What have we learned in these two years? In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, the world blinked—shocked, sympathetic, and solemn—and turned its gaze toward Israel. The world needs to take a closer look at itself and visit an optometrist promptly. Surely, what was seen was vastly different from what Israelis and Jews saw. The misinformation and blame campaign began immediately: It’s Israel’s fault because of the occupation. Murder, gang rape, decapitating victims, and incinerating babies were framed as mere resistance. WTF?
The atrocities were so heinous that a new word had to be coined: kinocide. JNS recounts how in the Kinocide Report, ”Hamas systematically targeted families on October 7.”
They reported, Hamas barbarism committed against families included “acts such as: killing and severe injury in the presence of other family members; eliminating entire family units; abduction of families, including children; using digital and social media to broadcast abuses directly to the victims’ families and the general public, including by commandeering victims’ social media accounts; intentionally separating family members; and burning and vandalizing family homes.”
Ezra Weinblatt, a Jewish civil rights advocate, in his “Open Letter to Save the Children,” described:
“Forensics teams reported that Hamas terrorists split open pregnant women and beheaded their babies, tied parents to their children, and burned them alive, baked a baby in an oven to scream as their mother was raped, and we saw corpses dragged through the streets of Gaza, spit on, and candies handed out in celebration.”
Disgusting acts against women, unsurprisingly, were uncovered. The capacity to commit such violence doesn’t seem human. Yet, THEY WERE PLANNED as demonstrated by the pattern of violent acts seen in the VIDEOS PROUDLY FILMED BY THE PERPETRATORS and in the testimony by the terrorists arrested. Women of all ages — from babies to the elderly were targeted!
An “Eyewitness describing how she saw a woman being raped by several Hamas terrorists, pulling her hair as they raped her and took turns. One of them cut her breasts off – the others played with them like a toy. The last terrorist to rape her shot her in the head and continued to rape her until he finished. Eyewitness also says some terrorists were carrying heads in their hands (beheaded) as trophies, saying there wasn’t a thing they didn’t do to the heads. She also saw a Hamas terrorist carrying a naked girl over his shoulder.” If these testaments don’t convey evil, I don’t know what does.
And there is controversy about how many survivors of the October 7th attack have committed suicide since the attack. While the count from Guy Ben Shimon, a survivor of the Hamas-led massacre at the Nova Music Festival, soon after the tragedy, was disputed, it’s not hard to imagine how experiencing and seeing such atrocities could make someone consider suicide. No matter what the current number is, there are unfortunately sure to be more. Not only from released hostages and survivors, but relatives of the tortured and deceased, responders, and the medical personnel forced to see things no one can unsee.
In the Jerusalem Post’s article, “#MeToo Doesn’t Apply to Jewish Women,” by Andrea Samuels, she argues that the global #MeToo movement has largely ignored the sexual violence committed against Israeli women on October 7. The expression, “MeToo Unless You’re a Jew,” is unconscionably accurate. Is this the reality for Jewish women in 2025?
Speaking of women, as I said in my TOI Blog, “What Are You Refusing to See in Front of Your Face?”, who knew the most egregious result of paternalistic and misogynistic dismissal of women would be murder and the devastation of a country? Their male superiors refused to believe what the female surveillance soldiers were seeing with their own eyes. They did their job and repeatedly reported unusual movement for months, such as they observed and documented signs of Hamas operatives conducting training sessions, digging holes, and placing explosives. These training sessions were several times a day! There was increased daily drone activity flying up to the border. One surveillance soldier reported that Hamas had built an exact scaled model of an observer’s position, like the one the soldiers operated. They started training there with drones to hit the [machine gun] shooter. Instead of remuneration for their excellent work, fifteen of them were murdered on October 7th.
And the soldiers fighting the war since October 7, facing the fear in the tunnels, knowing terrorists could be around the corner, or they could step on a land mine, cannot be forgotten.
The Bereaved Families 2-Year Anniversary Memorial Ceremony, was held in Tel Aviv. 30,000 people gathered to honor the memories of those fallen and to remind the world that Hamas must, Let Our People Go!
It’s been reported that the mental health support from the Israeli government is severely lacking. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a report highlighting the ongoing struggles of returned hostages. The report described them as being in a “twilight zone,” trapped in a never-ending nightmare. It revealed the severe physical and psychological toll of captivity while also exposing gaps in Israel’s system for monitoring and rehabilitating survivors.
And the soldiers…ordered to destroy Hamas with the inevitable civilian casualties due to Hamas intentionally embedding within populated areas and buildings? Seeing the amount of devastation even on the news is gut-wrenching, but what does that do to the soldiers asked to fight the good fight?
What about the mental health of the average Israeli citizen living in the knowledge that at any moment the sirens can blast again and if they are lucky, they will reach the closest bomb shelter whether inside their own homes or along the street. Do they wonder if their kids are safe at school?
As days stretched into months, and now years, the hostages continue to languish in tunnels. Their families remain in the dark. The initial supportive outrage has curdled into condemnation, turning against the victim.
Especially for the Hostage Families, the anguish of these current times must be excruciating as they fight with all their might not to be forgotten. Will the hostages be released any day as Trump promises, or will Hamas refuse to comply and the war resume with a ferocity never seen before. What will happen to their loved ones? It’s thought that 20 are still alive. Will they be chosen as fodder for the next round of violence or will a miracle happen and some or all will be released?
Israelis and Jews mourn on October 7, 2025. What about the rest of the world that has believed the antisemitic propaganda spewed from news broadcasts and social media? If the press parrots these comments often enough, in the public’s mind, it must be fact. Journalists? Where did you go—remember something called fact-checking? It seems like all media quote Hamas’ death tolls. Yes, they say these are Hamas’ figures, but nonetheless, they quote them repeatedly. Stop and think about that. Throughout the media, they are supporting Hamas’ lies. Is that a deal set in convenience or worse?
