On October 7, 2023, at 6:30 a.m., sirens tore through the morning.

Rockets blazed across the sky. I huddled with friends in a stairwell, hearts racing, phones buzzing with unthinkable alerts: Hamas was invading, killing, kidnapping. That fear is seared into me forever. For Israelis, this is life—knowing terror could strike any moment. Most in the West can’t fathom it. You’re fortunate to live without that dread.

That day, Hamas unleashed hell—over 1,200 dead, the worst day for Jews since the Holocaust. Beyond rockets, they stormed homes, tortured, raped, mutilated. At the Nova Music Festival, where thousands danced in joy, they hunted. Survivors witnessed executions, sexual violence, horrors in daylight. UN reports from 2024 confirm it: rape, gang-rape, atrocities across kibbutzim like Be’eri. Hamas’s own body cams streamed their evil, bragging without remorse. They wanted the world to watch.

Israel isn’t just a country; it’s our homeland, defended for 3,000 years. Hamas tried to erase us, our history, our existence. They took 251 hostages—children, elderly, civilians, soldiers—dragged to Gaza. These aren’t prisoners of war; their captivity is a war crime. Hamas starves them, denies care, while survivors like Amit Sussana reveal haunting truths of captivity.

The IDF struck back—precise, unlike Hamas. Terrorists kill civilians to instill fear; Hamas slaughtered over 1,200 innocent civilians. The IDF targets fighters, not families, despite Hamas hiding in hospitals, launching rockets from Al-Shifa, storing weapons in UN buildings—war crimes under Geneva and Hague laws. Their 300–400 miles of tunnels, built with stolen aid, protect weapons, not civilians. Israel delivered 1.2 million tons of aid—food, medicine—since October 7, yet Hamas hoards it. The IDF’s civilian-to-combatant death ratio, 1:1 to 1:1.5, is lower than any modern urban war. Facts speak clearly.

Hamas’s attack wasn’t just violence—it was moral depravity. Rape, murder, a baby held hostage for 500 days—is that “resistance”? No, it’s terrorism, evil unmasked. Nothing justifies hunting innocents. Hamas doesn’t seek peace; they seek our erasure, using Gaza’s civilians as shields while flaunting their barbarity. Their charter and actions declare it: Israel’s just the beginning. The West is next—anyone who rejects their hate. This isn’t our fight alone; it’s a warning for freedom and justice everywhere.

Yet the world wavers. On October 8, crowds in London, New York, Sydney cheered Hamas, chanting for our destruction. In Canada, a teacher told me Jews, victims of the Holocaust, are now “genociding” Gaza. I argued for 40 minutes, defending our right to exist. Every Jew faces this—someone attacking our identity, calling us murderers when we’re defending our homeland. Kanye West, with 33 million X followers, fuels antisemitism reaching twice the world’s Jewish population. That’s the West’s moral compass: broken, blind to right and wrong.

But we endure. Jews are resilient. From the Holocaust’s ashes, we built Israel in 1948. After October 7, we mourned—may the victims’ memory be a blessing—but we rose stronger. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s grip weakens; Israel stands united, safer. We’ll rebuild, sing, dance again, reclaiming the joy they tried to steal. Israel fights for life, law, a homeland earned over millennia. We’re the good guys, and we’ll keep rising.