Shalom all,
Israel Update – Day 26 of the War.
Yesterday, I mentioned that when the news media says that the fighting is heavy and difficult, it usually means that there are Israeli casualties. As much as I wanted that comment to be wrong, it wasn’t. The news this morning reported the deaths of 2 soldiers and later in the day, another 13 were reported killed in action (KIA), bringing the total to 15 known, as of this writing. The heart is broken, the pain of loss is great, the tears don’t seem to stop.

On the day following the barbaric assault by 3,000 terrorists, the majority of whom were Hamas, we grieved with a long-time friend of our over the loss of her son-in-law, who was killed while saving the lives of families in a settlement not far from where he lived. Now, the same friend told us that the cousin of her son-in-law was also killed today in the Gaza fighting. We mourn with the family.

For some, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. So it was today, when 56 Members of Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) watched 47 minutes of a film prepared by the IDF from the ghastly events of Black Saturday. They were asked to leave their cell phones outside the hall. The Knesset physician was at the entrance of the hall and offered MKs a tranquilizer before the screening. Almost everyone took him up on the offer and took one or two pills. But, according to some of the MKs, the tranquilizers didn’t help. Many of the MKs were not able to continue watching until the end and left the Knesset hall, weeping and emotionally distraught. Most of them continued to break down in tears, even hours after the screening. The Speaker of the Knesset said that the decision was made to screen the film, so that we would know just what we were facing, to see the evil with their own eyes and hear, as well as to see and know how just and justified the war on evil is and to be accurate when they speak about it. One of the MKs, Almog Cohen, was resting in the hall. During the first days of the war, he fought together with his comrades in the reserves. He said, “The eyes cannot comprehend and neither can the head.” Most of the Knesset Members who sat through the film until the end left the hall weeping and trembling. Another MK, who left the screening after 17 minutes said that she couldn’t bear the sights or see the evil – “the children’s voices, their pleas in the face of pure evil, never leave me. Seeing evil in this way is something that the human mind cannot absorb. I trembled, cried, left the hall. Can’t relax until now.” Still another MK said: “You just can’t digest it. We’ve seen horrors over the past few days, but the scenes of what happened inside the houses is unimaginable. For the first time in my life, I took a sedative.”

The media reported about the rapes, beheadings, dismemberments and kidnappings, among other things. But, they rarely reported about the gruesome sights that were found by medics and first responders inside the homes. One of them appears in the short video interview,  in English, that can be seen as part of an article in Hebrew. The link is attached and the report given by the medic is emotionally difficult. <https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/bjgt00p17t?utm> Similar atrocities were reported by a paramedic first responder, who reported that he saw “a dead baby that had been burned inside an oven by Hamas. He also described seeing a woman who was four months pregnant when Hamas ripped open her stomach to tear her baby out of her womb and then stabbed the child before killing the woman in front of her family.” He added that he saw little children who were beheaded and that he and the other first responders didn’t know which head belonged to which child. <https://www.christianpost.com/news/hamas-burned-jewish-baby-in-an-oven-says-israeli-first-responder.html>

A Hamas official says that they will repeat the events of 7th October until Israel is annihilated. <https://www.jns.org/hamas-official-we-will-repeat-oct-7-until-israel-is-annihilated/?_se=bWpwb2xvQGJib3guZnI%3D&utm_campaign=Morning+Syndicate+1112023&utm_medium=email&utm_source=brevo>  God said to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse.” (Gen. 12:3) When He curses, it is in kind. Hamas wants to annihilate Israel, it will be Hamas who will be annihilated.

While we fight a war on the ground, in the air and from the sea, there is another war that we are fighting – the public relations war – and we are not doing well in that, primarily because the goals of this war are not expressed clearly. One University Professor suggests that we express them in 8 words: Release the hostages; Punish Hamas and its enablers. Attached is the article. It’s worth reading. <https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/why-israel-is-fast-losing-the-public-relations-war/>

This is a short update, because it’s been a long day.

Bless, be blessed and be a blessing.
Marvin