2 No. 72 JUSTICE write these lines in the dramatic period between October 7, 2024 and January 27, 2025. On October 7, 2024, we marked one year since the Hamas attack against southern Israel, in which thousands of Israelis, men, women and children, civilians and soldiers were murdered, wounded, raped, and kidnapped by a criminal terror organization. This is the most severe attack against the Jewish People since the end of the Second World War and the Holocaust. On January 27, 2025, we will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. That day commemorates the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army. My mother, Ita Linzen (née Weisman), was a survivor of Auschwitz. On January 27, 2025, I will represent the IJL at the ceremony marking the liberation, which will take place in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered 6 million Jews during the Second World War. They had an organized plan – “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question” for the destruction of the Jews of Europe. Prior to the implementation of that plan – there was mass slaughter, the less-industrialized killing of Jews in Nazi Germany, in allied countries, and in the areas conquered by the Nazis. Today, we know that October 7, 2023 was not an isolated incident of an atrocious terror attack, similar to the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States. Today we know that October 7, 2023 was part of a much broader plan, even if the plan was not fully developed and fully implemented. Iran, and its proxies in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, planned one or more attacks, from the north – Lebanon, via Hezbollah, and the south, via Hamas. The plan to attack Israel aimed to bring about the collapse of the State of Israel, and to kill many of its inhabitants. We saw here a clear intention towards genocide, planned, and initiated. We must not look at October 7 as an isolated event on its own, but as part of a continuum which began long before October 7 and continues afterwards. This is an overall war against Israel on seven different fronts. In addition to the physical war, there are unprecedented diplomatic and legal attacks against the State of Israel, intended to undermine its legitimacy, and transform Israel from victim to aggressor. We have also witnessed a huge upsurge in antisemitism against Jews in the Diaspora, notably in the United States, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. We are gratified to note that on the military front, Israel is winning, even though it is paying a heavy price in loss of life and the number of wounded. The Axis of Evil led by Iran has suffered serious blows, the latest being the collapse of the regime in Syria. The Second World War came to an end with the defeat of Germany and the collapse of the Nazi regime. Likewise with the allies of Nazi Germany – fascist Italy and Japan. We are still far away from the collapse of the Axis of Evil led by Iran, and the danger that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons and use them still hovers over Israel and many other nations. Nazi Germany and its allies suffered terrible destruction in the war, and millions of citizens in those countries, especially Germany and Japan, were killed or wounded. But that is the terrible price of a terrible war. During the war that was imposed on Israel, beginning on October 7, 2023, many civilians have been killed or wounded, in particular Palestinians in Gaza, including the elderly, women and children. Hundreds of thousands have been uprooted from their homes. Hamas has used the civilian population as a human shield – most of the military facilities of Hamas and its fighters were placed in densely populated civilian surroundings. The leaders of Hamas have undoubtedly used the civilian population not only as a human shield, but also as a human weapon – physical, diplomatic, and legal – against Israel, with great success. Since the beginning of the war, Israel has found itself the target of diplomatic and legal assault, in intensity unknown since the establishment of the State, and unknown anywhere in modern times. President’s Message I Meir Linzen Photo: Idan Gross
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