History repeats: A Holocaust survivor's views of Oct. 7 and Israel-Hamas War - opinion

Sometimes we are objective in our decisions, while at other times we act in a manner inconsistent with logical reasoning, such as smoking although knowing that it’s a health hazard. Such basic contradictions are a trait that all humans learn about from early childhood, when their toy drops to the ground but the balloon floats. 

It is in adolescence and subsequently in adulthood when we become affected by – and must negotiate – the intricacies of life’s inconsistencies. In the process of finding our chosen path, we are exposed to many influences. 

One of the strongest are the views of our circle of friends and, perhaps most of all, the social media information platforms that are most used and that often promote political ideologies which are irrational. 

In Israel, such phenomena manifest themselves by the weekly mass demonstrations in our cities demanding the government to grant all requests by the terrorist entity Hamas so that they will release all hostages held by them in Gaza, regardless of the obvious subsequent consequences for our country and despite the terrorists’ declared intention to repeat October 7 again and again. 

Witnessing the horrors of October 7 before

It is, unfortunately, the second time in my life that I have experienced events like October 7. The first time was as a teenager. I saw anti-Jewish hordes seeking out Jewish people to attack, burning down synagogues, and damaging Jewish properties that cost the lives of many of our people and led to the abduction of 30,000 Jewish men to be imprisoned in concentration camps under cruel and inhumane conditions. Just because they were Jews. I am referring to the events of 1938 in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe. 

At that time, those pogroms were planned, organized, and executed on the orders of the government of Germany, and Jews were helpless and defenseless. Although Hitler made his intentions and demands perfectly clear, the European community preferred to sacrifice its Jews on the altar of appeasement. At the Evian Conference in 1938, delegates from 32 countries expressed sympathy for the Jews – but most refused to open their gates. 

The question of whether history repeats itself is often debated, but by examining the attitude toward Jews in 2024 and, by extension, toward the Jewish state, there seems little doubt that today’s “oh so” humanitarian United Nations and the European Union have learned little from the past. They fail to understand the philosophy disseminated by the Iranian octopus and its terrorist henchmen Hamas and Hezbollah that is directed at all infidels of whatever faith different from theirs. They are simply using antisemitism as an adage, a tried and tested way to garner initial support for their aims. 

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said recently, “We expect that all our allies will be side by side with us in combating this terrible situation and fighting [against it] like we are. We do not want to get into a war with Lebanon, but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organization which is also a political party [in their government] that has been armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire. I believe that our friends should understand that we are fighting their war. There is an empire of evil...that believes in the jihadist ideology of conquering the Middle East, Europe and the rest of the world.” 

Just like in 1938, today’s United Nations has a blind spot when the atrocities against Jews and Israel are raised. While our terrorist enemies have taken a leaf out of Hitler’s mission statement Mein Kampf, the Western nations instead of uniting for a collaborative effort to take strong action against the dispensers of evil and their terrorist perpetrators, their reaction is just vocal condemnation, while at the same time resuming funding for UNWRA. That is the supposedly humanitarian aid organization for the “Palestinians,” although it has been established beyond doubt that they are providing their premises to be used as command and control centers for the terrorist organizations in Gaza.

In politics, contradictions have become so acute that words can no longer be trusted. Israel is being repeatedly condemned for its defensive actions of destroying the cruel and inhumane perpetrators of war crimes and their military infrastructure, while the atrocities of the Muslim terrorists receive hardly a mention in the political forums of the world and in their biased media. 

Unlike in the 1930s, the State of Israel backed by the Jewish Diaspora has the influence to alert the international community to the consequences of their failed Middle East policy. History should have taught them that attack is the best means of defense, that strength will command respect in the world, and that appeasement indicates weakness. We already see the effect of that policy. Not only Iran but also Russia and China are encouraged in their expansionist ambitions and are meddling in the affairs of the Middle East.

For Israel to maintain its position of independence among the nations of the free world, it must ignore the irrational contradictions that surround it and follow a policy of self-interest, as if it had to act without allies. 

With God’s help, we shall as always in our history witness the demise of our enemies. Am Yisrael chai!■

Walter Bingham, now in his 101st year of life, holds Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest working journalist and the oldest active radio host.