Tuesday, October 9, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 6
by Nicole Russell
by Nicole Russell
We were supposed to learn a lesson about the dangers of antisemitism and the depths of evil it can drive from the terror inflicted on Oct. 7, 2023.
The world watched in horror as Hamas murdered about 1,200 Israelis, including hundreds of civilians in their homes, on the streets of their neighborhoods and at a music festival. Hamas took at least 250 people hostage; about 100 remain in captivity, including seven Americans.
We saw, through video and photos taken during the Oct. 7 attack, a barbaric terrorist organization, driven by hate and antisemitism, rape and murder without mercy.
We were moved as Israel, grief-stricken and shocked, found strength to fight Hamas − and now Hezbollah and Iran − with all its might.
But we soon realized that not everyone in America and other countries has learned the lesson of Oct. 7.
Far too many continue to harbor hate, to let discrimination fester toward Jewish people, and it’s not just in Gaza and Iran − it’s in America, too.
Horrific Oct. 7 attack showed depths of depravity
Aside from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I have not seen anything like the Oct. 7 attack that Hamas perpetrated on Israel. Like much of the world, I was aghast.
I’m not Jewish, but count many Jewish Americans as friends and colleagues. As a Christian, I believe they are God’s chosen people. I don’t have to be Jewish to be horrified by what transpired or to empathize with Israelis’ desire for safety.
The aftermath of the initial attack, including first-person accounts of rape, murder and mutilation, is seared into my mind. I found myself in shock. How could this happen in our modern-day world? It looked like something from a horror film or in a dystopian universe.
After being rescued, several women held captive in tunnels in Gaza revealed that members of Hamas tortured and sexually assaulted them.
Hamas took about 30 children hostage. The youngest turned a year old while in captivity. In other words, babies. Hamas took babies captive. It’s nauseating.
This is not just a war about land. This is not just about religious and ethnic hostilities going back millennia.
This also is about the depths of human depravity and what people will do to one another in the name of hate.
Antisemitism in America is worse than we thought
A year after the attack, it’s still hard to believe a crime of this magnitude happened on our watch.
To my horror, antisemitism didn’t just spread to the United States after the attack. It was already here. The Oct. 7 attack unearthed it and galvanized antisemites to be more vocal than ever before.
In America, pro-Palestinian pleas for a cease-fire turned into violence. Protesters on university campuses harassed Jewish students, damaged university property and launched into antisemitic tirades.
In April, Jewish students were told to flee Columbia University for fear of bullying and violence. Administrators announced the university would hold classes online as a precaution. Similar demonstrations also happened at Yale.
Protests blurred the lines between being pro-Palestine and anti-Jewish or anti-American.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik tried to appease protesters and hate-filled elitists with a stern lecture. She failed. Under pressure because of the surge in antisemitism on campus, Shafik stepped down as president in August.
She became the third leader of an Ivy League university to do so. We must not look away from the evil of terrorism
Since Oct. 7, I have watched two newer films about the Holocaust, “The Zone of Interest” and “Irena’s Vow.” The first is about the life of an Auschwitz commandant and his family living next door to the infamous death camp. The second is the moving story of a Polish woman who hides several Jews while working for a Nazi officer. One is infuriating, and the other is inspiring.
Every time I learn something new about the Holocaust − a lesson on good and evil − I wonder how Oct. 7 could have happened at all, let alone stoke the flames of antisemitism in the United States. The United States is supposed to be a haven for lovers of liberty, not a conclave for antisemites emboldened to spread bigotry.
It’s vital on this anniversary of such an awful day that we make ourselves reckon with the terrorism that happened in Israel. We cannot look away. We cannot harbor hatred and antisemitism in this country. We must condemn it, and defend our Jewish friends and neighbors.
The only way to not forget is to force ourselves to remember the lesson we were supposed to learn from Oct. 7.
Author is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY
