The Daily Signal - In Israel: Sounds of War Mingle With Songs of Life

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Bullet holes and toppled furniture bear witness to what happened in the home of one young couple living in Israel close to the border with Gaza on Oct. 7. Their home still partially stands, but they��and about 100 other members of their small community—are dead.  Walking through the streets of the small village, Joel Griffith says, “You could tell it once was a very beautiful place.”  Griffith, who is Jewish and serves as a research fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, recently returned from a trip to Israel. His mission was both to “support, but also bear witness to the evil” that took place in Israel on Oct. 7 when Hamas carried out a brutal terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people.  Walking out of the home of the slain couple, Griffith says, he saw two “Jewish men playing guitar and singing, and gathered around them were others—soldiers, non-soldiers, Israelis, non-Israelis (such as myself), people who were religious, people who visibly weren't religious, but all gathered together singing.”  One of the songs they sang, according to Griffith, was “Am Yisrael Chai,” which translates to “The people of Israel live.”  Standing there singing in a “place where so many lives were lost” and with “gunfire” and the sounds of “artillery” in the background, “was a powerful moment,” he says.  Griffith joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss what he saw and heard in Israel three months after the Hamas terrorist attack.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, January 25th. I'm Virginia Allen. In Israel, children are still attending school, birthdays are still being celebrated, and homes still sit empty. Communities still lay decimated after the terrorist attack on October 7th. The Heritage Foundation's Joel Griffith was just in Israel and witnessed both the sorrow and the pain that the nation is facing, and also the hope that the Jewish people are holding in tension right now.

Joel is sitting down with us on today's show to share some of those stories of what he saw and heard in Israel. Let's go ahead and jump into our conversation with Joel right after this. For over 35 years, the Heritage Foundation Job Bank has been helping conservatives at all professional levels find employment in key positions in Washington, D.C. and across the country. We can help you connect with positions in the administration on Capitol Hill, in public policy organizations, and in the private sector. To learn more about the Heritage Foundation Job Bank, go to heritage.org slash job dash bank. It's my pleasure to have with us in studio today. Joel Griffith, Joel serves as a research fellow in financial regulations at the Thomas A.

Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies here at the Heritage Foundation. And today, Joel is joining us after just recently getting back from Israel. Thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for having me on. So you, like I said, you just recently returned from Israel. We were just talking about how you recently got over at the jet lag. That took a little while. But explain what took you over there.

Why were you in Israel? Well, I've been to Israel a number of times, just in my sixth time there. But I wanted to be there now because Israel is in its most difficult, military, strong. in 50 years now. The massacres that we saw in October, this was the biggest one-day loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust. So I wanted to be there with friends and with new friends to really show that here in the United States, we care about what's happening. We've been grieving even if from a distance and we support their endeavor both to secure themselves against terrorism and to rebuild.

I wanted to be there and with them in person. Joel, I'm seeing on your face our audience is hearing in your voice. There's a lot of emotion. This isn't a distant story for you that happened in the news. This is actually quite personal for you as well. What was the atmosphere like there when you touched down in Israel? You said, you know, this was your sixth time being there. You're very familiar with the country.

What was different about this trip this time? Well, just the initial experience of landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, which is the only international airport in Israel and Tel Aviv, usually there's such commotion. There are tens of thousands of tourists and residents arriving each day from all over the world. And touching down on a packed flight, but then arriving at the airport, it really sank in that the conditions, are different right now.

The airport was nearly empty. Going through customs took just minutes. It can typically take hours. Most of the restaurants when I arrived actually were not open at the airport. You just got this sense of emptiness at an international airport, very akin to what it was like here in terms of that no one being at the airports during the COVID shutdown. So that was the very first minutes on the ground. you could sense very quickly that the environment right now is very changed from how it was just a few months ago.

You got a lot of stops while you were in Israel and you went to both some of the holy sites. You went to some of the communities that were devastated by the attack on October 7th. Talk a little bit about that. Just what you saw and the contrast of being there at these locations that are usually packed with tourists. what are they like now as the nation continues to grieve and, of course, to be at war? Well, my first few days, I had the opportunity to stay in the old city of Jerusalem and spend some time with a rabbi that I know very well in the old city. And it's just a beautiful place, beautiful environment at all times.

