October 7 And A Year

It has been 366 days since the largest and most savage massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. A year since 1,200 people were slaughtered, beheaded and burned alive. A year since a large scale mass sexual assault of women in Israel by invading jihadists. 366 days, and counting, of 101 people remaining as hostages in Gaza, of the 251 who were abducted on October 7, 2023.

It is a time to memorialize the dead. To remember their lives, dreams and aspirations which were cut short.

It is a time to recount the bravery of those who fought off the barbaric invaders to protect the innocent.

It is a time to call out the mass sexual assault committed by Palestinian Arabs, a vile crime against humanity.

It is a time to pray for the hostages, cut off from light, food, family, friends and a normal life.

And it has been that time, every day, for a year.

Over the past year, people attended public events at the United Nations, the National Mall in Washington and Times Square as well as private events at synagogues and community centers.

People have done ‘Run For Their Lives’, heard from survivors and politicians and watched countless videos and movies about the atrocities committed by Palestinian Arabs. They’ve donated to Israeli causes and volunteered sending goods to Israel. They put signs on their lawns and ribbons on the trees and lapels.

They’ve wept at concerts of Israeli singers, as they remembered their crew who was killed at the Nova Music Festival, and seeing Israeli soldiers reunited with their loved ones.

And they’ve gone to Israel. Packing items for soldiers and their families, donating blood, serving soldiers on their way in and out of the terrorist enclave of Gaza.

While praying and fighting for Israel, they’ve done the same in combating antisemitism in the diaspora. They’ve attended protests, provided support for students on hostile campuses, attended lectures and rallied to expel toxic politicians from office.

People have written to the anti-Israel media and cancelled subscriptions, emailed politicians and switched political parties. They’ve stopped giving money to their alma maters and started donating to Jewish and Israeli causes they never considered – let alone prioritized – before.

The trauma of the brutality continues past the year anniversary. Hostages remain. The Iranian Proxies War continues. The PTSD of raped women does not fade, nor for those who witnessed their family and friends killed.

Antisemites continue to rage on diaspora streets. Anti-Israel protestors rant on college campuses to burn Tel Aviv to the ground and to “Globalize the Intifada by any means necessary.” Politicians and university presidents appear unable or unwilling to stem the tidal wave of hate.

The world advocates to give peace prizes to those that torment Jews rather than those that normalize relations with the Jewish State. Politicians blame any real or potential personal misfortune on Jews. Leading Jewish politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Jerry Nadler lead the charge to vilify the Israeli government, paving the way for non-Jews to comfortably condemn Israel’s just defensive war.

There have been no great speeches by Israeli or Jewish political leaders. Jews have turned to podcasts for wisdom and to young Jewish men and women testifying before Congress to gain moral courage.

we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940

A year since the savage Palestinian Arab massacre of Israelis, the bitter chill of isolation has set upon Jews in Israel and the diaspora. Exhausted, they will continue to fight the menace for their basic human rights, ideally with allies, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Related articles:

Rethinking Jewish and Israeli Charities (September 2024)

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

A Visit To A Nation Held Hostage (July 2024)

Antisemitic Wind Chill, Now In Westchester (January 2024)

Sharansky on Churchill’s “We Shall Fight Them On The Beaches” Speech For Jews Today (December 2023)

The March of Silent Feet (January 2020)

The Holocaust Will Not Be Colorized. The Holocaust Will Be Live. (May 2019)

A 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Shortlist Mocks The Death Of Jews

On October 3, 2024, the Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Henrik Urdal, announced his updated list today for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. While PRIO is not associated with the Nobel committee, its views are considered influential. The list included:

  • OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
  • Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms
  • UNRWA and Philippe Lazzarini
  • International Court of Justice (ICJ)
  • UNESCO and the Council of Europe

In selecting UNRWA, PRIO stated “The UN agency has faced a massive funding crisis for years, which has been exasperated by the war itself, and increasingly by the impact of US withdrawing funding following allegations by Israel that 12 participants of the 7 October attacks were Hamas militants, employed by UNRWA. The UN agency took the allegations seriously, by launching both an internal investigation and an external review of its procedures. UNRWA has extensive control mechanisms in place, with a zero tolerance, but not zero risk policy. They therefore terminated the employment of individuals where there was any indication that they might have had ties to militant groups. Throughout the war UNRWA itself has been heavily targeted by Israeli attacks, and by the end of September, 224 of its staff had been killed in Gaza, and 190 UNRWA installations had been damaged. UNRWA’s operation is absolutely fundamental to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. A Nobel Peace Prize to the agency and its Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini would send a strong message about its role in supporting the lives of millions of Palestinian women, men and children.”

