Today was Yom HaShoah, which is Israel’s Holocaust Memorial Day honoring the memory of the 6,000,000 Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in Europe. On this day, and every day, we say Never Forget. We say Never Again.
Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur, who I have referenced often in this update, wrote a beautiful note that is worth reading in its entirety. Here is how he concluded it:
And so on Yom HaShoah we remember not only the dead, though we spend most of the day recalling their names and lives and stories and the whole lost civilization of European Jews. We remember not only what we have lost, but also that it was by our own initiative and wisdom that the survivors came out of that great death and into a new day, a new/old Jewishness, an unapologetic survival and flourishing. Let them rage, my friends, let the antisemites forever build their moral worlds on our story in thick layers of hatred, conspiracy and righteous pretense, offering us, as ever, the most reliable signal of their dysfunction and decline. There's nothing new in that. What is new is us, our clarity and purpose, a Jewish collective shorn of the blindnesses and vulnerabilities of the past.
This Yom HaShoah, I will think about what we might have been able to do for our brethren if we'd been established and strong just a decade earlier. I will think on our strength as much as our weakness, on the ever-present, unfulfillable duty to rebuild what was destroyed, and I will reflect on the evil stories of us that never really go away, but that don't, in the end, matter anymore, because those who could see around history's dark and dangerous corners finally freed us from their grip.
Watch
Kassy Akiva posts a video on X of Hamas-supporting students at Yale throwing water bottles and shouting antisemitic slurs at Jewish students as they leave an event on campus this evening.
Terror Without Borders, Part I: Hezbollah, Inc. and Beyond from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
FDD’s Mark Dubowitz sits down with Dr. Matthew Levitt, a top authority on Hezbollah and Iran’s proxy warfare, to break down how Hezbollah operates as Iran’s most powerful proxy; its deep involvement in terror plots, weapons trafficking, and criminal finance; the group’s expanding footprint around the world; what the US, Israel, and allies must do to dismantle this network; and why Hezbollah’s role is central to Tehran’s long-term strategy — and its survival.
Israel/Middle East Related Articles
How Iran Is Weaponizing Europe’s Criminal Underworld by Tam Hussein with New Lines Magazine
On Oct. 1, 2024, gunfire cracked near the Israeli Embassy in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm. Later that day, two hand grenades exploded near the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. The attacks were carried out by young men, reportedly aged between 15 and 20, with ties to Swedish organized crime.
But why would a gang whose main business is to supply northern Europe with narcotics end up targeting Israeli embassies? Had its elusive mob boss, Rawa Majid, suddenly embraced the Palestinian cause?
Curiously, on March 12, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also took an interest in Majid and his gang… Rubio suggested that the answer lay in the shadowy corridors of Tehran and Iran’s foreign policy. Majid was a valuable piece on the Iranian chessboard.
In today’s world, fortune favors the weak. War has become increasingly unconventional, and weaker states can access lethal, cheaper technologies capable of hurting stronger, better-equipped states without the need to confront them directly… For a state like Iran, using Majid was a low-cost, effective way to achieve its goals that could always be denied if accusations were leveled.
Iran changed tactics and became more pragmatic. It became less reliant on ideological allies like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and successfully turned transnational crime cartels into a tool of foreign policy… Majid’s Foxtrot, then, appears to be just one criminal organization out of many across the world that Iran employs to carry out its covert operations.
The Kinahan cartel may have started from humble beginnings in Dublin, but by the time it began dealing with the Iranians, its criminal interest and reach spanned the world… Christy Kinahan was even trying to purchase airplane parts on behalf of Tehran.
Rubio’s sanctioning of Majid doesn’t seem like political theater, but rather a recognition of how the geopolitical playing field has changed… It was an acknowledgment that a tactic that had once been confined to the shadowy periphery of Machiavellian statecraft could become standard practice in an age of strongmen.
This evolution in tactics presents major challenges for Western security services. The stakes are immensely high, with implications for global order, law enforcement, the judiciary, business and civil society. Blurring the line between crime and statecraft will have major consequences. Such actions will no doubt affect Middle Eastern diasporas, who may face growing suspicion — simply because of their faith or politics.
