“I think we all (in the Israeli kibbutzim) felt secure because we had the anti-rocket defense system, Iron Dome. We have safe rooms, a great response team. We never expected a horde of thousands to come to murder, rape and pillage!” says traumatized Kibbutz dweller Mrs. Karen Schwartzman
Like many families who trusted their Gazan friends and employees, she does not know who among her husband’s farm factory staff surged into Israel to kill.
Deborah Sharon, a British Israeli, lives on Moshav Yamit, a larger kibbutz near the Gaza border. Born in Britain, she has lived in Israel from the age of five. Her parents, strong peace advocates, perished when dawn assaults began, breaching Israeli barrier fences in at least six places. “We were deluded, as a people, as a country.”
She now knows that riots whipped up for years, “managed” by Gazan police, had another purpose besides noise. They weakened Israeli defense lines, making it easier for terrorists to pour through in one blood-drenched October dawn.
Why the barrier was not made more secure, and why IDF (Israel Defense Force) did not see visible warnings of attack, must be answered in Jerusalem when this is over. Terrorists had detailed maps in the deadly assaults.
Some knew the way in because they worked for her husband Avidor; three of his employees were captured. They became terrorists through years of indoctrination and anti-Israel propaganda.
Mrs. Sharon says “They killed people whose sole purpose was to work things out and make peace. Now we understand. It doesn’t matter what we do, what land we give back. All they want to do is murder Jews!”
She is right. For a peace-loving, generous people who welcomed the 18,000 Gazans who regularly passed through border check points to go to jobs in Israel, there is no comprehending the depth and intensity of sheer, animalist hate, taught for generations by families who believed “Intifada” – organized murder – was all they could give their sons.
But something beyond hate will triumph. The Israelis have felt the deep darkness coming out of the Gazan ghetto, and the horrors it brings, but there will still be in Israel kind men and women like those who were brutally murdered, who will again reach across aeons of enmity as friends.
Are they foolish, deluded or unwise? No. The Oslo Peace Accords held hope that even with great differences, peace might still take hold – only Israel kept the peace; the Intifidas began again.
Terrorism is accepted as the way out for millions of Gazans with little access to mental health care, too poor to expect economic improvement.
The year after Israel withdrew completely, Gazans governed themselves; over half the population voted Hamas into power, primed with Iranian weapons and doctrine. One happy terrorist called his mother during the massacre of October 7: “Mom! Mom! I’ve killed 10 Israelis!!” The call was monitored by IDF Only one response was heard “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
