VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS: Life for us all has plunged into darkness

Not since the Holocaust have Jews been slaughtered in such number. 

It was Shabbat morning on a Jewish religious holiday. Most residents in places like Sderot, Kibbutz Nirim, Kibbutz Alumim, Sha’ar Hanegev, Kfar Aza and Ashkelon were either still in bed, having breakfast or out for an early morning jog or bike ride. In a field at Kibbutz Re’im, some 2,000 youngsters were ending an all-night party.

When it became clear what was happening, those at home locked their doors and hid, in their safe rooms if they had one. But they weren’t safe. With no police or IDF on the scene for hours, they were hunted, shot and killed, their houses set ablaze, their homes, lawns and paths booby-trapped. This happened across 22 communities.

The description of the Hamas savages as a ‘swarm’ is correct both metaphorically and tactically. Their subhuman brutality, on the other hand, defies description. What Israelis see as terrorism, Hamas sees as success.

It is being called a ‘pogrom’ (a Russian word meaning ‘to wreak havoc, to demolish violently’) and is being likened to the Yom Kippur War, 9/11 and Pearl Harbour, in terms of scale, surprise and shock.

Hamas appeared to know about the music festival and directed significant forces there, killing no fewer than 260 young people and kidnapping many more.

Knowing that partygoers had nowhere to run to except their cars, that’s where they waited. It wasn’t over quickly, either. The killing went on for hours, gunmen scouring the terrain for survivors to execute.

This is uncharted territory for Israel. Life have changed forever. It certainly has for those who lived through this. The world now seems back-to-front. IsraAID, for instance, an Israeli charity that normally sends emergency response squads and mental health teams around the world in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, has deployed its teams on home soil.

There are up to 150 hostages, according to a senior Israeli diplomat. Brig Gen (res) Gal Hirsch, who is co-ordinating the return of the captives, was on Monday given a list of more than 350 missing people. Accurate lists are hard to come by, in part because some victims’ bodies have been burned beyond recognition.There are no words in the English language to describe such scenes.

There are plenty of organisations – including the UN – who were quick to call on Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law in its military response in Gaza. “Civilians must be respected and protected,” they say.

That is absolutely true, but still, what a moment to make the demand.

Were Israeli civilians protected and respected when 40 babies were murdered, or when three generations of a family were slaughtered, or when Holocaust survivors were once again being marched at gunpoint? When young Israeli women were paraded naked on trucks through Gaza’s streets, or raped at the festival before being shot? Where, exactly, were the UN’s must-be-adhered-to international humanitarian laws for them?

Enough with the apologists. Enough with the yeah-buts, the what-ifs, the both-side-ists and the what-about-isms. And enough with these woke ‘celebs’ and ‘influencers’ who seem permanently shocked and appalled, except when it comes to Israel.

Biden has shown he’s there. He called it what it is, “an act of sheer evil”, and told Bibi that, if this had happened in the US, the response would be “swift and overwhelming”. He also ordered a naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, to the east Mediterranean. That’s back-up.

Not surprisingly, comparisons with 9/11 abound. On 11 September 2001, the United States lost 3,000 people. Its population at the time was 285 million. Israel, population 9.3 million, lost more than 1,000 in a day. As a proportion, its number dead is 10 times higher.

What now? For a start, Israel’s policy on Hamas will surely move from ‘containment and deterrence’ to ‘total defeat’. Whether that’s even possible depends on the analyst you listen to. Trying to eradicate Hamas while getting the hostages out will be immensely difficult, if not impossible, but most IDF soldiers want to go in. “We’re ready,” they say. The worry is that this is precisely what Hamas wants.

More widely, there are fears that tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Palestinians will die before the end, of thirst and hunger if nothing else. Yet for the Israeli soldiers still discovering new atrocities, like the babies killed in their beds, the idea of restraint suddenly feels alien.

Having already dropped “hundreds of tons of bombs”, the IDF said on Tuesday that “the emphasis is on damage, not on accuracy”. While Israel never wants to target Gaza’s civilians, the think-tank BICOM said “it could be argued that the scale of [Hamas’s] attacks is such that the traditional rules of engagement have shifted”.

Back home, we looking on helplessly. But even tiny things make a difference. As readers will have noticed, Jewish News has pulled all non-Israel coverage from this week’s paper and given space free of charge to Israel-supporting adverts.

As a community, we thank Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer for their support, in particular the prime minister saying at a London shul this week he would “encourage police to consider whether chants such as ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world”.

To many in our community, it has long been clear that its use in certain contexts amounts to a racially aggravated section 5 public order offence. Maybe, after this week, those silent celebs will feel compelled to comment on Hamas’s barbarism. Maybe.

One thing is more certain: when Israel gives warning that its response to these atrocities will “change the Middle East”, it isn’t exaggerating. The subhuman bastards of Hamas are about to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Whatever the awful cost.