We believe in Israel.

We believe in Israel.

We gathered outside 10 Downing Street and we were united. We believed we had a right to speak our minds, airing our innermost feelings because this is the way we felt. It was the culmination of a weekend of strife, anxiety, a deep sense of fear and foreboding, privately hurting, angry, furious, incensed, outraged, unforgiving and desperate to find answers. There was a palpable air of disgust, righteous indignation, obvious grief and mourning. All of the rawest emotions were clear for all to see. 

On the last day of Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival, Israel declared war on Hamas. By Sunday evening the wholesale destruction, utter devastation and speechless astonishment of a broken country could barely take it all in. Israel once again had been hit by the heinous forces of evil, attacked by the relentless bombardment of rockets by the thousand. We buried our heads in our hands, grimaced painfully then looked to the sky with anguished and desolate faces. How much more could we take?

It was now a familiar scenario. Hamas, with the red mist descending dramatically over them, pounded and battered the Israelis with the kind of ammunition and artillery that some of us have seen so often throughout the decades that most of us are now cold and dumbfounded. The Middle East war of words, the barely concealed hatred, religious intolerance and the obvious hostility have reared their head once again. Israel are once again the scapegoats for everything that Hamas detest. There are so many seemingly intractable differences between both Israel and Hamas that the events of Shabbat(the Saturday sabbath) for proud Jews may have been just another demonstration of this historically nonsensical argument.

Over the weekend the streets and roads, shops, restaurants, cafes, and above all the music festival that marked the beginning of the Jewish New Year had now become symbolic reminders of the futility of war and now just the charred, smoking ruins of a country that just wants peace had shaken the foundations. Israel had been shot at, gunned down, killed mercilessly, murdered by mindless terrorists who just wanted yet another slice of revenge.

Last night we came together as a Jewish community outside 10 Downing Street and did everything we could to convey our unity, solidarity, stoicism and a strength of character that could never be questioned. We knew our Israeli friends and families could hear us in London because we were present to shout it from the rooftops, expressing love and tenderness to a nation that couldn't respond last night but knew that Britain had given their whole hearted support. Of course we believed Israel because a vast majority of Jews believe that Israel has always been their spiritual second home.

What we witnessed was Jewish stubbornness, an insistence that nothing should come between us in Israel's gravest hour of need and crisis. Around was a sea of Israeli flags and banners with the Mogen David Star of David in blue and white emblazoned brightly over the flag. The flags waved proudly in the cool autumn breeze after a day of beautiful October warmth and sunshine. People from all over the Jewish community started singing, chanting and shouting in homage to the land of milk and honey. They could not be restrained because this was their divine right and nobody could stop them.

For most of the early evening representatives of the Tory Conservative party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats all spoke forcefully, vehemently, passionately and stirringly on behalf of Israel. They, like us, wanted nothing more than an immediate ceasefire to all hostilities in the Middle East. But still there were the burnt out trucks, cars, homes reduced to ashes, mothers, fathers, grandparents weeping and sobbing heartbreakingly and copiously. The tears came in rivers and the cries of help were so touching that none of us knew what to say or how to react.

We now know that the death toll of both the Hamas and Israel had now reached astronomical levels. The Israeli fatalities mattered so much more than those who had provoked this ridiculously unnecessary conflict. Hamas are now culpable and singlehandedly responsible for all of the egregious suffering now being felt in every part of Israel. 

And as if to make matters worse Hamas are now holding hundreds of Israelis hostages in remote bunkers, tormenting and torturing Israel as if determined to wipe out the whole of the nation in one fell swoop. Across Israel the sirens are wailing, innocent civilians running for their lives, hiding in tunnels, lying flat on the ground and praying for relief and peace. There is a sense now that revenge has to be exacted and this tit for tat reprisal is going nowhere. But then you hear about the private tragedies, the catastrophe that Israel had never anticipated for one moment and the recognition of retribution. Let's meet fire with fire because the Israelis have just started and won't stop until the punishment is complete.

Yesterday, a funeral for a young Jewish Londoner was rudely interrupted by the sound of shrieking bullets, blistering bombs and a plethora of gun fire. The mother of the deceased son tried to hold everything together but then just surrendered to floods of tears. At some point Hamas will just run out of psychological steam, guns no longer with bullets, tanks just rumbling over wastelands with nowhere to go. It is a scene we've now seen too many times throughout the years but can never understand.

But then we gazed around us and saw family and smiled warmly, grateful to see each other and knowing that we were all there with one common purpose. We wanted to celebrate Eretz Israel, acknowledging each other as Jews for this was our moment to make our vocal voices stridently clear. We knew that all of Israel will always be permanently in our thoughts. This has to end and will but at the moment Israel is trapped in a vortex of horror and terror. We Believe in Israel. Hava Nagila Hava, the Israeli National Anthem was our message to the world and the land of milk and honey. How we love Israel.