“NEVER AGAIN” is a phrase or a slogan which refers to the lessons learned from the Holocaust and other genocides. The phrase may originate from Yitzhak Lamdan’s 1927 poem in which he stated “Never again shall Masada fall!”
Masada is an ancient fortress occupying a location high on a flat plateau above the Dead Sea in Israel. It is a symbol of determination and heroism.
“NEVER AGAIN” Is Why
The exact meaning of the phrase “Never Again” is to avert a second Holocaust and that Jews will never be slaughtered wholesale. If universally applied, it is to prevent all forms of genocide.
As an aid to prevent a Holocaust, since 1948 Jews have been ingathering in their ancestral land of Israel where they can defend themselves. They developed a mighty national defense force to be able to protect themselves from their enemies.
The state of Israel was largely founded by Holocaust survivors. They arrived in Israel after WWII with broken souls due to the loss of their immediate families and the national loss of 6 million Jews.
The first generation of Holocaust survivors grew up in homes and in a country that suffered the Holocaust, the emotional aftermath of the wholesale slaughter of Jews. This generation was appended to the Holocaust through their parents. To them it was personal. After all, they were the children of parents who lost their families, sometimes the entire family in Nazi forced labor camps, Nazi death camp gas chambers, through starvation and mass slaughter by all means the Nazis applied.
The Fading Of “NEVER AGAIN”
The first generation of Holocaust survivors swore to the slogan “NEVER AGAIN” and I am sure they meant it. However, as the Holocaust first generation aged and the younger generation in Israel became more universal, the Holocaust was pushed to a distant history corner. It was largely ignored while Antisemitism, worldwide, rose to new heights.
Sadly, the lesson of “NEVER AGAIN” has been systematically lost with each new generation of Jews born more years distant from the Holocaust.
Antisemitism Is Arab Enmity
But in Israel the proverbial antisemitism does not exist. It has been replaced with Arab enmity.
Antisemitism has been mostly perpetrated by the Arab Muslim world and their anti-Semite cronies who have been emulating Nazi antisemitism propaganda. Additionally, the Arab-Muslim countries surrounding Israel are anti-Israel or as they phrase it anti-Zionism, which is Antisemitism. They constantly threaten Israel’s existence since its founding. They launched wars and routinely practiced terrorism to subvert Israel with the final goal to annihilate what they call “the Jewish colonial enterprise,” the sovereign state of Israel.
These Arab-Muslim countries do not accept Israel’s presence in the Middle East, the presence of Jews in their close to 4000 year old ancestral land. They think that they have an exclusive right to every square inch of this land where Jews are the indigenous people.
October 2023 Holocaust
BUT, a fast and decisive Holocaust took place in Israel on October 7, 2023, perpetrated by a modern Nazi force named Hamas.
Until some twenty years ago when most of the Holocaust survivors were still alive Jews understood what the words “NEVER AGAIN” stood for.
As the Holocaust survivors came to old age and left the world and Israel became a strong state where life for Jews affords comfort of living the Holocaust slowly turned into a page in not too far History.
The Israelites relied heavily on their military might so that “NEVER AGAIN” would stand firm in its never again words.
And the slogan “NEVER AGAIN” did not stand for its purpose. neither did it prevent the Holocaust type carnage that took place in Israel on October 7, 2023.
A swarm of Arab terrorists from the Gaza terror enclave, activated by the Hamas terror organization and terror sponsor Iran, driven by the only force to perpetrate a mass murder of Jews surprisingly breached the border fence between Israel and Gaza. They arrived to activate their life purpose. They ran amok to murder defenseless Jewish-Israeli civilians all of whom were taken by surprise and could not defend themselves.
These bloodthirsty terrorists murdered youth who were dancing their heart away in a rave; babies, kids, youth, parents, the elderly were all indiscriminately murdered at gunpoint. The savages burned innocent civilians and decapitated victims while alive. The atrocities they perpetrated are very difficult to fathom and more so to describe.
The enlightened humanity was thrown out of its moral comfort cradle.
We Ask Why It Happened
One may ask, “Why did it happen?” The answer may be clear to some and not to others. But everyone should be clear that people without the means to defend themselves fall victim to those who come to kill them.
Sarcastically, there is a line in Torah, the scriptures Jews follow that warns them that when one comes to kill you, you’re directed to kill him/them first. The protection of your life is in your own hands. Those hands should have and hold the appropriate weapon for one’s self-defense.
