As I approached the entrance of Kibbutz Nir Oz, I saw a crowd of
delegates and journalists gathered around former Ambassador to the
United Nations and presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Haley was
speaking with two members of the Kibbutz, Rita Lifshitz and Ron Baht,
who would guide her through the homes and recount the stories of the
murdered victims and the captives. Nikki appeared calm and somber, yet I
wondered how nervous she might be, remembering my own first time
entering a war zone to witness one of the worst atrocities in modern
human history.
Nir Oz was one of the kibbutzim devastated on October 7, with 80 of
its members murdered and 30 kidnapped. In a small community of 380, this
meant that one in four members of the Kibbutz were either kidnapped or
killed by Hamas terrorists.
We began walking with Nikki to the home of Oded and Yocheved
Lifshitz, two members of Nir Oz who were kidnapped and are Rita's
in-laws. Yocheved was released in October as a propaganda act of "good
faith" by Hamas, during which she met with Hamas leadership, who spoke
to her in Hebrew. Yocheved's husband, Oded, a retired Israeli
journalist, remains in Hamas captivity.
Nikki walked through the homes of several other murdered and
kidnapped members of the Kibbutz, including Carmela Dan and her
granddaughter Noya Dan. Noya's photo, showing her dressed in a Harry
Potter costume, was widely circulated and even shared by J.K. Rowling,
the author of the Harry Potter series. We also visited the home of the
Bibas family, whose two red-headed boys have become symbols of the
hostages. Kfir Bibas remains the youngest hostage in Gaza, and the
status of his whereabouts, as well as those of his four-year-old brother
Ariel and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, is still unknown.
After emerging from the safe room of a home that was completely
burned and destroyed, Nikki asked Rita about her stance on peace and how
she could recover, knowing that the Palestinian workers planned this
attack and "gave Hamas the information." Rita responded, "We here in the
Kibbutzim are peace fighters. My father-in-law Oded would take children
to hospitals near the Gaza border; in 1984, he went to Gaza to teach
them better education. Then Hamas came in and took over, teaching them
hate for twenty years. We still believe and know there must be peace
with the Palestinian people, not with Hamas."
We then followed Nikki and her delegation to the site of the Re'im
Supernova massacre. As we drove, we noticed dark spots in random areas
of the road, knowing these marks were from cars with people in them who
were torched and burned alive. We arrived at the site of the massacre,
where 364 festival-goers and police officers were murdered, and Nikki
greeted Tali Binner, a survivor of the festival. I recognized Tali from
Sheryl Sandberg's documentary "Screams Before Silence." Tali hid in a
trailer at the festival and, while hiding, heard the piercing screams of
multiple women being raped and the cries of those watching, begging the
Hamas rapists to stop. The screams continued for over ten or fifteen
minutes, followed by a gunshot, then silence. Tali explained how
difficult it is for her to testify, but she feels compelled to because
so many are denying the heinous crimes she directly experienced on
October 7.
Nikki asked Tali, "How were they [the terrorists] dressed?" Tali
responded, "At the beginning, they were dressed in uniform, with
headbands. As time passed, when I came out of the trailer, I saw people
who looked like normal civilians, people dressed like me." Nikki then
asked, "What do you take away from this?" Tali explained how she used to
vote for Meretz and believed in peace and dialogue, but that changed on
that Black Saturday.
We concluded the press tour at the old police station in Sderot,
where Nikki described her experience. She said that in Kibbutz Nir Oz,
they saw "home after home that wasn't just destroyed, but every house we
walked into was a total nightmare. You saw families struggling for
their lives, trying to protect their kids, with the only means of
defense being to hold the doors as tightly as they could to keep the
terrorists out." She added, "What was very clear was that they knew what
they were doing. They knew exactly which houses to go to. They knew
exactly who was going to be in those houses. This was incredibly
orchestrated and very detailed."
Nikki concluded on a powerful note: "To all Israelis, don't listen to
the soundbites you hear in the media. America stands with you.
Americans are with you. We are connected to you."
Nikki Haley signs artillery shells
near the northern border of Israel on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. She wrote, "Finish them! America loves Israel!" on some of them.
Nikki Haley has always maintained a firm pro-Israel stance, but why
is her visit so important? Witnessing the October 7 crimes has changed
me forever—not just emotionally but as a fundamental part of my
identity. To strengthen the bonds between Israelis and Americans and for
American leadership to truly understand the horrors we faced and why we
must continue to fight until the hostages are returned, we need all
high-ranking US officials to witness what we did on October 7 and
experience a profound transformation. I do not doubt that after
processing everything, Nikki Haley will return to the US forever changed
as well, and more sure than ever before that she is standing on the
right side of history.
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