It’s never easy to leave home, especially not when home is Israel, and home is a country at war. Maybe it sounds strange to leave a place that seems so unsafe. Still, Israel is where I belong, not just because of my entire immediate family there, but because living there is the fulfillment of God’s promise by living in the Land deeded by God to the people of Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When I leave, I leave part of my heart behind.
In nearly 11 months since the inhuman October 7, 2023 massacre by thousands of Hamas terrorists, slaughtering 1200, raping and sexually mutilating many, beheading, burning alive, murdering parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents, as well as kidnapping more than 250, Israel has existed in a prolonged state of trauma that has not ended. In many media interviews, I have openly expressed that I (and my family) are experiencing levels of trauma in many ways. Like all of Israel. Today, that trauma is profound with the recovery of six bodies of hostages executed by terrorists. And today, the need has never been greater to send your support and condolences to their families.
Departing Ben Gurion airport, one walks by the pictures of the remaining hostages in captivity in Gaza. When I left, there were 109. Then Israel rescued an Israeli Bedouin Arab Moslem who had been held and abused in captivity since October 7. 108 remaining. Before I went to sleep Saturday night in America, I read news of Israel rescuing the bodies of six more hostages, though their names had not yet been released.
It was hard to go to sleep realizing that, at home, 108 families could not sleep, not knowing if the latest hostages’ bodies to be recovered were their loved ones. As much as it added to my stress, I knew their stress was unimaginably greater. Waking up to the news of the hostages' names, I cried.
I got angry reading reports that these six hostages were executed recently and murdered by the Hamas terrorists as IDF troops got close to where they were being held in captivity. One report indicated that they were alive long enough that they probably heard the IDF troops in the area. Not even animals behave this way to other animals. The cruelty of these Iranian-backed Islamic terrorists is inhuman. Demonic.
CNN and others added to the cruelty, noting that the hostages had “died” passively, as if it were something natural, not at the hands of Islamic terrorist executioners.
Had it not been for this horrific news, you may have heard of two other terrorist attacks that took place in the Judean mountains where I live but never made it to the headlines. Friday night, before I went to sleep, I read of a terrorist attack at a gas station in my neighborhood at the Gush Etzion junction. A terrorist detonated an explosive at the gas station where I had just sent my son to fill up the car days ago and then attacked the soldiers who came to respond.
This morning, a few miles from there, at the Tarqumiyah junction, three police officers were killed in a terrorist shooting attack.
When the US and other political leaders talk about “getting a deal done” and the imperative for a “ceasefire,” they may have good intentions but are naïve at best and grossly mistaken. A ceasefire will not bring peace. A ceasefire simply puts Israel in the position of holding off on the essential need to defeat Hamas militarily. A ceasefire simply allows the terrorists to regroup and rearm. To fortify positions against IDF troops trying to rescue the hostages and to hide the remaining hostages deeper in the network of remaining terrorist tunnels. Or to execute them outright as they ostensibly “negotiate” toward a “hostage deal” and an alleged “ceasefire.”
Ultimately, actual peace in Gaza is not going to come from making a “deal,” but a sweeping victory that crushes the terrorists and their infrastructure eliminates the bigger threat from the Iranian Islamic regime supporting the terrorists, and defeats their ideology as planned by the Solution for peace in Gaza.
On October 8, the Genesis 123 Foundation launched the Israel Emergency Campaign to provide support for Israelis impacted by the war in many ways. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, we have comforted families of victims in Israel, Africa, and around the world; advocated for those in captivity with the petition to release the hostages; cared for families evacuated from hostile and dangerous border areas; provided civilian security resources for civilian security teams; life-saving aid for first responders; showed long and support to soldiers with hot meals in the winter and cold drinks and watermelon in the summer; and many forms of advocacy to get the truth out about the reality of the situation in Israel and the war against Hamas. Just to name a few.
The trauma is deep and ongoing. There’s really been no respite for the families of the victims or the hostages, and not for Israel on the whole. Today, our imperative is to comfort the families with a global outreach of support and prayers.
As the families of murdered hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27, grieve, along with the families of police officers Ch. Insp. Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37, Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53, and First Sgt. Roni Shakuri, 61, (whose daughter was murdered on October 7), please take a moment to send your words of condolences, prayers, and comfort that the Genesis 123 Foundation will deliver on your behalf.
In the past, we have asked you to support a specific project that has been essential to providing a meaningful and tangible need. Today, any donation will continue that support and give you the opportunity to send your comfort and support to the grieving families.