Exterminate the memory of Amalek

Do you feel uncomfortable when we say that Gaza is Hamas and Hamas is Amalek?

This is the entrance to the shelter from which Hersh Goldberg Polin was taken hostage to Gaza.

Here Aner Shapira, Hersh’s best friend stood, placing himself between the people crammed in the shelter praying to be saved and the evil coming to drown them.

Here Aner faced the invaders, throwing back grenades they threw in to slaughter all the people.

Here my friend’s son, Eitan Halley, stood by Aner watching him. Thinking to himself, “I have to learn to do what Aner is doing because if something happens to him, I have to step into his shoes.”

And when Aner could not stop that final grenade, Eitan saw.

And he stepped up to throw back more grenades coming in.

And when he could not throw back the next grenade and the explosion came, he lost consciousness.

That saved him from seeing all of the horror. The invaders thought he was dead and luckily their bullets didn’t manage to make that true.

What Eitan did see was more than any of us can fathom.

He saw the survivors who were dragged out by the invaders.

He saw Hersh with his arm blown off yet utterly silent.

He saw and experienced more than he could and perhaps wants to tell people who were not there. How can we really understand?

And he is left to live with what he saw and choose what to make of it.

Many people came and wrote messages all over the shelter after the attack. Words of grief and respect to friends and family were murdered there. Or taken hostage.

The words in the entrance say: “Exterminate the memory of Amalek.”

This is the biblical instruction the nation of Israel did not fulfill then and has been suffering from ever since – evil must be wiped out so thoroughly that even the memory that it once existed will be forgotten.

If you hear these words and recoil thinking it too extreme, consider Eitan. Or Hersh. Or any of the young people cowering behind Aner.

Consider the images the IDF Spokesman released today of the tunnel where Hamas held and murdered Carmel Gat, 40, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, and Almog Sarusi, 27.

Take a look and imagine what it was like to be in this place for days, weeks, perhaps months. Imagine being that it was your sister, daughter, son, or husband.

What would you do, if you were in our shoes?