For those that aren't aware, there's as known as the Western Wall. the western wall surrounded the second holy temple, the holiest place still to Jews. And this is a place where people gather together to pray at all hours of the day. Some middle of the night, there's not often many people there on Shabbat itself. It can be filled with thousands of people praying together, but also praying in many different groups. There's multiple, I mean, there could be dozens of prayer gatherings at any one time. And so I arrived just in time to go to services there, to welcome in the Shabbat. And it was beautiful, as it always is.

This time had a special significant, but there were many people gathered there that evening to pray to welcome in Shabbat. And then just having a Shabbat dinner in the old city to start off the trip. It meant so much to do that. And then that weekend, instead of going directly to the places that were. attacked on October 7th. We actually spent a day going to Hebron. Havron is about 40 minutes outside of Jerusalem in what is often called the West Banka. It was actually the heart and still is the heart of the homeland of the Jewish people. And Havron is the site where the matriarchs and the patriarchs of the Jewish faith are buried. Abraham is buried there. Sarah is buried there. And we actually

have proof of this. We know that the tomb is in a cave below the ground. There's a monument. that's built on top to spend it for 2,000 years. It's a site very special to Jews, also special to Christians and Muslims. And we at the time to really honor for me, my great, great, great grandparents who are buried there. And we spent several hours there and then we traveled up to a ridge overlooking Havron. And at that spot is the spot where the Bible records the actual real estate transaction where Abraham purchased that. burial plot and the field thousands of years ago, well over 3,000 years ago. And we had this vantage point overlooking it.

And from that vantage point is actually where King David, where his home once stood nearby, was the original initial kingdom of Israel was actually headquartered in Hevron. It wasn't moved to Jerusalem until later on in King David's reign. So we were there at that spot where we also believe King David's father is buried. So being around these places that have such special. special significance to the Jewish people really was an inspiring start to that 10 days. Yeah, really sets the scene to remember the history of the Jewish people and of Israel and those roots and how deep those roots go. So from there, I know you visited some of the kibbutzahs, some of the areas that were really affected by the attack on October 7th.

that, you know, neighbors who lost neighbors, lost family members, lost friends. What did you see when you entered those communities? So our group with World Zionist Organization, we took a chartered bus from Jerusalem to about an hour or so south of the capital. So the first place we visited was a small kibbutz called Kafar Azana. Kibbutz is a community of people that live because often they work together. as sometimes they farmed the land together. This particular kibbutz had a population of only about 800 people. And we entered that kibbutz.

This kibbutz is where Hamas launched one of their initial attacks on October 7th. It's only about one mile from the Gaza border. You can visit, you can see the border from the outskirts of the kibbutz. And as of now, the entire community, only a few from the original community are living there right now. There's a lot of IDF members that are stationed in those early defense forces. The ongoing war with Gaza is only several miles away. It was jarring in that neighborhood of only about,

so in that neighborhood of only about 800 people close to 100 lost their lives. Others are hostages, and we walked through the streets of that village, and we could see the homes, the homes, some of which are no longer standing, others where there are charred remains out front. We saw walls that were blown apart by grenades. We could see the personal belongings, bicycles, laptops, kitchens that were destroyed. The attack, of course, happened three months ago, but the damage has been left intact so that people like myself can bear witness to the evil that occurred there. I think one of the most emotional moments was walking through one of the homes that the family had given us permission to enter in, walking through that home and seeing the bullet holes, seeing the furniture that had been upended, seeing the kitchen that had been torn apart. and outside of that home, we saw the picture of the very young couple that I'm living there.

They're in their early 20s, and they're no longer alive. Their home still partially stands, and we walked through and just took time to bear witness to it. And at each one of those homes throughout that community in which people lost their lives or are hostages, And think about that, you know, a community of just 700 people with so many people that are gone forever. We walked through those streets and looked at those homes. And you could view the pictures of those that once had a wonderful life there. Yeah. Joel, for you as you walked through that community as a Jewish American, what was running through your head?

I had so many thoughts. I mean, so initially, even him and going there, I didn't. It just felt so uneasy. It felt a bit like you don't want to be a tourist. Yeah. The goal is to support, but also bear witness to the evil. But those initial feelings were replaced just by that sense of realizing that such evil took place there. Such a short time ago and getting a sense of the lives that had been up in a way.

So you walked through that community. And you could tell it once was a very beautiful place with the vegetation and the fruit trees. It felt a bit like paradise. You had some larger homes with their patios. You had the walkways. You had tiny homes. People often spend their entire life there. They'll get married and then live in a smaller home just a block or two ways.

