The erev Shabbat pre-Tisha b’Av image I lit candles with was the freshly, gleefully released, sadistic Hamas image and video of Rom Braslavski. His deep, wretched pain and utter brokenness was etched in his face — the contortion of his features seeping pure agony
Twenty four hours later, as Shabbat concluded, in the very first moment of Tisha b’Av, the first image and video I saw was that of the freshly, gleefully, sadistic Hamas video of Evyatar David. Blank expression. Life life drained from him. He is deep beneath the ground in the chokingly constrained space, where at this point, he’d been buried alive for nearly two years now. He can barely move his body.
We see a skeletal figure reminiscent of Auschwitz, 1944. A shovel in his hand. He’s made to dig his own impending grave.
We are looking at a grave within a grave.
The waves of gut wrenching pain and rage at witnessing these intentionally orchestrated and manipulated horrors by Hamas are overwhelming.
The surge of blood and emotion at these abuses is visceral. Why haven’t we all stopped the world? Why haven’t we all taken to the streets and never leave them until they — and all the hostages are released?
How could this horror still be? Twenty-two months after Oct. 7?
If the hostages do not all return, G-d forbid, I fear that Israel will not survive this trauma. The depraved Hamas — and whoever the next iteration of this twisted sociopathic ideology will turn out to be — might need to be fought off the next hundred years.
The losses sustained by these staggeringly devastating wars is incalculable. A part of us limps eternally from these losses.
If the seeping wound of the hostages will be left open ended on the scale it has been, I struggle to see how we as a society can ever survive this and heal from this.
There will forever linger a sense of abandonment and betrayal of our brothers and sisters, who were stolen by the claws of Hamas.
After my initial emotional dread triggered by these ghastly, gruesome and ghoulish releases by Hamas — which, in contrast to other images, decidedly not AI generated, but all too real and authentic — I was also struck by the timing.
A lone voice of moral clarity and humanity, embodied in Marko Mikhelson of the foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament, rang out amidst the moral confusion gripping our world these days.
“Hamas’ barbarity does not allow for Estonia and like-minded countries to recognize a Palestinian state” were his brave words.
Why brave? Isn’t it the most obvious response?
It certainly ought to be. Unfortunately, though, we live in a world in which France, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom pervertedly agreed to reward the Oct. 7 massacre of Jews by granting the perpetrators a Palestinian state. Not even with the bare minimum caveat that all Israeli hostages must be released pronto.
Estonia took a stand against this.
But also, wow, I thought to myself, how brazen the timing of Hamas. Even as Hamas is being told by the leaders of European countries that it will soon have a potential state handed to it, Hamas isn’t fazed. It releases to the world the evidence of its brutal savagery, its ruthless cruelty to Jewish Israeli hostages thrown into tunnel dungeons.
Hamas was not worried the offer of a state being withdrawn.
Hamas’ brazen action projects their confidence that its propaganda campaign to pressure the world against Israel has succeeded. Hamas has a critical mass of useful idiots under his spell, in their power, in the palm of its hand.
Hamas is confident they it can rely on the subconscious “oldest hate” in the world against, in this case, the country that is symbolic of the Jew.
Wait a second, though, I thought to myself. Still, there is still a veneer of posturing in our world. Decent leaders of seemingly decent countries will have no choice but to condemn the sadistic images of Hamas. You’d think it’s obviously bad PR for them. The ultimate act of self-sabotage.
Hamas has just been pledged a state by heads of countries. And this is the time Hamas makes to release to the world? This footage is the “thank you” note they send out in return?
To remind everyone of its barbarism, since apparently these countries of Canada, France and Great Britain experienced a moment of amnesia?
And that’s when the penny dropped for me.
Oh. This is, in fact, sabotage.
By releasing the sickening photos and footage of the precious hostages, it’s as though Hamas literally just sent out a message saying:
“Thanks France, Canada, Italy and Great Britain for the expression of goodwill toward us in your offer of a state, in your alignment with our villainy — we really appreciate it.
“But, no thanks. We’d rather not have a state where it will demand the hard work of taking responsibility, functionality, diplomacy, caring for our own citizens and, yes, humanity. In fact, in terms of accomplishing our goals and raison d’etre, to ruin the Jews, to ruin the Jewish state, to turn almost everyone against it, we’re doing just fine. Our Oct. 7 massacre plan is going swimmingly.
“So again, thanks, but no thanks.We’d prefer to tie Israel into a forever existential war or ongoing violence, so they never have a moment of peaceful existence. That’s all we need.”
How else to explain Hamas’ macabre move?
It’s true, human pain, be it that of Palestinians or Israelis, is just an instrument to be used and abused and exploited by Hamas for whatever sociopathic goal it might have at any given moment. If Hamas can destroy its own people in the process of them tormenting, hurting and decimating Jews or the Jewish State, that’s fine. By Hamas metrics, it’s a win.
Lose-lose is not a concept it cares about.
And so, the common denominator behind the pictures and photos of starvation coming out of Gaza, be it of starved Israeli Jews or starved Palestinians, is one culprit only. That is, Hamas. Full stop.
Be it the shattering Tisha b’Av pictures of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, or last week’s blood libel of using the heartbreaking health crisis of Muhammad Zakaria al-Mutawaq cradled in his mother’s arms peddled by mainstream media such as the front page of The New York Times as “proof” of Israel starving Palestinians — all of these pictures of pain from originate with the tactics of Hamas.
Hamas, which now has the tacit endorsement France, Canada, Italy and Great Britain.
Israel is a country whose credo is: Avoid war at all costs! But if you are at war, and in Israel’s case, an existential war, a war they did not start or ask for, make sure you win that war.
Because at that broken point, that is what can ironically help create a path to peace.
Tisha b’Av is behind us. Shabbat Nachamu is before us. The Shabbat of Solace and Consolation.
We begin reading the shiva d’nechemta, the seven weeks of consolation, chanted on Shabbat in synagogue until Rosh Hashanah.
Once again, this summer, these normally moving and healing texts of consolation seem dissonant, given the pain of our war-torn reality. Navigating them last summer was at once both challenging and inspirational.
Here we are again. Somehow, the veil of Tisha b’Av doesn’t quite feel like it’s lifted.
And yet.
Af al pi kein.
Nevertheless.
It is “Shabbat Nachamu.”
We will find ways to connect to the solace that the prophet Isaiah sent us in his three powerful words that have been a balm for the Jewish people throughout the generations.
“Nachamu, Nachamu Ami.”
© IJN 2025
