Al eileh ani bochiya, eini eini yorda mayim . . . Over all these things I weep; my eyes stream with tears . . . ‘
Words from the Book of Lamentations that each year we chant as we lament this time of year on Tisha b’Av.
They have only been amplified since we last said these words last summer, the first Tisha b’Av after Oct. 7.
Thousands of years ago, when the children of Israel were traveling in the desert and cried because they believed the slanders about the land of Israel and erroneously thought they could not enter it, G-d’s response was: Tonight you weep for naught. Therefore I will establish this day as a night of weeping for generations.
From pointless tears as a people, we have since been drenched with real reasons to weep throughout our history.
The slanderous news about our modern day Israel has been coming at us so fast, it’s hard to keep up. And not just that, all the anti-Semitism that has been unleashed. Hard to keep up with that too.
Like playing a dizzying game of whack-a-mole, every time you think you’ve read the worst, and put that blood libel to rest, another one pops up.
The lamentations echo . . .
The suffering in Gaza is reaching crisis levels. It’s heartbreaking to think of the struggle of an innocent family to fight simply to stay alive; of parents needing to spoonful of soup to feed their little children; of adults gathering a small meal to sustain their elderly parents. The situation is brutal.
The lamentations echo . . .
The provisions of food by Israel for the Gazans are all there within Gaza. The distribution of these provisions, by Hamas and the UN, are intentionally withheld.
For Hamas and the UN, the food insecurity crisis is not a bug, but a feature. What better weapon for them against Israel? To churn out footage of Gazans suffering is to cause legacy media, social media and “humanitarian” organizations to hate Israel, which leads to Israel’s becoming shunned and ostracized for its “infliction” of starvation.
It’s a strategy for stoking hate against Israel.
The lamentations echo . . .
Especially the horrific stories and non-AI generated pictures of the children. Truly, it’s heartbreaking. After nearly two years of the mainstream media peddling the lie that Gazans were starving, when in fact they were not, this time it seems, sadly, real.
Somehow, the hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas and thrown into underground dungeons, who have been starved — their plight has mostly not moved the public.
The lamentations echo . . .
The media just fall for this Hamas propaganda. Constantly, articles are published about Israel and the Gaza crises. It’s just breathtaking how this all happened with Hamas invisible: Hamas, who rules Gaza; Hamas, who began this war with barbarism, forcing Israel to defend itself; Hamas, who is choreographing this crises and fattening themselves up on the languishing aid earmarked for the the people they are meant to be taking care of; Hamas, who is enriching itself via the black market prices it slaps onto these stolen goods. Mercilessly, Hamas wields the power — and remains invisible.
Somehow, most mainstream media report about the humanitarian crisis but leaves out Hamas’ critical role, Hamas’ responsibility.
The lamentations echo . . .
In this sense, the hostages of Hamas, the captives of Hamas, are many and they span the globe. Beyond the Israeli hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, also taken hostage with them, albeit in a different dimension, are the hearts and minds of people who call themselves journalists and leaders in the Western world.
The fixation on Israel continues unabated, to the glee of Hamas.
And to the detriment of other parts of the world in crises, like Sudan, for example. If Israel is not part of the equation, why bother concerning oneself with other crises in the world?
The lamentations echo . . .
This is not to say that we can look away from the pain-filled situation in Gaza. We must talk about it with empathy. We must try to feed the innocents who are there, and with as much dignity as possible. Stories of little boys walking for miles to capture a bare minimum of food to walk back to their family. But never making it back because they were shot to death? It’s simply unbearable.
The lamentations echo . . .
It also doesn’t mean that we need to feed the lies and blood libels about Israel, or feed the anti-Semitic monster out there that exploits a terrible situation to place the blame at Israel’s feet, instead of where it belongs: at the feet of Hamas.
Let us find a way around these diabolical people causing the food insecurity and suffering of their own. Let us feed the people in Gaza without feeding the lie that it is we who are starving the children there.