So there are dozens of those smaller homes where the younger couples would live. And you just got a sense of the belonging that you have when you're in a small. neighborhood of people that aren't just neighbors, they're friends, they are families. They raise their children together. And just seeing firsthand the lives that have been destroyed and upended. But something that was beautiful was after I walked through that home, walking back outside, there were two men, two very, you can tell a very religiously observant Jewish men playing guitar and singing and gathered around them were others soldiers, non-soldiers,

Israelis, non-Israelis such as myself, people who were religious, people who visibly weren't religious, but all gathered together singing songs. And one of the songs that they sing is one, the Hebrew title is, I'm Yizera Hai, which means the people of Israel. live. High, it means life. And to be there in a place where so many lives were lost, and you know that so many families are experiencing that grief still, but then being there in a circle where people are coming together, celebrating life at a moment where we could hear from that space, we could hear the ongoing war. You could hear the gunfire. You could hear the artillery. You could hear helicopters on occasion because the war is ongoing just miles away. And to be there in that instance, knowing that there's

brave men and women fighting evil and being with these two men with their guitars that had gathered a circle of people around them to celebrate life and to honor the lives that were lost. That was a powerful moment. That is powerful. I can only imagine how emotional that moment must have been. Did you get to talk to some of those folks that are still staying in those homes in that small community. So in that small community, everyone has gone except the IDF told us, I think they said one person right now is living there. They're not going to tell people they can't return. Just right now,

it's not a functioning community. It's partially a staging ground for a war zone. But they're, of course, not going to turn away someone who has a home there that wants to return. But for now, it's just, I think they said one. One family has come back. Now, we did, we went to several, other communities and spent several hours in a place called O'Fakim. Now, O'Fakim is about 10 miles to the east of that kibbutz where Hamas made their initial invasion. But they continued along those roads. And Ophakim is a city.

If I remember correctly, it's closer to 20,000 people. This is not just a small village. And people are still living there because it's far from that border. But many lives, dozens of lives. were lost in the terrorist attacks there as well through the incursion. We spent several hours with an officer, Edomar Al-Lus, and I'll show you a picture of him. This is him. He's a police officer.

We spent several hours with him as he recounted what he experienced on that day in October 7th. And just the back for several, October 7th falls on a different date to your course in the Hebrew calendar. But it commemorates the giving of the Torah. It is one of the, in fact, might be the most joyful day in the Jewish calendar. During that day, which starts at sundown, you'll gather for hours with Torah scrolls, holding these Torah scrolls, dancing, drinking, singing. It goes on all night. I celebrated last year, this last year, in Miami on that day with hundreds of other people. It is filled with joy, community, eating.

drinking. That is the day that this occurred. And for those who are observant, fully religiously observant, that means they don't have their cell phones on them. They're not checking the news. They're completely with their family and with their spiritual community. That's when this attack happened in Israel on that day. So this police officer we met with was actually walking with his children to their synagogue, the neighborhood synagogue, when the attack hit. And he found out the attack hit because

he was there in the neighborhood walking with his children and then heard the gunfire. And he recounted his day to us by walking through those city streets, showing us what occurred where, showing us what he was doing. He saved scores of lives with his arms. He told us the story of how he placed his body on top of his rabbi to defend the rabbi against incoming fire from terrorists. He took us from house to house. showing us where he was and what occurred in that community. He had such bravery. And even now as he shares his story to help others bear witness to this, it was very hard for him to get through his recounting of the day's events.

But it was very special to spend a few hours with someone who had such bravery, who saved so many lives. And he's a father. and he put his life on the line to defend his friends and defend his neighbors. And walking down that street as well, also the homes were marked with images of those lives that were lost in that community and something that really, two things really stuck out to me on that visit on one of the city streets. There were two brothers that live several houses away from each other. Both appeared to be in their 20s.

Both lost their lives, lost their lives defending their community against this terrorism. And it was very sobering to walk by those two homes. And for a moment, think about those two brothers and the shared memories and friendships and families that they had living together in this community. Obviously quite sad. Yeah. And minutes later, and this was an unscripted part of, unplanned part of the trip, few of us needed to use a restroom. And there was a local school, elementary school. that the families are still living there.

And they allowed us to walk in. Just to use the restroom, a few of the men and women. And to see these children with their teachers, they're learning just part of a regular school day for them. And the words of that song came to my mind again. I'm Israel, hi. The people of Israel live. And one of the children was having a birthday.

