and then set it ablaze. His 16-year-old son Amit was taken to Gaza, and held hostage. Amit Shani was released from Hamas captivity on November 29, as part of a temporary ceasefire deal, 19 days after his father Nir, gave testimony on the October 7 attacks. Nir says that for the people of Be’eri, the peace movement was their “second religion.” Now Nir knows that peace cannot be achieved at this time, and that it is unrealistic to believe otherwise [emphasis added]:

We do need everybody, everybody to take responsibility of their previous actions and those who led to this situation, because I think it could be prevented and but yeah it—it's complicated now with the Palestinians, and their education is to hate us so badly and the hope for peace I think, no longer can exist after what they did.

We're Jewish, but we're not really religious in the kibbutz. And you can say that our second religion was the peace movement. Like every celebration we were singing a peace song and wishing for peace and oh, if we just do another effort, it would come.

But we don't have any partners from the Palestinian side to—to reach that point. They hate us so badly and [are] not willing. And there is no peace movement [on] the Palestinian side. Not at all. They're just saying, “Yeah, we want to kill them all. We want to send them away.”

So it would take another generation or two with great effort in education to change that. If at all. I think after what they did, we can't stay neighbors any longer. And there must be a certain solution to the problem.

. . . the western world [sees] the Palestinian in a very romantic and maybe even childish way. I think we really, really wanted to live by them . . . and have peace with them, but they’re not cooperating about it. And the western world expects us to behave by certain rules of engagement that are not [the way of] the Middle East. It's like, based on the knight [battles] in [medieval] Europe.

But here it so different, as you could see in October 7^th, and we have to protect [ourselves]. We have no other choice, and I wish it would be different, but for the time being, that is the situation. We have to do whatever is necessary to protect [ourselves].

I mean, the—“the occupation,” “the occupation” all the time. It's not something that we want to do, it's just something that you have to do because otherwise they would be jumping to our throats and kill us. So we have no other choice but to do that and in the most moral way that we can, I think. I mean, we really wish [there was] another way to solve the problem, but that's the situation. That's the reality we live in.

The world should understand that and demand the Palestinians to change their ways and stop supporting [them], because they get a lot of support and it's not helping to solve the problem.

Tali Enoshi-Arad, 37, huddled in the safe room of her home in Kibbutz Holit for hours on that bloody day in October, along with her husband and three-year-old daughter. The Enoshi-Arad family had left the big city for a “quieter” life on this kibbutz situated close to the Gaza border. Now Tali contemplated putting her hand over her little girl’s mouth to keep her quiet so the terrorists wouldn’t hear and discover them, bringing to mind tragic stories from the Holocaust, of mothers desperately trying to still a baby’s cry, and smothering them in the process. The people on Holit were simple farmers. All they wanted was to raise their children in peace. But now she knows that will never be [emphasis added]:

People from Gaza [used] to come in to Israel daily and work in our communities, and some people had very close connections with them um, and just thinking about the fact that this was the result—obviously they are also prisoners in their own city, because they're being uh, held [hostage] by their own government, who doesn't have any care for their safety. They just want to live up to their diabolic, diabolical uh, I guess goals, murdering Jews, killing the—destroying the State of Israel. It's in their [Hamas Charter], but these were not military installations. These were peaceful communities.

We had no form of retaliation, we had no form of attack, we had no objectives, no . . . no um, offense—barely defense. We were just there to grow some potatoes and raise our kids in peace and you could, you would think that would have been enough, but what they did when they went in, was nothing short of deplorable atrocities.

Hadas Eilon, lived on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a farming community, from the age of five until the age of 30, when she deemed it time to leave the nest and go out on her own. Her mother still lives there, along with her siblings and their own families. She didn’t live there anymore, but on October 7, Hadas was there with one of her two daughters, for an extended family gathering. Having grown up among the peace-seekers of a rural community, Hadas truly believed that if only people spoke with and really listened to each other, there could be peace. She still wants to believe that—or so it seems—but she is having to adjust her perceptions.

Now she knows: not all, and perhaps many, or even most Gazans want peace. The rest want death. It is hard for Hadas to come to terms with this reality. It appears to help Hadas come to terms with this reality by mentally separating Gazans and assigning them to one of either two groups: terrorists and “Palestinians.” This approach does not appear to give her complete satisfaction; it does seem to give her hope and a way to move forward [emphasis added]:

I am a person who strongly believes in communication and human relations. Hearing that drugs were found on them helped me understand the animals that they were, and at the same time, it was always so difficult for me to understand extreme people, psychopaths. I mean, it's impossible to understand. Extreme people, psychopaths, people who want others to die, that... that I can't understand.