The Necessity of the U.S.-Israel Alliance, by Josh Hammer on Commonplace
Israel long ago became a contested issue on the American Left… The perhaps more worrisome trend is therefore the rise of a boisterous anti-Israel contingent within the MAGA-aligned right-of-center.
Some leading MAGA-aligned anti-Israelists make a habit of arguing that Republican support for Israel… is a mere vestige of a bygone Bush-era neoconservatism… This is fake history… It is the architect of America First, Donald Trump, who has repeatedly proven himself… the most pro-Israel president in the history of the modern Jewish state.
Like any good contemporary foreign-policy realist, Trump begins with two premises: resource scarcity exists, and the People’s Republic of China represents the biggest civilizational threat… The question is: how can the United States best secure its interests in the Middle East while redeploying assets to the Indo-Pacific? The answer is simple: embolden Israel to take care of its threats—which, the vast majority of the time, are our threats too.
During Trump’s first term, the result of his myriad pro-Israel policies was neither war nor the much-dreaded eruption of the ‘Arab street,’ but unprecedented regional stability and the four historic Arab-Israeli peace deals that together comprised the Abraham Accords.
Over the course of a few months in 2024… Israel embarked on a righteous revenge campaign… eliminating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar… Israel did America’s dirty work for us by taking [terror leaders] out.
All America has to do is defend Israel at the United Nations, supply the occasional bespoke weaponry, and otherwise just get the heck out of the way and let the IDF do their thing. That’s it.
A Tragic Mistake? Yes. A War Crime? No by Arsen Ostrovsky, John Spencer, and Brian Cox in Newsweek
On March 23, the Israel Defense Forces made a tragic error in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of nine humanitarian aid workers, along with six Hamas terrorists who were embedded among them. An investigation into the incident was immediately undertaken, and officers found to have been responsible were disciplined soon after. But while all war is a tragedy, not all tragedies are war crimes.
Outrage—along with misleading or outright false images—has overtaken social media. A global mob mentality has formed. Fortunately, the manipulations of social media are not a substitute for international law. War crimes require specific evidence of intent—not viral videos, emotional overlays, or instant judgment by influencers or pundits acting as judge and jury.
The IDF's internal investigation concluded that the killings resulted from a series of operational errors and professional failures. IDF elements were operating in a "hostile and dangerous combat zone" and believed there to be a "tangible threat." Soldiers misidentified the convoy of vehicles, assessing that they were being used by Hamas insurgents—a tactic the group has systematically employed since Oct. 7, 2023.
This tactic forces troops into impossible split-second decisions under fire—precisely the kind of dilemma that international law accounts for, but online critics ignore.
No army—American, British, or Israeli—is immune to errors in war. What matters is what follows: transparency, investigation, disciplinary action, and institutional learning. That is the measure of a professional military in a democratic society.
In the IDF incident, surveillance indicated that five vehicles approached rapidly and stopped near IDF troops, with passengers quickly disembarking. The deputy battalion commander assessed the situation as a credible Hamas threat and ordered fire. Though that judgment proved incorrect, the belief was reasonable under the circumstances, including poor nighttime visibility, and which only underscored that the IDF complied with the rule of distinction under law of armed conflict.
…the IDF acted exactly as a military in a democracy should: it investigated, acknowledged fault, and held individuals accountable.
There must also be a clear distinction between errors made in the course of legitimate military operations and intentionally directing attacks against civilians, which is Hamas' standard practice and a blatant war crime.
Read the IDF Summary: Summary of the Examination Into the Incident Involving Rescue Teams and Vehicles in the Gaza Strip
Antisemitism
The Universities: What is to be done? By Donna Robinson Divine with the Times of Israel
President Trump’s policies aimed at penalizing universities for failing to protect Jewish students… unleashed a raft of denunciations… These prestigious universities became the staging ground for holding butchered Israelis responsible for the horrors perpetrated on them… suggesting an antisemitism so deeply ingrained to warrant due alarm.
