It has been a little more than a month, now. I am calmer, and I hope I am able to see the situation a bit more clearly. And what I am seeing is making me sick.

This is not about Israel or Zionism. How do I know this? Because Jews around the world, who have nothing to do with Israeli policies, are being targeted for exclusion, violence, and murder using the latest war as a pretext. Because the very day of the October 7^th Pogrom, there were cries for a cease fire, for Israel to show restraint. Because despite the fact that Hamas themselves filmed and shared the atrocities they committed, and yet people in the West claim that it is all fake, and even if it were real, Israel deserved it. Because the leader of Hamas promised that this was only the beginning, that they would commit the same campaign of rape, torture, and murder again, and again, and again, yet the West seems to think that they are merely resisting “injustice.”

This is all about Jew-hatred. No evidence is sufficient to convince the West that crimes against the Jewish people have been- are being- committed. Reports from our enemies are accepted at face value, while hard evidence on our behalf is dismissed out of hand. The West tries to tell us that it’s all about stolen land, even when Hamas proclaims that their goal is to destroy Israel and murder Jews.

And of course, their actions and their threats serve only to bind the Jewish people together even more tightly. This is perhaps not what they wanted to achieve; after all, they think they are weakening us.

And the world now looks on with horror at what we are doing in Gaza. There was no sympathy for us; but for the monsters capable of such evil against innocent civilians, their tears would fill an ocean. None of the precautions Israel takes to safeguard Gazan bystanders is believed. The fact that Hamas deliberately keeps their civilians there to use as human shields is never considered. No one suggests that Hamas release all hostages and surrender now to bring the destruction to an end. No, it’s the Jews who are the face of Evil, and without conscience.

There is an old midrash that is often retold during the Passover seder regarding the destruction that God wrought upon the Egyptians in delivering the Jewish people from servitude.

The story goes that when Israel had crossed over the Red Sea, and were rejoicing and praising God for their deliverance, Moses noticed that God was not rejoicing with his people. Indeed, he seemed to be mourning.

Moses asks God why he is not rejoicing with his people, whom he brought up out of Egypt by his strength. Why is he now mourning the people over whose gods he triumphed?

And God simply replied, “Was not Mizraim also mine?”

And to this day, during every Passover seder, when the judgements upon Egypt are recited, we pour out a portion of wine for each of the plagues visited upon our oppressors mentioned. We are forbidden to have fullness of joy over our fallen enemies, because they, too, are children of God.

I have already written that I do not believe the Palestinians of Gaza are any more innocent than were the German civilians in whose towns and villages the death camps were built and operated. And while I do not believe that there should be a ceasefire until our first immediate military goal is achieved, I am not without sympathy for the Palestinian civilians who have nothing to do with Hamas and its crimes.

But even though God himself mourned over the death and destruction of the Egyptians, HE DID NOT REFRAIN FROM EXECUTING HIS JUDGEMENT UPON THEM, FOR THE SAKE OF HIS PEOPLE. Neither will we stay our hand until the hostages are brought home, Hamas surrenders or is destroyed, Gaza is disarmed, and the terror infrastructure is dismantled.

Around the world, Jews are being targeted again. But this time, we have Israel. This time, we will not march quietly into the ovens. This time, we will fight. But we will not rejoice over the blood of the innocent, nor even the fall of our enemies. We simply do what we must.