For at least two generations, Israelis have felt secure in the knowledge that the horrors of the Holocaust were behind them.
Safe behind border walls and protected by a powerful military, Jews in Israel would never again have to watch as children were murdered in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children.
This from frontpagemag.com.
October 7 changed all that—dramatically.
The Hamas-led killing spree of that day brought Hitler’s willing executions through the gates of Israel. Suddenly, nowhere was safe anymore.
The absence of the missing—Israelis ripped from their homes by Hamas terrorists—is overwhelming. For a guest arriving in Israel:
The broad stairs leading down to immigration at Ben Gurion airport were marked with the faces of the missing—on both sides of the hall. On some of the hundred-plus steps, the poster had been taken down to indicate hostages who had been released after more than fifty days of captivity.
Five days later, the gaps had grown larger, as more hostages were returned home. But more than 136 remained by the time Hamas broke the temporary truce on December 1.
On Ditzengoff Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Tel Aviv, human-sized white teddy bears are strapped to every park bench, their bodies spattered with dirt and blood. Attached to each was a poster of one of the missing.
In Jerusalem, office buildings are lit up with the Israeli flag and holographic projections of the missing, rotating every few seconds.
As time passes, more is learned about the horrors the hostages had undergone during their Hamas captivity.
Israel’s first lady, Michal Hertzog, revealed:
[Y]oung women had been so brutally raped that their pelvic bones were broken.
Boys and young men were branded—not with a number, as in the Nazi camps—but marked indelibly with hot motorcycle exhaust pipes, so they would be recognizable in case they managed to escape, as some did.
Children were given food and water intermittently and threatened with weapons if they dared to open their mouths.
Dr. Efrat Harlev, CEO of the Schneider Children’s Center where many of the returned child hostages are being treated for trauma, said:
When I first saw them returning in the helicopters they looked like shadows, not children.
Still fearful of their Hamas captors, they would ask us if they could open the window, or open the drawer, or take a shower.
Most children lost ten to fifteen percent of their body weight. Dr. Harlev told the story of two sisters, 15 and 8 years old.
The older one decided how much to eat so she could save food for her younger sister. Sometimes she would not eat for days.
Even in the hospital, many children picked at their food, telling doctors they had to save it for later.
Dr. Harlev said on Monday:
The last time I read about that happening was eighty years ago, before Jews had a state.
One twelve-year old boy, strapped to the back of a motorbike by his captors, was welcomed by a crowd in Gaza and beaten with clubs, sticks, fists, and bats. Another twelve-year old, Eitan Yahalomi, was kept alone in a closed room for sixteen days and beaten regularly by his captors.
According to former Knesset member Dov Lipman:
Moved to a second location, Eitan and other children were forced by Hamas to watch videos of the atrocities they committed on October 7.
All were told that no one was looking for them, that there was no Israel, no place for them to return.
Dr. Harlev said:
Hamas was psychologically harassing them on a daily basis.
It is well-documented that Hamas used United Nations schools as arms depots and training centers. But they also called on United Nations employees to guard and house hostages, including a Gaza teacher.
Those UN schools, operated by UNWRA, have indoctrinated generations of Palestinians to hate Jews and vow Israel’s destruction. If nothing else, the U.S. and the European Union should take control of UNWRA, fire the Hamas teachers and reform the curriculum, to ensure it returns to its core mission of educating children to live in peace with their neighbors.
We will learn more about the horrors these hostages endured in the days and weeks to come. So far, no military-age men have been released. No one really knows if they are even alive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation the day after the truce and the hostage-swaps expired with these moving words:
Citizens of Israel… ‘Whoever saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world.’ Last week, we rescued many worlds. We returned 110 souls to Israel. We freed 86 Israeli citizens—children, women, young people, mothers and grandmothers, as well as dozens of foreign nationals. The entire nation and many around the world held their breath as they followed each release.
The boys and girls and young people whom we returned home: Raz, Aviv, Hila, Alma, Noam, Emma, Yuli, Emilia, Avigail, Emily, Gali,Amit, Eitan, Nava. Yahel, Noam, Ohad, Uriah, Yuval, Ofri, Erez, Mia, Noga, Ofir, Dafna, Ela, Tal, Agam, Gal, Or, Yagli, Itay, Maya, Bilal, Aisha, Uri, Natali, Mika, Liam—and many others whom we have released.
These are not just names but souls of boys and girls that we brought back home, we brought them back to life. We will be with them and look after them. I embrace them on behalf of all of you, citizens of Israel: Welcome to those who have left the horrors, welcome back home.
The Psalmist writes (142:8): ‘Take my soul out of confinement.’ We have taken them out of confinement, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption.
These were exactly the right words for the Prime Minister to utter. And may they be repeated for each of those still, being held hostage by Hamas.
The long war to secure Israel’s borders and eradicate Hamas as an organized force has begun.
Many will seek to tie Israel’s hands, but they will not be restrained. Should the Prime Minister or anyone in his cabinet suggest that Israel should enter ceasefire talks—not the temporary pauses of the hostage exchanges, but an actual, lasting ceasefire that allows Hamas to fight another day—they would face a mutiny among the ranks of the IDF.
The ancient horrors—the horrors Israelis thought would never happen again—have returned and the weight of that realization is just beginning to sink in.
May the people of the world soon learn what is meant when those who strategically call themselves ‘Palestinians’ say such things as ‘From the river to the sea’ and that they intend ‘to finish what Hitler started.’