But I also have a hard time generalizing. I also know that there are people, there are Palestinians who want peace. I think that we have a . . . completely impossible situation here. But in this completely impossible situation, something terrible is happening. And again, I was never in favor of occupation, and I always really have conversations and everything, but when there is one side, and I'm not saying that we don't have extremists either, but they don't rule. When there is one side . . . that has a job of destroying and killing and abusing, and when I hear the phone call of the Palestinian who called—a terrorist, I won't say Palestinian, because it's a terrorist—I don't want to generalize Palestinians in any way. A terrorist who calls his parents and boasts that he murdered ten Jews. It's not human, it's not human behavior, as far as I'm concerned, they don't . . . do not deserve any forgiveness or any respect as human beings, because they are not.

So I am ready to make peace with Palestinians and humans who have a heart and family and children. But with terrorists and human animals, I'm not ready to make peace. And if someone wants to kill me, I will kill them first.

Natali Yohanan is a 38-year-old mother of two boys. What happened to her family on October 7, in their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, and what happened to their neighbors, relatives, and friends, killed her faith in humanity. She no longer believes that peace is possible.

Not in a world where a mother of children can treat another as she, Natali, was treated by a Gazan mother of children, a civilian who infiltrated her home on that terrible day. Natali was shocked into reality by this monster’s cruel behavior toward her and her two sons. The Washington Free Beacon featured Natali’s story in “Netflix and Kill: How a Palestinian Woman Took Over an Israeli Family's Home on Oct. 7,” [emphasis added]:

We had people in the kibbutz who are very involved with the Palestinian, um people. We had one person he's in Gaza right now, he’s kidnapped, that he drove sick kids from Gaza to the hospitals in Israel. We're a very peace-loving community. Like, the country, they always make fun of us that we're very, like, people-loving and we want peace, and in Israel not everyone feels the same, but we don't feel the same, anymore.

I always told my son, “There are kids just like you in Gaza. They just want to go to school, and just want to live, and just want to be happy and be free,” and that's what I thought before. It's very hard for me as a mother to think about a woman who came to my home and saw the pictures of my kids and still came to, to steal and to terrify my kids, and the first thing she did is to open my [electric box] and [turn] off the electricity. Just in the safe room.

So she sat and watched TV, and my kids—we had no water, no food, no air conditioning. It's the middle of the summer. It was so hot.

Like she saw my kids’ pictures on the walls. She knew there's a family inside—like terrified kids. I think that she's a mother as well, because she took my kids’ clothes, and she took my clothes, and she took, um, she took my credit card, and then she went back to Gaza, and she, she went to the supermarket and she bought . . . I got a list of the things she bought.

It broke my faith that people are good. It’s . . . I never thought that a woman would do that. Like men? Yes. Soldiers? Yes. Hamas terrorists? Yes. I knew they were very cruel and very driven, but I never thought a common people—kids and women—would participate in things like that and it broke my faith in the goodness of people, but especially people from Gaza, because I really—I really believed that the women and children were just—they were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

I really believed that Hamas kidnapped Gaza, and um, I don't anymore. I think they are participating. I think in that morning [Hamas] told them, “We are going to do this, who wants to come in?” or they invited people they trust and they told them, “You can take whatever you want. You can take. You can plunder. You can steal, and we'll keep you safe,” and they told themselves, “Why not?”

Why not? Like I'm a woman. I'm a mother. I'm a teacher. I work with kids. I believe that all kids are good. All kids are good, good. No one is born bad. No one is born a terrorist and I feel very guilty that I raised my kids in a place that [wasn’t] safe.

I believed that I'm safe. I believed my kids are safe. I really believed it.

Like, we have this sense of, we want revenge, which is a horrible, horrible feeling, but I find myself showing my son videos of houses being bombed in Gaza, because I want to show him that Israel is still strong. I want to show him that the army is strong—that someone is protecting us, because he doesn't feel it anymore, and something in his faith was broken.

