More than two weeks have passed since Hamas' savagery decimated the Israeli kibbutzim and small towns adjacent to the Gaza Strip, since innocent Jewish women, children, elderly, infants, and men were slaughtered and brutalized in the most vicious, horrific manner since the dark years of the Holocaust. And in short order, we have witnessed and are witnessing an attempt at moral equivalence in the media, in academia, and by some politicians across the globe between Hamas' murderous onslaught and Israel's subsequent legitimate determination to rid itself of the Hamas scourge once and for all. Of course, we are not indifferent, cannot be indifferent to the Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, but they are the direct consequence of the fact that Hamas has been using them, and continues to use them, as human shields. And none of us can be allowed to forget how the present conflagration came about and what its outcome must be.
This work is dedicated to the victims, the wounded, the survivors, and the hostages of October 7, 2023
words fail
but silence
is not an option
we cannot stop hearing
we will never stop hearing
the screams
harrowing
heart wrenching
screams
we look toward the mountains
and the only thing we see
the only thing we hear
the only thing etched in our consciousness
is death
there is no comfort
no consolation
there can be no comfort
no consolation
when ak-47s
defile what had been
illusionary tabernacles
with bloodied corpses
there is no comfort
no consolation
there can be no comfort
no consolation
when infants are murdered
their throats cut
there is no comfort
no consolation
there can be no comfort
no consolation
when women are raped
girls brutalized
there is no comfort
no consolation
there can be no comfort
no consolation
when parents are burned alive
with their children
there is no comfort
no consolation
there can be no comfort
no consolation
when innocents
are dragged away
into a captivity of terror
with no protector awake
to save them
we look toward the mountains
and we see
we hear
etched in our nightmares
the hamas genocidaires
laughing
taunting
cursing
jeering
we thought after auschwitz
after treblinka
after belsen
that the worst
was a vestige
of our past
but we look toward the mountains
stare into the abyss
and see
hear
that the ss have returned
to merge into hamas
the einstazgruppen have returned
to merge into hamas
isis has returned
to merge into hamas
the ustaša have returned
to merge into hamas
mladić's chetniks have returned
to merge into hamas
bin laden's al-quaeda has returned
to merge into hamas
khmelnytzky's cossacks have returned
to merge into hamas
evil incarnate
absolute evil
has metastasized
into our new reality
kfar aza has joined auschwitz
nahal oz has joined treblinka
alumim has joined majdanek
ofakim has joined the warsaw ghetto
be'eri has joined belsen
netiv hasara has joined ponary
sderot has joined belzec
re'im has joined babi yar
nir oz has joined sobibor
nirim has joined jasenovac
holit has joined kigali
nir yitzhak has joined srebrenica
the supernova sukkot rave
has joined terezin's brundibár
images of the past
of smoke and ashes
blend with still too raw images
of now
to create a mosaic of pain
of anguish
of never ending horror
that eclipses the sun
eclipses all light
eclipses all that was
and
may yet eclipse
all that will ever be
a mosaic of pain
of anguish
of never ending horror
that does not leave us
will not leave us
ever
we look toward the mountains
and wait
with elijah's faceless shadow
perhaps in vain
perhaps forever
for a still small voice
to let us venture
from our cave of darkness
graveyard of darkness
where we mourn
our hearts drowning in tears
and we are reminded
once again
that we cannot coexist
with absolute evil
we must destroy it
before it destroys
before it continues to destroy
us
before it destroys
tomorrow
Menachem Z. Rosensaft, the son of two survivors of the Holocaust, teaches about the law of genocide at the law schools of Cornell and Columbia Universities and is general counsel emeritus of the World Jewish Congress. He is the author of Poems Born in Bergen-Belsen (Kelsay Books, 2021).
Uncommon Knowledge
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