My heart is broken. I am an American Jew who has lived in Israel and I have many Israeli friends and family, here in the US and in Israel. I Stand with Israel.
There’s so much to express, and yet words escape me. That is why I’m sharing this heartfelt Facebook post written by my dear friend Alexandra, for her words capture the sentiment more beautifully than I ever could.
To provide some context, the night before the attack on Israel by Hamas we were celebrating Alexandra’s birthday. On the morning of the attack, Barak, Alexandra’s husband, coincidentally happened to be on a plane flying to Israel for business. Alexandra and Barak’s eldest are Gabriel, is a commander with the paratroopers in the Israeli Defense Forces. They have two other children, Gefen and Luna. Thank you in advance for reading it.
Sending everyone prayers for peace and ease, and may there be more humanity and less suffering in the world.
Hello Friends,
I haven’t been much on social media for quite some time now, but given recent events, an update feels overdue. Thank you for your support and concern about Gabriel, our eldest, who is a commander with the paratroopers in the Israeli Defense Forces. We are not always able to be in touch with him or know where he is, but when I do get to hear his voice (or hear that he spoke with Gefen or Luna), it is the best part of my day. He called yesterday (late last night for me, morning for him), and I fought off sleep while listening to his voice. I slept for six hours in a row after that.
Barak was in the air above Tel Aviv when Hamas attacked. After hours of indecisive circling United finally landed, so the plane could be used to evacuate people and return the many reservists around the world home to protect their country. Once Barak hit the ground he and his employees went straight to the Schneider Pediatric Hospital to help a friend move equipment and non-ambulatory pediatric patients two floors down into the bomb shelters. Since then he and his childhood buddies have been driving wherever they can to buy IDF approved gear – armored vests, tactical helmets, water pouches, Leathermans, caffeine pills and more – from any store they could find with goods left on their shelves and deliver them any way they could to various bases and units to help outfit the hundreds of thousands of reservists called up for duty and to give the IDF a moment to catch up, which they now have.
I also want you to understand where I stand. I am an American Israeli and a Zioness. I belong to a Muslim-Jewish sisterhood because I care deeply about building bridges between our communities both here and in the Middle East and I value their friendship and the dialogue we have been working to grow. I believe deeply in ‘win-win,’ not “us vs them” in any forum. I don’t have much faith in mainstream media any longer so I read multiple sources, The Free Press, or the Times of Israel. I subscribe to but am often deeply disappointed in the NYT, although I do play Connections and Spelling Bee and the Mini every morning. I protested the current uber right-wing government in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, and even last week in NYC. But none of that is relevant to what is happening right now in Israel.
None of that plays into what we are dealing with now because this barbaric attack on Israel is not about the Palestinian – Israeli conflict. These are not militants, these are terrorists. Terrorists whose very charter demands our destruction “from the river (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) sea.” Terrorists who infiltrated our country – the one and only country that was created by the UN as a guaranteed safe haven for Jews after generations and generations of violent pogroms and the Holocaust. Thousands of Hamas terrorists broke through the fence between Israel and Gaza, walked around villages and kibbutzim, shooting civilians indiscriminately. They set fire to houses to smoke out families hiding in safe rooms, they burned babies in cribs shooting and beheading others, they targeted girls with mass monkfish, slaughtered over 260 youth who were dancing at a rave in the woods, they dragged infants and children and mothers and grandparents into Gaza to stand unspeakable horrors…and then they proudly recorded, celebrated and distributed these acts to the world.
Come to a simcha at any synagogue – we throw candy when our children read from Torah. Hamas throws candy as they parade bloodied and naked Jews down the streets of Gaza. My son, his commanders, and his soldiers are cleaning up those kibbutzim and villages while securing them from continued infiltrations. Counting the dead. Trying to identify body parts. Logging who is missing and who is presumed to be in Gaza experiencing unspeakable torture that, Hamas promises, will be streamed to the world on Instagram and Tiktok.
To quote Noa Tishby, “whoever you are, whatever your values are, if you can not unequivocally condemn this, you can never again claim to care about human rights or human life.”
Thank you for taking the time to read this, for understanding what I am trying to convey, and for the love and support you have all been giving us. Please keep the people of Israel, including my husband and our eldest, in your hearts.
– Alexandra Haber Bar-Cohen