It is broken. We don't believe in anyone, anymore. We don't believe in the country. We don't believe in the army. We don't believe in ourselves. We don't believe in in Gaza. We don't believe in the world. We don't believe in anyone who will come to help us, and it's, um, like everything we believed was shattered in that moment.

I don't want Hamas to exist anymore. I want the . . . the normal, the, the, the good people in Gaza to rule. I want someone who my country can talk to and uh, right now it, it sounds like it will never happen . . .

. . . I try to concentrate on not falling to the revenge—that we feel like we want to [take] revenge. I'm trying not to focus on that, ‘cuz it's not healthy. It's not going to help my kids. Nowhere is safe in the world like Israel. Israel is the safest place for Jews. That's what I believe.

Her daughter was to depart for a class trip to Poland in a few days. Now, says her mother, Ola Metzger, the 17-year-old girl won’t need to visit Auschwitz, a rite of passage for Israeli students. She won’t need an experiential history lesson on the Holocaust—the girl won’t need it, because she just went through one, a true Holocaust, right in her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, so perilously close to Gaza. Ola, 45, used to believe that if we would only alleviate the suffering of the common people of Gaza, peace would reign.

What Ola learned on October 7, was that peace is not a value for them. Material wealth is also not so important to them. What is important to them is their hate. For her, the eye-opener was the destruction, burning cars, homes, people. They already, had already looted and taken what they wanted, money, everything, and still it did not satisfy the lust, because the lust is not for things. The lust is for torturing and murdering Jews [emphasis added].

I told her to hide under the bed because bad guys were out there shooting all, all over, all around, and all I was thinking [was], “What happens if they get in?”

I can't believe that these actions are real actions to aim to free Palestine from someone. I always felt that these people are being hostages you know, of their own regime, and uh, we always felt that if they will be okay, if these people will have something to lose, you know, I mean something to lose, I mean if they have a regular, or more or less regular life and homes and work and you know, money coming in, and uh, food for their kids . . . if they will be okay we will be okay, too.

It's very hard to say that I hate someone, but I don't trust any, anyone now. I, I don't trust them. I can't. We lost so many people, you know, one out of four in our kibbutz . . .

Um, it was [scary]. I was scared. I was scared and then sad you know, later on, because how much hate do you have to have? Okay. So you, okay . . . you came in, you took all the jewelry and you know, and the money, and the computers and TVs, and whatever, and then you just, you just have to like ruin everything?

Irit Lahav, a 57-year-old peace activist from Kibbutz Nir Oz, sustained a serious shock on October 7. It was then that Lahav realized that the people of Gaza were not like her, not like normal human beings. Their behavior, well, they do things Lahav would never dream of doing to anyone, even her most mortal enemy. The smaller deeds of October 7, even, would be beyond her. She could not have stolen a wallet, a bike, or a person’s shoes, let alone perpetrate such brutal acts of violence.

On that day, a border was crossed, all boundaries and norms of behavior breached. Now the ardent peacenik is no more. Now it is us and “them” [emphasis added]:

In 2005, when Israel moved out of Gaza, I was very happy. I thought this, this, is the right thing to do, and I was shocked that 2 months later, they threw bombs, missiles, at us. What, what the heck is going on? They just received what they wanted. Why, why is this going on?

Generally speaking, everybody from the kibbutz is very left-minded. I would say even 100% of the people would really respect the Palestinians and wish really good things for them and never want to hurt them or do anything bad toward them. I always saw that they have an equal right like we do, to have their own country—to be happy, to live peaceful, to be prosperous.

I also volunteered. I would drive the Palestinians who are very sick, from the border to get treated in Israeli hospitals. Am I thinking about myself being foolish until now? Maybe. Maybe. But more is that I'm disappointed at them that they are so cruel, have no values—really lost their human values.

There is no “Hamas” anymore for me. There is the Palestinian nation. They are responsible for that, and I think Israel should [let go] this concept of Hamas being the important people. No. The whole community has invaded and were brutal and violent.

I think about myself. Would I go to somebody’s house and rob it and steal their shoes and bicycles and wallets? And no. I wouldn't. Even if he is my enemy. Even if it's someone that I don't agree with I would not do that, and if this is not clear to them or to the world that's very sad, really.

What else can we do? What else can we do? I fight for the peace. We step out from their land. We respect them, you know, and this is what is going on. Slaughter. Slaughter back.

No. Too much.