Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, was killed by an Israeli military operation in Gaza on October 17 one year later. The mourning among West Bank Arabs was likely much greater than for Gazans.
September 2024 PCPSR poll results for race for presidency
The appreciation for Sinwar was much greater in the West Bank than in Gaza, with 70% of West Bank Arabs expressing satisfaction with Sinwar to 29% in Gaza. Presumably this is because the Gaza Strip has felt more of the ramifications of Sinwar’s war against Israel than those living in the West Bank, although the poll does not ask.
The poll does ask about the “best means of achieving Palestinian goals in ending the occupation and building an independent state,” which showed the majority of 56% of West Bankers still preferring violence to 36% in Gaza, a 20 point spread.
Beyond the fighting forces of the decimated military in Gaza military while the armed terrorist groups in the West Bank remaining intact, is the gap in news sources. According to the poll, by far the biggest source of news to the region came from Qatar’s Al Jazeera, and “West Bankers are more likely than Gazans to watch Aljazeera, 80% and 30%, respectively.” That’s the media company which has told Palestinian Arabs that thousands of their comrades did not commit mass rape of Israelis and burn families alive, making films whitewashing the atrocities, despite ample evidence.
The war has made Gazans turn towards negotiations with Israel, as their military has been defeated and the propaganda machine has fizzled, yet West Bank Arabs continue to prefer a war to negotiations by a two-to-one margin. It remains to be seen whether it will take a conclusive defeat and termination of Iranian and Qatari propaganda to make West Bank Arabs give up their quest to destroy Israel.
Or the Palestinian jihadists of the West Bank can continue to threaten Israel, much like Monty Python’s Black Knight.
Palestinian Arabs believe that the pathway to gaining land is through violence, while Israel believes that land given to Palestinian Arabs becomes a launching pad for terrorism. The cause-and-effect is a bloody mirror: violence-for-land (Palestinians) and land-facilitates-violence (Israelis).
Palestinian Arabs have a “greater confidence in the efficacy of armed struggle” to achieve their goals of a Palestinian State, according to Palestinian polls. They point to the success in getting Israel to hand over Jericho, Bethlehem and major Arab cities because of the First Intifada, and abandoning Gaza because of the Second Intifada. This continued more recently in May 2021, when Hamas’s rocketfire caused Israel to halt the eviction of Arab squatters living in Jewish homes in the Sheikh Jarrah section of Jerusalem.
Many Israelis see handing over Gaza as an enormous mistake as it clearly demonstrated that Arab-controlled land becomes a terrorist safe haven. Rather than turning the beachfront land into a peaceful paradise, the Gazans spent years building a terrorist infrastructure from which to launch a genocidal war to destroy Israel. In the aftermath of Israel leaving Gaza in 2005, Palestinian Arabs voted the US-designated terrorist group Hamas to 58% of parliament with the most antisemitic and genocidal charter ever written.
Palestinians are looking for more land; some want all of Israel to be wiped out in favor of Palestine, while others want personal property inside of Israel. Only a minority seek a two-state future.
Israel is not only attempting to destroy Hamas and rescue its hostages; it is educating the jihadists that violence does not pay.
One of thousands of Gaza terrorists killing civilians inside of Israel
It may be working.
A recent September 2024 Palestinian poll found that “for the first time since October 7, 2023, simultaneously in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, findings show significant drop in the favorability of the October 7 attack and in the expectations that Hamas will win the current war, and a moderate drop in the level of support for Hamas; moreover, findings show a drop in the Gaza Strip in the preference for a continued Hamas control over that area in the day after the war and a rise in the preference for PA control…. . Findings show significant rise in support for the two-state solution in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Support for armed struggle declines and support for negotiations rise.”
Both Israelis and Palestinians believe that land and violence are tethered in the holy land. Perhaps the current war is slowly severing that connection and will enable a pathway towards coexistence.
They were shipped to concentration camps to be gassed and incinerated.
