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Source: https://www.jns.org/earn-the-right-to-say-never-again/
Israel Is the Frontline in the Battle for Freedom
(JNS) Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein - On Oct. 7, Israel did not only suffer the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust, but Jews worldwide must now contend with an army of genocidal lies, ignorance, defamation and denial. The peak of this horrific eruption of racism was the blood libel that the once-noble South Africa brought before the International Court of Justice, falsely accusing Israel of genocide. It was a bitter irony to see Israel in the dock rather than Hamas, which committed a genuinely genocidal assault that it documented with bloodthirsty pride. Those who target the Jewish people always have the ultimate ambition of destroying liberal democracy and the Judeo-Christian values on which it is built. The legacy inherited from Nazism has now been witnessed by some who themselves survived the Nazis' crimes. Gina Semetrich was 91. Originally from Czechoslovakia, she emerged from the Holocaust to rebuild her life and family in Kissufim, a kibbutz near the border with Gaza. On Oct. 7, she was beaten and murdered by Hamas Nazis. Sara Jackson, 88, another survivor of the Holocaust, barricaded herself in her home at Kibbutz Sa'ad, just as she had done during a pogrom in Poland decades ago. She helped shelter three boys who had managed to escape the Nova Festival, where 360 innocents were massacred. We must courageously face what is happening. We must accept that Israel has no choice but to end this war by destroying the new ISIS on its border with a victory on the most difficult battlefield imaginable. "Never again" means understanding that Israel is now the frontline in the battle for freedom and for life itself. And it is fighting for all of us. The writer, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.