The relief upon learning that some of the Israelis who have been held hostage by Hamas since Oct. 7 are finally coming home is tempered by deep worry about the state in which they will return and anguish for those who remain in the hands of terrorists.
Etched into the psyche of the Jewish people is a dread born from centuries of helplessness when enemies would tear Jews from their homes and decide who would live and who would die. Scenes that we thought were relegated to the history books now play out before our eyes—including this latest development in which Hamas will release a few hostages each day, returning them to the land of the living.
Almost seven weeks ago, we witnessed horrors that evoked periods when Jews were easy prey for merciless enemies, from Crusaders to Cossacks to Nazis. On Oct. 7, more than 1,200 Israelis were savagely murdered by Hamas. A baby burned alive in an oven. Mothers raped in front of their children. Children mutilated. Families bound together, slaughtered, and turned to ash, just like in the Holocaust.
We haven't yet had the chance to grieve the enormity of our loss because we are consumed with worry for the hundreds of hostages whose lives still hang in the balance. Are they alive or dead? Are they whole in body if not in mind? What horrors are they being subjected to? Can anyone ever truly recover from this?
These questions prod a raw nerve in the collective Jewish soul.
One of the most haunting prayers in the Jewish liturgy is recited each Yom Kippur. Known by its first two Hebrew words, Unetaneh Tokef, Let Us Cede Power, the prayer baldly asks. "Who will live and who will die; who will come to their timely end, and who to an untimely end."
While we recite that 1,000-year-old supplication, we are asked to consider our mortality by detailing the many chilling ways we might meet our end: "who by fire and who by water....who by sword and who by beast... who by strangling and who by stoning."
The prayer, powerful and poignant as it is, feels like a relic of times past. Who in this day and age really expects to die by sword or by stoning? Especially in the State of Israel, which was supposed to end the Jewish people's long history of helplessness and offer Jews the autonomy and security to live on their own terms.
Yet here we are.
After 75 years believing Israel would protect Jews from being lined up and singled out for life or death, Oct. 7 awakened a sobering realization that even the Jewish state's military, economic, and technological strength offer no guarantees. Instead, Hamas—with its founding mission to annihilate Israel and Jews—is deciding who will come to their timely or untimely end.
For all the post-Holocaust promises of "never again," international support for Israel eroded rapidly once Israel went on the offensive and launched a ground invasion into Gaza. Today, the voices calling for a ceasefire are far louder than those affirming Israel's right to defend itself.
It is abundantly clear that "never again" was an empty promise. And so, the Jewish State must reset the course of Jewish history and restore the promise of Jewish security, first by bringing home every hostage and then by destroying Hamas's ability to wage war against Israel and extinguish Jewish lives.
Hamas has spent the past 15 years terrorizing and murdering Israelis with suicide bombers, rockets, mortars, incendiary balloons, roadside explosives, and tunnels built to infiltrate communities and kill and kidnap Israelis. And now they have proved themselves capable of perpetrating the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The threat posed by the genocidal terror group must be eliminated once and for all. To be sure, Israel must abide by the laws of war and make maximum efforts to avoid civilian casualties. Critics can disagree with how Israel is waging war in Gaza—but they have no right to deny Israel's duty to free the rest of its hostages and defend its citizens.
The goal of peace-loving people should not just be an end to this current war; it should be to end all wars between Israel and Hamas. And the goal of Israel must be to ensure that no enemy will ever again decide who among the Jewish people shall live and who shall die.
Aviva Klompas is the former director of speechwriting at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations and co-founder of Boundless Israel, a nonprofit organization that partners with community leaders in the U.S. to support Israel education and combat hatred of Jews.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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