Dr Yair Ansbacher, an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) counter-terrorism officer, an IDF reservist, and a research fellow at the Misgav Institute, was one among the first responders to the terrorist attacks on the Jewish state on 7 October. He visited both Budapest and Miskolc to deliver speeches. On 22 July, he gave his speech at the Óbudai Synagogue in Budapest about his experiences fighting against Hamas on 7 October. Dr Ansbacher dedicated his lecture to his holocaust survivor parents, who were born and raised in Hungary and made aliyah to Israel in the 1950s.

In the first part of his speech, the counter-terrorism officer talked about his personal experiences of 7 October, which, as he phrased, was the ‘longest day of his and the Israeli nation’s life’ and felt like ‘one hundred years in 24 hours.’ In the morning at 8am on 7 October, Dr Ansbacher, like most people in Israel, was preparing for the Simchat Torah, which, as he highlighted, is his favourite holiday. Suddenly, when he and his father started to hear sirens, he decided to run to his office, where he saw the pictures of the Hamas terrorists invading with pickup trucks and realized that Israel was at war. Dr Ansbacher saw that such chaos had been inflicted on Israel that there was no time to be strategic; they had to find and eliminate the terrorists. Soon, he arrived at the scenes of the massacre as the oldest soldier with previous military experience, which is why he was not only a soldier but a big brother, a warrior, and a rabbi on the field. As they were fighting against terrorists, they soon encountered several dead bodies, and since there weren’t rabbis among the fighters,

Dr Ansbacher was asked to do the heartbreaking task that his father in the Holocaust had to do too: to close the eyes of murdered Jewish people.

During these difficult and heart-wrenching tasks, Dr Ansbacher described that he felt he wasn’t alone as he had the entire Jewish people holding his back and gently saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’re with you.’ 

In the kibbutzim, one of the difficulties of fighting against Hamas terrorists on 7 October was, as Dr Ansbacher recalled, that they had invaded the homes of Israeli civilians and forced them to lie when an IDF soldier knocked on to the door to tell them in Hebrew that they could come in, so the terrorists could kill the soldiers. Dr Ansbacher recalled a story of a 16-year-old hero boy, who in a similar situation disobeyed the terrorists’ order, and warned the IDF soldiers: ‘Don’t open; they are still here,’ which became his last sentence. Dr Ansbacher shared another personal experience which he lived through in the morning of 8 October after he slept in a kindergarten in one of the kibbutzim, which was, as he described, the darkest hour of his life because he encountered a spiritual crisis, and wasn’t able to pray after what he had to experience last day. However, as he shared, he got a vision from God and remembered a saying from a rabbi that resembled his situation, who said that before redemption, before the Messiah will come, there will be an hour which will be so dark that in order to believe in God Almighty, in the Nation of Israel, and in the Torah, ‘you will have to climb on a straight wall.’ 

Four Painful Miracles of 7 October

Dr Ansbacher highlighted that despite the heavy price Israel had to pay, four miracles happened on 7 October. Before describing them, he highlighted that they are not only simple and sweet miracles but also ‘sour, bitter and sad’ ones, which were the type of miracles that happened on 7 October. The first one Dr Ansbacher explained was that on 7 October, Hamas didn’t implement the Iranian plan well enough, which prepared ammunition, money, and budget, trained Hamas terrorists, and built proxies around Israel. The counter-terrorism officer explained that the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, thought to himself that he would be the one who would finally bring Israel to its knees and, therefore, jumped without noticing its allies, the Iranians and Hezbollah, about the attack. Dr Ansbacher highlighted that it was a miracle as Sinwar ruined the Iranians’ very deadly, sophisticated, and expensive plan of attack. This resulted, as Dr Ansbacher explained, that in the north, Hezbollah was surprised too and had only 1000 men ready instead of the 6000 they originally planned, which is why the IDF was able to block them. 

The second miracle was described as the ‘miracle of viciousness and barbarism’. Dr Ansbacher highlighted that Hamas saw an unprecedented opportunity at the Nova music festival, where 4000 young people gathered near the border. However, when Hamas terrorists broke through the fence, they lost their minds and committed chaotic and brutal actions of torturing and murdering Israeli civilians while recording it with GoPros, which again deviated from their planned military objectives, such as the Israeli Air Force, which was a critical goal of their Iranian backers. Dr Ansbacher explained that this

lack of professionalism prevented Israel from an even bigger disaster and gave the Jewish state more time. 

As Dr Ansbacher phrased, the third miracle was ‘Jewish heroism’. To illustrate this miracle, he recounted one of his personal experiences with his Holocaust survivor grandfather who, even though he never allowed his son to buy a toy gun when he became a soldier, taught him the profound connection between the Hebrew words ‘gun’ and ‘kiss’. His grandfather highlighted that he should kiss his weapon as now, unlike during the Holocaust, the Jewish people have the privilege from God to defend themselves. This is why, as Dr Ansbacher explained, that when Hamas invaded Israel, they didn’t find helpless Jewish people, but thousands of strong soldiers, police officers, Special Forces, and also regular people who were able to defend themselves. The last related miracle Dr Ansbacher described was that following 7 October, Jewish people were getting stronger and became more united.