They were sent on death marches in the winter to freeze to death.
They were lined up and shot in the heads after digging ditches to receive their corpses.
Almost the entirety of European Jewry was killed. One-third of global Jewry was liquidated.
Holocaust Survivors tried to return to their towns and homes after the war, to be greeted by the locals who had stolen their goods and moved into their homes, who quickly executed the survivors of horrors.
Yet the Holocaust survivors who watched their families, friends and people get annihilated did not take up arms against the German people. They didn’t begin gassing the Austrians after the war. They didn’t invade Poland to burn Poles alive.
Why?
People have argued that Israel’s war to destroy Hamas is breeding another generation of terrorists because of the massive death toll of Palestinian civilians. The argument posits that when young Arabs see the horrible devastation brought upon their families and towns, they will become terrorists when they grow up and seek revenge.
Yet the people who actually experienced a genocide – Jews – never embarked on such a lust for blood and revenge.
Why?
Jews wanted to just live a regular life before the Holocaust and afterwards. Their goals did not change with time. They went from loving their neighbors and governments in Europe to hating them but did not seek revenge.
Palestinian Arabs have also stayed their course. Their goal was to destroy the Jewish State and its founding and remains so today. The wars have not altered their goals and the death of friends and family are simply viewed as setbacks to achieving their aims.
Wars do not create a new generation of terrorists. A culture that dehumanizes the “other” as evil begets a generation of terrorists set on killing the invading entity.
During the Holocaust, Nazis kept Jews calm in concentration camps, making them believe that they were in forced labor camps, not death mills. In recent decades, the United Nations has kept Palestinian Arabs in “refugee” camps, making them believe that the world was going to help them reclaim the towns and homes where grandparents once lived.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews inside their camps, while the UN raised generations to kill thousands of Jews just a short distance away.
ACTION ITEM
Contact the White House and your local representative that UNRWA is a weapon of war that must be closed. Pressure the United Nations and Saudi Arabia to state clearly that there is no “right of return” for Palestinian Arabs to move into Israel.
If ever there was a champion of the woke, it is the author Ta-Nehisi Coates. He worked as a journalist for years at many left-wing publications including the Village Voice, Time and The Atlantic and has written a number of books. One of his books won the National Book Award.
His latest book, The Message is principally about his view on Israel which he believes is racist to the core. He spent ten days visiting cities in the West Bank and read reports about the country from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, all organizations deeply critical of Israel to arrive at his conclusion.
His book tour took him to his favorite liberal outlets which could not heap enough praise on the author and his book.
The New York Times called Coates a “public intellectual” who could “wield his moral authority” to “call out injustice,” “especially regarding Israel and the occupied territories.” Why would the editor of a major news organization give a glowing review of someone completely unfamiliar with the region who based his entire view from talking to select individuals over ten days, and a number of publicly available jaundiced reports? That says much more about the Times than it does about the book and his analysis.
MSNBC gave him a glowing interview by a gushing Chris Hayes for sixteen minutes. Coastes called Israel an “apartheid state” which he said was immediately obvious since there were streets he could not walk down. Hayes chimed in that he agreed, having been on the “same streets and Hebron and had the same reaction which is that this is is obviously a moral abomination.” (5:20) The two of them were in violent agreement “obviously, obviously, obviously” they echoed to each other.
There was no discussion that 90 percent of Hebron is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and JEWS ARE FORBIDDEN from going there. No education that when the area was under Muslim control pre-1967, JEWS WERE FORBIDDEN from even entering their holy site of the Tomb of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs. No mention that the 1929 Arab riots which slaughtered Jews, led the British to ETHNICALLY CLEANSE ALL JEWS from the city, because the British concluded that the massacre was so savage and massive that the victims could not be protected from Muslim Arab mobs.
Hayes accidentally let out that the two of them are friends (7:35) and talked about writing together. That fact was not a disqualifier for the executives at MSNBC which wanted Coates to have a warm and glowing interview, pushing his book.
