Idan Raichel Calls for Action: Personal Thoughts in the Wake of Loss

Idan Raichel, one of Israel's most beloved musicians, recently lost his close friend, Roy Levy z"l, in the conflict. Last night (Monday), the singer posted a call for retribution.

Raichel argued that retaliation against Hamas should be akin to the way many Jews were murdered. "Retaliation. When a Nazi from Hamas is eliminated from the air, he doesn't know it's happening," wrote Raichel. "I would have wanted him to know a minute before, just like 1,500 of our loved ones knew it was about to happen a minute before."

In a previous post on his Instagram account, Raichel wrote to his friend Roy: "He was the love of my life, and it made me proud that he chose me as his friend and confidant. I always knew he would die in battle. He wanted to live, but he would die as a fighter, and I knew from the early days of our friendship that he would have a military funeral." Raichel added, "I told you that you need to continue to lead for the whole nation, and I thought about how much I love all your children, all of them, and what would happen with them, and that I would always be there for them. Roy Levy, my friend, Israel's hero."

Raichel isn't the only singer to respond to Hamas's actions. In an Instagram story, singer Shiri Maimon shared a question her son asked her. "Nothing prepared me for my little boy asking me, right after his bath, 'What would I do if the terrorists were here and here,' as he pointed to places in the room," she wrote. She said she asked him how he came to such troubling thoughts, and he replied, "I heard they came in and killed people, so if they saw me sleeping here in bed, what would they do to me?" Maimon struggled to answer and wrote, "We will never be the parents we wanted to be, and we will never return to being the people we once were."