Amir Tibon, Israeli journalist and Oct. 7 survivor, on life, hope and betrayal after the massacre

Regenerate

You know, it’s hard to see what is happening. It really creates a sense of a loss of not just confidence, but of something you deeply believe in.

What has surprised you most about the past 10-plus months?

What has surprised me a lot, it’s a very painful surprise, but if you would have asked me 10 months ago, at the end of August, would Benjamin Netanyahu still be the prime minister of Israel and would 108 Israeli hostages still be in the hands of Hamas, I would say no way on both, right?

And sadly, the hostages are still in Gaza and he’s still prime minister. The two things are of course related to one another.

What gives you hope right now?

There was a very, very hopeful and positive moment at the end of November.

We got back about 100 hostages in a deal that was orchestrated by the Biden administration. And we also specifically received five hostages out of the seven from the kibbutz.

I wanted to believe that even though the fighting continued and we didn’t immediately get a continuation of the deal, I wanted to believe that it would maybe be a few weeks, a few months and we would get there. And now it’s been almost nine months since the collapse of that deal and, you know, we’re stuck.

I think that was the last moment of real optimism. Of course, there were moments of joy when we had hostages released in military operations… Those were the moments that I really felt optimism and joy. Unfortunately, it’s rare at the moment.

What was it like to write a book about Nahal Oz while you were living somewhere else?

I returned to the kibbutz several times, already in December, to collect materials for the book in the archive of the community. The archive building was not damaged on Oct. 7 — only from the outside — but everything inside was not damaged, and I went there to collect materials.

It was a very interesting experience to sit there while the kibbutz is being bombarded by mortars from Gaza and while the IDF is operating in the neighboring kibbutz. It was a really, really painful experience, but at the same time, I felt that it was important to be there.

Today, there’s about 20 people living in the kibbutz, but when I went during December, nobody was living there. It was only soldiers. And you’re in this ghost town, it’s deserted. You have people working in agriculture, pretty much, that’s it. It’s bombarded, it’s empty. The scars of Oct. 7 are seen everywhere, and inside this situation you’re sitting in this archive room reading the kibbutz’s little community biweekly newspaper that was sent to members of the community in 1967 in the weeks leading up to the Six Day War.

Was it difficult to interview members of the kibbutz for the book?

I actually felt that it was therapeutic for the people I interviewed. I interviewed people who went through very difficult things on Oct 7. I interviewed a member of our local security team who fought terrorists for an entire day, got dehydrated and almost died. I interviewed the mother of one of the hostages.

I felt that the interviews actually were good for them, were actually kind of helpful in digesting this.

What do you wish other Israelis knew about your experience?

I want people in Israel to read this book and realize that the history of Kibbutz Nahal Oz and the other border communities did not begin on Oct. 7. These were places where people lived and dreamed and struggled and overcame, and built homes and communities and families long before Oct. 7. I don’t want Oct. 7 to be the one and only day that is associated and affiliated with my community and other communities like it.

What do you want American Jews to take away from the book?

That’s a complicated question. I want American Jews to read this book and first of all, feel confident that it’s important to keep telling this story and to keep standing up for the truth here, because I know there have been a lot of lies and deception and attempts to rewrite history, to minimize what happened, to justify what happened. And I want this book to be helpful in that regard, to tell the truth about what happened.

At the same time, I also hope that people in the American Jewish community who have a tendency to always look away from the failures of Netanyahu and the Israeli government will realize that if they keep looking away, their children and grandchildren will not have a safe place in this world if, God forbid, antisemitism raises its head to the levels we’ve seen in the past.

The state of Israel is in terrible danger. The state of Israel is the insurance policy of every Jew in the world, I really believe it. If we don’t fight to keep this country safe, strong, properly managed, prosperous and democratic, the Jews of the world will lose their insurance policy.

Where do we go from here?

This is the money time for the American Jewish community and American elected officials.

Anybody who is putting up obstacles to bringing back our people should pay a price, and the American Jewish community needs to start speaking up.

Biden is the only leader in the world trying to get the hostages out. If Trump spoke in favor of a deal it could actually make a difference because Netanyahu would understand that there is pressure for a deal on both sides, Republican and Democrat, and this is something that American Jews can play a role in. Trump, Biden and Harris care about the American Jewish community to some degree.