Passover, the Holiday of Freedom—In What Part of Your Life Are You Still Bound?

Passover is the holiday celebrating freedom. Amen. In what part of your life are you still bound? We all have areas in our lives that could use thorough cleaning. Perhaps we didn’t have the best of childhoods. You may have worked hard to heal those wounds, yet occasionally they still raise their ugly heads. Are you reacting to someone’s behavior as an adult, or as the kid who never felt loved? Sometimes old habits overstay their welcome.

Of course, the remaining hostages come to mind. Those released—will they ever truly be free from their horrific experience? As Passover approaches, they have been starved, kept in the dark, and psychologically and physically tortured for 554 days of hell. Predictably, sexual violence is used as a weapon in war and some victims painfully remain silent. Unexpected was the silence from the women’s violence prevention organizations.

With all the cries from the hostage’s loved ones, Israel, and the world, why aren’t they home?

The invisible bombs thrown by the sick perpetrators on October 7th may have done the worst damage—blowing up the Israeli assurance that the IDF will always protect them. Israelis were known for their pride in the IDF. It soothed the cognitive dissonance living in neighborhoods surrounded by people who wanted to kill you.

But the bandage was viciously ripped off. Now all Israelis know that the IDF won’t always protect them, that October 7th was forewarned, and potentially preventable. Can the nation’s psychological armor ever be repaired?

The anger and distress caused to Israelis by this raw awrah (Arabic for exposing something that should remain hidden) will probably be felt forever more. (Note, the Jewish Orthodox rules for modesty called Tzniut (צניעות), are similar).

Homes in Kibbutz Kissufim that were destroyed by Hamas terrorists in the attack on October 7, 2023. (Naama Shaked)

How much of the rage and fear because of this realization is reflected in their response? The savagery of Hamas’ actions demanded an answer, but what? The answer to what was appropriate is as varied as there are people impacted.

On the Gazan side, they too live daily in fear of death. Regardless of the accuracy of the numbers, we can agree, thousands have died. With 50% of the Gazan population being children, precious innocents are slaughtered. Why didn’t Netanyahu choose a different path for self-defense? Was another path even possible to destroy Hamas? Queries are surely to be debated for years.

Who can stomach the pictures of the dead children held in their parents pained, screaming arms? Sights of crumbled homes, now just cement and wires? The World Bank reports 45%-65% (depending on what area in the Gaza strip) of the residential structures in Gaza are destroyed with over one million homeless.

Israel tells the Gazans to move out of harms’ way, revealing time and location of impending destruction. No other army does this. Israel has been lauded for these policies. Yet, as Gazans are told to move out of harms’ way, where can they safely go, and are they given enough time to get there? What will they be able to bring if they don’t have transportation? Could you walk toward the unknown repeatedly as your homes and livelihoods are blown up? Hamas shoots at them, as they seek self-preservation. We must agree, the situation is untenable.

Freedom is sorely missed on both sides of the Israeli-Gazan War. Each has been displaced, faced violence, and death, AND inflicted the same on the other. P.T.S.D. surely is part of their DNA. How does this history impact their decisions?

For centuries Jews have been attacked, killed and displaced until let’s hope the worst, The Holocaust. Six million Jews killed—via industrialized murder.

The Holocaust was supposed to be the final chapter to ridding the scourge of Jewish existence from the world. Haviv Retig Gur, chronicles the 20th century as being, “among the bloodiest periods in Jewish history before the start of the genocide.”

Congress passed the Quota Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924, and the 1948 Displaced Persons Bill, to prevent Jews from coming to the US! This gives me a queasy feeling as we hear how immigrants are currently treated.

Not even after The Holocaust were Jews received with open, empathetic arms. Now called “displaced persons,” they remained trapped on German soil for years, often within the same barbed-wire prisons, only the descriptor changed from concentration to displaced persons camp and now their “protectors” were American and British forces holding them. Ms. Gur sadly continues, “no one on Earth would take them in.”

Jewish refugees in ‘Displaced Persons’ camp in Germany after World War II. (Public domain)

Historically I see similarity between the Jews and the Gazans. No countries want Gazans/Palestinians either, not even their own Arab brethren.

The Nazis used horrifying methods to murder Jews during The Holocaust. Many were subjected to forced labor, starvation, and brutal conditions in concentration camps, leading to deaths. However, there also were several killing factories to murder millions of people, built with industrial efficiency.

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The victims were killed in gas chambers using poison gases like Zyklon B. Mass shootings also were carried out by mobile killing units called Einsatzgruppen, often in forests or fields. Afterwards their bodies burned in crematoriums or buried in mass graves.

Keep in mind the few survivors born in camps at the end of the war in 1945 are turning 80 this year. How many more years can we speak to these miracles?

Reading the story of Mark Olsky, who was born at the Mauthausen concentration camp, his mother didn’t know his exact age so she told the guards he was born April 20, 1945, Hitler’s birthday. She successfully protected him.

Jewish refugees in ‘Displaced Persons’ camp in Germany after World War II. (Public domain)

Hitler’s birthday is a storied occasion in our family. My mother would say that when she was giving birth to my much older half-brother, on April 20, 1943, a man ran through the Brooklyn hospital shouting that it was Hitler’s birthday. Only in writing this blog, did the question occur to me, what would have been their fate if instead they had lived in Germany? Would I exist? There but for the grace of God goes our family. This year April 20th also coincides with the last day of Passover, and Easter.

