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£
Bearing witness to a
modern-day horror
A few weeks
ago, I had the
responsibility to
bear witness to the
horrors of the Oct.
7 Hamas terror
attacks on Israel.
I was invited with
a group of media
and community
leaders to watch 45
minutes of unedited
bodycam, CCTV, and social media video
presented by the Israeli consulate in Atlanta.
Sadly, not many people attended that
first showing (although more went to a
subsequent viewing), despite the fact that
nearly every local media outlet, education
leader, politician, clergy, etc... was invited.
There were only about 30 people in the
room. At first, I wasn’t sure what to write
about my experience, but I can’t shake the
feeling that the world is quickly moving on
from Oct. 7, and that reporting what I saw
and experienced is critical to helping people
understand what happened on the deadliest
day for Jews since the Holocaust.
Here are my observations:
Joyfully celebrating their savagery, the
footage included an audio recording of one
of the terrorists calling his parents to brag
about the 10 Jews he had killed “with my
bare hands,” urging his father to look at
WhatsApp for photos of the bodies. While
some of the videos have previously been
aired on TV news, I recoiled in shock at
seeing a terrorist use a garden hoe to take
swings at a dead Thai worker’s neck.
Close-up images of burned bodies,
Hamas’ nod to Hitler’s Final Solution, sent
chills down my spine, only to be outdone
by watching terrorists chase an underwear-
clad father and his two sons into their safe
room where they then tossed a grenade,
killing the father in front of his sons, who
were then heard crying “Abba’s [daddy]
dead,” and “I wish I wasn’t alive,” as a
terrorist calmly drank soda from the family’s
refrigerator.
We saw the dead bodies of children in
Mickey Mouse pajamas and a teenager in a
Tupac t-shirt. We heard intercepted audio
from Hamas commanders instructing the
terrorists to bring dead Jews back to Gaza so
they could “play with the bodies.”
It’s hard for me to find words to describe
the depravity with which the Hamas
terrorists treated other humans. As I have
said in other pieces, Israel is not perfect,
and the current Prime Minister will be held
responsible for disastrous intelligence and
security failures, as he deserves. But, Israel’s
defense forces are not immoral. It’s tragic
to see the loss of innocent lives, and I hope
that the operations in Gaza end quickly so
that innocent Palestinians are able to escape
the fighting that Israel is compelled to do to
root out Hamas.
Do not be fooled by social media
propaganda, these Hamas terrorists did not
flood into Israel to protest the government’s
policies. They did not invade Israel to sit
down and talk about peace with Israelis,
the majority of whom probably supported
a two-state solution that gives Palestinians
a pathway to a brighter future. These
terrorists came with a single goal: to torture,
kill, and kidnap innocent Israelis.
We must all bear witness to these
atrocities and not be duped into thinking
that Hamas is somehow good for
Palestinians or that they are a viable partner
for peace.
Progressives who float from one social
justice cause to the next have shown their
blatant disregard for either historical
context or Jews, perhaps both. I have never
been so paranoid that I see antisemitism
around every corner, but when people I
consider to be otherwise educated about
history show an utter lack of understanding
of the story of the Jewish people and parrot
Hamas talking points on their social media
accounts, I find myself in a very unfamiliar
and uncomfortable position.
We all must sit with discomfort as
we process the events that started with a
surprise attack on innocent Israelis on Oct.
7, and we must never forget the inhumanity
with which Hamas brutalized both Jews
and Palestinians alike, starting a war that
continues to claim many precious lives and
create fresh trauma that is sure to impact
generations.
PUBLISHER'S
NOTE
Keith Pepper
Photo of Kibbutz Nir Oz by Alex Gandler
4 | DECEMBER 2023
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