February 20, 2025
Dear Friends
For those watching the news out of Israel, today is a very dark day.
In thinking through what to share with you, I was reminded of the first time I went to Yad Vashem – I was probably 11 or 12 years old. In going through one of the rooms that is filled wall to wall with photographs, I recall seeing faces of a few babies. The photos being in black and white made it a little harder to relate to. Though in thinking about it now, over 30 years later, I imagine that had those babies lived, they’d only be 8-10 years older than my parents. They were most likely born between 1938-1941. I was looking at their faces less than 50 years after they had been murdered.
The photos of smiling babies in various poses were from a happier time, a photoshoot of some kind, and bore no resemblance to their fate at the hands of their murderers, nor their final moments prior to their murders.
We have all seen photos and videos of happier times of the Bibas children, HYD, with their bright red hair and adorable ways. It gave us hope that they’d run again and play again and have a chance to live out their lives.
But today I saw a photo of Shiri HYD holding her children, taken shortly after they were captured (see below). The look of terror in her eyes is haunting. Her clinging to her children, hoping against hope to be able to protect them from the barbarism they were already subject to… this is a picture straight out of the Shoah. Except this time it is in color. The crime: being Jewish in the Holy Land. Their tormentors: Islamo-fascists who gleefully fulfill their mission of Jew-hatred in the same manner as the Nazis, y’mach sh’mam v’zikhram. This follows the release of the tortured and gaunt men last week, who looked every bit like Holocaust survivors minus the striped “uniform” of the concentration camps.
For a reminder that this is part of a larger saga of barbarism and a war against innocent children, Sivan Rahav Meir posted on Facebook that 38 children were murdered on Simchat Torah (October 7). 20 children were orphaned of both parents. 96 children lost one parent. 42 children were kidnapped and taken hostage. She went on to mention families that have been murdered in the past – Kopsheter, Hatuel, Fogel, Kedem-Siman Tov.
The loss of most of the Bibas family is heartbreaking – as is the latest news that the woman “returned” is not Shiri! It is the same heartbreak we have felt off and on since October 7th, contemplating the unimaginable numbers – a pogrom in Israel, committed by a “society” of evil barbarians who delight in the murder of Jews, and all atrocities against Jewish people – and every fallen soldier since, and the news of every hostage we find out is no longer alive. Not to mention the many maimed soldiers who have paid a different heavy price to root out Hamas. And of course, the remaining hostages who are still held in captivity, both alive and dead.
Even those of us who feared for a long time that this was the fate of the Bibas family still held onto a thread that they’d live to tell the tale of their awful imprisonment, and how a nation rallied for them, seeing them as the litmus test of hope for a brighter day for them and all of Israel. Hence this being a very dark day. The thought that murderers were released in exchange for dead babies sickens us to our core. That anyone sees the Jews in a bad light over this kind of “deal” boggles the mind.
The enemy knows our weakness. Our weakness is the love of life. Our weakness is our desire to see the fulfillment of וראה בנים לבניך שלום על ישראל (Tehillim 128:6). We want to live to see children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, future generations of the Jewish people. And we give up terrorists who have blood on their hands (who are not starving or horribly mistreated), in exchange for a living victim of their depravities, or even a dead victim – to have closure for our people. And we only want to be left alone to live in peace.
Shame on any nation in the world (including the US - particularly through USAID) who have given money to these terrorists. Shame on the “civilized” nations of the world that turned a blind eye to how their “aid” to the “poor palestinians” was spent. Shame on every “useless idiot” on a college campus who buys the propaganda of al Jazeera and Hamas. Shame on the Red Cross – the most useless and corrupt organization of Uber-drivers-for-Hamas the world has ever seen. Shame on anyone who can’t see the difference between a defensive war fought by Israel to protect its citizens, which inevitably has some civilian casualties, but is by no means a genocide, and an all out attack by a terrorist group invading private homes and a peace-loving music festival on a Shabbat and holiday – which saw murder, rape, mutilation of the dead, burning people alive, seeking out men, women, children, elderly for target practice, and a celebration of all of the above – who wouldn’t stop their genocidal intent were it not for civilians and soldiers rising to defend themselves. Every casualty of this war is on their hands.
A million times over I would rather be one of us than one of them.
My heart isn’t broken specifically for the Bibas family, though obviously they are a piece of a larger breaking of the heart. I am shocked Yarden is alive. I hope he can find a path forward in life, get the help he needs, and rebuild a life. My heart is broken because despite all the rhetoric of “NEVER AGAIN” of the last 80 years, we have seen in the last 500 days that it happened again. The dead babies of October 7 did not have a campaign to save them. For them it was too late. But we all "knew" these children. They are enshrined in the Shoah Hall of Memory with a name and an identity - not just an unknown face. And for all the talk of the world that the Jews will have a safe haven for themselves, that safe haven has never been fully safe, and people are still saying it shouldn’t exist at all.
Shame on all of them for not learning from history. Shame on all of those who see Jews – especially after the collective and moral guilt of the Shoah – as anything other than “people who should be left alone.”
I hope Israel learns the lesson from history, and finishes the mission – eradicating Hamas, and removing all terrorists and terrorist-sympathizers from its borders, so we can have the best chance of seeing our hopes and dreams fulfilled - וראה בנים לבניך שלום על ישראל
Amen!
Rabbi Avi Billet
