With the lighting of the first Hanukkah candle on the evening of Dec. 7, the usually joyous eight-day celebration will carry a solemn significance as Jews reaffirm the ideals of Judaism. Hanukkah commemorates the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by invaders more than two millennia ago. Dec. 7 will mark two months since Hamas invaders intent on slaughtering Jews embarked on a murderous rampage in Israel.
So much has happened in those two months, as the world focuses on Israel’s counterattack against the terrorists’ stronghold in Gaza. Some supporters of Palestinians have defended Hamas’s action on Oct. 7. Others have tried to diminish or downplay the hostage-taking, the sexual violence targeting women and girls, and the atrocities that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people — mothers, fathers, the elderly, children, infants, the unborn.
Barely eight weeks have passed, but this needs saying: Hamas committed crimes against humanity in Israel on Oct. 7. That much should be obvious from the terrorists’ own mass-murder video recordings, but it is indisputable for anyone who has visited, as I have, the ravaged sites of their attack.
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