Devastation

There is little doubt this has been the hardest week since the immediate aftermath of October 7th, 2023. The revelations that have come to light with the return of the bodies of Kfir, Ariel, Oded, and eventually Shiri are so shocking to the conscience that you would have to be a monster yourself to not be moved by them. We are living in a world where Hamas executed six Israeli hostages in cold blood after starving them near to death already; yet, somehow, Hamas has topped their unending capacity for evil yet again.

Everyone reading this in this moment already knows, but for posterity I will detail the tragic events of this past week. Really, tragic doesn’t begin to describe it; nor did the underlying events  truly take place recently. On Thursday, the world witnessed a “celebration” in Gaza. Hamas celebrates that they have survived five hundred days of war against an opponent superior to them in every conceivable way. It is only because of the unbelievable morality and imperative to protect life of the Israel Defense Forces that Hamas was not utterly obliterated within months if not weeks of October 7th.

But on that Thursday specifically, Hamas was “celebrating” something very special to them: dead Jewish children. The entire ethos of Hamas is built on one simple concept: “We love death like they (the Jews) love life.” Maximal pain and suffering is the goal. And to that end, they or a Gazan terrorist proxy murdered Kfir and Ariel Bibas (ages ten months and four years respectively) with bare hands. Let me repeat: two small children, one a BABY, were murdered either by Hamas or other Gazans WITH BARE HANDS. And they were murdered no later than November, 2023. They have been dead all this time. Every time you have seen a photograph or hostage poster of one of those boys the past sixteen months; odds are, they were already gone.

Hamas has claimed for some time that their deaths were brought by an “Israeli airstrike”, and they allegedly mutilated their bodies to make it harder to identify cause of death. But it was identified. Even Hamas understood that these optics make one thing above all else absolutely incontrovertible: Hamas must be wiped off the face of this Earth. They are a stain on all Humanity; one of the darkest in history. No Israeli, left, right, or center, Arab or Jew or anyone else can tolerate living next to people that will murder their children with bare hands and then hold a ceremony in which Gazans will cheer, throw rice, and bring their own children to watch. Hamas has now guaranteed that they will in fact get the death they so desperately crave; it just won’t be Israelis doing most of the dying.

This is what you stand for, “free Palestiners”. Unending war and slaughter. All the horror of October 7th and its aftermath. The mass rape and sexual mutilation of women. The slaughter of full families. The murder of hostages—baby hostages—and their mothers. And you also stand for the damnation of the Palestinians to unending suffering in the name of your precious “resistance”. The greatest champions of the Palestinian people in Israel and the ones most open to coexistence were the very ones slaughtered on October 7th. You know nothing of the reality and the horror that they faced, and that Israelis still face. It will be the great undoing of your “cause”.

How did we get here? How am I talking to you about the murder of hostages by the most brutal terrorists the world has ever seen? The killing of children, of babies, with bare hands?

 It didn’t have to be this way. The all-encompassing ideology of hate on which Hamas runs has damned the Gazans to yet more future war and suffering for nothing. All for nothing. So much suffering, on both sides of the Gaza border. October 7th was the most devastating day for Israelis in recent memory and possibly all memory; and it was the most devastating for the Palestinian peoples’ future prospects for years and probably decades to come.

As if the murder of children weren’t enough, the boys’ mother Shiri Bibas was also supposed to be released alongside their bodies. Dead. Because it’s Hamas. Of course they would kill the boys’ mother as well. But for whatever reason, Hamas didn’t hand over Shiri’s body on Thursday. They put a Palestinian woman’s body in the coffin instead. I have seen no evidence that it was a deliberate calculation on Hamas’s part; but it would be par for the course, wouldn’t it?

And so Shiri’s body was finally released back to Israel this past Saturday along with six living hostages. I will discuss them in a bit. Normally, I seek the full truth of what has happened in everything I do. But right now I am very, very terrified of what may be uncovered in the forensic analysis of Shiri. If it is the worst imaginable, I may not be brave enough to face that reality.  I hope all the aggrieved and suffering members of the Bibas family can find some semblance of comfort in knowing that they may finally lay their bodies to rest. I’m so sorry, Yarden.

Finally on Thursday, Israel received back the body of Oded Lifshitz, an 84-year-old man and a lifelong peace activist for Israeli-Palestinian relations. A pioneering ‘kibbutznik’ and seemingly a great friend of the Palestinian people. That didn’t save his life. He had a wife who was also taken hostage on October 7th—Yocheved—and who was thankfully released alive in a hostage deal. He is survived by children and grandchildren. I hope you find comfort in his memory.

Now, amid this unbelievable tragedy, there were also living hostages that were released on Saturday. Six total, four of whom were taken hostage on October 7th: Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, and Tal Shoham. Additionally, two hostages were released that Hamas has held for almost a decade(!) each:  Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed. Both of their stories are unique and tragic. Both suffer from mental health issues and both are in unrecognizable and seriously debilitated conditions; and it’s not hard to understand why. Gilad Shalit was held hostage by Hamas for five years. Being at the mercy of the monsters that would go on to commit October 7th for almost a decade…I can’t begin to imagine the torments they faced. We will likely never know the full extent of their suffering. I hope they can heal, and I hope all the hostages can live long lives of peace unburdened by the past.

Finally, because Justice is important to me, I want to briefly mention something to do with a longer-time connection I have had; with a man named Hillel Fuld. I do not know Hillel in my personal life, but like so many of us adrift after October 7th we conglomerated together in shared horror and hope. Hillel had a brother: Ari Fuld. Ari was an American-Israeli that was stabbed to death in Judea by a Palestinian terrorist six years ago. Ari’s murderer was set to be released on Saturday as part of the exchange for the hostages. If everything did go as planned, then that Palestinian terrorist and murderer is now a free man. Serving just six years for brutally and bloodily murdering a Jew. If this is the world’s idea of “justice”, then I reject the world. Is this not an affront to American “justice”? We’re just okay with terrorists murdering Americans and essentially getting away with it? Is that what we have been reduced to, that it doesn’t even register in our collective consciousness that this is an absolute travesty of Justice for an American citizen?

Hillel wrote, “Ari saved lives in his life. He saved lives in his death. And now he is saving lives after he is gone.” I think that is an excellent way to remember him.

I long ago gave up trying to make sense of the world. Nothing has been the way it ought to be since October 7th. Many things were wrong well before that; but not like this. I have never before observed a world so completely morally lost. The (in)famous ‘Red Cross’ is not a “humanitarian” organization, but a glorified taxi service. They did nothing to prevent baby hostages being killed by terrorists with their bare hands. Never forget.

Rest in peace to the victims.