Over the past two years the media has focused repeatedly on the children in Gaza. The suffering they faced. Some real, some made up. Stories they were real and that were made up.

They denied much of what happened to the children of Israel on October 7th. They completely ignored what happened to the children of Israel from October 8th until today. Spending this past week in Israel, I have had the opportunity to interact with many children here. Children in pre-school, elementary school and high school. Parents of young children who have struggled the past two years about what to say to their children, how to protect them from the horrors, and parents who are IDF reservists, struggling with the fact that they have been gone from their children’s lives for more than half of the past two years. It’s not something that can be ignored.

I visited a preschool in Carmiel, in the Northern District of Israel, often included in the area of Israel called the Misgav. It’s a town of 55,000 that is beautiful and as we drove through, you could see how wonderful a place it is. The preschool (Gan) I visited had 35 students, agest 3 and 4, and as we walked in, they were running around, happy, laughing, and inquisitive. They were excited to see new people and happily smiled at us, walked around us, and when we sat to talk, pulled up their own chairs to sit with us or sat on playground equipment to be a part of the group. They were wonderful, happy, normal children. It was amazing to see.

At one point, we moved inside to a smaller room to sit and talk without the children around us. We learned that the room we sat in was the safe room for the Gan. When the rocket alerts went off, this was where all 35 children and the staff of 3-5 teachers would all have to get into within 30 seconds. I ran a JCC with an early childhood center that had hundreds of children. Monthly, we practiced our fire drill in which we had to get all the children out of the building. We timed it an regularly had them all out of the building in under 5 minutes. Each class had no more than 16 children with 2 teachers. The alarm was loud and many of the children would hold their ears, cry, or be upset. In Israel, at this Gan, they had to get 35 children into a small room within 30 seconds. Who knew how long they would have to keep the children in this small room. Packing 38-40 people in this small room for any amount of time would be a challenge. Yet the teachers did it. The children did it. They managed. I think of how difficult that must have been on the children and on the teachers and am astounded that the children aren’t afraid of the room and don’t want to avoid it. That the room doesn’t hold terrible images for the teachers. The trauma is real and yet they are dealing with it.

We visited an afterschool program in Kiryat Shmona that has a special program for the children who live there. It’s hard to imagine, but with the 2 years of Covid and the 2 years of the war, these children have had 4 years of learning interrupted. A child in 1st grade at the start of Covid is now in 5th grade and has barely been in school. How do you overcome the deficits that occurred both developmentally and educationally? What has to happen so that these children have a chance at a normal life and learning the basic tools that they missed, both educationally and socially? My youngest son spent his entire senior year doing online learning due to Covid (before you freak out, the schools were open and there were many reasons why we began and then stayed with online learning for him). It wasn’t easy for him to overcome the social deficits as a result of the last semester of him junior year and his full senior year being done online. We created a plan and it worked. That was just over 1 year for a 17/18 year old. Not 4 years for a 6-9 year old child. These children in Kiryat Shmona and other evacuated communities may need years of remedial work to deal with the academic deficits, let alone the social and developmental ones. Who’s talking about the damage done to them?

I spoke with a 37 year old father who has spent more than a full year since October 7, 2023, in the IDF reserves. He talked about his struggles when he returns home. He has two children – two children who have not only missed having their dad in the life for more than half of the past two years but who also know that he has put his life on the line every day he wasn’t at home. A father who has trauma to deal with so isn’t the same father that left them on October 7th to defend the people of Israel and the Jewish people. A father who struggles to be there for them all the time. Who talks about these children? Who is taking care of their needs? Where is the attention on the children of those brave soldiers who have kept going back to serve to defend not just their country but the Jewish people? Why is there no outrage at the damage to them?

We talked about a school that one of my friend’s children attend. In one classroom there is a teacher who has spent a great deal of time in reserves. There are two children dealing with the loss of family members on October 7th. Why is there no outrage about these children, living in the center of the country, who know the cost of war and the cost of freedom better than most people in the United States? Why is there no outrage at the impact on these children of losing their teacher for so long?

We have a generation of children of Israel that face enormous challenges. Who have faced enormous stress. Who have lost loved ones, parents, and friends due to the Hamas attack on October 7th and the ensuring war to keep Israel safe. Where is the outrage about what they have to deal with? Where are the world’s children’s organizations who are so critical of Israel, forgiving of Hamas and their responsibility?

This past week in Israel has shown me a new price that is being paid by Israel and the Jewish people. The price is being paid by our children. I don’t think we’ll know the exact cost we have to pay for quite some time. It’s a high price for sure, one that the world doesn’t care about. Jewish children — Jewish people — are expendable to the world. They don’t count nor do they matter. It’s unforgivable.

We can never forget the price of this war and defending Israel. It is a very high cost. The only thing worse would have been doing nothing. It’s not easy, especially when you see this price. It’s worth the high cost and we hope to never pay it again. It’s worth the many people who were impacted because of the many people who will be kept safe as a result.

When you look at the faces of these beautiful children and these beautiful babies, how can you not stand up and speak out on their behalf? How can you not do everything possible to protect them? We know Hamas does everything they can do damage and harm the children in Gaza as well as the children in Israel. We have to fight back even harder to protect ours.