Danny Rahamim pauses for a few moments as he thinks about his neighbors
here on an Israeli kibbutz just a few hundred meters from Gaza.
“I’m probably the most left-wing person here,” he said.
If that was true before October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists
stormed the border and carried out their unprecedented onslaught, it is
even more true today, as the country readies to vote in its first
election since its deadliest day ever.
With a sun-tanned bald head and sporting small glasses, Rahamim has
spent 50 of his 72 years here at Nahal Oz, which, like many of Israel’s
kibbutzim — small communities in the countryside where all work is
shared — has historically reflected the socialist ethos of the country’s
founders.
The kibbutzim were once bastions of the left, voting for peace with the
Palestinians, but three years ago they found themselves on the front
lines of the Hamas attacks.
Sixteen of Nahal Oz’s 400 residents were killed. Thanks to the proximity
of a military base, Rahamim explained, the death toll was significantly
lower than at the neighboring kibbutzim of Kfar Aza, where 64 people
died, or Beeri, where 102 died.
“People changed their minds” after the attack, he said.
