By Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort
CARLSBAD, California — I feel as though I have absorbed a body blow. The recent news includes agonizing information: the Bibas babies were strangled to death by Hamas savages (too weak a word!), and their mother’s body was only returned to Israel after Hamas broke another deal with Israel.
First Universal Truth: Any deal/cease fire with Hamas will last right up until Hamas decides to break it. And Hamas WILL break it. So, my friends, put no stock in any deal with the barbarians.
Second Universal Truth: Iran is responsible for all of this. The murders. The hostages. The terror. It is Iran pulling the strings. When will they be held accountable!?
Third Universal Truth: One cannot win a war if only on defense. If the enemy gets to choose when/where/how to attack, Israeli security will eventually fail and Israelis (and Jews worldwide) will suffer, G-d forbid. If the political leaders in Iran are not held to account for their crimes against humanity, this will never stop. If Hamas/Hezbollah/Iranians/Houthis are not neutralized the suffering for everyone – most especially the Palestinians – will never end.
Fourth Universal Truth: We MUST be grateful for the miraculous salvation enjoyed by our people when the bus bombs didn’t go off as planned. That was an epic set of miracles! We must be grateful for the true friends Israel does have, most prominently here in the US.
Reading about the atrocities breaks my heart and stokes fury in my mind. It is all I can do to function. At any moment I am overcome with profound anger and sadness. My first inclination is to ‘bury my head in the sand’ and not read about what is going on. But then I realize that it is my responsibility to remain informed, if only so I can respond when another false allegation is leveled against Israel. It hurts to remain informed, but the alternative is not a viable option.
How do I balance the need to function, enjoy the blessings in life, and create light in this world, while at the same time mourning for the innocent victims?
I. DON’T. KNOW.
We are experiencing a profound and ongoing attack against Jews. The antisemitism seems to be growing. The moral confusion in the world, where the victims are blamed, is growing. How does one deal with someone who would strangle an infant with his own hands, or who decapitates and puts babies in ovens? How does one deal with a population that celebrates the barbarity; that hates Jews more than loving its own lives? How does one deal with a legacy media that continues to serve as a propaganda machine for these modern-day Nazis, as it sanitizes the atrocities by under-reporting and tries its best to make Israel look like the aggressor by not contextualizing the story? How does one undo decades of false narratives being promulgated by professors to impressionable youth in even the most prestigious universities?
I. DON’T. KNOW.
What I do know is that we are all soldiers in this existential war. We must be united and stand together. We must be armed with the knowledge necessary to defend Israel against the haters and/or those who are ignorant and are allowing themselves to be useful idiots. We must go on the offensive, if not with physical weapons, then with our spiritual weapons.
This story is as old as the Torah. Antisemitism has evolved and endured through the millennia. The Antisemites never seem to learn. Some don’t even know that they are Antisemites! They are truly pathetic, miserable, miscreants. What purpose do they have? Why do they hate us so?
I. DON’T. KNOW.
I am fiercely proud of my people! While dealing with the hate and violence of the enemy we remain human and humane. We join together to comfort those most dramatically hurt by the enemy, as the family we are.
It is my opinion that we must give all of the support we can, physical and moral, to those on the front lines of protecting our people. When we hear the inevitable libels, we must be ready to respond. Better yet, we must take the initiative and put our enemies on their proverbial heels. Bring our light into their darkness and watch as they dissipate into nothingness.
May the Almighty grant us the strength to do what must be done. May the Almighty comfort us among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem!
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Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort is spiritual leader of Chabad of La Costa.
Rabbi Eilfort wrote that “The Antisemites never seem to learn,” but it seems, to me at least, that learning is not within their capacity. Recall the savage glee on the faces of the sick people who ripped down Ariel and Kfir Bibas hostage posters. Human nature is far from perfectable, dangerously so in some instances. Those who cannot learn must be condemned in no uncertain terms by any groups in society that still can legitimately claim moral authority.
The issue here transcends antisemitism. Unless we pull together against the inhuman ugliness demonstrated by the current tsunami of antisemitism, other kinds of unleashed haters will join antisemites to erode and eventually destroy our country.
Rabbi Eilfort also asks “Why do they hate us so?” and notes that the atrocity whitewashing media and Iranian mullahs bear tremendous responsibility for promoting hatred. Perhaps the answer to the rabbi’s question, lies in these words from the Hamas Charter: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
(https://avalon.law.yale.edu/21st_century/hamas.asp)
We need to accept the fact that Islamists use a religious justification for their savagery. I await the voices of American imams condemning Islamists. Surely they know that Ayaan Hirsi Ali, critic of Islamism, must live, in the land of free speech, with round the clock body guards, and that Salman Rushdie was nearly killed in 2022, here in the U.S., by a man acting on the 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. Why their silence?
Rabbi Eilfort is among those courageous and clear-sighted enough to point out that one cannot win a war only on defense, and that if Hamas/Hezbollah/Iranians/Houthis are not neutralized, the suffering will never end.
Legacy Jewish institutions, take note!