Israel and the Diaspora commemorate the worst pogrom of Jews since the Holocaust; so-called ‘peace activists’ across the world celebrate the bloodletting
By. David Brummer
JERUSALEM — Israel’s first, and second-longest serving, prime minister, David Ben-Gurion famously said, “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles,” and the year from Oct. 7, 2023, to Oct. 7, 2024 has certainly been an example of this. The story, whose end is unknown, has a very Jewish patina to it; from the depths of despair at 6:29 on that Sabbath/Simchat Torah morning as the paragliders flew over the Nova music festival and the Hamas paratroopers stormed over the border killing everything in their way, backed by a cacophony of rocket-fire; to a place today, which despite the difficulties and challenges of the knowledge of the hard road ahead, might even border on hope.
In every generation there are disputes and temptations, which threaten to rip the Jewish people asunder. In 2005, it was the disengagement from Gaza, pulled off by practically the only politician – Ariel Sharon – who had the fortitude and authority to pull it off. Many people on the right warned of the national implications of that fateful decision, but their concerns were dismissed for the perceived greater good of living in peace with our neighbors. Some hope.
In the months leading up to Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s civil society seemed fatally weakened, a hint, which Hamas’ barbaric terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, certainly did not miss. Despite the fact, protesters against the government’s proposed judicial reform, and those in favor would all be waving Israeli flags at their demonstrations, as they yelled epithets at each other from point-blank range. Sinwar thought he knew Israel and Israelis, having learned the language and immersed himself in its newspapers over his extended stay in prison, which was so catastrophically cut short in the deal which released kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. He assumed Israel was on the precipice of collapse; however, he misinterpreted what was underneath all the noise. Israel is a very noisy society, but underneath it there is an almost unspoken acknowledgment that Jews, whatever their political, spiritual or religious affiliations, are responsible for one another in times of great peril. And make no mistake, Oct. 7, 2023 was a moment of catastrophic danger.
