Tonight I saw three survivors from October 7 speak in person. One of them is Ella. She is 14. She survived the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri. She spoke for 30 minutes. I am posting the video here with her permission. I went up to her to ask for it afterwards. Before I could even say hello to Ella, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug. She hugged me. As survivors we Jews are a different breed.
Ella told us she was euphoric because today her cousin Amit was released. I cried. We all cried. She also told us her father’s body was found burned to a crisp. She lives with the hope he died from the bullet wound.
Ella speaks with more courage than world leaders, than politicians, than so-called activists and human rights lawyers, than journalists, than most people three times her age. Ella gives Greta Thunberg more than a run for her money.
I also saw two men speak. One was a young student, Ariel, who survived the atrocities at Zikkim Beach in the South. His story was relentlessly horrifying, and left everyone on the edges of their seats as he detailed the horrendous escape from the South, through traps upon traps of terrorists, non-stop rocket fire, gun fire from every direction, attempted shelter in multiple hiding places over hours, combined with a psychological journey that spanned acceptance of certain death to mistrust of safety to grief over the dead.
The other man was Tomer, an Israeli artist based in LA, who moved here to escape the PTSD he lives with from prior service in wars while in the IDF. Tomer volunteered with ZAKA, the service that clean up the dead bodies. He spoke for about thirty minutes, too. I heard things that have so far evaded me, which is not something I thought possible. He narrated in fine detail the process of finding bodies in indescribable ways (burned, mangled, bloated, puffy, secreting, ashen and crumbling). He recalled sights and smells that would make you hurl. And he explained why and how he documented all of this, initially against ZAKA’s wishes but eventually with their cooperation. He spoke about returning to LA to find out everyone on his professional team had quit their association with him, because he was in Israel, because he’s an Israeli, because he’s a Jew. While Tomer went through hell to identify and clean the dead, back in LA he was being, well, cancelled.
ZAKA had to scrape body parts off floors, blood stains off walls, to fill the body bags. They could not be sure that the human debris matched the corpses, but they tried for the sake of proper burials. On one day ZAKA celebrated upon returning to the home of an elderly man whose body was found to try and find proof of the wife’s body. They finally found evidence of death and something to bury: a tooth. One tooth. That was cause for celebration. Tomer recounted the hardest day as his last because ZAKA had to bag the bodies of the terrorists. They took as much care with those bodies as they did with the innocents. Unbelievable.
To repeat what we’ve said a thousand times since October 7, this war is not in Israel. It is everywhere. It is right here. And we need you to help us combat it. Here is Oakland City Council two nights ago during a vote for ceasefire:
Meanwhile, UN Women still can’t condemn Hamas. We have found out that women now released from captivity were held in cages for the past two months. Cages. But here’s what UN Women have to say:
Here is Thomas Hand on the current state of his recently released daughter Emily, who thought she’d been in captivity for a year:
“The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips. She’d been conditioned not to make any noise.” “Last night she cried until her face was red and blotchy, she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want any comfort, I guess she’s forgotten how to be comforted. She went under the covers of the bed, the quilt, covered herself up and quietly cried.”
Elsewhere a 12-year-old boy was tortured by being forced to watch October 7 footage. They aimed a gun at him whenever he cried.
Most of the 150 hostages left in Gaza are young women. Beautiful young women. Why do you think that is?
I cannot believe anyone is doing anything other than shouldering the Jewish community at present. What are you doing for your Jewish friends. Why are you not comforting us. Where are you.
The releases of the hostages thus far has been harrowing and relieving to watch. Harrowing because of the state of these tortured people, harrowing because of the manner in which they’ve been paraded through the streets and jeered at by crowds and forced into smiling for the Hamas cameras one last time. And yet relieving for their state of aliveness, for their return to loving, despairing families. The news today that the mother of the two red-haired babies and both children are dead is too much to consider. Is it more psychological warfare from Hamas? Or is it real?
Here is Gali. Hamas shot her brother and her dog in front of her then dragged her into the underground tunnels of Gaza where she was tortured for two months. They forced Gali to smile to the cameras one last time or else they’d kill her. The Red Cross stood by and watched.
One of the released Israeli chidren was held in the attic of a house by an UNRWA teacher. The teacher is a father of ten children. He locked the hostage in the attic, didn’t provided him with any food or his medicine. Another hostage was held captive by a Gazan doctor who continued to provide care to children in the hospital, but not to the Israeli hostage. The teachers and doctors of Gaza are complicit in Hamas’s war crimes.
I counted the number of days since October 7 this morning. This is day 53.
53 days of hell on earth.
53 days of wondering why the world don’t get it.
53 days of the most extreme global gaslighting ever.
53 days of intense sadness and fear.
53 days of trying to maintain hope in a hopeless reality.
53 days of sleepless nights.
53 days of isolation and neverending attacks.
53 days of wanting it to ‘go back to normal’… it never can.
53 days of no joy, no balm, no comfort.
53 days of panic.
53 days of questioning how long we’ll survive.
53 days of being Jewish against every odd.
Here is Jew of the century Rimon Kirsht, head held high walking through the streets of Gaza showing the Hamas terrorists what she thinks of them.
I apologize for not reporting for a few days. This past week of hostages releases has overwhelmed my nervous system. I felt in a state of mental collapse. I think we all do. Take time for yourselves however you deem necessary.
Eve
I am not Jewish but every day I reach out to my Jewish friends
And just as important I send all your wonderfully moving and descriptive and outraged writings to all my non Jewish friends
This is worse than anything Isis could have dreamt up
Where are the woke leftist communities now? Such disregard for humanity. Such silence tells it all
Keep on fighting Eve
There are plenty more like me
53 days of wondering why the world don’t get it.
The world gets it. The world knows.
There are no civilians in Gaza, the people of Gaza ARE Hamas. The world knows.
The Palestinian people do not desire their own state, their leaders have rejected generous offers of land for peace many many times. The world knows.
The Palestinian people only wish to rid the world of the Jews, they say so openly. The world knows.
hamas does not desire a ceasefire for the sake of the civilian population. They only wish to re-arm and steal the humanitarian aid they have negotiated for. The world knows.
The IDF does not commit war crimes. They put their own soldiers at greater risk in order to minimize collateral casualties. The world knows.
The IDF agree to a pause in the fighting and blackout of surveillance drones which will put them at far greater risk when the ceasefire ends for the sake of innocent hostages who are being released. The world knows.
The "women and minors" being exchanged for the innocents are mostly criminals and terrorists who will immediately return to the mission to kill all the Jews. The world knows.
hamas killers sexually brutalized hundreds of females during their rampage, against all the laws of war and even against Islamic law. The world knows including all the so-called women's rights organizations of the world who remain silent or defend the atrocities.
Israel is not an apartheid state. ALL of the surrounding Arab and Muslim countries are apartheid states. Try to find any Jews there. The world knows.
The world knows all this and much more but does not care because, the Jews.