Like I said, today s been a heavy day because

three of us went to the israeli consulate to watch

some of the footage that we've never seen.

These images and media, a lot of it raw, some

of it, they did some editing, too, to identify things

of what happened in the massacre on October 7th.

47 Minutes long.

Now, some of it I have seen

before, and you can find it online.

A lot more than I expected was new to me.

And again, I do believe people should see this.

I understand the sensitivity of the families.

I understand the concern that if you don't

want to believe that October 7 happened, well,

then it doesn't matter what you see.

But I do believe for many.

For many, that there's an aspect of

this that I don't think we appreciate.

I realized something that I had missed before. Okay.

It took me immediately and deeply into a

past trauma, the exact feeling that I had

when I learned why 911 happened.

Terrorists targeted the twin Towers and Washington DC, to

take out the great symbols that represent America.

The method was not madness. They were sane.

They were just evil.

But the method was a message.

Their unholy efforts triggered

what America's feared most.

Terrorists, robbing us of who and

what we are about at home.

And so they got what they asked for.

The wrath of a people united in a common fear

and concern that it is us or it is them.

Existential.

We went after those who took credit where we could.

Used warplanes, drones, missiles, every kind of weapon

and warrior we have to kill active enemies,

those who hid the complicit, the sympathetic, and

sometimes even often at points, the innocent.

That's the truth.

And if there had been social media, then I don't

know how public opinion at home would have been different.

But the fact that they hit us

where it hurt, that's what mattered most.

So if an enemy wanted to make sure that

Israel would come for them, the message would be,

we're going to take children, women, innocents, and more,

tie them up and burn them alive.

Just like the holocaust.

The ultimate fear of what the World can bring.

The Jews way.

When a decision is made that Jews are less

than human and treated that way in words and

deeds, I now know that is exactly the message

Hamas sent on purpose, at scale.

And I was not aware of that before.

I had seen that bodies had been burned, but I

did not understand or appreciate how intentional the effort was.

They did it methodically.

You hear it in the voices, the commands, the

ease, the excitement of finding and mutilating victims.

Being told, let them play with it.

Merely murdering innocence was the least of it.

Of course, you see that, and you can

see that anywhere in the world these days.

People pointing weapons, shooting the innocent,

shooting people running away, shooting women,

shooting the defenseless, people scared out

of their minds about what's happening.

This was not death from above.

It was death in your face, hands on and personal.

They enjoyed mutilating and went back and celebrated in

the streets with heads and bloody corpses as trophies.

This was absolute genocide.

That is a word that people are misapplying.

And this is where it does apply.

Even more important to the terrorists,

apparently, was what they left behind.

Charred reminders of a holocaust.

The obvious desire to see as

many jews utterly destroyed as possible.

Families melted together on purpose.

And yes, there are women dead,

bloody groins, twisted, disfigured legs.

The IDF says this is not a morbid coincidence.

It's a part of a pattern of rape and torture.

47 minutes is just a fraction of the dead.

But it is overwhelming that Hamas wanted war.

This was not the irrepressible angst of

the desperate who want freedom, who want

better, nor certainly want anything approximating peace.

They wanted the Jews to know that.

They want them to burn again.

And it makes it clear that Israel.

Here's why it matters.

I now understand better what is fueling Israel.

This is not tit for tat. This is not.

You did to us and now might will make right.

They are fueled by the deepest fears

of genocide, because those fears are real.

I am not trying to erase or in any way

mitigate the massive death toll of civilians in Gaza or

diminish the obvious need for the violence to stop.

If anything, after seeing this video today, there is

an increased urgency to avoid what could still come.

Because this could get much worse.

When people have been given reason to believe it

is you or them, they are capable of anything.

And while people are moved to absolute outrage

by what they see, I'm telling you, Israel

is doing far less than it could.

It is easy to say stop.

I'm saying it.

Everybody's saying it.

It is very hard to say how? Why?

Because seeing what the terror group in charge of Palestine

did to the Jews and has promised to do.

Again, how do you ask Israel to risk being

vulnerable to those who do not honor agreements and

have made it very clear they don't want peace,

they want to burn and kill the Jews.

That's why it's so hurtful and people are so

hair triggered when people say things in protests here

in America that maybe they don't mean that way,

maybe they don't see that context.

But the people on the other side of the

propaganda do the suggestion, well, here's what you do.

You stop bombing, use commandos.

How does that not suggest to Israel, you have to do

this in a way that Hamas can kill more of you.

You have to reduce your advantage. All right.

But you also have to stop bombing

because aid has to get in.

Will Hamas allow it in? Oh, yes, they have.

That's not the sum total of the reports that we get.

They have not let aid organizations get in

to see the hostages and to help them.

And they have a history of diverting and taking

aid that was meant for others and other things.

It's not about numbers.

It is about Israel being shown its worst fears can

be realized because they were so knowing that and understanding

it and understanding our own history with what we did

in response to a threat that was nowhere as real

and present as what Israel is facing, what do we

do to make it stop?

Let's bring in former State Department Middle east

negotiator Aaron David Miller and former CNN international

correspondent, founder of the Relief Network.

For those of you who care about the kids who are

left in despair by this war, go to Inara in A-R-A.

Arwademon founded it.

It does the work of helping the people who survive.