A Personal Reflection: As Long as I Live I will NEVER Understand October 8, 2023

Karen Lieberman

I am 76 years old. I can proudly look back at 50+ years of organizing in numerous communities around the country. I organized and led sit-ins at the U.S. Department of Labor – to save jobs. Each time we sat in for many, many hours. We talked with officials; we negotiated. We didn’t hurl insults or scream in any faces. And I was arrested there many times.

But I never destroyed property. I didn’t break any windows or spray paint giant blotches on walls. I never, in all those times, took even a pencil. And eventually I got off the hook … and we also saved thousands of jobs.

The Contrast in Modern Protest

Compare that to what the radical Islamists – Palestinianists – and their loyal followers have been doing for the last 2+ years – the world over. Aside from brainwashing our students and other useful idiots – they are vicious, detrimental, and harmful. They are dangerous and they want us – Jews – to be afraid. Destroying property, harassing, injuring and killing Jews is beyond comprehension – but that is what is happening – right before your eyes. Do you see it? Knowing that progressive organizations are not only cheering this on, but participating as well, is simply unreal.

Here is one example from the news: Zainab Aliasgar Hakim, 23, the leader of a pro-Hamas group, along with seven other University of Michigan students and affiliates, were found guilty – prosecutors accused the group of running a coordinated campaign of violence, threats, and intimidation. A federal grand jury returned indictments against all of them. U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said the following about the trial: “In America, we rule by law not by fear. These alleged threats and attempts to terrorize government officials, businesses, and the Jewish Federation are anti-American. We will counter intimidation with justice.”

Their actions targeted the U-M Board of Regents, university officials, Jewish students, and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Since shortly after Oct 7, 2023, the group has been targeting individuals trying to force the university to divest from Israel. They threatened specific people and vandalized property.

Hakim also faces a felony witness intimidation charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Officials state that she and another defendant threatened to murder an unnamed U-M student in July 2024 because they wanted to prevent the student from cooperating with law enforcement. The federal charges that the UM students are facing may compromise university allotments. The University of Michigan receives more than $1.3 billion dollars in federal funding.

Similarly, in England, a United Kingdom court handed jail sentences for terror charges to four members of the Palestine Action group after they were convicted for a raid on Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company in Bristol. Judge Jeremy Johnson at Woolwich Crown Court handed down sentences of five to eight years to each of them. He labeled their August 2024 raid on the site a terrorist act.

A Broken Alliance

For over 50 years, I have worked with countless progressive groups and organized many, many people to work together on important issues, always working for the good of the community. Repair the world – tikkun olam – is an important tenet in Judaism. And from today forward – until my dying day – I will NEVER understand how, on October 8, 2023, the people I had worked with over the years – and people the world over – turned their backs on the Jews. They not only turned their backs on the Jews, but they turned on the Jews, as well.

I am not a transactional organizer; I never expected anything in return. My only compensation has been knowing I was working for the greater good – doing the right thing. Jews have been at the forefront of meaningful issues the world over. And that is why I was shocked when the international progressive community immediately considered Hamas a resistance group and Jews as the evil oppressors.

Why is Hamas not seen as the brutal terrorist organization it is? On Oct 7th they beheaded babies, raped young women and murdered civilians. They burned families alive in their homes. They murder their own people and use civilians as pawns. The inverted morality is overwhelming.

Media and Myths

Conspiracists claim that Jews control the media. If Jews controlled the media – radio, TV, newspapers, Hollywood – things would be very different for the Jewish people today. The newspapers and news programs on television and radio would all sing Israel’s praises. Islamic radicals would be labeled and defined as the terrorists they are.

Looking Forward, Remembering the Past

My reflections on my years of organizing, especially now working to stop Jew-hatred wherever possible, leads me to remember the phrase we include in the Passover Hagaddah: “In each and every generation they arise against us to destroy us.” At the same time, I bear in mind the Prophet Muhammad’s hadith: “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'”

It’s 81 years since the Holocaust ended. More than one generation has passed.

Karen Lieberman, PhD, is a retired college professor, editor, and activist grandmother. She lives in St. Petersburg, FL.