But the people in Israel heavily rely on their Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and their ability to carry a gun, their personal protective means is limited. In a country that is surrounded by enemies from within and without, this is unacceptable.
With fury I write here. At a public dance festival that took place very near the border with a hostile Hamas entity in Gaza, the hundreds of attendees were unarmed but for a few security guards protecting them. From where there are daily calls to kill Jews, from where rockets are very often launched into Israel at will and from those bombardments the surrounding Israeli communities suffer the most, the dance rave attendees were defenseless when the terrorists came to slaughter them.
It is easy to understand terrorists; they aim to murder defenseless, unarmed people in order to cause as much blood spill and mayhem as possible. This is because the unarmed are an easy and safe target that make it easy to execute the terror goal. The targets don’t shoot back.
Jews of the Holocaust 1st generation knew they must ensure that “NEVER AGAIN” was a solid slogan. That Jews must never be defenseless again. That the nation of Israel must build a military might and its military must have a heavy presence, close by to its civilian population centers. And Israel that emerged from the ashes of WWII was supposed to be such a state until last Saturday, October 7, 2023.
So the question to Israel is, why at the southern Israel rave weren’t there armed civilians?
To Whom The Land Of Israel Belongs
Until now the world has not been able to see Israel as an indigenous entity in the land of Israel. Islamic history in the land of Israel began with the conquest of Jerusalem by Caliph Umar, one of the prophet Muhammad’s closest companions and served as his second successor (khalifa) after Abu Bakr in 635 (or 638). Ever since then the Arabians have held a grip on the land of Israel, where they spread their occupation wings without any dictate to be there or own it.
The Jews of Israel are the indigenous people; the Arab-Islamic people are an invading hostile ethnic group who tried their invading luck all the way to the gates of Vienna where they were stopped in 1636.
The Siege of Vienna, (July 17–September 12, 1683), by the Muslim-Ottomans siege against the Habsburg Holy Roman (Christian) emperor Leopold I resulted in the Muslims’ defeat. The lifting of the siege marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman domination in Eastern Europe.
In 1948, the Jewish people succeeded in forming their 3rd Commonwealth as the modern State of Israel, with a clear history going back 3,000 plus years on that very specific piece of land. The Arabian-Muslim invaders can deny these facts all they want; history makes it clear and archaeology substantiates the facts that the land was and thus is the land of the Jews from time immemorial.
About Islam
The world needs to get a grip on historical facts. Since the 12th Century Islam has been on a trajectory to become a global Islamic hegemony. The Muslims not only claim that the land of Israel which they conquered is theirs, but they have a universal claim that any land where Islam sets foot is theirs to keep for eternity. Anyone objecting to this claim is up for a vicious fight.
Today Muslims have put a foot in Europe, Asia, and South America, even the United States. As their numbers grow in each of these lands, they establish exclusive enclaves under Islamic Sharia Law exercised in parallel to the host country’s laws which are antithetical to any western culture.
When Islam is resisted then war and destruction occur. That is what Jews in the land of Israel have been living with since the end of the 19th century when Jews began arriving to escape Russian pogroms. That is what the Islamist-Nazi type terrorist group Hamas inflicted on Israel since it took over rule of the Gaza Strip.
Terror is unpredictable; terror must be eradicated. Terror has no place in a civilized world.
“NEVER AGAIN” Must Be Given A New Birthright
During the October 7, 2023 carnage, Israel went through its 21st century Holocaust.
Until the enemies of Israel end their teeming by her borders, end their hostility, if ever, the call is now to re-establish a new “NEVER AGAIN” with a total new meaning based on the old and the new genocide of Jews. That new “NEVER AGAIN” cannot become effective if Israeli-Jews will continue pleasing everyone else but themselves; if Israeli-Jews civilians will not be armed, like a well-trained civilian ARMED militia.
Jews have always been an easy target wherever they lived, and even where they presently live. Israel is a constant target for its surrounding enemies. Israeli-Jews and Jews living outside of Israel are a constant target for Jew haters. However, a target that can strike back becomes a difficult target which one may consider not to target. If the presence of one armed Jew can cause one Jew hater to think he will suffer if attacked, it has the potential to reduce such attacks upon Jews.
Though Israel has a ferocious army made by the people for the people, this army cannot be present among the civilian population 24/7. The population must be able to defend itself when the army is engaged in its mandated work. Self-protection is a personal responsibility and together it becomes a nation’s collective responsibility.
The time is now for Israel to change any and all old concepts and start anew. This means a new “NEVER AGAIN” and a new Israeli approach to self-preservation.
