Love – the most powerful weapon

Hersh Goldberg-Polin could have been any of our sons. In the past 11 months, as his parents, Rachel and Jon, have done all they could to appeal to the world to help bring him and the other hostages home, we got to know him and them.

There’s something in the disarming honesty and love that was so evident in his parents’ pleas for their son that touched all our hearts, especially as parents. Also, as people who understand the true meaning of love.

When his mother called to him across the Gazan border last week and at any other opportunity she could get to tell him she loved him and that he needed to “stay strong and survive”, it resonated with each of us.

I hardly think you had to be Jewish to feel her pain. I’m not sure you had to be anything other than someone who feels love. And the love of a child is, in my opinion, something impossible to replicate.

And Hersh was clearly an incredible young man. Someone who challenged others to think further than they could throw. He made people think. He didn’t just accept things at face value, he pushed the boundaries. We all know youngsters like that. We have children like that. We admire those people for whom life is never simple. But then, simplicity isn’t what they want. To be interesting, challenging, and be able to make a real difference in the world is what they want.

Hersh was that kid. He had strong values and principles, and saw everyone’s pain and humanity.

And this week, I’m not alone in feeling Jon and Rachel’s pain as if we were kin. Hersh was one of the six beautiful young people – Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino included – who managed to survive 11 months of captivity in Gaza. Eleven long and hellish months. We’ll never know what horror they endured in those months because just hours before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were about to rescue them, Hamas executed them one by one.

For the depraved Hamas terrorists, it was better to kill these beautiful souls than for Israel to rescue them and take them home alive. There’s no humanity in people who can think like that!

They were executed in the tunnels under Rafah, close to where the IDF rescued Qaid Farhan Al-Qadi last week. They were so close, the hostages may well have heard the soldiers and even got excited thinking they were about to be rescued.

Do you recall how the slogan, “All eyes on Rafah” went viral on social media with those who hate Israel? Well, clearly their eyes weren’t seeing so well because they missed the innocent hostages stashed in the tunnels underground. They didn’t care, did they? Because, as is evident in our media in South Africa, Jewish lives don’t matter. Imagine ignoring six innocent people who had been held for 11 months and then executed? You don’t need to study journalism to know that that’s international news.

While I may be angry and very sad, I feel the need to take a leaf out of Rachel and Jon’s book. The two of them have in the past 11 months become household faces for us because of their determination to use their voices to bring their son and all the other hostages home. They stopped at nothing.

They – much like their son and the five other hostages – are peace-loving humanitarians. Because of them, Hersh’s smiling face, personality, and story touched all of us, as did the wisdom and love of his parents.

For months, I’ve been quoting Rachel in saying, “In the competition of pain, there are no winners”, referring to the fact that Israelis aren’t the only people suffering in this war. This woman, whose son had his arm blown off before being stolen from her 11 months ago, still didn’t buy into hatred. She still didn’t call for the destruction of innocent people. She continued to love with all her heart.

As she said all those months ago – another comment that really resonated with me – “When you get outraged only when one side’s babies are killed, then your moral compass and humanity is broken.” She made the point that hatred was “seductive and easy”, but not helpful

She asked that people set aside hatred and find solutions to the conflict to stop the killing and bring the hostages home.

When the couple spoke recently at the United States Democratic National Convention, Jon said that although wars were based on politics, holding innocent hostages for all this time wasn’t a political issue, it was a humanitarian disaster.

There’s a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East, and it needs to stop, he said. As he said this, he and Rachel were enduring the worst kind of agony and anguish.

Rachel explained that she and all the family members of those, she said, “were stolen from us” were living on another planet to the rest of the world. “We live on a planet of tears, agony, of no sleep,” she said.

When at that convention and on the Gaza border, her call to her son was spine chilling. Her pain evidently knew no bounds. Turns out that it was days after her calling him at the Gaza border that he was executed.

And even now, her dignity and that of her husband is inspiring. They still have no hate, just love. I have a deep sense that their love is our weapon of survival.

This sentiment clearly echoed around Israel this week at the beginning of the school year. As the country went back to school with deep sadness following the execution of these six young hostages, there were pockets of inspiration.

One soldier drove three hours to ensure that his slain comrade’s daughter didn’t go to her first day at school without a father figure. And there were numerous such stories because of the care and love that was so evident.

As sadness continues to engulf us as long as the hostages are still in Gaza and soldiers and others continue to die and be injured in this war, we can learn from the Goldberg-Polins and choose love rather than hatred.

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor