I watched two British/Israeli citizens speak on the BBC at an open forum in Central London early this morning. They had grown up on a Kibbutz together that is near Gaza. They spoke of the unimaginable grief that they shared as one of their mothers had been taken hostage by Hamas and the other’s friend’s autistic daughter had been taken as well. The woman’s father had worked for peace all of his life. He took pride in having many Arab friends. Their calm and serious manner represented the solution to solving a crisis that Israel had not seen since the Holocaust.

Secretary Of State Anthony Blinken spoke of being Jewish. He talked of members of his family escaping the Holocaust. He told the audience in the Joint Press Conference that he and Prime Minister Netanyahu were conducting; that the photos that he had witnessed were beyond words and overwhelming.

MJ and I sit in peace and harmony and a seeming security that will ensure our years of retirement. This is what the residents of the Kibbutz thought as well. The thing about Terror is that it happens when you least expect it. Hamas had no consideration for the babies the young the old and the infirm. The government had taken its eye off the security of the nation. Israel is noted for having the best security in the world.

Terror changes everything. The veneer of safety that we enjoy is torn away and we discover that there are barbarians. Barbarians do their crimes against humanity and genocide by perverting their holy writings. I had a supervisor at Southern Illinois University tell me that God had commanded his armies in the Old Testament to kill every one of whom they were fighting and to bash the babies’ heads against the wall. Have we forgotten that what binds us together is that the people who were butchered the babies who were riddled with bullets and those who were decapitated…were human…

When Israel and the United States are compared by population…they have experienced 10 9/11s.

Religion has proven to be not effective against tribalism and feverish zealotry. The marginalization and dehumanization of a group of people is the story of religious persecution. A political candidate is saying that immigrants are deleting the blood of our country…Hitler said the same…