Five hundred days

Five hundred days since October 7, 2023.

Five hundred days of our hostages being tortured in the terror tunnels of Gaza. Five hundred days of our Jewish homeland being under attack physically, and also around the world politically. Five hundred days of Jews being openly threatened around the world. Five hundred days of Jews being assaulted on busy streets. Five hundred days of Jews being accused of genocide on college campuses. Five hundred days of the world denying that what happened on October 7 was a crime against humanity.

We Jews need to wake up and stand proudly. Only when we show the haters that we will not bend to their will, will they understand we are here to stay. It’s mind-boggling that so many non-Jews, whether Christian or Muslim, claim that the Jews are the murderers. No one seems to remember when Assad killed his own people in Syria. No one seems to remember that the Houthis have murdered hundreds of thousands in Yemen. No one seems to care that hundreds of thousands are being killed in Sudan. Only the Jews have been vilified, and we were the ones attacked on October 7.

We’re only in Gaza to get our hostages back and secure our nation.

When will the world wake up and recognize that history is repeating itself? When will the world understand that the people who are claiming that the Jews are genocidal in fact are calling for a genocide of the Jews?

Honestly, their catchphrase, “From the river to the sea,” means that there will be no more Jews in Israel. Isn’t that “ethnic cleansing”? “Globalize the Intifada” means bring the jihad around the world. That explains why Jews are being attacked all around the world.

These haters claim that the Jews colonized Palestine. We ask ourselves, from where did we base our power to colonize? We are from the Land of Israel. Even the Koran says the Jews lived in the Land of Israel. We are indigenous to the Land that they claim we colonized.

There is only one country in the world that speaks Hebrew. However, there are 22 nations in the world that speak Arabic and are Muslim. It seems more than obvious that the ones who were colonizers were the ones whose language spread from Arabia around the world.

Five hundred days.

One of the recently released hostages said we should look at it like 43 million seconds. Take a moment to digest that. Every second a hostage is being held captive, they do not know if they are going to live another day. Another one of the hostages told his girlfriend, when he was released a few days ago, that he had hoped she would not wait for him because he did not think he would come back to her.

Five hundred days is an eternity in hell.

We must get them out. Hamas must let them go, and Israel must bring them home. There is no more time.

Five hundred days is too long.

Stephanie Z. Bonder of West Caldwell, MA. Ed., is a Jewish educator who teaches throughout the MetroWest community and the National Hadassah network. She is continuing her educational journey by pursuing a masters in Jewish education from the Melton Hebrew University School of Education.

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