And I missed this part, but I've seen the video, And it's so beautiful. They knew there were people gathering, just random visitors, but they were singing happy birthday to her. And the children broke out. And these are little children, four or five years old. And they broke out in the same song. And we do have this on video. And it was just one another one of these moments.

And in the midst of this tragedy and witnessing the evil that occurred to see the youngest generation, little children also celebrating life. and to see the school teachers that were there with them. It was another moment that I'll never forget. The people of Israel will live. Amen. Coming back to America, what has been the burden on your heart? What are you bringing back with you? What would you say to both our political leaders, but also just American people that, like you said,

it's been about three months and things are continuing and we're watching things unfold. And we're continuing to see these cries for the hostages to be released and the tragedies of 21 Israeli soldiers' lives just being lost. What is the message that is weighing on your heart as this conflict continues? I'm quite honestly very troubled by what I see here in the United States and across the world, but especially here in my country in the United States. When you see so many, now we've seen hundreds of these protests

that are billed as anti-Israel across the country that started within hours of the terrorist attacks in October 7th. And I've been to a few of these because they're here in D.C. And I've walked through. And of course, we see all the images on the news. And if you look at what they are actually telling us, they're being quite upfront with the hate. I mean, think about the slogans from the river to the sea.

Palestine will be free. And we take a moment to think about what they're saying, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which is where half of the world's Jews presently live on their ancestral homeland. And these pro-Palestinian demonstrators are overtly calling for the removal of of those millions of lives. And they're open about it. Or the chance for intifada, intifada now, which intifada is the Arabic word for violent, so-called resistance.

And we know what that looks like, not just from the past three months, we know what that looks like for decades now. One of my visits in Hevron, we visited sites where past massacres have occurred at Jewish synagogues, apartment buildings, and places of business dating back to prior to the founding of the modern Jewish state in 1948. And to see so many tens of thousands of individuals with so much hate in their hearts that they're giving up their free time, time with their friends, families, braving the cold to show up and engage in these genocidal chance is deeply troubling.

Yeah. Yeah. So what's the path forward? And when you think about the faces, the names that you're bringing back with you, you know, what are the stories that you've committed to keep on telling? And as you departed Israel, what did you tell your Jewish friends there? Hey, I'm going back to America and, you know, I'm going to do X to try and be, be, be a voice for you all to be a voice for the people of Israel. Well, one of the things that I'm going to always keep in my mind is just what I saw in terms of the young men, young women, and then many who are older that are volunteering to defend the Jewish people. One of the hostels I stayed at, the first part of the trip is usually my friend runs it to be a free place for young men to stay who are studying at a local yeshiva. basically a seminary for guys that are usually right at a high school or right out of college.

Well, right now that yeshiva is not open as it usually is for instruction because most of those young men are either have gone to the United States if they are citizens here or now they're fighting the IDF. And I got to talk to a few of those young men because they were staying at the same hostel I was at. We're staying across the hall from each other. And these are young guys, 19, 20, 21 years old. They do not have to be there.

These are men who have made the decision to come from the United States, Jewish young men, to defend their extended family in Israel. Wow. And I remember one of those boys, and I call my boys, he was, he might have been actually a teenager. He was there late one night when I had gotten back and he was cleaning his boots. He was heading into the IDF and to talk to them about their enthusiasm, about their dedication, about their love for the people. the love for their land. It was absolutely wonderful. I happened to run into a friend of mine from Florida, who I met at a restaurant several

years ago. He was actually my waiter. And I'm going into a restaurant in Jerusalem and this man in an IDF, you know, for him, and he, what are you doing here? I look up, and it's my friend Ron from Miami. Wow. And he, when the war broke out, booked a flight to fly to Israel so that he could defend his people.

And there's just so many stories like that, but getting to meet some of these men and see some that I had known from before that are enthusiastically there. Yeah. Just an incredible sense of loyalty. Really is. Yeah. Incredible. Joel, thank you for your time. I want to encourage all of our listeners.

Make sure to check out your work at heritage.org. But, Joel, tell us, how can we keep up with you? I know you were sharing some content while you were in Israel. and as you're covering not only things happening in Israel, but also in the space that you do so much research on here at Heritage, how do we keep up with your work? I'm on X, of course, at Joel Griffith. And most of my work that are right, whether it's on economics or on Israel,

is published at the Heritage Foundation. Excellent. Joel, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Virginia. And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks again for being with us here at the Daily Signal podcast. Make sure that you check out our evening show to stay on top of the news of the day.

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