'None of us could have been fully prepared for the wanton, euphoric evil that we witnessed.'

On Wednesday, March 13, two days before the scheduled National Federation of Republican Women Spring Board of Directors Meeting led by President Julie Harris, members of the board visited the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., to attend a private viewing of the footage of the devastating October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens and others by Hamas terrorists.

Due in large part to the ongoing massive worldwide pro-Hamas and pro-Palestinian public relations campaign and the desire of our members to know the facts of the attack, the Israeli Embassy accepted NFRW’s request to show us the raw footage of what took place that fateful morning, to see what had befallen their Israeli brothers and sisters, and others.

As we arrived at the Embassy, we were accosted by a crowd of pro-Palestinian demonstrators standing on the sidewalk immediately outside. They constantly played painfully loud police sirens and hurled insults at us such as “shame” and “baby killers.” Later, we were apprised by Embassy officials that the protestors, armed with graphic posters, bullhorns and other noise devices, had been present day and night - non-stop - since February 26 when one individual had immolated himself in protest in front of the Embassy.

Throughout our event, the noise penetrated the Embassy, disrupting our witnessing and imbuing the event with the protesters’ hate that mirrored that of the various attackers. When our event concluded and we were leaving, our group faced even more antagonism with some protesters overtly taunting our members. Present and monitoring the situation closely were local members of the District of Columbia police and U.S. Secret Service officers on foot and in cars parked on the street.

In the wee hours of October 7, 2023, the Jewish nation of Israel was concluding a month-long celebration of High Holy Days, culminating with Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday that celebrates the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings, and the beginning of a new cycle. It is an especially joyful occasion marked by singing and dancing with the Torah in Jewish communities around the world. However, just two days after commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Arab attack on Israel known as the Yom Kippur War, tragedy and horror struck again.

In addition to the now infamous rampage through the Re’im desert music festival, over 3,000 terrorists and others infiltrated the Gaza-Israel border, and led coordinated attacks on 47 communities nestled along the thin stretch of border. The terrorists overran kibbutzim, villages and the town of Sderot, as well as an army base and the Sderot police station.

NFRW members witnessed 45 minutes of the actual footage taken during these attacks. The footage came from public security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cams, records of phone calls of those who were about to be victims, records of Hamas members as they jubilantly called family members with the phones of those they just murdered, and the body cams of EMS and other responders as they tried to find even one survivor.

Some of the innumerable travesties that we saw included:

• Motorists shot to death as they drove their cars, only to be pulled out of their cars and left lying on roads so that the Hamas terrorists could commandeer their vehicles.
• Passengers waiting at a bus stop gunned down where they stood; and a father using his body as a shield to protect his two sons from a grenade.
• Terrorists debating in front of an Israeli woman if they should shoot her in the head so that she would die quickly or prolong her suffering with a slow death.
• Hamas members beheading an Israeli soldier and then encouraging others to let people see them playing with his head.
• Terrorists, who were repeatedly shooting dead Israelis, being told to save their bullets for the soldiers as well as for “more dogs” by their commanding officers.
• A Hamas member “triumphantly” calling his parents with the cell phone of a woman he just murdered to tell them that he had killed a woman and her husband and happily had murdered “10 dogs.” The parents’ jubilant response was to tell him to go kill more.
• Music festival attendees running for their lives, only to be slain as they ran. Many hid in the brush but were set on fire and burned alive.
• An Israeli emergency responder crying out as he waded through the remnants of what was to be a joyous music festival asking the many he found laying on the ground to please give him a sign of life.
• Children and babies in the kibbutzim and villages murdered while still wearing their pajamas.

At the culmination of the presentation of the footage, we also had the sobering opportunity to hear directly from a former hostage and family members of hostages. We were invited to ask questions of both them and Embassy officials and staff.

We know that this is hard to read but it is necessary to be a witness to this savagery. What is needed at a time like this is moral clarity. All too often the narrative is altered to diminish the assaults or entirely eliminate them from the pages of history. Though we knew why we had been invited to the Israeli Embassy, none of us could have been fully prepared for the wanton, euphoric evil that we witnessed. As we watched, sobs could be heard from among our delegation.

At the end of the presentation, we were informed that we had seen only 139 bodies, only 10% of the carnage from that terrible morning. 1,185 men, women, and children perished at the willing hands of Hamas and other murderers. Another 244 individuals, including dual nationals and foreign workers, were kidnapped and taken as hostages into Gaza. Hamas terrorists even kidnapped the bodies of those they had murdered in order to have additional bargaining chips. We know also that men and many women were violently raped and murdered, with a belated United Nations report citing the torture and brutality that was inflicted on these innocent beings.

Families were burned alive, babies were slaughtered in front of their parents, and a pre-born baby was cut out from its mother’s womb and stabbed to death. The extent of the atrocities beggar belief. These souls deserve to have their stories told. We must be their witnesses. October 7, 2023, is a day never to be forgotten.

To commemorate the innocent lives lost, we must be resolute in our support of Israel’s two primary goals:

1. Completely destroying Hamas and its infrastructure

2. Ensuring the release of all the remaining hostages

We must do nothing less.

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>> Read the NFRW Resolution Resolving Full Support of Israel, adopted March 16, 2024

Authored by:
Nancy Almasi, Vice Chair, NFRW Program Committee; Past President, Colonial Mount Vernon Republican Women
Melissa Beaudoin, Vice Chair, NFRW Bylaws Committee; Corresponding Secretary, Sumter Republican Federated Women; Member-at-Large, Florida Federation
Deborah Bodlander, Past President, Colonial Mount Vernon Republican Women
Ann Schockett, Chair, NFRW Program Committee; NFRW Past President; Advisor to NFRW President and NFRW Corporate Fundraising Committee