FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK: Don't let anyone distort the truth

This article was previously published in the Dec. 22, 2023, issue. It garnered the Sally Latham Memorial Award for Serious Column in the FPA Weekly Newspaper Contest.

(Portions of this article are very graphic.)

I was talking with my daughter on the phone Friday evening. “What did you do this week?” she asked. I mentioned that I attended a private briefing and screening by the Consulate General of Israel in Miami to see the raw footage of what happened in Israel on Oct. 7. “What are you talking about?” she asked. She hadn’t heard of the Oct. 7 attack. As I started explaining, she asked, “Who is Hamas? Where was this?”

Now my daughter is a smart, mature person, but she chooses not to watch any news. “It’s too depressing,” she said. I happen to agree. I don’t watch the news. Most of it is biased, so I don’t waste my time. I do, however, read everything pertaining to Israel and the Jewish people —that’s my job! It’s also part of my life as a Christian Zionist to know what is going on in Israel so that I know how to pray for the Israelis. I guess it was natural for me to assume that everyone knew about what happened on Oct. 7.

I was surprised by my daughter’s reaction, but in a way I wasn’t. There are so many people who don’t know what is going on. I wondered if this was how it was back in the 1940s when the Nazis started their systemic genocide of the Jewish people in Europe. Even the Jewish people in Europe either did not know or did not want to know what was happening — it was too horrendous. Who could possibly do such a thing?

This was an opportunity to explain to her what has been happening in Israel for the past two months. I told her who Hamas is, where Gaza is, who the Palestinian people are, and why Hamas has done this terrible thing. She understood that Hamas doesn’t want peace with Israel. She got it. I then told her what I saw – footage straight from Hamas dashcams, cellphone cameras, CCTV cameras, victims’ cameras, responders’ cameras.

“How can people be so cruel to each other?” she asked me. I ask the same question, but I know the answer is hate. Hate so deep it is evil. 

Israel wants this raw footage to be seen so that those who see it can dispute attempts to distort the truth or deny it even happened. It is the same video U.S. Senators saw, in which Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told NBC News, “It was jarring and harrowing. It shook all of us up in the room. I had to go sit in my office for a half-hour alone after seeing it.” 

Deputy Consulate General of Israel Mike Driquez said “We are living in a time of misinformation.”

State Representative Randy Fine who attended the screening, stated, “People are denying what is happening. I’m doing what I can.” 

About 30 people — Jewish community leaders, a rabbi, a pastor, several police officers, university security officers and an Orlando Sentinel reporter — viewed the video that day with me. 

Keith Dvorchik, an organizer of the meeting, stated “This is very personal for all of us.”

The video began with street scenes of Hamas terrorists randomly walking up to cars and shooting. The guns weren’t loud — Pop! Pop! Pop! The machine guns were much louder as they mowed down the fleeing partiers at the SuperNova festival.

One victim’s dashcam captured the terrorists shooting at his car over and over again until the car slowed and crashed into a parked vehicle. I knew the driver was dead. I felt as if I was in the car with that driver. The feeling I had was sheer terror. I wanted to duck down as if I was in the passenger seat.

As the terrorists entered a village, a dog lazily walked out onto the sidewalk. They shot it as if this was a game. 

A CCTV camera videoed a man and his two young sons clad only in underwear run in a panic from the house to the safe room. A terrorist threw a grenade into the room. Suddenly the man is seen slumped forward in the doorway. He fell on the grenade to protect his sons. The sons then ran back into the house and sat in the kitchen. They were screaming and crying “Daddy! Daddy,” visibly overwhelmed with sorrow and terrified that they would be killed next. A terrorist came into the room with his gun on his shoulder. He opened the refrigerator and calmly asked what was in a bottle. One boy said it was water. He took it and started drinking it and left the room. 

Later we see the mother return with two security men. As soon as she saw her husband slumped over, she collapsed into the arms of the men. She was inconsolable. She just lost her husband. My heart broke and I cried with her.

After we viewed the video, Driquez told us that some of the footage of mutilations, rapes, and burnings were removed at the request of the families of those murdered. The woman we saw who lost her husband told the IDF to take the CCTV camera footage so that the world could see what happened.

The video also showed many pictures of bodies that were mutilated, burned alive, and sexually desecrated. We saw a dead Israeli soldier beheaded, and it was not done in one fell swoop. They hacked his head off. Then they threw it far from the body. We saw a Hamas terrorist try to decapitate a man with a hoe. It is true. This did happen.

What struck me the hardest was the celebrating the terrorists did every time someone was killed. They were happy, smiling, bragging about killing Israelis, putting their “victories” on social media, calling their fathers and mothers to triumphantly say “I killed 10 Israelis!”

There is a scene of young Israeli men who were captured, piled into a truck and hauled into Gaza. One Israeli’s eyes are wide open, revealing the terror he was feeling. Dozens of Gazan men and young boys in the city surrounded the truck and cheered and rejoiced, chanting “Allah is Great!” 

At the music festival people were shot as they ran away. One person tried to frantically hide under a car. A terrorist ran up to him, dragged him out and shot him point blank. The food and beverage area was carpeted with dead Israelis.

The room was in complete silence as the video ended. 

“Your silence says it all,” said Driquez. “Three thousand Hamas terrorists attacked 30 villages that day, killing 1200 innocent Israelis. This is good versus evil. Spread the truth.”

Personally, I am glad that Israel declared war. Enough is enough. The world should be outraged at this. Instead the world calls for “proportionality” and “ceasefires.” 

The IDF fight a disguised enemy. Palestinian civilians in Gaza are not in uniforms. They walk unarmed into buildings where they get guns in the tunnels, then come out and fight. Hamas hides behind Gazans. How do you fight and not kill civilians?

There are still 135 hostages held in Gaza. For each one that was returned, Israel gave three Palestinian prisoners in exchange. That’s how valuable Israeli lives are. I recall when the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was returned in 2011. Israel gave up six prisoners in the exchange – one of whom was Yahya Sinwar, the master mind of the Oct. 7 massacre.

“We are no longer gentle in our responses,” said Driquez, speaking of Israel’s attempts to always try to make peace. “If you are not with us, you are the problem.”

Since 1945, the Jewish people have declared “Never Again.” Israel means it. They have fought over five wars since 1948 and pushed back those who would oppress them each time. Never again will the Jewish people allow themselves to be slaughtered without putting up a fight. 

Someone at the meeting said, “If you are Jewish, you are Israeli.”

I would add to that “Be proud that you are Jewish — an Israeli. Speak up. Do not remain silent. Stand with Israel.” 

And to Christians, “Stand with the Jewish people and Israel. Do not remain silent. Tell Israelis that they are not alone in the world.”

At this time, you can’t be pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. You must choose. If Palestinians want to make peace with Israel, let them do so according to Israel’s laws. They would have a much better life. Those who cry “From the river to the sea…” are the enemy. My cry is “From the sea to the river, G-d will deliver!” — that G-d is not “Allah” – He is the G-d of Israel.