Regardless of what has happened since, with massive Israeli “collateral damage” inflicted on Gaza and its residents, and disclosures of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s willful or missed opportunities to to ward off the Oct. 7 massacre, the pain inflicted by Hamas terrorists, largely on kibutzim that aligned themselves with the cause of peace with Palestinians, the barbarity of Oct. 7, 2003 remains. Below is the blog I posted on Oct. 15, 2023 about one targeted kibbutz I had visited in January 2011, recalling its existence and its destruction. 

Since the third anniversary of this massacre, I have witnessed an appalling “both sides” commentary, including from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who offered a perfunctory first sentence mourning the Oct.7, 2023 deaths before launching into alleged “context” that diminished the absolute butchery inflicted by the Hamas terrorists on innocent Israelis, many of whom identified with the pro-Palestinian, pro-peace camp and had aided Palestinians from Gaza obtain medical care and other assistance inside Israel.  There is no “context” to this slaughter other than hatred of all Jews by the terrorists who used their own citizens as human shields.

I in no way am defending or justifying excessive retaliation by the IDF and the Netanyahu government against the innocent residents in Gaza, but to desecrrate a sacred day of mourning for the Oct. 7 victims with “what about-isms” is disgusting and outright sacrilegious.  Here, then, is what I posted soon after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, based on my visit to one of the hardest hit of the kibbutzim bordering the Gaza Strip in January 2011.

 

Kibbutz Kfar Aza – Now and Then

The heart breaking news of the Hamas massacre of 1,300 Israelis – mostly civilians and mothers, children, even babies, and the elderly – on Saturday, Oct. 7 – must not fade from view, even as many in the media and elsewhere refocus largely on the unfolding tragedy in Gaza.

Sadly, with Israeli military actions designed, in the words of Israeli leaders, to eradicate the terrorist group from the face of the earth, there will be much “collateral” damage, an antiseptic term for civilian deaths.

Mourning the deaths on both sides of the fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel is not mutually exclusive. But while we mourn all deaths in this unfolding tragedy, lest we forget, here is a personal view of one of the Israeli settlements before Hamas killed most of its inhabitants.

In January 2011, I visited Kfar Aza, a small kibbutz near the chain-linked, barbed wire-topped fence along the border. The occasion was a trip arranged by Ameinu, a nonprofit organization of progressive North American Jews whose purpose is to promote social justice in both Israel and the United States. Ameinu is Hebrew for “our people,” and the group is unabashedly Zionist and peace-oriented. It was a whirlwind five-day tour that took us to Kfar Aza on the afternoon of Jan. 4.

Flash Forward: A little more than a week ago, Hamas terrorists murdered most of the inhabitants of this small kibbutz that adjoins Gaza. When I was there, Kfar Aza was on guard but also at peace.

The homes were modest, and so were the people we met.

Here were also a playground and a community building.

And a bomb shelter funded by “Israeli-loving Norwegians HJH.” A plaque in Hebrew and English said, “Their constant prayers for peace of Israel are cemented in great caring and support of the Shaar Hanegev residents – 2008.” Sha’ar Hanegev is the regional council bounded on the west by the Gaza Strip that includes Kfar Aza.

In one spot, a tree had been planted where a rocket from Gaza had killed a resident. It was the Israeli equivalent of teddy bears and crosses at scenes of traffic accidents and mass murders increasingly common in our own country.

In the area for his 2010 book “Walking Israel,” former U.S. network foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher, who has recently reappeared on cable news as a commentator, wrote about being along the fence where I was in 2011. “The sun was close to setting, and a pleasant orange glow settled over the landscape as flocks of birds flew by. It was quiet here, and I could only imagine how startling it must have been to experience this calm shattered by rockets, bombs, and planes.”

That was then. This was now. After the IDF had retaken control of the kibbutz, CNN’s Nic Robertson reported from the scene: “There are bodies everywhere. There were so many murdered members of this Kibbutz,” he said. “Men, women, children, hands bound, shot, executed, heads cut.”

Given the political orientation of Ameinu, it’s likely that the Kfar Aza residents were pro-Palestinian Jewish Israelis who supported the elusive two-state solution, the polar opposite of the rightwing settlers who have taken over much of the disputed West Bank. But it didn’t matter.

In 2020, I reviewed a book, A Small Door Set in Concrete: One Woman’s Story of Challenging Borders in Israel/Palestine, by Ilana Hammerman, a Jewish author aiding Palestinians both from the West Bank and Gaza. It demonstrates how humanity can transcend the boundaries and how politicians, bureaucrats and demagogues help to doom such efforts. To read my review, please click here.