Guest column by Montgomery County Council Member Andrew Friedson.
On October 7th, 2023, nearly 1,500 innocent civilians were murdered and kidnapped in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. It was a terrorist attack by an internationally recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, which has as its primary goals: to eliminate the State of Israel and to murder Jews. These aren’t freedom fighters; they’re terrorists. This wasn’t an “escalation” by “militants” as part of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was an unprecedented massacre against innocent Jews peacefully attending a music festival and on civilian communities with ISIS-inspired barbarism that has no moral equivalency or justification. It was a systematic slaughter of Jews. A crime against humanity. Full Stop.
Just like there were not “good people on both sides” as Nazis marched in Charlottesville, there is not merely “violence on both sides” of this barbaric terrorist attack. This shouldn’t be hard. And yet, over the past week, it seems to be difficult for far too many public officials and organizations who have equivocated or diminished it, or in the most horrifying instances, somehow even supported and glorified it. There is nothing just or righteous about standing with a terrorist organization in its cold-blooded murder of children and the elderly, indiscriminate attack of peace-loving concert goers, and in the rape, kidnapping, and parading in the streets of tortured Jews.
For countless Jewish people across virtually all religious denominations and political views, there’s a palpable feeling that no other terrorist attack or atrocity against any other group would somehow be “too complicated,” “too controversial,” or “too political” to take a moral stand or offer unequivocal support. It’s why phrases like “a tragic series of events” to describe the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust falls so painfully short. Jews are terrified and many of us feel alone.
For an overwhelming number of Jews, two millennia of anti-Jewish violence isn’t a historical concept. It’s a very real and direct connection to family members murdered during the Holocaust or in Russian and Eastern European pogroms over the past two centuries. Antisemitism turning into violence and genocide isn’t world history; it’s personal for most Jewish families.
This summer, I was in Israel and visited Kibbutz Kfar Aza, less than 2 miles from the Gaza border. I saw the bus stop bomb shelters and the remains of Hamas rockets made from humanitarian supplies intended to support Palestinian residents. I heard the heart-wrenching stories of infants conditioned to raise their arms at the sound of sirens so they could be quickly carried to shelters – before they even learn to speak. Parents shared their sadness overhearing kids mapping out their bike routes based on proximity to bomb shelters along the way. I also heard the clear yearning for peace and the longing for the days before Hamas’s control of Gaza when Palestinian and Jewish children were able to play together.
Kibbutz Kfar Aza was one of more than 20 communities across Southern Israel attacked by Hamas in the massacre. Of the approximately 700 residents who live in the community, more than 100 were murdered, including many children. The graphic photos from the bloody terror attack have forever changed the way I see the photos from my visit there. As I watch the gruesome reports, I viscerally recognize the communal sites I just saw and the loving people I just met.
In the past, a pogrom of this magnitude would have likely begun an inevitable genocide of Jews. That’s why it has shaken virtually all of us to our core, regardless of religious observance, affiliation, or political views.
Today, the State of Israel is responding to this unprecedented attack with support from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, among others in the community of nations. They have a moral obligation and a legal right to defend themselves and to do everything within their power to bring home hostages. I mourn all innocent lives lost: Israeli and Palestinian, American and European, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and atheist. Every innocent loss of life is a tragedy. But make no mistake, Hamas bears responsibility and must be held accountable. As Israel warns Gazan civilians to evacuate in an attempt to avoid civilian casualties, Hamas instructs them to remain as human shields to protect the terrorist organization’s leadership and to inhumanely bolster their public narrative. For Hamas, civilian casualties aren’t collateral damage to their sinister strategy. Maximizing civilian casualties is Hamas’s strategy.
Last night at my synagogue, Congregation Har Shalom, hundreds of community members gathered for a vigil and heard Congressman Jamie Raskin speak. An unabashed and unapologetic leader of America’s progressive political left, he spoke with unambiguous moral clarity, as President Biden did earlier this week. Painfully, far too many others have failed to meet this moment. Indeed, there is no political center on this issue. There is only a moral center, and there is absolutely no space within that moral center to side with terrorists or to support a vicious slaughter of Jews.
The Middle East is complicated, but this massacre against Jews is not.
Hamas does not represent innocent Palestinians any more than the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, represents Iranians, or Hezbollah represents innocent Lebanese civilians. And to be clear: Israel is not at war with Palestinians now; it’s at war with Hamas.
Like those in Kibbutz Kfar Aza did before they were targeted and murdered in their homes, I pray for peace and yearn for a two-state solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side with stability, security, and prosperity. But as long as Gaza is controlled by an oppressive terrorist organization like Hamas, that noble dream can never become a reality.
May the memories of the innocent lives lost be for a blessing as we pray for the safe return of all hostages.
Andrew Friedson is the Vice President of the Montgomery County Council, serving in his second term representing District 1 and chairing the Council’s Planning, Housing & Parks Committee. For his pragmatic, data-driven approach and work supporting local businesses and community organizations, he’s received the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Legislator of the Year, Public Policy Leadership Award from the Center for Nonprofit Advancement, the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad’s Hiram Musgrove Memorial Award, the Western Montgomery County Champion Award, and the Glen Echo Park Advocacy Award.