OPINION:
We took extra time this week to remember the 1,200 innocent lives that were taken last year in the attack on Israel. May their memories be a blessing to their loved ones.
In addition to the Israeli citizens and others from around the world, more than 40 of the innocent people killed on Oct. 7, 2023, were Americans, according to the Department of Justice.
One of them came from my neighboring state of Minnesota. Cindy Flash married an Israeli whose parents were Holocaust survivors who fled from Poland. Together, they had three daughters. She and her husband, Igal, were killed when terrorists breached the safe room in their home.
Deborah Matias was from Missouri. She and her husband, Shlomi, were killed while shielding their 16-year-old son, Rotem. He was shot in the abdomen, but fortunately, he survived.
Yet another victim of the terrorist attack was Hayim Katsman. He was a peace activist and a graduate of the University of Washington, where he earned a doctorate. Hayim was killed protecting a neighbor during Hamas’ attack on their home — just four days after his 32nd birthday.
We remember each of the 1,200 lives lost, the hostages who died since then and the hostages still being held today. We pray for their safe return.
Young America’s Foundation was proud to sponsor of the memorial program this week in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Across the country, YAF chapters created memorials with 1,200 Israeli flags at their colleges and universities on the anniversary of the attack — and YAF set up a memorial on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol — to honor those killed in the terrorist attack by Hamas a year ago.
It is similar to the 9/11: Never Forget Project our students do every year to remember the 2,977 innocent lives taken by terrorists in the attack on America more than two decades ago.
Sadly, some college administrators and student government officials actually opposed our memorials. Even worse, some radicals held pro-Hamas events on college campuses on Monday. That would be like holding rallies in support of al Qaeda one year after the 9/11 attacks.
People across the political spectrum would be outraged by the insensitivity of holding protests on a day of remembrance for those murdered on 9/11. Still, when it comes to remembering those killed by Hamas terrorists who were targeted because they were Jewish, too many opposed meaningful commemoration.
Horrific details of 10/7 have been confirmed in a report from the United Nations (warning: graphic details):
“The attacks resulted in approximately 1,200 fatalities and thousands of injuries, predominantly among civilians. Based on information reviewed by the team, people were shot, often at close range; burnt alive in their homes as they tried to hide in their safe rooms; gunned down or killed by grenades in bomb shelters where they sought refuge; and hunted down on the Nova music festival site as well as in the fields and roads adjacent to the festival ground.
“Other violations included sexual violence, abduction of hostages and corpses, the public display of captives, both dead and alive, the mutilation of corpses, including the decapitation, and the looting and destruction of civilian property. A total of 253 individuals, including some deceased, were taken as hostages.”
The report later stated: “At the Nova music festival and its surroundings, there are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of sexual violence took place with victims being subjected to rape and/or gang rape then killed or killed while being raped. Credible sources described finding murdered individuals, mostly women, whose bodies were naked from their waist down — and some totally naked — tied with their hands behind their backs, many of whom were shot in the head.”
The people who did these things are animals. They were proud of it, and some even recorded their assaults. They are the essence of evil. Anyone who supports this is evil.
Yet an associate history professor at Cornell University, Russell Rickford, said that he was “exhilarated” by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. He took a leave after the media drew attention to his comments but appears to be back teaching courses at the Ivy League school.
When the YAF chapter at the University of California, Los Angeles, brought in a speaker to tell the truth about Hamas, UCLA administrators blocked the event. YAF is taking the school to court over violating these students’ constitutional rights. We will win, and they will lose.
Over and over again, we will counter attempts to glorify terrorists and their evil deeds with the truth about the horrors of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and all others who seek to harm Israel and Jewish people around the world. They continue trying to intimidate us, but we will not back down.
We are proud to stand with Israel and, here in America, with our Jewish brothers and sisters. God bless Israel, and God bless the United States of America.
• Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019.
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