As I approached the entrance of Kibbutz Nir Oz, I saw a crowd of delegates and journalists gathered around former Ambassador to the United Nations and presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Haley was speaking with two members of the Kibbutz, Rita Lifshitz and Ron Baht, who would guide her through the homes and recount the stories of the murdered victims and the captives. Nikki appeared calm and somber, yet I wondered how nervous she might be, remembering my own first time entering a war zone to witness one of the worst atrocities in modern human history.
Nir Oz was one of the kibbutzim devastated on October 7, with 80 of its members murdered and 30 kidnapped. In a small community of 380, this meant that one in four members of the Kibbutz were either kidnapped or killed by Hamas terrorists.
We began walking with Nikki to the home of Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz, two members of Nir Oz who were kidnapped and are Rita's in-laws. Yocheved was released in October as a propaganda act of "good faith" by Hamas, during which she met with Hamas leadership, who spoke to her in Hebrew. Yocheved's husband, Oded, a retired Israeli journalist, remains in Hamas captivity.
Nikki walked through the homes of several other murdered and kidnapped members of the Kibbutz, including Carmela Dan and her granddaughter Noya Dan. Noya's photo, showing her dressed in a Harry Potter costume, was widely circulated and even shared by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. We also visited the home of the Bibas family, whose two red-headed boys have become symbols of the hostages. Kfir Bibas remains the youngest hostage in Gaza, and the status of his whereabouts, as well as those of his four-year-old brother Ariel and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, is still unknown.
After emerging from the safe room of a home that was completely burned and destroyed, Nikki asked Rita about her stance on peace and how she could recover, knowing that the Palestinian workers planned this attack and "gave Hamas the information." Rita responded, "We here in the Kibbutzim are peace fighters. My father-in-law Oded would take children to hospitals near the Gaza border; in 1984, he went to Gaza to teach them better education. Then Hamas came in and took over, teaching them hate for twenty years. We still believe and know there must be peace with the Palestinian people, not with Hamas."
We then followed Nikki and her delegation to the site of the Re'im Supernova massacre. As we drove, we noticed dark spots in random areas of the road, knowing these marks were from cars with people in them who were torched and burned alive. We arrived at the site of the massacre, where 364 festival-goers and police officers were murdered, and Nikki greeted Tali Binner, a survivor of the festival. I recognized Tali from Sheryl Sandberg's documentary "Screams Before Silence." Tali hid in a trailer at the festival and, while hiding, heard the piercing screams of multiple women being raped and the cries of those watching, begging the Hamas rapists to stop. The screams continued for over ten or fifteen minutes, followed by a gunshot, then silence. Tali explained how difficult it is for her to testify, but she feels compelled to because so many are denying the heinous crimes she directly experienced on October 7.
Nikki asked Tali, "How were they [the terrorists] dressed?" Tali responded, "At the beginning, they were dressed in uniform, with headbands. As time passed, when I came out of the trailer, I saw people who looked like normal civilians, people dressed like me." Nikki then asked, "What do you take away from this?" Tali explained how she used to vote for Meretz and believed in peace and dialogue, but that changed on that Black Saturday.
We concluded the press tour at the old police station in Sderot, where Nikki described her experience. She said that in Kibbutz Nir Oz, they saw "home after home that wasn't just destroyed, but every house we walked into was a total nightmare. You saw families struggling for their lives, trying to protect their kids, with the only means of defense being to hold the doors as tightly as they could to keep the terrorists out." She added, "What was very clear was that they knew what they were doing. They knew exactly which houses to go to. They knew exactly who was going to be in those houses. This was incredibly orchestrated and very detailed."
Nikki concluded on a powerful note: "To all Israelis, don't listen to the soundbites you hear in the media. America stands with you. Americans are with you. We are connected to you."
Nikki Haley has always maintained a firm pro-Israel stance, but why is her visit so important? Witnessing the October 7 crimes has changed me forever—not just emotionally but as a fundamental part of my identity. To strengthen the bonds between Israelis and Americans and for American leadership to truly understand the horrors we faced and why we must continue to fight until the hostages are returned, we need all high-ranking US officials to witness what we did on October 7 and experience a profound transformation. I do not doubt that after processing everything, Nikki Haley will return to the US forever changed as well, and more sure than ever before that she is standing on the right side of history.
