Once again, and all at once, the depravity of Hamas and all those who gleefully celebrated the atrocities of October 7th is all encompassing. The first phase of the deal was supposed to last for 42 days, only for Hamas to repeatedly threaten to sabotage the ceasefire. We saw our hostages’ physical deterioration and evident starvation, as well as stories of the torture they and those left behind endured deep underground. And now, the bodies of innocent hostages, the most innocent imaginable.
Though the world demanded we move on, the Jewish community has never forgotten the stakes of the past 15 months, and nothing symbolized that more than the two red-haired babies and their mother fearfully being herded off into the unknown.
And we will never forget. We will draw on the strength of thousands of years of Jewish history, of massacres and expulsions and forced conversions, and of the survivors who remained and rebuilt their lives, to know how to go on despite everything, as the Jewish people always have. May the memories of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas be for a blessing to us all, always.
Bring them all home. Now.
