Each horror is intimate: you are there with the kindergarten teacher trying to make a hideout of a dozen small cushions; you watch her knowing, it will never work. It does not work. You watch the hundreds of young people at the concert start to flee; you look at their shoes and think, oh my god let them have worn shoes they can run in. You watch the hundreds running, looking almost like a stampede, the dust obscuring them, if not enough. “Is anyone alive?” the Israeli security force asks, walking past four, then ten, then dozens of bloodied young bodies lying. “Anyone please?”
Thank you Nancy. I have not watched a single video. I can't. Your writing makes me shake. And you ARE a wonderful writer. One of the best. And a mensch.
Thank you for bearing witness Nancy. I don’t think I would be able to watch this footage. I grew up on images of the Holocaust- shown on repeat every Sunday at Hebrew school - I can still see those horrors clearly, decades later. I pray that people will read and believe your testimony, and that it will matter. 🙏💔
Thank you Nanacy for bearing witness. For being brave enough to see this horrific evidence.
We in Israel need you to show the western world that what happened in October 7 is .222222a pure masscare and a barbaric act of hatred towards innocent civilians, babies, children, older adults who simply wanted to live in peace and many of them honestly believed that we can have peace with our neighbors. Unfortunately we were mistaken. Israelis are resilient and united we shall overcome but we are grieving and are shocked facing the attrocity of our enemy. We are very paralyzed with worry for the safety and sanity of 240 babies, children and older adults who were kidnapped and are kept somewhere in Gaza without any cooperation even with the red cross to provide information and medical help. We are astounded to see how the academic institutions in the U.S.A refrain from condemming the massacre and the rally of the pro palestians whom we be3lieve have no idea that Israel withdrew from Gaza already many years ago.
Thank you for bearing witness Nancy, I've watched the videos on Ben Shapiro's show and I know as i read this, I must. It tells me, it is urgent, necessary and our duty to be horrifcally changed as the lives of those victims were, and their famlies were. Our duty is to understand that pain and in some way help them process it. So Thank you
I read this 20 minutes after I learned that my brother-in-law (who is a Unitarian and a "Democratic Socialist") fully denies what happened. He's become just another "anti-zionist" useful idiot.
I have nothing left in my heart to extend to him. I'm not sure there's any point in trying to argue.
Many times over the last month I've felt like the only Jew in Portland - even though there are allegedly 50,000 of us. My Jewish friends are all terrified of losing their social circles, their jobs, book deals, etc. if they speak up too much.
Thank you for watching something so horrific. I read your column with tears streaming down my cheeks. I am horrified and sickened by what is happening on the streets and college campuses of this country that I love. Where did all of these people so filled with hate come from, who raised them and what have they been taught?
Nancy, congratulations on writing incisively enough to get a paying troll. Wow. To the person making snide remarks about genocide and ethnic cleansing, what's the context of your remarks? Your idiom sounds American, but I could be wrong. Why do you disagree enough to subscribe and troll? Make an argument, get out of the shadows.
My god ... this is one of the most powerful accounts I have read ... and convinces me ... I do not want to see this ... how can this be? What in the world is going on???
Nov 8, 2023·edited Nov 8, 2023Liked by Nancy Rommelmann
“For those who do not believe it, this will not convince them,” says Shefler of the IDF...
(I wrote this yesterday in comment to a Free Press post and have been mulling it over)
Right now I’m listening, with salt shaker handy, to a book by Reza Aslan about the historical Jesus. [Glenn Loury just interviewed him about Iran on The Glenn Show Substack.]
Aslan points out that our counterparts in the first century don’t hear “Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to Egypt” and take that literally. The logic goes something like: the prophesy says the Messiah will have gone to Egypt, Jesus is the Messiah, so of course he went to Egypt.
We hear someone went to Egypt and treat the statement as literal fact, at least if we can see a stamped visa upon request. But I fear that’s changing. Show someone the stamped visa and if the “fact” goes against their narrative, they’ll assume the stamp was forged. The narrative is paramount, with no pretence of objectivity
Update: I post this and then paraphrase its content to my partner. He nods and says, “Jean Baudrillard, hyperreal.” (That’s one reason I love my guy)
Still having a hard time believing that pro-Palestine people can read accounts like this and shrug.