Amidst the many lies of AI generated photos — the sterile starvation scenes replete with squeaky clean pots, the strange added hands, the steaming pots that people hold that obviously could only scorch — these visual lies only serve to trivialize, caricature and sow uncertainty about the genuine suffering.
The lamentations echo . . .
Somehow, for much of mainstream media, these lies have become standard journalism, presented as “evidence” against Israel.
The primary photo that set so many off, and almost became a symbol of the crises, was a Pieta-like scene, this time of a mother’s scarf-draped head, cradling in her hands the tiniest, disturbingly malnourished child, bones jutting, looking on the brink of death. Devastating. It’s almost hard not to look away. Subtly, this image, almost felt like the familiar blood libel, the familiar indictment against the Jewish people: they killed Christian children for for blood of their matzas.
Here they are at it again.
The lamentations, indeed, they echo . . .
Of course, the picture was a manipulation and a lie. The poor little boy wrenchingly reduced to bones and skin and no muscle in sight — whose healthy older brother stood nearby, suffers from Cerebral Palsy, not starvation. I read that Israel helped this mother and and her little boy reach Italy in order to receive medical treatment. I hope that’s true.
David Collier of London was the one who investigated this crushing photo. This image went viral, the truth did not.
The lamentations echo . . .
It’s emotionally obliterating. It’s exhausting. Although we are fighting this war against our will and were forced into it, as long as we are still in Gaza we can’t look away from the pain of the Gazans. We must genuinely be as humane as possible about the agony-laced monster that Hamas has created, that brings dreadful denial of the most basic human needs, upon their own. We also cannot feed the unquenchable hate against Israel. We must fight the lies.
The lamentations echo . . .
Just so, we cannot lose sight of our precious hostages, captives in the catacombs of Hamas brutality.
We can’t lose sight of the fact that this war can end in a moment. Literally. If Hamas would return the hostages. If Hamas would surrender and acknowledge that its barbaric Oct. 7 wasn’t the best idea after all.
Or, perhaps from its morally warped perspective, it was the best idea?
Because many in the the world seems to be falling for its machinations.
And so, the lamentations echo . . .
For Israel’s soldiers. Oh, the brave, heroic and holy soldiers. For, collectively, their brothers and sisters. Their children. Their parents. The tent of the Israeli family. To whom we are indebted. To whom we can never repay the debt.
And these lamentations, they mostly echo the division that marked the launch of our lengthy exile that stretched into thousands of years, the dangerous division that has nearly cleaved and cracked Jewish people, our situation that we seem to be in, at this painful moment.
Lamentations for the terrible calculus of this war that has brought so many of us to intensely diametrically opposite opinions about it, as Sophie’s choices are contemplated and navigated.
End the war. Continue the war. Release the hostages, come what may. How many lives of soldiers should be sacrificed to try and release the hostages? Why leave Gaza in the hands of Hamas after Israel left in 2005 and it brought this terrorist state to Israel’s doorstep? Should we placate and appease those whose onslaught of hate against Israel is so destructive? Shouldn’t Israel stand its ground?
The swirl of these sentiments are all parts that make up our whole, as a people. That make us the Am Yisrael Family that we are. I hope we can hold onto that, and within this deep confusion and desperation; I hope we can listen to each other and find ways to support each other. Whether we like it or not, we are in this together. And none of us is the enemy!
Within these “Al eileh ani bochiya” lamentations, I hope, somehow, Israel will find a way out of this intricately emotional, military, national challenge.
At the end of the day, we are re-learning, that ultimately, we have only each other to lean on.
As we hobble along right now, to counteract the prevailing division, let us try our best to try and strengthen our capacity to listen to one another. Tear by tear, and brick by brick, to be the change.
So that this Tisha b’Av, at this harrowing juncture, will somehow turn out to be the meaningful and valuable inflection point, toward healing.
© IJN 2025
