The Jewish people always come out stronger
We will come together, we will help each other and support our brothers and sisters in Israel, and we will make it through. Together. As one people.
Last December, while in Israel for the Jewish Media Summit, our group visited Kibbutz Nirim where long-time resident Adele Raemer spoke about the challenges of living near the border with Gaza. Upon my return I wrote of how on a tour of the kibbutz I saw a number of children playing, some who looked the same age as my own son.
“I thought how lucky he is, here in Australia, to never have to worry about what these children will inevitably endure, perhaps repeatedly,” I wrote at the time.
I was thinking of rocket fire. I never could have imagined what transpired last weekend.
Raemer blogged from her safe room as Hamas terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz and tried to break into her house on Saturday morning. She told of hearing machine gun fire outside and how she has “literally never been this frightened”.
She later said of the eight hours spent locked down, “At times I felt like Anne Frank hiding in the secret annex waiting for the Nazis to discover their hiding place.”
Raemer was lucky. But not everyone in Nirim was, as she later described once the IDF had cleared the town and she was allowed to leave her home.
“We do not know what yet awaits us. We only know the losses and horrors we have experienced so far: a father and daughter murdered when the terrorists broke into their home. The people who are missing from our community. Those personal losses, together with the incomprehensible number of civilian and army casualties from elsewhere in the Gaza envelope,” she wrote. “Please keep us in your hearts.”
At the time of writing this, more than 1000 Israelis have been confirmed dead and many more left injured from Hamas’ heinous surprise attack. What happened at Nirim was repeated in towns all around the Gaza envelope. In Kibbutz Be’eri alone, around 100 were killed, while 260 young souls were mercilessly slaughtered at the Supernova Music Festival held near Kibbutz Re’im.
We have all seen the heartbreaking images of the victims, including children. We’ve read about the 100 women, children and elderly – including a Holocaust survivor – who were taken into Gaza and are being held hostage.
We all know someone who knows someone, which makes what has happened that much more personal. Our hearts break as Jews for our extended Israeli family and for our people’s homeland. Our hearts break as human beings witnessing Hamas’ inhumanity.
We despair knowing what Israel must now do to ensure the safety of its citizens. Many of us have relatives in Israel who are being called up to fight and we are anxious for them. We also know that there will be a humanitarian price paid by civilians in Gaza. And while Hamas, not Israel, will be responsible for that, unlike Hamas we mourn the loss of all innocent lives. The possibility of other fronts opening up in the war to come only adds to our anxiety.
To add insult to injury, many of us were shocked on Monday night as pro-Hamas protesters – fellow Australians who rallied in support of the brutal murder of innocent civilians – marched to the Opera House where they burned Israeli flags and openly chanted vile antisemitic slogans.
These are dark times.
But if there is one thing we know from our history, it is that the Jewish people always come out stronger. And so shall it be again.
The next period is not going to be easy. We will be tested. Israel will be tested. But we will come together, we will help each other and support our brothers and sisters in Israel, and we will make it through.
Together. As one people.
Gareth Narunsky is the national editor of The AJN.
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