OPINION: ‘There is an old Talmudic saying: ‘Truth is heavy, therefore few people care to carry it‘.
October 7, 2023, came to be known as ‘Black Saturday’. On that dark day, radical Islamic death squads and Gazan civilians, in a frenzied state of Jew-hatred, invaded small Israeli communities; tortured, mass-raped, mutilated and burned alive entire families. They slaughtered over 1,200 innocent people and took babies, children, youth, elderly and disabled hostage into Gaza – including the bodies of some they had murdered.
We remember their agonised cries; their blood that was shed and their pleas for mercy from their savage captors. But we can never know the agony and terror of grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters of the victims who witnessed their families being broken and slaughtered, before succumbing to death or captivity themselves.
The hostages were paraded and humiliated on the streets of Gaza for the entertainment and gratification of the Gazan people. They were then enslaved in dark underground dungeons where they suffered unimaginable brutality.
Today, fifty innocent souls remain in captivity, where they have served as bargaining chips and human shields for 651 days. Those who are still alive are in chains and endure starvation, humiliation and torture – in silence.
How long must these people suffer such atrocities before our political and religious leaders acknowledge the truth and find the courage to stand up and speak out? How long will these leaders deny and dismiss their moral responsibility to act?
It was this same indifference and denial that allowed the mass graves of Europe’s six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust.
Our political and religious leaders are as foolish as the thief who finds himself without an opportunity to steal, so considers himself an honest man. Not committing these crimes by their own hands, does not excuse them from the responsibility to declare the truth and demand justice.
‘Truth is heavy, therefore few people care to carry it.’ But we have a responsibility to do just that! We must speak of this truth, record this truth and never allow this truth to be wiped from our memories or the pages of history.
Regardless of our ethnicity, religion or politics, we must stand united by a moral code that dictates our conscience and directs our path to speak out for the victims of the ‘Black Saturday’ massacre; those still held captive in Gaza; the fallen and fighting heroes of the Israeli Defense Forces and all their families. We must also hope and pray for the Israeli government and military leaders, that they will remain courageous and be guided by wisdom.
The truth we must carry is that Israel is the Promised, Sovereign and Eternal Nation of the Jewish people.
AM YISRAEL CHAI!
Bobby Meyer
Join with those who courageously and proudly speak truth, demand justice and call for the release of the hostages.
