There are a multitude of questions which need answers, even as they defy answers. We are left in a sea of confusion. Everybody is shouting, accusing, lying, doing everything possible other than telling the truth. Truth just disappears, buried beneath years of willful lies. It is an ugly truth, rife with homicidal intent, vicious in its hate. If only - the saddest words on the planet. If only we had done this. If only we had not done that. If only we had not taken the plane. If only we had thought otherwise -if only, if only. If Only.
However, once done, once said, it cannot be taken back. At that point the only true meaningful path to tread is that of seeking understanding. How and why and when did we get to this point. Where did we go wrong. Perhaps the wrongs and the rights are clearly delineated, but most likely not so. Perhaps that is because the truths will be damaging and ugly. Perhaps there were no viable alternatives to actions taken or not taken. Perhaps people refuse to understand or admit to it, preferring to continue on their rampage of hate and homicidal intention. Destroying an entire people. That goal is clear as day via the chants, shouts and threats. In this case, a repetition of the ambition of "Judenrein" - no more Jews. Period.
Where are the designated leaders of the nations of the world? Where are their mouths? Where is their moral spine? Where are they? Nowhere to be found. Certainly not with any words or deeds of morality and truth. Their words are saturated with cowardice and a softening of spines. Accompanied with a reluctance to acknowledge truths and responsibilities.
These leaders hide behind and beneath lies and cower beneath civilian infrastructure, shivering in dank tunnels, with hostages as their shields, even as they sacrifice their own people. Or they are living in the lap of luxury as they shelter in other lands far away from the combat and blood. These are not leaders who will take their people to a true peace.
Golda Meir spoke the truth when asked to evaluate the situation. If Israel would lay down its arms they would be slaughtered. If the Arabs lay down their arms, there would be peace. That is what Israel desires above all. Peace - to thrive, to prosper, to raise their children. No more to have to defend themselves in hostile lands. For the world to recognize historical imperative. To recognize and acknowledge the eternal right of the Jewish nation to the land of Israel. As long as this is denied, there will be no peace.
Israel is the haven of the Jewish people. All they wish is to live in peace, to thrive and prosper, to contribute to the world, to advance medicine, technology, to contribute to the creative arts. And so it has been, and so will it continue if the world will finally stand tall in service of the truth. If the world will resist the base needs and urges of JewHatred. Why, dear G-d, why, must there always be in each generation those who would destroy us? It is just so damn tiring. This can no longer be allowed to be the status quo.
We Jews have resilience. That offends people. They call us demons for daring to survive all that has been thrown at us. They resent our refusal to follow the faded empires of the world. To become weak, to give in to evil. Quite offensive to other people, especially as they lack understanding of that resistance and defiance, the determination to outlive their enemies. The reality of our survival and existence. Humanity tends to villainize that which they do not understand; hence, they strive to destroy and here we are.
76 years ago, a battered, traumatized nation was allowed to return home. A home long denied its truth as the eternal, never abandoned homeland of the Jewish nation. If this homeland had been acknowledged sooner, six million plus people would not have been destroyed, slaughtered. If the truth had been acknowledged that the Kingdom of Jordan had been set up to be the land of the Palestinians ...well, if only. Those two words again.
But the world turned to lies. The world turned to the old, tired, brutal antisemitism. Worse. we allowed it to infiltrate and pervert our educational and philanthropic institutions and organizations, to wallow in the filth of hate and to grow their own 5th column, to inspire their own quislings. Hate filled people have been allowed to spew their hate and even been praised for it. Outside activists have invaded campuses. The results are clear.
The truth of October 7 is overlooked, twisted and turned into something that never was and that never should be. Israel was accused of perpetrating this horror upon their own people. Israel was accused of setting fire to homes, to people, of brutal sexual attacks, to kidnapping and slaughter of their own. The animals of Hamas were excused as if never there even as their own videos betrayed their lies as they boasted proudly of their prowess at slaughtering civilians. At taking away grandparents, defying fierce infants and little boys and girls. Butchering their parents. How? Why? When? - did the world begin to think this was OK. How, when, why did the horror, the truth of October 7 be turned on its head and the victims deemed the wrongdoers?
There are many unknowns to be made known. There are many questions to be answered. How did Israel not see this coming? Why did the world allow this? Why did they turn so quickly on Israel, stabbing them in the back? Then holding them back as they fought a war foisted upon them, a war of survival. Will we ever get the answers? Not all for sure. Or the truth will be buried. Deep.
October 7 must never be forgotten and must never be allowed to be repeated, though might be desired by many. It's aftermath, October 8th, must be recognized. It is the acknowledgement, the truth of the reality that vicious viral antisemitism, over the top JewHatred will never go away. It is the awakening of the Jewish people of all nations, particularly in the West, that same West in which we thought we were finally safe. Sure. Able to ignore the minor signs of antisemitism. To claim it could never happen here. Well, it certainly can. There are certainly advocates of it out there shouting, chanting, threatening, screaming.
It is time we wake up and smell that ugly black coffee. No sweeteners, no moderation of its bitterness. It is how we understand that the only defense we have is ourselves. Others cannot be trusted, cannot be relied upon. And so, we will do as we have always done. Meet the challenge. Overcome it. And so, we are here and not going anywhere either.
No more will we concede to all terms to shed our dignity, to shed our nationhood, to shed our right to exist.
No more.
We are resilient. We have survived unbearable conditions meant to eliminate us. But we survived. We found ways to prosper. to succeed in the face of hate. Hatred so putrid that many refused to acknowledge it even within their own selves. New terms for antisemitism were coined. But the truth was always there. JewHatred is JewHatred. The only thing that changes are the weapons used to wage that JewHatred. Again. No. More.
No more acquiescence by Jews to their own slaughter. No more acquiescence to denial. This is a different Jewish nation, a different world Jewry. We now have to acknowledge that JewHatred is eternal. Here, the devil wins. But here the devil will also be defeated. We are not the Jews battered by centuries of hate in Europe, brutalized within the old nations of Europe. We are the proud Jews of the West. We will stand high and tall and defend ourselves. Those Jews who think they can hide and deny who they are must guess again. There are plenty people out there who will remind you who you are, who you always have been and who you always will be. Take the truth and run with it. Take the truth and be proud with it. Flaunt it.
The grief of October 7 must never be repeated. It will always be a reminder of what is possible, of the deep ugliness to be found within people. People who rejoice in violence and bloodshed, who wallow in it, who seek praise for doing that. \
No more. Never again.
Tears ran down my face yesterday. They will never stop, never dry.
May the slaughtered rest in peace.
May the hostages finally come home.
May we be allowed to live in peace.
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