Nowhere was it noted that UNRWA teaches its students to despise Israeli Jews. Nowhere was it mentioned that UNRWA has promised 6 million Palestinian Arabs – 42% of whom already live in historic region of Palestine – that their future is inside of Israel, whether Israel likes it or not.

In short-listing the ICJ, PRIO wrote “While a Nobel Peace Prize to the ICJ would largely be seen as uncontroversial, the Court acted boldly in January this year ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. In addition, it acted early in March 2022 by ordering Russia to ‘immediately suspend the military operations’ in Ukraine.”

The anti-Israel actions were not an accident or related to the current war.

In 2021, PRIO did not recommend Jared Kushner who helped engineer the Abraham Accords which formed normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab and Muslim countries, a feat which was once considered impossible. Instead it nominated B’Tselem & the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) for “contributing to raising awareness in Israel and elsewhere of the need for the Israeli regime to change course if the conflict is to have any chance of reaching a peaceful and just resolution.”

In short, the recommendations for a peace prize in the shadow of the brutal slaughter of Jews was to send a political message that Jews deserve neither peace nor justice; they should have neither until the Palestinian victims of preference achieve all of their goals.

ACTION ITEM

Contact PRIO at urdal@prio.org and +47 92 04 78 41 that the barbaric slaughter of Jews should be condemned clearly and the murderers brought to justice, and their protectors should not be celebrated on the global stage, a mockery to both living and dead Jews.

Related articles:

Israel at 75 (April 2023)

Will a Jailed Terrorist or a Terrorist Group Run the Palestinian Authority? (April 2021)

Jared Kushner’s Parents Donate $20 million to the First Hospital Likely to Win the Nobel Peace Prize (December 2016)

New York Times Grants Nobel Prize-in Waiting to Palestinian Arab Terrorist (February 2016)

Al Aqsa Mosque As A Safe Room?

After Iran fired over 180 missiles at Israel, Israel considered how to handle synagogue attendance during the Rosh Hashanah holiday. Synagogue attendance typically swells on the holy days, with even more secular Jews attending services. But most synagogues only have small mamads (safe rooms) to protect people during a shelling attack, so hundreds could be left unprotected during an attack.

The situation is even more dire at one of the largest synagogues in the world – the Western Wall Plaza at the Kotel – where thousands of Jews gather in the Old City of Jerusalem. The large outdoor location has few easily accessible places to hide from missiles.

Perhaps the grey-domed al Aqsa Mosque can be used by thousands of Jews as a safe room from jihadi missiles. The jihadists would presumably try to spare their religious building, making the mosque a potential haven for Jews.

Al Aqsa Mosque from outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls (photo: First One Through)

Hamas termed their barbaric slaughter of Israelis the “al Aqsa Flood.” Perhaps it didn’t imagine that the term would become a prophecy inverted, drawing masses of Jews onto the Temple Mount.

Related articles:

CAIR Thinks Protecting Synagogues Is A Political Stunt And Waste Of Taxpayers Money (September 2024)

Protecting Synagogues Like Abortion Clinics (July 2024)

Palestinian Poll About October 7 Massacre (November 2023)

United Nations Urges ‘Utmost Restraint’ By Israel In Defending Synagogues On High Holidays (September 2023)

Every Picture Tells a Story: Israel Is Scared of Female Iranian Shoppers (February 2021)

Considering Nazis and Radical Islam on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day (June 2019)

The Disproportionate Defenses of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (July 2015)

United Nations Still Will Not Call For Hamas To Face Justice

In the immediate aftermath of the brutal October 7, 2023 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel by various Palestinian Arab terrorist groups including the ruling party Hamas, the United Nations was silent. Neither UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres nor the UN Security Council issued any statement for days. When they finally emerged from their shells, they urged Israel to act with “utmost restraint” rather than issue a statement of solidarity with Israel and for Hamas to be held accountable for its actions (as it does in standard form with every other terrorist attack).

