My Family Fights. He Called Them Monsters

My Family Is Defending Israel. A US Associate Professor Called Them Monsters.

I just returned from what poet and associate professor Kevin Carey — Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University — calls “monster land.”

Yes, Israel.

Carey recently posted the following on Facebook:

“Can anyone in their right mind tell me why these monsters are still killing people in bread lines and nursery schools?”

He wasn’t talking about Hamas — the terror organization that raped women, burned families alive, and kidnapped children during the October 7 massacre. He wasn’t referring to the Syrian regime, which recently massacred hundreds of Druze civilians while the world — and Carey — stayed silent. And he certainly wasn’t talking about the Iranian regime, which just launched over 300 missiles and drones at Israeli towns and cities, trying to kill as many civilians as possible. No. Carey was talking about Israeli soldiers. About the Israel Defense Forces. About people like my family.

I spent 12 straight days in Israel during the war with Iran, filming my upcoming documentary, Ashes of Identity. I experienced the terror first-hand. I ran and sometimes casually walked to bomb shelters, sometimes multiple times each night. I felt the ground shake from missile impacts in Tel Aviv and Bat Yam. I saw children cry and families panic. This was not a movie set or a news clip. This was real, terrifying, and all-consuming. And in the midst of that chaos, I also saw the heart and humanity of the Israeli people — their resilience, their courage, and their refusal to be broken.

Kevin Carey wasn’t there. He knows nothing about what it means to live under the constant threat of annihilation. Yet from his safe, air-conditioned Boston home, he slanders those who stand between life and death as “monsters.”

As I write this, two members of my own family are serving in the IDF. They are risking their lives every day — not to conquer, not to oppress, but to protect civilians from a genocidal enemy that hides behind its own women and children.

I met soldiers and reservists during filming. They weren’t bloodthirsty. They weren’t cruel. They were young, exhausted, and emotionally shattered — yet unwavering in their mission to prevent another October 7. Many had just buried their friends. Some had returned from combat missions in Gaza, where they were engaged in the difficult and dangerous fight against Hamas — confronting terror face-to-face, while carrying the emotional weight of what was lost. And all of this under relentless daily and nightly ballistic missile fire from Iran, forcing them to fight with one hand while shielding their families and civilians with the other. These are not monsters. These are sons and daughters of a nation forced — time and again — to defend its existence in a world that too often condemns it for doing so.

These are the “monsters” Kevin Carey is talking about?

I spent time in the Gaza Envelope — Israeli communities near the border that were devastated on October 7. I met survivors from kibbutzim who, before the massacre, dedicated their lives to peace and coexistence. These were the people who:

• Employed Gazans and paid them fair wages
• Took Palestinian children to hospitals in Tel Aviv for medical treatment
• Invited their neighbors from Gaza into their homes

They believed — with all their hearts — that peace was possible.

And those same neighbors betrayed them. Some of the attackers on October 7 had intimate knowledge of who lived where. They carried lists, floor plans, names. The people who had once been welcomed as friends returned as executioners.

Today, those peace activists are heartbroken. Several told me they no longer believe that coexistence is possible in this generation — or the next. As one survivor put it, “It will take 50 years before Palestinians can begin to understand what peace even means.”

Kevin Carey didn’t speak with them. But I did.

Carey’s post is not a political opinion. It’s a moral failure. It reflects a worldview in which Jews are only permitted to exist if they’re silent, submissive, or dead. As soon as we defend ourselves, we are labeled aggressors — or worse, monsters.

This isn’t thoughtful critique. It’s recycled antisemitic libel wearing progressive clothing.

The irony? Carey claims to be a man of letters — a poet. But he couldn’t be more blind to the weight and consequences of his words. His Facebook post doesn’t illuminate — it incites.

Despite facing rockets, terror tunnels, and relentless incitement, Israel remains a moral, democratic beacon in a region torn apart by extremism. It upholds the rule of law. It protects minorities. It values human life.

The IDF stands alone in the world for the lengths it goes to avoid civilian casualties — dropping leaflets, making phone calls, aborting missions when innocents are nearby. No other military holds itself to this standard, especially when fighting an enemy that uses schools and hospitals as weapons. And yet — time and again — it is Israel that people like Carey rush to condemn.

We’re Done Apologizing

Let’s be clear: people like Kevin Carey only feel comfortable when Jews are victims. When we’re dead, we’re mourned. When we fight back, we’re monsters.

That era is over.

We are not trembling. We are not hiding. We have a country. We have the IDF. And we will never apologize for defending ourselves again.

To Kevin Carey

You owe an apology — not just to my family and to Israeli soldiers, but to the peace activists of the Gaza Envelope who were betrayed and slaughtered by those they once trusted. You owe it to history, to decency, and to every Jew who has ever been vilified for surviving.

You may teach poetry. But your words betray a complete ignorance of truth, justice, and reality.

And the Jewish people?
We are not monsters.
We are not going anywhere.
And we will never again be silent.