Attack incites shock, anger within OV congregation

On what should have been a day of Jewish celebration, thousands of rockets rained down on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Hamas terrorists broke through the heavily fortified border on the Gaza Strip and infiltrated the country. They came in by air, land and sea. That is only the beginning of what the terrorist group did to the people of Israel.

In Tucson, the shock of the attack ran through both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities.

“I was completely horrified and shocked,” said Rabbi Sam Cohon of Congregation Beit Simcha in Oro Valley.

“Not by noting that Hamas had sent rockets into Israel, where it was attacking Israel: that’s something that’s happened many times, but by the scope and scale, the horrifying numbers we’re seeing. … These are terrorists. They broke through what was supposed to be the most sophisticated containment system.”

Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic political party, which has an armed wing of the same name. The word is an acronym for the Arabic words for Islamic Resistance Movement.

Since Oct. 7, Cohon said he can hardly keep from watching the news, waiting for updates on what is happening. He has friends all over Israel, family in Jerusalem and a sister community in southern Israel. At press time, he had not heard if anyone from that community had been killed or taken hostage.

“It was just horrific and shocking, seeing old people murdered at bus stops,” he said.

“Hamas operatives, terrorists, taking people, some people in their cars, grabbing them, kidnapping them and bringing them back to use them as hostages, something that reminds us of the Holocaust. It’s horrible. As Jews and as deeply connected to Israel as we are, those are our brothers and sisters. Their children are being shot and carried off into captivity. They took a Holocaust survivor to Gaza to hold as a hostage. They took a mother and a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.”

The U.S. federal government labels Hamas a foreign terrorist organization with 20,000 to 25,000 young men.

“Their goal, instead of assisting their people or building up their territory, their country, has been to destroy Israel and kill Jews,” Cohon said. “But they hadn’t really been terribly active in the last couple of years, so I think Israel was lulled into a sense of false security.”

Hamas launched the attack on the last day of the seven-day Jewish festival of Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah, the second happiest night of the year, according to Cohon. He and his congregation intended to have a happy celebration. Instead, they faced a different reality.

“We did not start out with celebration,” he said. “We started out by talking about our feelings and what our concerns are about it and what we can do to help.

“It’s extremely important that people understand that the Israeli response is going to be a strong effort to try to save its hostages and an effort to eradicate the leaders who created over a two-year period of preparation funded by Iran — this much is all clear now — one of the worst terror acts in human history. There’s going to be a lot of efforts to say, ‘Oh, let’s de-escalate the violence.’ There has to be justice before that happens.”

Cohon recognizes that because of this attack, the people of Palestine, Hamas’ own people, will suffer, as well. He is not rejoicing for this.

“(This) isn’t for the good of the Palestinian people,” he said. “I think the Palestinian people will suffer. That’s always how it is when some terrible act is perpetrated against Israel in order to get at the people who hide behind women and children and now hostages as human shields. There’s going to be collateral damage, people are going to die, and it’s really important that we continue to support Israel in that process and not pretend that anything else is possible.”

Cohon understands this attack reaches beyond Israel’s borders.

“We greatly appreciate the tremendous support that Israel is receiving at this moment of enormous pain and suffering, and we appreciate that continued support, because this is not just an assault on Israel by Palestinian terrorists; it’s an assault on civilization,” he said. “It’s an attack on all of Western civilization. … The Islamist terrorists of Hamas, they’re not different from ISIS or Al Qaeda. They need to be stopped and permanently stopped. I think it’s really important that Americans understand that.”