Zionism is reminding that Israel was founded to protect Jews from barbaric enemies - opinion

Almost everyone I’ve asked about The New York Times’ expose of the Simchat Torah massacre on October 7, “Screams without Words: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on October 7th” has said that it was too difficult to read completely. I too had trouble reading the entire article; I became angry, then nauseated, and then felt faint. I felt I owed it to the victims to read what had happened to them. What right, I asked myself, did I have to turn away, just so I wouldn’t be pained? 

Since the October 7 attack Israel and her people have been subjected to unprecedented gaslighting. From denials that the massacre ever happened to calls for a ceasefire even before Israel had a chance to secure itself from further attacks and demand justice for its victims, the Israeli people have been subjected to an overriding message of “It wasn’t that bad.” 

In addition to the message that Israel shouldn’t protect itself after such a heinous attack, a second message Israelis have faced is that the attacks were an aberration and not representative of the Palestinian people. On a visit to Israel shortly after the attacks, President Joe Biden told the Israeli people, “The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.” Since that speech, President Biden has been advocating for a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians to peacefully end the conflict. This vision isn’t consistent with the reality on the ground in Israel.

Understanding Israel and Zionism requires a keen grasp of the history of the region and the Jewish people. It also requires reading past news articles and confronting eyewitness testimony of events in the land of Israel. In the paragraphs below, three eyewitness accounts are included. They are painful accounts of murder, torture, and rape. The reader shouldn’t turn away, the victims deserve to be heard. 

Shuddering accounts

THE FIRST: “The next morning, the Jewish Sabbath, saw atrocities unlike [the land] had ever known. A disabled pharmacist and his wife were murdered, their 13-year-old daughter gang-raped and also killed. Another couple survived by rolling in the blood of the others and lying still. Limbs, testicles, and eyes were cut from living people, some of them old men and children. Only one person died by bullet; the rest experienced blunter methods of execution. In a single day, 67 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.”

The second: “Three groups of armed men walked South toward the city along the waterside road. A whistle gave the signal: Two groups crossed into the city and the third to the nearby kibbutz. Three hundred fully armed fighters blocked all roads into the city, cut communication lines, and entered from three directions. They saluted the Arab flag, the black, green, and red flown in the Great Revolt. There followed a battle, as the warriors’ bullets “pierced the windows of the Jewish homes. Having cleared the inhabitants, [the fighters] set the magistrate’s court and government building aflame, and also the Jewish stores and Zionist trading houses.” Some 70 Jews were killed. Their deaths were more intimate and crueler. Rachel Mizrahi and her five children were stabbed repeatedly, their house set on fire. Yehoshua Ben-Arieh and his wife and two sons were killed in the same way as were the three Leimer daughters staying at their home at the time. So too were Menachem “Max” Kotin of New York – the first American victim— and his wife Masha. The synagogue was set alight with the beadle still inside. Only four of the 17 Jews killed in their homes were shot; the rest were burned or stabbed to death. Ten were children. The assault lasted some 40 minutes. Some witnesses said the assailants broke into a restaurant and fed themselves a meal; others said they danced an impromptu dabke (joyous dance) on the street. What was beyond dispute was the systematic planning and execution of their operation and the almost complete absence of any Jewish resistance.”

The third: “A paramedic from a commando unit told the newspaper he had found the bodies of two teenage girls, sisters aged 13 and 16, in a room in Kibbutz Be’eri with their clothes ripped. One was lying on her side with “bruises by her groin,” and the other “was sprawled on the floor face down,” the paramedic said, “pajama pants pulled to her knees, bottom exposed, semen smeared on her back.”

THE THREE passages are not all from the October 7 attacks. The first two come from Oren Kessler’s new book, Palestine 1936. The first account records the 1929 brutal Hebron riots, the second account is from the 1938 riots in Tiberias, and the third is from the 2023 Hamas attacks. 

All three attacks included savage murder and rape perpetrated on Jewish civilians by Palestinian attackers. Zionists aware of their history recognized the Simchat Torah massacre. While most of the world was shocked by the viciousness shown by Palestinians against innocent Jews, Zionists found it all too familiar. Recent polling among Palestinians found overwhelming support – close to 80% - for the Hamas attacks on Simchat Torah. The number seems impossible. How could so many people openly support murder, rape, and kidnapping? 

The purpose of Zionism

Zionism was a movement made to ensure the security of the Jewish people from its enemies. It is easy to teach Zionist lessons on Israel’s success and the moral light it shines onto the nations. An equally important Zionist lesson is the reminder that the State of Israel was founded to protect the Jewish people from barbaric enemies looking to wipe them out in the cruelest of ways. History repeats itself, and this is especially true when it comes to Jews, Zionists, and the land of Israel. 

This is a lesson Zionists cannot forget. 

The writer, a rabbi, is CEO of Israel Educational Supply.