One year later, nothing has changed.

Guterres posted on X his condemnation of the actions of Hamas but would still not say that the genocidal jihadi group must face justice.

The United Nations has shown a complete disregard of the lives, rights, dignity and humanity of Jews. It should not only be defunded but expelled from the United States.

ACTION ITEM

Write White House: The United Nations has STILL NOT DEMANDED FOR HAMAS TO FACE JUSTICE. It should be defunded immediately and expelled from the United States.

Related articles:

The United Nations Welcomes “Peace-Loving” Palestine (September 2024)

UN Human Rights Chief Wants Hamas To Have Greater Weaponry To Attack Israel (September 2024)

The Deep Flaws In The UN’s “Peace” Coordinator (August 2024)

UN Secretary General Sides With Hezbollah Over Israel (June 2024)

Time To Sentence The United Nations For Involuntary Manslaughter (April 2024)

UN Secretary General Accuses Israel Of “Islamophobia War” (March 2024)

US Fails To Lead Systemically Anti-Israel UN Security Council (March 2024)

The UN Has Joined The Jihadi Fray (February 2024)

Fire United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (January 2024)

UN Secretary General Sees Hostage Release Solely Through Lens Of Gaza (November 2023)

United Nations Declares Jews May Not Judge (November 2023)

The UN Security Council Cannot Bear To Say That Israel Has A Right To Defend Itself (October 2023)

UN Secretary General Says Hamas Speaks For “The Palestinian People” (October 2023)

The United Nations Fails Own Resolution To Combat Terrorism (October 2023)

United Nations Urges ‘Utmost Restraint’ By Israel In Defending Synagogues On High Holidays (September 2023)

The UN Reminds The World That Palestinian Terrorists And Enablers Are To Be Excused (August 2023)

Palestinian Hate Speech (May 2023)

The United Nations Ignores Radical Muslim Violent Extremism and Terrorism (February 2023)

Will The UN Ever Support Israel Addressing Terrorism And Violent Extremism? (February 2023)

14 Million Palestinian Arabs Ready To Reconcile, Vote And Battle (October 2022)

Amid The Terror, The United Nations Once Again Protects Palestinians (April 2022)

The UN Has No Interest in Mid-East Peace, Just a Palestinian State (October 2021)

The UN Cannot See Palestinian ‘Lies and Loathing’ (November 2020)

The United Nations Must Take Its Own Medicine Re the Palestinian Authority (June 2019)

The UN Declares that Palestinian Arabs Should Not Show “Restraint” (July 2017)

The UN Does Not Want Palestinian Terrorists to be Held Accountable (July 2017)

Iranian Proxies In The West Bank?

The Islamic Republic of Iran has many proxies surrounding Israel: Hamas which controls Gaza; Hezbollah which controls Lebanon; Syria; and farther away, the Houthis in Yemen.

Does it also have cells in the West Bank?

As Iran sent over 180 missiles into Israel on October 1, 2024, two Palestinian Arabs from Hebron shot and killed seven people in Tel Aviv and injured many others. The timing was minutes apart.

This was the first time that Palestinian Arabs shot up Tel Aviv streets during the year long war against Palestinian terrorists. Is it a coincidence that Palestinian Arabs decided to blast Tel Aviv just as Iranian missiles showered from above?

West Bank Arabs have been much more supportive of the October 7 attacks and commitment to destroying Israel than their counterparts in Gaza according to Palestinian polls. Israeli activity likely prevented a two-front war on October 7, which would have resulted in thousands of additional Israeli deaths in cities like Kfar Saba and Ra’anana which are very close to the 1949 Armistice Lines.

While the world is focused on the violent storm between Israel and Iran, Israel’s security will need to investigate how deeply Iran has integrated with the newer terrorist groups in the West Bank like Jenin Battalion, Lions’ Den and Tulkarm Brigades, to clamp down on yet another front of jihadi terrorism.