Following the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, photographers captured some of the regime’s atrocities there, including mounds of corpses placed outside the Topf & Sons-built crematoria (public domain)

The Holocaust, the “Final Solution,” so far is still held at bay. May it always be so.

Given October 7th, the readily accepted attacks on Israel and the Jews in the diaspora, our kids being attacked on college campuses and in elementary schools whether by fellow students or teachers encouraging their pupils to support Hamas, and the scary rise in antisemitism, we can’t ignore what is happening.

Most Nazis claimed they just followed orders, and some enjoyed their assignments. Others hid their angst in alcohol. A discouraging difference with Hamas and other Palestinian participants on October 7th were the celebrations of murder, burning babies alive, decapitation, and rape of their victims in front of their relatives, and they ensured that their depraved actions were recorded. A particularly chilling call recorded was made by one of the murderer’s calling home to brag to his parents about the Israelis that he killed, and their proud replies.

And now Israel has put their foot down and insisted that Hamas must be destroyed. After October 7th and decades of missile attacks, drone bombings, shootings, stabbings, car rammings, suicide bombings, displacement from their unsafe homes, and running to bomb shelters when they are available, the Israeli response is that nothing short of Hamas’ obliteration is acceptable.

And who could blame them? The World.

Hamas has managed to win the world’s heart against Israel, regardless of if Israel is defending itself. Hamas’ intentionally putting their own people in harm’s way by using them as human shields and even killing them when they try to follow Israel’s instructions to leave is not blamed on Hamas—but on Israel.

A picture taken from Southern Israel shows destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip on January 17, 2024. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Hamas’ knowledge of how to play the press, who lives by “if it bleeds, it leads,” has been manipulated to perfection. In fact, the media has convinced the world that there never will be Peace—broadcasting a daily visual horror story. Gazan Health Ministry figures regardless of if disputed by Israel, are used with impunity by all, worldwide.

How is the push of propaganda financed in universities, and K-12 schools? Look at Qatar’s 2024 $6.5 billion donations to US colleges and universities. From donated elementary school maps replacing Israel with Palestine, to donations on university financial statements, the trail has been paved. Remember the Ivy league Presidents tripping over themselves while answering Congress whether the demand for Jewish genocide was against their codes of conduct? Maneuvering between logic and choking on the money, left them exposed. Harvard and the University of Chicago’s President resigned. But Sally Kornbluth, MIT’s President remains in her position. I’d say something’s not Kosher, but it’s clear they don’t care.

Israel’s advanced air defense system intercepts and destroys short-range rockets, artillery shells, and mortars. Using radar to detect incoming threats they calculate their trajectory to determine if they pose a danger to populated areas. Identified threats are intercepted midair and blown up before reaching their targets. The system is known as Iron Dome.

I often wonder how many people don’t know what Iron Dome is and even may think Israel is shooting more missiles at Gaza.

File: The Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, October 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Avi Roccah)

Tens of thousands of missiles have been launched against Israel, how many dead Israelis would there be without Iron Dome blowing up the Gazan missiles before they could land? Israel has prevented 90% of the attacks. Thus, the distortion of the missiles/dead figures between the two rivals.

Why is war an ineffective, outdated defense ever used against fellow humans? Beyond the cruelty, it doesn’t work. Hamas can’t be eliminated by war, it’s an ideology.

One of the disturbing characteristics of Hamas’ strategy to wage war are weaponized words that they lob around used to inflict emotional pain. The constant usage of these terms has irreversibly stained the fabric of this war.

Words such as genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing voices the Hamas/Palestinian view that Israel is systemically using oppression and violence. Even The Holocaust is bantered about, because it conjures up pain, humiliation, death, and especially emotionally hurts Jews. The facts show as undeniably horrific as this war has been toward the Gazans, it hasn’t, nor will it ever, reach the level of The Holocaust.

Occupation is always an affront as it implies that Jews/Israelis don’t have an historic allegiance to the land. It’s important to use words carefully and notions that Israel is stopping humanitarian aid, food, and water from flowing into Gaza must be investigated. Suffice to say, Israel denies all the allegations. Israelis have even been called Nazis which immediately takes away the credibility of these claims amongst Jews, but that’s not who Hamas is speaking to.

One positive sign is that we are beginning to see public Gazan protests against Hamas. These are happening at great peril to their personal safety. The bravery that doing so would take, given Hamas’ track record of killing those who express dissent is admirable. It might also be an indication that protesters feel what more do they have to lose?

The textbooks in UNWRA schools in Gaza, supplied by the P/A are filled with curriculum glorifying martyrdom and featuring antisemitic rhetoric. If you combine the glorified martyrdom generations of Palestinians/Gazans have been taught in mosques, the religious rewards they will receive, and their families ensured financial security from their sacrifice, what’s a good Muslim Palestinian kid to do?

In closing, the three Abrahamic religions all gather this time of year celebrating Ramadan, Passover and Easter. Within the religions are many similarities, yet do they really see one another in that light? Deep faith, charity, loving others, acts of kindness and deep reflection are celebrated, yet how often does this seem like an isolated celebration, and not shared beliefs? More interfaith dialogue would help.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Introspective Ramadan, Passover and Easter.

May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.