Requiring universities to create a safe environment for Jewish students or lose research grants has been branded an assault on higher education… No one in the faculty lounge seems to be asking why Jews deserve less protection than other American minorities — or proposing anything remotely approaching an effective alternative.
For decades, universities have failed to fulfill their core educational mission… Too many courses became harnessed to social activism seeking to remake the world rather than to understand it… A world divided between oppressors and oppressed comes pre-installed with free speech replacing academic freedom; it awards credit to feelings, not to thinking.
Turning Southern Israel into an abattoir on October 7 purportedly showed how this history could be reversed… October 7 rapists, kidnappers, and mutilators were transubstantiated by activist scholars into icons of liberation… A distorted history combined with magical thinking about politics produced the currents for protests turned into rituals to make amends for past wrongs.
Totally lost beneath the calls from university faculty and administrators for civil discourse, freedom of expression, rules of engagement, respect for the deep feelings aroused by the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict was the core principle that should have been paramount for the academy: namely, how to offer students an education giving them credible knowledge about the history and politics of the Conflict so many embraced as a righteous cause without even the faintest idea of what the slogans emblazoned on their banners or shouted out in their marches actually meant. University courses should show students how to think about the Middle East, not how to imagine this Conflict aligning with how they see themselves.
It is long past time to rebuild universities by acknowledging the monumental losses incurred by encouraging social activism to overwhelm and eventually replace intellectual inquiry.
The Dangerous Return of Pre-Oct. 7 Thinking, by Seth Mandel in Commentary Magazine
The shedding of pre-Oct. 7 thinking on the part of many American Jews has occasioned a backlash from the revanchists who seek to undo any progress or advancement the Jewish community has made since that horrific day.
One example of revanchist thinking: the reversion to ‘keep your head down’ Judaism out of fear that if we advocate for our own rights we will be blamed… This conceit is being increasingly deployed to argue against punishing universities… for violating Jewish students’ civil rights.
Those who receive that money… do not want to lose it. One such person is Yale medical professor Naftali Kaminski… He even calls [the pro-Hamas protests] ‘mostly peaceful.’… Both end up at the same place: They worry that people will be angry at the Jews.
A key lesson of Jewish history is that whether or not Jews assert their dignity, they will be blamed for anything that goes wrong. The least we can do… is stand up straight and demonstrate a little self-respect.
Normally, when a social- or political-rights movement is seen as overstepping… the backlash is political… Only with regard to the Jews do we accept the argument that punishing institutional racism is inherently a poor response.
Instead, we are told to accept whatever level of antisemitism is currently floating around… If we keep absolutely still, the antisemitism won’t see us, just like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park… Many of us learned similar lessons from Oct. 7. Let’s hope the rest catch up soon.
The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024
Each year, ADL (Anti-Defamation League) tracks incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in the United States.
In 2024, ADL tabulated 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States. This represents a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023, a 344% increase over the past five years and a 893% increase over the past 10 years. It is the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents 46 years ago.
Incidents of vandalism and assault increased significantly in 2024. Assaults increased by 21% to 196 incidents, impacting 250 victims, and vandalism increased by 20% to 2,606 incidents. Harassment incidents remained relatively steady, with an increase of 0.26%, for a total of 6,552 incidents.
For the first time in the history of the Audit, a majority (58%) of all incidents contained elements related to Israel or Zionism. A large portion of Israel-related antisemitic incidents occurred at or in the vicinity of anti-Israel protests. Out of over 5,000 anti-Israel rallies tracked by ADL in 2024, 2,596 involved antisemitic messaging in the form of signs, chants or speeches.
In 2024, ADL recorded 1,694 antisemitic incidents on college campuses, which is 84% higher than in 2023. Campus incidents comprised 18% of all incidents, a larger proportion than in any previous Audit.