When Hayes asked Coates why he didn’t interview anyone pro-Israel (9:20), Coates offered that “it’s very very difficult to spend almost thirty years in media as I have, and not be very much exposed – and frankly to live in America as a thinking person and not be exposed – to the defenders of the ‘Zionist Project.'” A rich criticism that Jews who control the media have continuously lied to the American public to protect their racist ‘project.’
Hayes grunted in agreement.
He went on to say that because Israel is an apartheid state, nothing else matters. He doesn’t care what actions Arabs have taken or what they say because that inherent situation is evil.
Hayes pointed his finger and waved that Coates was right on point. He urged everyone to read the book.
Chris Hayes on MSNBC telling people to buy Coates’ book
At 11:50, Coates suggested that the Jewish State acts so bigoted and violent against Arabs because of “the humiliation of the Holocaust.” Stewart suggested (14:45) that Arabs around the Middle East were humiliated by the British and French chopping up the region post World War I. He thought the region needed to “reconcile humiliation” (16:50).
In this telling, the genocide of European Jewry was conflated with creating new nations. The extermination of six million Jews connected to the lack of a Palestinian State because the local Arabs want all of it. The return of Jews to their ancestral homeland could only be celebrated if Jews got to subjugate the people who had been living there.
If that premise were true, would Jews have accepted a partition for just part of the land in 1947? Granted all non-Jews Israeli citizenship in 1948? Handed the Jewish Temple Mount, the holiest site for Judaism, to the Muslim Waqf in 1967? Every other faith group which took the plateau for the past 2,000 years converted it to paganism, a church or mosque.
Until the Jews. They handed control to Muslims in the fervent wish for peace and coexistence.
Stewart, a professed “cultural Jew”, endorsed the book.
CNN’s Amanpour & Co. interviewed Coates in an 18 minute interview. He talked (5:00) about how Palestinian Muslims had to wait as much as 45 minutes to enter the Old City of Jerusalem, while those entering from Israel were able to just walk in. Notice: that’s called border controls; Israeli Arabs have no issues going to the Old City of Jerusalem and do so constantly.
He went on to say that Israel’s laws are like the Jim Crow era of separate and unequal. He called Israel an “illegal apartheid regime (8:00)… based on what I saw and read afterwards.” But in interviews Coates made clear that he only read from parties that lambast Israel. He defends himself by saying that the context was irrelevant and the situation is intolerable and inhumane. That has the intellectual and moral idiocy of criticizing a prison without understanding the crime of someone, or the harshness of what chemotherapy does to a person without considering the cancer that riddles a person’s body.
Israel has not annexed the area east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL/ “West Bank”) because it hopes to arrive at a two-state settlement. It has already given Gaza and the major Arab population areas to the Palestinian Authority to give Arabs there self-determination. Unfortunately, the Arabs made clear in the Second Intifada/ Two Percent Pogrom that they want all of Israel, not just pieces of it.
The interviewer pushed back at 9:00 that Coates was only there for ten days and Jews have indigenous claims to the land too. Coates said that “context… won’t make [it] okay.” He then compared defenders of Israel to American Southern racists telling northern White people condemning slavery that “you don’t know the Negro like we do.” (11:25) Coates implied that the pro-Israel community wants to treat Arabs like Black slaves. He said that in Israeli “citizenship is decided by ethnicity and religion, and rights are decided by ethnicity and religion” (16:05) showing that he is completely misinformed and ignorant about the country, where 26% of its citizens are non-Jews.
Coates went back to his theme (17:40) “that just because you went through some horrific experience you therefore have a kind of moral authority and are therefore then not capable of inflicting hurts on other people.” Coates seemingly thinks that Jews think themselves both “humiliated’ (Daily Show) and morally superior because of the Holocaust, and can therefore act with impunity.
