“Never Again” is Our Civic Duty

“With the strength of faith and unity, we can overcome everything,” Eli Sharabi, hostage survivor. 

Even among our enemies, nobody thought Hamas would attack. They were far too weak. Iran was the real problem. Armed with a $2 trillion economy and a military of almost a million people, if anyone were to attack, it would be them. But when the time came – they couldn’t pull the trigger. 

Hizballah had over 100,000 rockets aimed at us. Along the Golan, you didn’t need binoculars because you could see them with your naked eye. To attack Israel, they didn’t even need to move. All Hizballah needed to do was hit a few buttons, and it would rain down terror. When their green light flashed, they too, remained frozen. 

Hamas was an army of defense. They had no tanks, no air force, and no long-range heavy artillery. Their capacity for any frontal attack was so laughable that even the IDF didn’t consider them a threat. Neither the Shin Bet nor IDF intel had a single intelligence asset in Gaza. 

It took sheer brazenness for the weakest faction in the Middle East to attack. Even the majority of Hamas members didn’t want to do it. 

Against all odds, it was one man, Yasha Sinwar, may his memory be blotted out, who defied all the experts and gave the order. 

Even among our enemies, the Middle East is synonymous with its cautious leaders. It was the only thing Iranian leaders, Syrian leaders, and Israeli leaders had in common. 

It was unknown for a leader to act with such impulsiveness. What did Sinwar know that led him to disregard the rules of Middle East warfare? What intel did he have to risk everything in a lightning blitz? What made him so sure he would succeed? 

The Instincts of an Animal 

Like any sadistic predator, Yahya Sinwar had the instinct to sense weakness. 

For the previous year, Israel had been in a state of civil war. As bad as actual casualties, we were speaking volumes of loshon hara not heard since our last civil war that took place during the Roman revolt in 70 CE. 

The first casualty of this war was civil order. All of the guardrails that keep a society functioning were breached. The rules of conduct that everyone follows to keep a country in one piece were smashed to pieces. The civic duty to one another was abandoned. 

The leaders of Iran, Syria, and Hizballah heard about it on CNN. Sinwar was different. He knew Hebrew. He consumed Israeli news media voraciously. Like a doctor diagnosing a patient for any type of illness, he had his finger on the pulse of our nation. 

After hearing enough pundits claim on national TV that, “Our people refuse to serve. We no longer have an army.” Or “We have eliminated our air force.” He knew we had become lambs to the slaughter. 

Our hatred for one another was the weakness Sinwar was looking for. It was the green light he needed. When he saw that even Jews praying on Yom Kippur weren’t immune from the wrath of hatred, he knew he could beat us. 

He was right. 

Not Out of the Woods 

A lot has happened since then. 

October 7, 2023 was the day our civil war ended. Leaders of rival groups, fighting one another on the streets of Tel Aviv, suddenly donned their uniforms and gladly took pictures side by side, as genuine brothers in arms. 

We prayed for one another. 

We cried for one another. 

We served each other with kindness, empathy, and patience. 

Hashem blessed us with open miracles. 

Over 60,000 rockets fired on Israel failed to turn us into Syria. The Gaza war was unprecedented in its ferociousness and low casualty rate. We wiped out Hizballah in weeks and decapitated the Iranian army. 

Hashem blessed us with even more miracles as Syria fell, and we destroyed their army, air force, and navy, and then took the entire Hermon Mountain. 

We have become accustomed to the calm that is emerging. 

Until now. 

The moment we resumed defaming our leaders, the moment we started parading around with Sodomite flags, the moment we organized in droves to sow hatred and anger among each other – as if the past 18 months had never happened – bombs started landing in the heart of Israel – again! 

Hizballah resumed bombing the north. Gaza resumed bombing the south. Yemen resume bombing the center.   

Are We Guilty of October 7? 

Do we, the Jewish People, share the burden of guilt with Hamas for the horrors of October 7? 

The sin we committed two thousand years ago that led to exile, slavery, tears, and death – we still commit today. Like then, we suffer the same results. Two thousand years ago, evil speech about one another and the resulting baseless hatred led to the tragic exile of the Jewish nation. 

Had we overcome this sin, we might have held off the Romans and held onto our country. Rome needed as many troops to defeat us in Israel as it did to conquer the entire sub-continent of India. Many historians claim that had we been united and not kill one another during our war against Rome, we could have won. 

Had we won, there might not have been Jews living in Ukraine. There wouldn’t be over 2 million Jews to murder in the 17th and 20th centuries. There would not have been Jews living in Poland. The 3 million Jewish lives cut off might have been living elsewhere. 

Without baseless hatred, there would not have been Jews living throughout the Western world who were lost to apathy, assimilation, and intermarriage. 

The moment we accept responsibility for our tragedies is the moment we can work on preventing them from ever happening again. 

“Never Again” is in our hands. 

The Civic Duty of Every Jew 

For every moment of our life, it is the duty of every Jew to refrain from all types of hatred towards one another. It’s one thing to disagree with what someone is saying or doing. It’s something else to hate the actual person. The Gemara is clear: You can hate the sin, but you are forbidden to hate the sinner. 

It is our duty to express any frustration with the conduct of fellow Jews by praying to Hashem for their repentance. If we all prayed, with sincere intent, for the repentance of all those acting against what is best for the Jewish People, whoever might be standing in our way will become our biggest supporters and best friends. 

Case in point:

About twenty years ago, there was an infamous political party in Israel whose sole purpose was to prevent anything “religious.” 

With every election, they kept gaining Knesset seats. Their party leader even became Deputy Prime Minster. It looked like they might succeed in making life difficult for observant Jews. 

Out of nowhere, the party fell apart. How? One of its main financial backers returned to a life of Torah. Immediately, he stopped funding this party, and soon after, it disappeared. 

When we pray for each other instead of hating each other, things will change. What do we need to hate our leaders for? Hashem’s ability to create is infinitely greater than anyone’s ability to destroy. 

It is our civic duty to declare Hashem as King of His world by not getting upset at anything any of His children say or do. To have a level of Emunah that prevents any thoughts of hatred towards our brothers and sisters. 

God commands us to remember the sin of loshon hara every day. He is watching. 

Our enemies, who now know what Sinwar did and how he did it, are also watching. 

Every one of us makes up the ultimate line of defense. 

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.