The Content Jedi Blog

Supplied: Times of Israel

The first blog post I wrote right after October 7, 2023 was titled, “The Avalanche of Jewish Hate Makes it Impossible to Grieve.” 

I stressed that Jews who care and pay attention couldn’t just sit with and process the grief of so many killed, raped, and kidnapped. We had to also contend with anger, frustration, and betrayal. 

We wanted to strangle every Hamas and Gazan perpetrator, we were maddened by the media’s both-sides and whataboutism, and we were gobsmacked by the hypocrisy of liberals and progressives who celebrated the genocidal massacre of Jews. 

And our hearts pounded with the anxious anticipation of more antisemitism lurking around the corner. 

504 days later (as of this writing), the Bibas children were returned in tiny coffins, and I’m still unable to create the space for pure and unadulterated grieving. I had hoped against hope that Shiri, Ariel, and Baby Kfir would return alive. I’ve spoken with many in the last two days who were less heartbroken than me, not because they don’t care, but because they pre-grieved out of certainty from the beginning that the Bibas’s were killed. I couldn’t let myself go there. I wasn’t in denial; rather, I leaned into hope, not fatalism. After all, Hatikvah, the Israeli National Anthem literally means “The Hope.” 

One of the three D’s of antisemitism is delegitimization, as in Israel is not a legitimate country and therefore doesn’t have the right to exist. Since October 7, the scope of delegitimization has expanded, impacting Jews globally and creating a permission structure to invalidate our feelings. 

I’ve decided that it’s okay that I can’t silo my grief and anger, so I’m going to share how I’m processing each emotion. 

Grief

Each time I view a picture of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, whether on the news, in my social media feeds, or on billboards when I was in Israel, I see my wife and sons in them. My Facebook memory yesterday was of a video of my younger son, Evan, when he was nine months-old, the same age that Kfir was when he was kidnapped. This ripped me apart.

Anger

Shiri, Ariel, Kfir, and Yarden, the husband and father (who was released alive last week), were kidnapped by armed Gazans who handed them over to Hamas. The international community has assigned more value and empathy to “civilians” complicit in Hamas’ atrocities than the Israeli peaceniks who they brutalized.

Grief

Their smiles and brilliant red hair were symbols of hope and reminders that this is a just war. Now, the images of these innocent, little boys destroy me.

Anger

Swaths of the antiracist, LBGTQ+, #MeToo, and how dare you put kids in cages and separate families advocates have seen side-by-side images of Kfir Bibas and Hamas terrorists and consciously decided that, “I’m with the guy wearing a sinister mask, battle vest, and wielding a Kalashnikov who rapes and kills children.”

Grief

I have to imagine that Yarden Bibas persevered through 16 months of squalid captivity in Hamas’ dungeonous tunnels, because he envisioned the day when he would hug his wife and children. My heart bleeds for him and his shattered world.

Anger

That macabre, sadistic parade was a new low even for Hamas and Gazans, if there’s such a thing. Beyond the pomp and circumstance with which they treated the transfer of bodies to the Red Cross, Hamas was sure to include evil Easter eggs. A banner on the stage showed an image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a blood-sucking vampire and captions blaming the IDF for killing the Bibas family in an airstrike. Inscribed on each casket were the Arabic words for “Arrested on October 7, 2023,” as though Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir committed the crime of being ripped from their homes and taken hostage. Worse still, Hamas did not provide the keys to the locks on the coffins.

Grief

It is Jewish tradition to hold a funeral when there is a body or remains to be laid to rest or cremated. This may be Yarden’s only sliver of comfort, and that is crushing.

Anger

Hamas did not return the body of Shiri Bibas. Instead she was replaced with a Gazan, another reminder of the boundless depravity of these monsters and their psychological warfare.

Grief

Shiri was 32, the same age as my wife when she gave birth to Jake, our oldest son. Kfir was murdered when he was 10 months-old, a time when children begin to develop a sense of self, a marvel for parents to see. Ariel was 4 and deserved to experience life like his free peers.

Anger

Forensic evidence determined that Hamas brutally murdered the children using their bare hands to choke them to death. Then, they mutilated the bodies. To be shot or stabbed is horrific enough, but there is a unique, barbaric intention to choose to end a child’s life with your hands.       

This horrible news and these grotesque events have occurred in rapid succession over the course of the last 36 hours. Sprinkled in were six terror bombings throughout Israel. Hamas and their terrorist proxies know what they’re doing. They understand that they have the majority of the Eastern world, a large cohort of the West, and “humanitarian” organizations like the United Nations, Amnesty International, and The Red Cross on their side. 

There is nothing more sacrosanct to Hamas and their enablers than the erasure of Jews. While they and most of the Palestinians of Gaza, including children, party in the streets and take their shitty little victory laps, Jewish communities worldwide continue to love, fight hatred, and coalesce around our beautiful Israel. 

There’s chatter that the slaying of the Bibas family signals that Hamas has crossed a red line. What people need to understand is that the line was crossed on October 7, and on that day, Hamas signed its own death warrant. 

Israel has killed over 20,000 Hamas terrorists, including its top leaders and October 7 masterminds, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Al-Sinwar.

The aim from the outset of the war was to eliminate the terror group, and now there’s greater urgency to finish the job sooner than later and rid the world of these modern day repulsive Nazis.

About the Author, David Telisman

I am a Writer and Content Creator, and I work with businesses to inspire their customers to buy from them. I believe that my clients deserve to feel proud of how their content marketing looks and what it says, and I deliver by providing expert copywriting and marketing solutions.

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