Israel Update: October 6
I had not originally planned to send an update today, but as I spent the weekend reading and listening to various articles ahead of tomorrow’s somber one year “anniversary,” if you will call it that, of October 7th, I felt compelled to share what I was seeing this weekend. In the coming days, I will share some of my own observations about what the past year has meant to me, to my family, to my friends, to my faith, and to our allies who have stood alongside of us. I typically have refrained from offering my own opinions, but I feel the time is right to share my own experiences over these past twelve months. I approach tomorrow with mixed emotions: from sorrow, helplessness, anger, and frustration, to some sliver of a silver lining in seeing and meeting so many inspiring people, important causes, and impactful organizations (new and established) bonding together to face a global war of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Israel’s right to defend itself. I found Bret Stephen’s NYT article, The Year the Jews Woke Up, to really capture some of this sentiment. He ends his note with this: Oct. 7 shook our illusions and reawakened us to where we stand as a diasporic community. Now we must reckon with who we are and what we must do.
I do hope you enjoy these posts and share them far and wide. While you’re always welcome to unsubscribe, my goal has been to arm you with accurate information, most of which I know is repetitive and easily accessible. My goal has been simply to compile what I’m seeing and share with you. Maybe it’s my own way of feeling like I’m doing something small to help. I have always stated that I do not pretend to be a journalist. I’m merely an engaged Jew in Texas who cares deeply about the future of my wife’s home country, a place near and dear to our family and our faith, and to so many of our allies. Before we enter tomorrow, I want to say a heartfelt thank you for joining us on this journey. I am an awe of how many people have stood up together and am optimistic that we are becoming stronger together. In this time between the Jewish High Holidays, I find myself comforted to be surrounded by so many heroes, advocates, and leaders who have unapologetically and vocally stood up for what is right. I pray that those who choose to stay silent for fear of retribution will find comfort and strength in those of us who are vocal. Please, please, please, come join our fight. We need you now more than ever.
From the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. And let us not give up hope for one minute. We must return our hostages. We must ensure that Israelis, from north to south, can live peacefully and freely in their homes, and we must work tirelessly to educate future generations to ensure that never again, once and for all, means never again. It is an uphill battle, but one that is achievable. Please continue to pray for the state of Israel and those who are fighting, often alone, to keep her safe. Am Israel Chai.
Sincerely,
Jay
The Numbers
Casualties
1,697 Israelis dead including 727 IDF soldiers (+12 IDF soldiers and 1 Border Police officer killed since Wednesday)
Sgt. Shira Suslik, 19, a Border Police officer from Beersheba was killed when a gunman stormed into a McDonald’s in the southern city’s central bus station and opened fire on those inside. At least 10 others were wounded.
Captain Ben Zion Falach was killed in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Iraqi Shiites launched a suicide drone that struck an army base in the Northern Golan Heights, resulting in the deaths of Sergeant Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer (19) and Corporal Tal Dror (19). The attack also severely injured a reservist and wounded 23 others.
Watch Cpt. Eitan Oster’s video to his family just a few days ago: He shares a quote: "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
347 IDF soldiers during the ground operation in Gaza: (+1 since Wednesday)
62 Israelis have been killed during the war in Northern Israel (+11 since Wednesday)
Additional Information (according to the IDF):
2,299 (+2 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured during ground combat in Gaza, including at least 442 (no since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
4,590 (+100 since Wednesday) IDF soldiers have been injured since the beginning of the war, including at least 695 (+15 since Wednesday) who have been severely injured.
According to unverified figures from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry,41,825 (+187 since Wednesday) people have been killed in Gaza, and 96,910 (+410 since Wednesday) have been injured during the war.
We also encourage you to 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.
Hostages (no change)
There are currently 97 hostages taken on 10/7 currently in captivity in Gaza
7 hostages are Americans: Meet the Seven American Hostages Still Held By Hamas
On October 7th, a total of 261 Israelis were taken hostage.
During the ceasefire deal in November, 112 hostages were released.
146 hostages in total have been released or rescued
The bodies of 37 hostages have been recovered, including 3 mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
8 hostages have been rescued by troops alive
This leaves 101 hostages still theoretically in Gaza
31-50 hostages are assumed to be dead and held in captivity (based on reports from today, 9/22)
Thus, at most, 50-70 living hostages could still be in Gaza.
Hamas is also holding 2 Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of 2 IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Watch
Bari Weiss interviews Douglas Murray: A Time of War. The West is ‘drunk on peace.’ What will it take to wake them up?
No one I know understands the moral urgency of this moment better than Douglas Murray. Douglas isn’t Jewish. He has no Israeli family members, although I know a lot of Israeli families who consider him an adoptive family member. And it is Douglas, more than almost anyone in the world, who has articulated the stakes of this war with the moral clarity it requires.