Thank you Nancy. I have not watched a single video. I can't. Your writing makes me shake. And you ARE a wonderful writer. One of the best. And a mensch.
Thank you for bearing witness Nancy. I don’t think I would be able to watch this footage. I grew up on images of the Holocaust- shown on repeat every Sunday at Hebrew school - I can still see those horrors clearly, decades later. I pray that people will read and believe your testimony, and that it will matter. 🙏💔
Thank you Nanacy for bearing witness. For being brave enough to see this horrific evidence.
We in Israel need you to show the western world that what happened in October 7 is .222222a pure masscare and a barbaric act of hatred towards innocent civilians, babies, children, older adults who simply wanted to live in peace and many of them honestly believed that we can have peace with our neighbors. Unfortunately we were mistaken. Israelis are resilient and united we shall overcome but we are grieving and are shocked facing the attrocity of our enemy. We are very paralyzed with worry for the safety and sanity of 240 babies, children and older adults who were kidnapped and are kept somewhere in Gaza without any cooperation even with the red cross to provide information and medical help. We are astounded to see how the academic institutions in the U.S.A refrain from condemming the massacre and the rally of the pro palestians whom we be3lieve have no idea that Israel withdrew from Gaza already many years ago.
Thank you for bearing witness Nancy, I've watched the videos on Ben Shapiro's show and I know as i read this, I must. It tells me, it is urgent, necessary and our duty to be horrifcally changed as the lives of those victims were, and their famlies were. Our duty is to understand that pain and in some way help them process it. So Thank you
My God.
Thank you for your unparalleled reporting, for bearing witness to the terror and the horror. You are a blessing to us all my friend.
Thank you for bearing witness Nancy.
I read this 20 minutes after I learned that my brother-in-law (who is a Unitarian and a "Democratic Socialist") fully denies what happened. He's become just another "anti-zionist" useful idiot.
I have nothing left in my heart to extend to him. I'm not sure there's any point in trying to argue.
Many times over the last month I've felt like the only Jew in Portland - even though there are allegedly 50,000 of us. My Jewish friends are all terrified of losing their social circles, their jobs, book deals, etc. if they speak up too much.
Thank you for always being so damn loud.
Thank you for watching something so horrific. I read your column with tears streaming down my cheeks. I am horrified and sickened by what is happening on the streets and college campuses of this country that I love. Where did all of these people so filled with hate come from, who raised them and what have they been taught?
Nancy, congratulations on writing incisively enough to get a paying troll. Wow. To the person making snide remarks about genocide and ethnic cleansing, what's the context of your remarks? Your idiom sounds American, but I could be wrong. Why do you disagree enough to subscribe and troll? Make an argument, get out of the shadows.
My god ... this is one of the most powerful accounts I have read ... and convinces me ... I do not want to see this ... how can this be? What in the world is going on???
OMG ... I couldn't even read all of this ... thank you, Nancy
Thank you for bearing witness to this and writing about it
Thank you. Be well. I know you can never forget. We must never forget.
Thank you. I will not watch any of that; I so appreciate that you and others have.
“For those who do not believe it, this will not convince them,” says Shefler of the IDF...
(I wrote this yesterday in comment to a Free Press post and have been mulling it over)
Right now I’m listening, with salt shaker handy, to a book by Reza Aslan about the historical Jesus. [Glenn Loury just interviewed him about Iran on The Glenn Show Substack.]
Aslan points out that our counterparts in the first century don’t hear “Joseph, Mary, and Jesus went to Egypt” and take that literally. The logic goes something like: the prophesy says the Messiah will have gone to Egypt, Jesus is the Messiah, so of course he went to Egypt.
We hear someone went to Egypt and treat the statement as literal fact, at least if we can see a stamped visa upon request. But I fear that’s changing. Show someone the stamped visa and if the “fact” goes against their narrative, they’ll assume the stamp was forged. The narrative is paramount, with no pretence of objectivity
Update: I post this and then paraphrase its content to my partner. He nods and says, “Jean Baudrillard, hyperreal.” (That’s one reason I love my guy)