Hamas has given us a gift that is truly priceless. It could never be purchased for any sum, and its value is beyond money. The gift is wholly unintentional, because never would Hamas gift us anything. It was not sought by us, and if it had been offered to us, not a single person of sane mind would have accepted it.
Yet here it is. And by “us,” I mean a gift for Israel, for Jews living outside Israel, for the United States, and for all those who live by Western civilization.
Hamas has opened our eyes. It has given us the gift of sight.
For Israel, this gift is far from trivial.
A house divided amongst itself
On the eve of the barbarism, Israel was a society rent by schisms between Left and Right, secular and religious, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, pro- and anti-judicial reform. None of that is being discussed any more, neither in the press nor on the street.
On the eve of the barbarism, many Israelis thought that co-existence with Hamas was possible, based on peace through prosperity, because Hamas seemed to be concerned with its people’s economic welfare. An illusion.
On the eve of the barbarism, many Israelis believed in a “two-state solution.” That, too, is no longer discussed, because our eyes are open. The barbarians will use any platform they can to kill us, including, obviously, their own state.
Hamas did not just attack – it slaughtered and recorded the slaughter with joy and pride. That is a message we understand. We understand Hamas’s intent. We also understand now that Hezbollah has 150,000 rockets that they intend to use against us. It is also clear that Iran is developing the nuclear bomb with the intent of using it against the Jews. What was unthinkable is already here. Hamas has given us that sight.
Jews outside Israel, too, have been offered this gift: Allies and friends of the Jews are, in reality, neither this nor that. Jews were among the first to support Black Live Matter, but how does that group view Jews? Can you name any gay organization that has stood up for Israel against barbarous murder? Yet Jews are beyond doubt some of the biggest boosters for gay rights.
And of course the universities, which Jews have attended in mass numbers to integrate into America – it’s fair to say that the universities have been, and still are, extremely unsupportive of Jews on campus or in the world. We now read of American Jews buying guns in record numbers, and a possible turn to the political Right after 100 years of voting Democrat.
Do these Jews see now? Have they accepted the gift of sight?
For the US, the past 10 days have witnessed dozens of attacks on US troops in Syria and Iraq by radical Islamic proxies supplied and financed by Iran.
The Iranian ambassador to the UN, in a public speech, threatens the US. Many Americans have accepted the gift of sight, but has Joe Biden? Just now the US has launched two air assaults against Iranian weapons facilities in Syria, but President Biden makes no threat or promise against Iran. Iran threatens the US, but not vice versa. Has America accepted the gift of sight?
Finally, for all those who have lived in or otherwise benefited from Western civilization, the hundreds of millions, in fact the billions of people in all inhabited continents of the globe, North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia: Do you think that the Islamicists, the fundamentalists, those who believe in the necessity of worldwide Islam, attack the Jews and no more?
Do you feel they will leave Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists, to continue in their non-Islamic faith? Do the people of Sweden feel that they will successfully integrate more than 1,000,000 Muslim immigrants from the Middle East and Africa?
Do the people of Paris, London, or Berlin, truly believe that violent demonstrations against Israel and astounding rises in hate crimes against local Jews will leave them untouched? Will the Evangelicals of Brazil and the Catholics of Argentina support the barbarians or civilization? All of these people have benefited so much through Western civilization, but will they defend it now?
All these groups have been offered the gift of sight.
Let them not be deluded. Let them not be confused that the barbarism has been visited solely upon a small people in an obscure corner of a tiny state in the middle of one chaotic region of the world. And let them “send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee” (John Donne, 1624).
The writer, a lawyer in Israel, is the father of three sons and the grandfather of one grandson, all currently serving on the line in Gaza and at the border with Lebanon.