Link to Podcast: Douglas Murray: A Time of War - Honestly with Bari Weiss
[WARNING: GRAPHIC AND EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY/VIDEO] The Killing Roads, a documentary film by Igal Hecht
A gripping documentary that exposes the terror unleashed on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched coordinated attacks across the roads of southern Israel. Through raw, unfiltered stories from victims, survivors, and first responders, the film reveals the unimaginable violence that turned Israel’s peaceful roads into scenes of horror. The Killing Roads captures the devastating reality of those who endured this nightmare.
Link to website: Home | The Killing Roads
Rocket Alerts
Yesterday, there were 184 red alerts, and a total of 3,148 in the past week
Source: Rocket Alerts in Israel
The North
Source: Swords of Iron: an Overview | INSS
X Posts of the Week
An entire year described in one caricature in a post by @IdoHalbany
Naftali Bennet, 13th Prime Minister of Israel, posts:
President Biden has said that Israel can retaliate against Iran, but must keep the response “proportionate”. The president also urged Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear program. Let’s see what “proportionate” would mean, and also what’s going on with the nuclear program.
A few days ago Iran directly shot 190 ballistic missiles to Israel, including city centers such as Tel Aviv. In April Iran lobbed some 350 projectiles towards Israel.
Without Israel’s remarkable technology these missiles could have killed thousands of innocent people.
So what would be a proportionate response? For Israel to murder, rape and burn thousands of innocent Iranians? We don’t do that.
For Israel to shoot 10,000 rockets indiscriminately on Iranian cities? We don’t do that either.
Therefore, Israel can do MUCH LESS than what Iran’s regime did to us.
Israel must:
Attack Iran’s nuclear program
Attack Iran’s leadership
Hit and cripple the regime’s main economic interests (energy etc.)
All of these would be only a fraction of what Iran did to Israel. So indeed it won’t be “proportional”, it’ll be much less.
The goal should be to ultimately bring down the brutal, corrupt and incompetent regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, BEFORE it acquires nuclear weapons
What We Are Reading
Israel’s Most Consequential Year: A free e-book on Israel after October 7 from Mosaic
Mosaic Magazine published a new, free e-book, Israel's Most Consequential Year, where it assembled a collection of deeply thoughtful essays and conversations by leading writers exploring the momentous events in Israel over the last 11 months. From the immediate aftermath of October 7 to the critical battles that have followed, this e-book provides original insights into what Israel has endured, the challenges now before it, and what it must do to survive and emerge victorious.
The View from Israel’s Universe by Ambassador Michael Oren
Predictably, in response to Iran’s massive missile attack on Israel, Washington and other Western capitals are calling on Israel’s government to show restraint. They fear the outbreak of a total regional war into which their forces could be dangerously drawn. Israel, they stress, emerged from the assault relatively unscathed and its retaliation, therefore, should be proportionate.
The fact that Iran’s missiles failed to kill large numbers of Israelis is irrelevant to us. They paralyzed and terrorized the entire nation and once again cast doubts on our deterrence power. And Israel not only has the right to defend itself but the duty. Defending Jews is inherent in our raison d'être.
That fact does nevertheless escape our Western allies. They inhabit a universe utterly alien to ours. In their world, the mass murderers in Tehran can be induced to deescalate by means other than escalation. In their reality, wars against terrorists who hide behind and under their civilian population can be won without harming those civilians and jihadists can be mollified by creating a Palestinian state. American and European leaders live in a simple, rational region that bears not the slightest resemblance to the real Middle East.
Israel will strike back at Iran—promptly, painfully, and manifestly disproportionately. Israel will defend itself not to spark a total war but to preempt one. Israel will retaliate against Iran and its venal proxies because defending our people from those who seek to massacre us is much of what our state is all about. Israel, at the risk of aggravating our allies, will survive.
Link: The View from Israel’s Universe - Clarity with Michael Oren
Israel was right to ignore the West by Douglas Murray in The Spectator
If you follow most of the British media, you may well think that the past year involves the following events: Israel attacked Hamas, Israel invaded Lebanon, Israel bombed Yemen. Oh and someone left a bomb in a room in Tehran that killed the peaceful Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Of course all this is an absolute inversion of the truth. Hamas invaded Israel, so Israel attacked Hamas. Hezbollah has spent the past year sending thousands of rockets into Israel, so Israel has responded by destroying Hezbollah. The Houthis in Yemen – now so beloved of demonstrators in the UK – sent missiles and drones hundreds of miles to attack Israel, so Israel bombed the Houthis’ arms stores in Yemen. And Hamas leader Haniyeh, who was born under Egyptian rule and died in Tehran, never brought the Palestinian people anything but misery.