ACTION ITEM

Write White House and pro-Israel members of Congress like Ritchie Torres, Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer or your local representative to get the State Department to label the Jenin Battalion, Lion’s Den and the branches of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade as US designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Related articles:

Note To Kamala: Vast Majority Of West Bank Arabs Are Terrorist Supporters (July 2024)

The Gaza Red Herring Covering Iran’s Nuclear Breakout (January 2024)

How Many Terrorists To Target? Between 1,500 and 1.5 Million (October 2023)

UNRWA’s West Bank Terrorists (July 2023)

Majority of Palestinians Believe Israel Will Soon Cease to Exist (June 2023)

Letter to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) On Conditioning Aid To Israel (March 2023)

Biden To Push Coexistence Agenda To Palestinian Arabs Not Interested (July 2022)

Platforming The ‘Third Intifada’

College campuses have become awash in calls for an “Intifada” which some anti-Israel apologists say is only a call for another independent Arab state. Others acknowledge it as a call to destroy the Jewish State of Israel echoing the genocidal jihadists. Others say it encompasses a Diaspora Intifada, which comes for Zionists and Israel supporters everywhere.

University presidents are attempting to figure out how to allow civil discourse and free speech. Many allow students to take over campuses with calls to destroy an American ally and hunt Jews, as long as there’s no immediate call for violence. Some give professors tenure to spew their toxic opinions and instill Jew hatred like medieval preachers discussing blood libels.

The U.S. Congress is doing much the same.

On May 9, 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi invited Imam Omar Suleiman to give a prayer at Congress. Suleiman was already well known for his rhetoric about “Free Palestine” and what an ‘Intifada’ meant: a war to destroy the State of Israel.

As the 2014 Israel-Hamas war started, Soleiman tweeted “The 3rd Intifada starts on the 27th night of Ramadan. Oh Allah make it blessed. #FreePalestine #48kmarch.” Just as the war was concluding, he tweeted much the same: “For the first time since 1967, Masjid Al Aqsa is closed. A third intifada is near insha’Allah #FreePalestine.”

None of these sentiments was disqualifying for Pelosi. She thought that a person calling for the destruction of an ally was appropriate to elevate to the national stage.

In the current Iranian proxies war against Israel, Suleiman continues to call for the destruction of Israel. After Hassan Nasrallah (fungus be upon him), the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah was assassinated by Israel, Suleiman called to his followers to “continue to persevere” in the goal of eradicating the Jewish State.

The platforms which call for the destruction of the only Jewish State, where nearly half of Jewry lives, are plentiful: social media, universities and at governments. The defense is ‘free speech’ which a flimsy veneer to allow a voice for those who had typically not been seen or heard. While free speech is about CONTENT, today’s version is about the SPEAKER, and society is demanding those speakers be platformed regardless of what they say.

Noted White supremacists don’t get invited to address the House of Representatives nor given tenure at Ivy League schools. Universities have not permitted the KKK to have chapters on 250 college campuses like Students for Justice in Palestine.

The tenet of free speech and goal of giving voice to the unheard are seemingly complementary but alarmingly discordant today.

At least to Jews, who have suffered more hate crimes than any community for millenia. Now told to shut up and listen to the bile, as the victims of preference have the floor.

Related articles:

The Anti-Israel And Anti-American Woke Grows (July 2024)

Drawing Muhammed On U.S. College Campuses (May 2024)

Why Should Columbia Protect Jews If The Government Won’t? (April 2024)

Considering Campus Antisemitism (November 2023)

Should The KKK Open Chapters In Every American University, What Say You? (October 2023)

The Center Of Intersectionality Sounds Like Adolf Hitler (July 2023)

The Anti-Semitic Replacement Theory of White and Islamic Extremists (May 2022)

The Campus Inquisition (April 2022)

NY Times Considers Notion That Terrorism Against Israel is a Matter of Free Speech (January 2021)

Victims of Preference (July 2020)

The Insidious Jihad in America (July 2019)

Inclusion versus Attention, and The Failure of American Leadership (March 2019)

Covering Racism (March 2018)