Jewish organizations, particularly synagogues, were targeted with hundreds of bomb threats and hundreds more general antisemitic threats. Congregants were harassed and even assaulted while at or in the vicinity of Jewish institutions, and some anti-Israel groups escalated their tactics, protesting Jewish religious and cultural institutions on dozens of occasions.
The states with the highest levels of incidents were New York (1,437) and California (1,344).
Link to Full Audit: Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024
Casualties (no change)
1,863 Israelis have been killed including 848 IDF soldiers since October 7th (no change from Sunday)
The South: 411 IDF soldiers (no change from Sunday) during the ground operation in Gaza have been killed. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
The North: 132 Israelis (84 IDF soldiers) have been killed during the war in Northern Israel
The West Bank: 63 Israelis (27 IDF and Israeli security forces)
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
5,791 (+11 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 862 (+3 since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
2,612 (+9 since Sunday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 503 (+4 since Sunday) who have been severely injured.
The Gaza Casualty Count:
According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, 50,810 total deaths have been reported, with a civilian/combatant ratio: 1:1.
[MUST READ] Report: Questionable Counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-Run Ministry of Health in Gaza by Andrew Fox with The Henry Jackson Society
On October 7th, Ohad Hemo with Channel 12 Israel News – the country’s largest news network, a leading expert on Palestinian and Arab affairs, mentioned an estimate from Hamas: around 80% of those killed in Gaza are members of the organization and their families.”
Read this well documented piece from Tablet published in March: How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers
The Associated Press, an outlet with a demonstrated anti-Israel bias, conducted an analysis of alleged Gaza death tolls released by the Hamas-controlled "Gaza Health Ministry." The analysis found that "9,940 of the dead – 29% of its April 30 total – were not listed in the data" and that "an additional 1,699 records in the ministry’s April data were incomplete and 22 were duplicates."
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes official details on every civilian and IDF casualty.
Hostage Update (no change)
Yesterday, Hamas has published a video of hostage Omri Miran. Omri, who is 48, was taken hostage from his home in Nahal Oz by Hamas, leaving behind his wife, Lishay Miran, and their two small daughters. This is the first sign of life in over one year.
In the video, Hamas forced him to light birthday candle, his second birthday in captivity.
The family did not authorize the publication or distribution of the video released by Hamas, only the image above, and released the following statement:
On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we say ‘Never Again,’ an Israeli citizen cries out for help from Hamas’ tunnels. It is a moral failure for the State of Israel. Our Omri is strong and will not break—but our hearts are broken. For a year and a half, he and 58 other hostages have been waiting to be brought home. We will not give up. We will continue to fight until Omri returns to us—and especially to his two daughters, who are waiting with all their hearts to hold him again.
There are now currently 58 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza (there are 59 hostages remaining in total)
38 hostages were released in the first phase of the 2025 cease fire agreement (including 5 Thai nationals)
24 hostages will remain in captivity after Phase I and have not been declared dead.
5 hostages are Americans: Meet the Five American Hostages Still Held By Hamas: Edan Alexander is assumed to be alive, Itay Chen is assumed to have been killed on 10/7, and Gadi Haggai, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Omer Neutra have been confirmed to have been killed.
4 are soldiers
7 are residents of the Gaza border communities
11 were abducted from the Nova music festival
2 are foreign workers: Bipin Joshi from Nepal and Pinta Nattapong from Thailand
On October 7th, a total of 251 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November of 2023, 112 hostages were released.
193 hostages in total have been released or rescued
The bodies of 40 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
8 hostages have been heroically rescued by troops alive
Of the 59 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
31 hostages have been confirmed dead and are currently being held in Gaza
Thus, at most, 28 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
Hamas is now holding the body of 1 IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 (Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body remains held in the Gaza Strip)
Regular sources include JINSA, FDD, IDF, AIPAC, The Paul Singer Foundation, The Institute for National Security Studies, the Alma Research and Education Center, Yediot, Jerusalem Post, IDF Casualty Count, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Institute for the Study of War, Tablet Magazine, Mosaic Magazine, The Free Press, and the Times of Israel