We’ve seen the signs in Arab capitals the world over: Death to America, Death to Israel, Death to the Jews. A ceaseless drumbeat of hate.
But lately the signs are more graphic and threatening, calling for “Genocide for the Jews,” “From the River to the Sea,” “Worldwide Intifada.” The hatred is visceral and it is spreading.
Finally getting the opportunity they have been praying to Allah for, a holocaust of unimaginable horror was unleashed against innocent men, women, children and infants on Israel’s southern border. The ghoulish joy-filled celebrations began in earnest, a testimony to the new heroes who finally managed to kill Jews, doing so with macabre glee and with proud video evidence. The signs are there and ever more horrific and unimaginable, rivaling the worst of the Nazi handiwork. Those who proclaim that “God is great” want all to see that this carnage is His will. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen continuous images of crowds in the tens of thousands holding up their signs proclaiming an evil desire to see us all destroyed. This arises from a religion and culture built on unending hate and borne of despair in a future that guarantees more of the same.
Yet, what is less heralded and unanticipated is the unflinching and unstoppable advance of the IDF deep into Gaza City as it systematically destroys the enemy, chasing him out of his sewer-like tunnels of sinister refuge. The swiftly advancing chayalim coincided with the joyful holiday of Chanukah. Image after video image featured the many unique and moving celebrations with the warriors lighting makeshift chanukiyot fashioned from heretofore unseen settings of ordnance and tanks.
Against the backdrop of this modern-day Chanukah miracle, the chief cantor of the IDF and his choir sang a moving rendition of portions of this last stanza of the Maoz Tzur poem and song.
Avenge the vengeance of your servant’s blood from the wicked nation,
For the triumph is too long delayed for us
and there is no end to the days of evil.
We are witnessing the signs that Hashem is listening.
In the wreckage of a building in Gaza a room was fashioned into a makeshift Beit Knesset for the soldiers’ tefilot. On a wall, there was a spray-painted sign of a single word: Mizrach, facing towards the direction of the Western Wall that Jews around the world direct their prayers. Amid the rubble and carnage the soldiers pray towards Jerusalem and that wall. Our brave soldiers, along with the rest of our people, reject the hate and stifling despair that characterizes our enemies, in favor of a centuries-old hope for a redemptive and brighter future.
The chayalim continue to pave the way for the rest of us.
Stanley Fischman
Teaneck
