Even after the horrors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks, almost 16 months of war, missile volleys from Iran and the Houthis, and the global crisis of anti-Semitism, there are still events that have the capacity to outrage Jews and Israelis.
Following a grotesque Hamas ceremony in Gaza on Thursday, the remains of Shiri Bibas, and her two young children Ariel and Kfir, were returned to Israel after more than 500 days in Gaza. The children’s father, Yarden, had been released earlier this month, but he will have hardly returned home. Consumed with uncertainty over the fate of his wife and two small children, Yarden Bibas traded one razor-edged waiting game for another, until Hamas finally announced that his family was dead earlier this week.
No image better conveys the unimaginable evil of Palestinian jihadism than that of Shiri Bibas on October 7, panicked and bewildered, attempting to protect – to parent – her two tiny sons as heavily-armed militants taunted and terrorised them. The treatment of the Bibas family reflected the sheer ruthlessness and inhumanity of the terrorists – whether Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or non-aligned Gazan civilians – who invaded southern Israel that day, intent on kidnap and murder.
Ever since, Israelis – along with their supporters – had been girding themselves for news of the Bibas trio. Hamas claimed earlier in the war that all three were killed in an Israeli bombardment. But other hostages that the terrorists had said were dead turned out to be very much alive. This was the sliver of hope that Israelis, and Jews worldwide, had held onto.
It is a hope that has now been cruelly extinguished. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups took 251 people hostage on October 7, but somehow the Bibas family was different. Not because their lives meant more than those of any of the others snatched into Gaza, but because of the sheer outrage that came from the violent abduction of a nine-month old baby, Kfir – a name that means lion cub in Hebrew – along with his older brother and mother.
Now Israel is a nation consumed by grief, but also rage. And I can feel that rage reaching boiling point among my fellow Jews worldwide, too. You saw it on Tuesday night in Boro Park, Brooklyn – when pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed this mostly Jewish neighbourhood as a real estate event was taking place. Like with so many of these anti-Semitic melees, the anti-Israel activists turned violent. But this time, the Jews defended themselves.
A similar sense of spontaneous bravado was displayed by comic Jerry Seinfeld this week when he was confronted by a “fan”, who requested a selfie and then declared “free Palestine”. Seinfeld deadpanned “I don’t care about Palestine,” and blithely went on his way. I know how Seinfeld feels.
I also don’t care much about Palestine, not because I’m indifferent to Palestinian suffering. But as Seinfeld so succinctly made clear, the world doesn’t need Jews to “care about Palestine” right now – the rest of the world is doing a great job of that for us. The world needs Jews to care about Jews, because we clearly cannot count on anyone else to do so.
As I return from my third visit to Israel since the war with Hamas began, I’m struck that it is a society simmering with fury. Many are angry at their government for allowing the blackmail-like ceasefire to have been signed – even as they rejoice at the sight of some of the hostages returning alive. Others are outraged at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to adequately support widows, business-owners, terror attack survivors, and the endless parade of maimed young men now commonplace across the country. The economy is suffering, education is suffering, everyone is suffering.
It is a country that was hoping for a miracle, through the safe return of two ginger-haired tykes in their mother’s arms. Those dreams have been dashed. What remains is anger – anger at a world that showed itself largely indifferent to the fate of Yarden, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.
David Christopher Kaufman is a New York Post columnist
Even after the horrors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks, almost 16 months of war, missile volleys from Iran and the Houthis, and the global crisis of anti-Semitism, there are still events that have the capacity to outrage Jews and Israelis.
Following a grotesque Hamas ceremony in Gaza on Thursday, the remains of Shiri Bibas, and her two young children Ariel and Kfir, were returned to Israel after more than 500 days in Gaza. The children’s father, Yarden, had been released earlier this month, but he will have hardly returned home. Consumed with uncertainty over the fate of his wife and two small children, Yarden Bibas traded one razor-edged waiting game for another, until Hamas finally announced that his family was dead earlier this week.
No image better conveys the unimaginable evil of Palestinian jihadism than that of Shiri Bibas on October 7, panicked and bewildered, attempting to protect – to parent – her two tiny sons as heavily-armed militants taunted and terrorised them. The treatment of the Bibas family reflected the sheer ruthlessness and inhumanity of the terrorists – whether Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or non-aligned Gazan civilians – who invaded southern Israel that day, intent on kidnap and murder.
Ever since, Israelis – along with their supporters – had been girding themselves for news of the Bibas trio. Hamas claimed earlier in the war that all three were killed in an Israeli bombardment. But other hostages that the terrorists had said were dead turned out to be very much alive. This was the sliver of hope that Israelis, and Jews worldwide, had held onto.
It is a hope that has now been cruelly extinguished. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups took 251 people hostage on October 7, but somehow the Bibas family was different. Not because their lives meant more than those of any of the others snatched into Gaza, but because of the sheer outrage that came from the violent abduction of a nine-month old baby, Kfir – a name that means lion cub in Hebrew – along with his older brother and mother.
Now Israel is a nation consumed by grief, but also rage. And I can feel that rage reaching boiling point among my fellow Jews worldwide, too. You saw it on Tuesday night in Boro Park, Brooklyn – when pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed this mostly Jewish neighbourhood as a real estate event was taking place. Like with so many of these anti-Semitic melees, the anti-Israel activists turned violent. But this time, the Jews defended themselves.
A similar sense of spontaneous bravado was displayed by comic Jerry Seinfeld this week when he was confronted by a “fan”, who requested a selfie and then declared “free Palestine”. Seinfeld deadpanned “I don’t care about Palestine,” and blithely went on his way. I know how Seinfeld feels.
I also don’t care much about Palestine, not because I’m indifferent to Palestinian suffering. But as Seinfeld so succinctly made clear, the world doesn’t need Jews to “care about Palestine” right now – the rest of the world is doing a great job of that for us. The world needs Jews to care about Jews, because we clearly cannot count on anyone else to do so.
As I return from my third visit to Israel since the war with Hamas began, I’m struck that it is a society simmering with fury. Many are angry at their government for allowing the blackmail-like ceasefire to have been signed – even as they rejoice at the sight of some of the hostages returning alive. Others are outraged at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to adequately support widows, business-owners, terror attack survivors, and the endless parade of maimed young men now commonplace across the country. The economy is suffering, education is suffering, everyone is suffering.
It is a country that was hoping for a miracle, through the safe return of two ginger-haired tykes in their mother’s arms. Those dreams have been dashed. What remains is anger – anger at a world that showed itself largely indifferent to the fate of Yarden, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.
David Christopher Kaufman is a New York Post columnist