Israel, once briefly acknowledged in grief, now feels like the world’s bastard child—born of trauma, burdened with survivor’s dreams, abandoned when its suffering became inconvenient. Forged in genocide’s ashes, Israel was meant to be a promise: ‘Never again.’ Today, it’s deemed too complicated, too controversial, too loud in its suffering. Like a child denied legitimacy, it is scolded for existing, blamed for surviving, and abandoned when its pain becomes politically uncomfortable.
Once again, Israel’s been attacked from multiple sides. This small, but mighty nation faces:
The 7 Active War Fronts Against Israel
| Front | Aggressor(s) | Nature of Attacks |
| 1. Gaza Strip | Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad | Ground invasion, rockets, tunnels, hostage-taking |
| 2. Lebanon | Hezbollah | Rocket barrages, drone strikes, border skirmishes |
| 3. Syria | Iranian proxies, Syrian regime | Rocket fire, drone launches, military buildup |
| 4. West Bank | Palestinian militants | Lone-wolf attacks, riots, arms smuggling |
| 5. Yemen | Houthis (Iran-backed) | Long-range missiles and drones targeting Israel |
| 6. Iraq | Iranian-backed militias | Drone and cyber-attacks, threats to Israeli assets |
| 7. Iran | IRGC and affiliated force | Direct missile/drone attacks (April & October 2024) |
To call Israel the world’s bastard child is not to insult—it is to mourn. It is to name the ache of being cast out from the family of nations, even as its people cry out for their stolen sons and daughters. It is to ask: Who deserves remembrance? Who is allowed to grieve? Who is worthy of rescue?
Israel’s isolation has grown as the UN displays its bias by condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza while failing to fully investigate Hamas’s carnage. Israeli speakers have been disinvited from universities and cultural events. Art and film festivals boycott Israeli creators—even peace advocates. Jewish students report rising antisemitism masked as “anti-Zionism.”
The Hebrew Passover expression comes to mind, “Kol dor v’dor omdim aleinu l’chaloteinu,” meaning “In every generation, they rise up to destroy us. Why is the world comfortable preaching kindness—unless their neighbor hangs a mezuzah on their door?
This memorial is for the suffering people trapped in an unrelenting war. Those who still wait for their loved ones to return, dead or alive. Who cower in their homes or cover their obvious Jewish identification in fear. Whose humanity is buried beneath headlines and hashtags. And for a world that must reckon with the cost of selective compassion.
Israel is not a nation with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) from decades of terrorist attacks and war, rather, it’s a country with Traumatic Stress Disorder (T.S.D.) This isn’t post—it’s relentless, ongoing trauma.
As for the Gazans, what Hell Hamas has wrought upon their existence, yet ISRAEL IS BLAMED. Hamas takes their children and teaches them to hate — tantamount to child abuse. In Hamas summer camps, children train in weapons and martyrdom instead of play. Why isn’t this training reviled worldwide?
Hamas steals aid and resells food and supplies at extortionate prices. Gazans wouldn’t be starving if the humanitarian aid weren’t stolen by Hamas. When Israel forewarns Gazans to leave their homes to go to safe locations, Hamas shoots them. They have at least as much to fear from their leaders as the IDF.
As for the IDF, in Israelis’ eyes, their assured protection was proven impotent. Israel’s oft-touted protector, the world’s strongest security force, was nowhere to be found for hours on October 7th. Israelis had wrapped themselves in the comfort that the IDF could and would ALWAYS protect them. It was a form of psychological defense where a person idealizes a protective figure to feel safe. It helped them cope with decades of trauma by projecting strength onto the IDF. Perhaps this was an unfair survival mechanism doomed to fail.
Wikipedia states that now 80% (157 out of 193 countries) of the UN has recognized the Palestinian state. On September 21-22, 2025, many nations that we thought were friendly to Israel joined in lockstep, establishing recognition, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, and Andorra. With friends like these… would they accept a neighbor bent on their destruction? Hamas will view this shift as a reward for its actions on October 7.
While Israelis, Jews, and others who reject Hamas’s October 7th massacre mourn, others celebrate October 7th in events such as Flood NY for Gaza, named after Hamas’ day of Terror, “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” The protest was organized by groups such as Within Our Lifetime and National Students for Justice in Palestine, marking the anniversary of the October 7 massacre. They held signs saying, ‘Glory to Our Martyrs’ and chanted,” USA, how many kids did you kill today?” The phrase accuses the U.S. of complicity in Israel’s actions, echoing Hamas propaganda. And of course, the old ditty “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” was shouted—a call to replace Israel with Palestine.
Another abhorrent chant was “There is only one solution — Intifada, revolution!” They call for violent uprisings—marked by terrorism and civilian deaths. The phrase is used to glorify armed resistance and reject the concept of peaceful coexistence.
These protests fuel a surge in antisemitism and attacks on Jews. During our High Holy Days, our synagogue looked even more like an Israeli checkpoint. I was grateful for the protection, but upset at why: because we are Jewish, here to pray, we are in danger. For a long time, we’ve been accustomed to the extra security guards and occasional drive-by visits from local police. The windows and doors of our temple have been replaced with bulletproof glass. However, there were now three police cars and several police officers at the front entrance. A guard checked us for weapons and searched our purses. Security guards roamed the hallways.
1,179 were murdered. As of October 7, 2025, 48 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza. 20 are believed alive.
Let’s pray that President Trump’s peace plan will soon free the hostages. His warning—”All hell… will break out against Hamas”—is not something most want to see.
May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلا