The Holocaust which occurred under the nose of civilised Europe, and even in collaboration with some other countries, was the manifestation of the unbelievable, which led into the darkest corners of history.
The world stood shocked and uncomfortable when the evidence showing that those left to fester and die in the camps were abandoned for political reasons while so many countries shut their doors to those fleeing condemning them to a certain death !
A sense of shame covered Europe and Jew hatred fell out of favour. Fascism, racism and communism were mostly rejected and a new world order emerged with Jews making lives in Europe and the US unhindered.
Muslim countries ejected their Jews and 800,000 plus fled to the newly established Jewish homeland. None of the descendants of the European Holocaust or the Islamic ethnic cleansing claim refugee status, unlike the descendants of the Arabs that fled hoping to return to a destroyed Israel in 1948.
For many years the promise of “Never Again” held firm, but October 7th changed all that, and for the second year Israel commemorated Yom HaShoah by adding more stolen souls to the count of the perished. We cannot say they lost their lives; both the Nazis and now the Islamic Extremists are stealing the lives of those they murder together with the lives of the bereaved. The only difference today is that the Islamists are proud of their murderous work, whereas the Nazis tried to hide their crimes.
Then as now, plenty of people supported the Nazi war machine, but eventually they valued their own lives more and turned away from the destruction. Today’s Germany and Italy bear no resemblance to their Nazi past. The challenge today is that we are not facing an enemy that values life, but glorifies death so any negotiations are not in a mutual currency ; making progress extremely difficult.
Anti semitism is once again acceptable and fashionable, especially among the intelligentsia and has flooded universities corrupting the minds of young people who have confused and conflated freedom and morality with suppression and evil and cannot see through the very cleverly published lies.
Universities could now offer degrees in “Public Enlightenment and Propaganda” to the modern day students of Goebbels who take to the streets of western capitals, screaming “…from the River to the Sea” . Most do not even know what river or what sea they chant about and their view of history and the ongoing war is dictated by the half truths and lies spread by the BBC and social media.
Israel continues to grapple with decisions that will bring the war aims to fruition : destroying Hamas and releasing the remaining hostages. In the hearts of people, who are war weary, releasing the hostages is the priority, but in the minds of the government, destroying Hamas must be the priority.
As the war aims are mutually exclusive many people within Israel now think that the government should agree to whatever terms ensure the release of the hostages and just be better prepared for the next attack, which would be a few years in the making.
The terms of the latest offer by Hamas would breathe new life into the terror group granting them time to reconstruct their killing machine and take back power.
Hamas are now desperate for a deal as their power is slipping from their hands and their people are demonstrating and demanding an end to the war. In desperation Hamas are releasing signs of life videos of Ori Moran. They are, however, not yet desperate enough to agree to surrender and leave the Gaza Strip.
The food supply is due to run out soon, although it is thought that Hamas has a personal stockpile . The discussion in Israel is not whether food will be delivered to the people, it is agreed that the people cannot be left to starve, but to whom and how the aid will be delivered in order to prevent Hamas stealing and reselling it at inflated prices .
The IDF are systematically flattening the areas they are appropriating for the buffer zone, so that the terrorists cannot use the buildings to hide and set up booby traps. There is still resistance in Gaza,and a solider fell this week and a number of others were injured.
Families with second passports or visas are slowly being escorted from Gaza to Ramon airport, near Eilat, to be re-settled in other countries. Clearly, civilians can no longer safely stay in Gaza, but the challenge is finding other countries to accept them.
The PA dictator Abbas, is smelling the end of Hamas, and called them “Sons of Dogs” and after over 18 months he publicly called for the release of the hostages.
The international community doesn’t care at all what happens to Israel in the future, and just wants a cease fire at any price, even if that means surrendering to the terrorist’s demands. In fact, France’s Macron has announced he will be recognising a Palestinian State this spring. A barmy idea, to give unilateral recognition to an undefined area where the terrorists are in control. No borders, no currency and no future.
The world has seen how all international guarantees and promises falter, especially in the Middle East. The 2006 2nd Lebanon war ended with agreements underwritten by international guarantees. UN resolution 1701 which promised the disarmament of Hezbollah and no forces other than the Lebanese army and UNIFIL south of the Litani river was ignored virtually from day one .
Hezbollah was allowed to totally take over the South of Lebanon and rule the country exposing Israel to a terrible risk. It was fortunate that Hamas failed to properly co-ordinate the invasion on October 7th and Mossad’s years of planning the pager attack destroyed Hezbollah’s capabilities, but they are not yet “dead in the water”. The Lebanese government is making progress to reclaim their country. The IDF continue to strike terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon and either eliminate or arrest known terrorists. There is real hope for Lebanon, which once was the Monaco of the Middle East.
There is a glimmer of hope in Syria with the new regime at least making the right noises that they want to join the West and hoping they won’t be a safe haven for terrorist activists.
Tragically, today whilst we are still paying the price of hatred in blood and tears because we still have a lot of the same ingredients we had in the 1930’s - evil, silence and ignorance, however there is one huge difference : We have a state and we have the IDF without whom we undoubtedly could not survive.
We pray that one day “Never Again” will really mean Never again.