From our vantage, in the safety of our village, we watched the horrors in Israel. Still, we were deeply disturbed and frightened by what we saw.
Terrorists kill, but they also seek to petrify and demoralize those who remain. Let’s not let them. Instead, here are tales of heroism, stories of the indomitable human spirit and of the heroes who defeated the unspeakable and prevailed over evil.
I
There was no warning. Shock showed on the faces of ordinary citizens. As the sirens screamed, fear mixed with shock. The telephone rang.
“Father, we are in a safe room in the Kibbutz. Armed men broke in. They are going room to room killing even infants. They are going house to house burning. We called to say goodbye.”
The old man said, “Son, don’t move — I am coming.”
The old man did not think. “I am old, I cannot go.” The old man thought, “This my family. I must go.”
Neighbors joined him, and a carload of the ones the media calls “too old to do the job” set out. They drove an hour to the Kibbutz. They were armed. The old man brought their family home to safety. To defeat evil — defeat the intent of evil.
II
A young woman was awake as others in the Kibbutz slept. She hesitated. There was no official warning, no flare or alarm, but she felt something was wrong. She knew her home and its sounds and she sensed something was not right.
The kibbutz had a high fence. The woman blocked it so no one could enter. She woke her friends and neighbors. There was a fire fight, but it took place through the fence. No kibbutz-nik was killed. No home was burned. It was the only kibbutz in Israel not destroyed on Saturday, October 7, 2023. To defeat evil recognize evil.
III
A mother was shot pointblank in the head. As the mother fell, another woman grabbed the 4-month-old and toddler the mother had clutched in her arms.
She grabbed them and ran, thinking, “Enough! No more will die today.”
They lived, but every minute, the toddler asks, “Where is Mama?”
Human beings have free will. This past week we saw the worst and the best.