The basic context that Coates refuses to acknowledge is that the Holocaust wiped out one-third of global Jewry. While he thinks of himself as a minority, there are over one billion Black people in the world. There are nearly two billion Muslims in the world. Jews are not majority-minorities that are discussed constantly, but a minority-minority of just 15 million people which are on the endangered humans list. When they returned en masse to their homeland, five Arab armies and the local Arab population tried to genocide the remaining rump of Jews. In the lands that Arabs conquered in the 1948-9 war, they ethnically cleansed the land of every single Jew and gave citizenship to people as long as they weren’t Jewish (1954 Jordanian Law, Article 3). They voted Hamas with a vile genocidal antisemitic charter to 58% of the parliament, and celebrated the group’s October 7 massacre.
CNN would not endorse the speaker or book.
The firestorm over the book came about recently when CBS interviewed Coates in a six minute interview by three interviewers. One of the three, Tony Dokoupil asked Coates why he omitted so much context (1:50) and Coates replied that the pro-Israel context is known so he didn’t feel compelled to repeat them, as well as making the arguments listed above in the other interviews. The staff at CBS went ballistic at the line of questioning so CBS News chief Wendy McMahon scolded Dokoupil for not meeting “our editorial standards.”
Perhaps Dokoupil was the only journalist who actually did his job, as most “news” organizations were no more than paid advertising spots.
The shame of Coates is the willful smugness of his ignorance. The horror of the media is the willful platforming of miseducation.
The most powerful Jewish American politician is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who is the Senate Majority Leader. He often claims to be a guardian – a ‘shomer’ in Hebrew – of American Jewry but he is nothing of the sort.
On the anniversary of the most heinous attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Schumer offered tepid remarks – to almost no one.
His sole post on the day condemned the October 7 and called for the hostages to be brought home. He expressed empathy for the slain and captive but nothing else.
His vanilla post was viewed by 62,700.
Compare that to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul who posted repeatedly on October 7.
Hochul talked about fighting antisemitism. She said that New York stood with Israel. She ordered flags to fly at half-mast to remember the massacred Israelis. She spoke about peace, all in several posts viewed much more than the Jewish Senate Majority Leader.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s post was viewed over 8 million times, or over 130 times more than Schumer. Her comments said that Hamas is a terrorist group that must never be allowed to govern Gaza. She spoke of standing with Israel and making sure it could defend itself against Iran and its proxies. She spoke of antisemitism.
Even outgoing Senator Mitt Romney had more moral clarity – and more views – than Schumer. In a succinct statement Romney said he wanted to see an end to the terrorist group Hamas, that he stood with Israel, prayed for the hostages and Israeli soldiers and to end rampant antisemitism.
Schumer did not stand with Israel. He did not call Hamas a terrorist group which must never be allowed to rule Gaza. He did not say he supports arming Israel to defend itself. He did not mention peace. He did not call out the sickening antisemitism everywhere.
Schumer is not a shomer.
Schumer prefers to use his pulpit to lead the charge against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Schumer called for early elections in Israel while the country is engaged in a multi-front defensive war, in direct election interference.
Sen. Schumer’s term doesn’t end until 2029 when he will be 79 years old. The Jewish community should begin to strategize about who should primary him.
ACTION ITEM
Email Sen. Schumer and relay your disgust at his tepid remarks about the October 7 massacre.
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.
National Mall, Washington DCRally at United Nations, NYCTimes Square, NYCHostage discussion in Westchester, NYYeshiva University focus on Hanukah fight then and now
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.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY17)Parents of hostage speaking in Central Park, NYCPanel about mass sexual assault committed on October 7
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.
Hanan Ben AriIshay Ribo
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.
Hostage Square, Tel AvivShuva Junction, Israel
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.
Manhattan Jewish experience discussing antisemitism on college campusesAlan Dershowitz on American antisemitismGeorge Latimer victory party in primary over anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16)Protest in Scarsdale, NY after Jewish stores defaced
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.
New York Times referring to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as seeking equality for all religions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
First One Through 