Hamas still holds a hundred Israelis hostage inside Gaza, but the Israeli government has managed to bring half the hostages home already. For many people in the first days of the war, it seemed impossible that even one hostage would be able to come back to their families alive. So this is no mean feat in itself. Aside from saving the hostages, the other most important thing for Israel has been to strike and destroy the proxy armies of Iran who wish to make the whole of Israel unlivable for Jews.
All this time the governments in Britain and America have given the Israelis advice which mercifully they did not listen to. Earlier this year, Kamala Harris warned that the IDF shouldn’t go into Hamas’s Gaza stronghold in Rafah. As she wisely said: ‘I’ve studied the maps.’ Fortunately the Israelis did not listen to Kamala’s beginners’ guide to Rafah. They went into the Hamas stronghold, continued to search for the hostages, continued to kill Hamas’s leadership and continued to destroy the rocket and other ammunition stores that Hamas has built up for 18 years.
The British and American governments among others had told the Israelis that there should be no escalation. But fortunately they weren’t listened to.
By this point, there is nobody left in Hezbollah. They’re all gone. All of the leadership, every one of their commanders, while their lower-level operatives are trying to get their testicles reattached in the hospitals of Beirut. It’ll be wall-to-wall wreath-laying for the Hamas and Hezbollah fanboys.
But there it is. The wisdom of the international community is that ceasefires are always desirable, that negotiated settlements are always to be desired, and that violence is never the answer. As so often, these wise international voices have no idea what they are talking about.
Israel’s enemies have spent the past year trying to destroy it, as they have so many times before. But it is they who have gone to the dust, with the regime in Tehran the only thing that is, for the time being, still standing. Absent that terror regime, and not just Israel but the whole of the Middle East has a bright future. Sometimes you need war to make peace. Sometimes there is a price to pay for trying to finish the work of Adolf Hitler. Who knew?
[FASCINATING READ!] Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah: New details emerge of Israel’s elaborate plan to sabotage Hezbollah communications devices to kill or maim thousands of its operatives. By Souad Mekhennet and Joby Warrick in The Washington Post
In the initial sales pitch to Hezbollah two years ago, the new line of Apollo pagers seemed precisely suited to the needs of a militia group with a sprawling network of fighters and a hard-earned reputation for paranoia.
The AR924 pager was slightly bulky but rugged, built to survive battlefield conditions. It boasted a waterproof Taiwanese design and an oversized battery that could operate for months without charging. Best of all, there was no risk that the pagers could ever be tracked by Israel’s intelligence services. Hezbollah’s leaders were so impressed they bought 5,000 of them and began handing them out to mid-level fighters and support personnel in February.
The idea for the pager operation originated in 2022, according to the Israeli, Middle Eastern and U.S. officials familiar with the events. Parts of the plan began falling into place more than a year before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that put the region on a path to war. It was a time of relative quiet on Israel’s war-scarred northern border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah was looking for hack-proof electronic networks for relaying messages, and Mossad came up with a pair of ruses that would lead the militia group to purchase devices that seemed perfect for the job — equipment that Mossad designed and had assembled in Israel.
The first part of the plan, booby-trapped walkie-talkies, began being inserted into Lebanon by Mossad nearly a decade ago, in 2015. The mobile two-way radios contained oversized battery packs, a hidden explosive and a transmission system that gave Israel complete access to Hezbollah communications.
For nine years, the Israelis contented themselves with eavesdropping on Hezbollah, the officials said, while reserving the option to turn the walkie-talkies into bombs in a future crisis. But then came a new opportunity and a glitzy new product: a small pager equipped with a powerful explosive. In an irony that would not become clear for many months, Hezbollah would end up indirectly paying the Israelis for the tiny bombs that would kill or wound many of its operatives.
…in 2023, the group began receiving solicitations for the bulk purchase of Taiwanese-branded Apollo pagers, a well-recognized trademark and product line with worldwide distribution and no discernible links to Israeli or Jewish interests. The Taiwanese company had no knowledge of the plan, officials said.
The sales pitch came from a marketing official trusted by Hezbollah with links to Apollo. The marketing official, a woman whose identity and nationality officials declined to reveal, was a former Middle East sales representative for the Taiwanese firm who had established her own company and acquired a license to sell a line of pagers that bore the Apollo brand. Sometime in 2023, she offered Hezbollah a deal on one of the products her firm sold: the rugged and reliable AR924.
One of the main selling points about the AR924 was that it was “possible to charge with a cable. And the batteries were longer lasting,” the official said.
As it turned out, the actual production of the devices was outsourced and the marketing official had no knowledge of the operation and was unaware that the pagers were physically assembled in Israel under Mossad oversight, officials said. Mossad’s pagers, each weighing less than three ounces, included a unique feature: a battery pack that concealed a tiny amount of a powerful explosive, according to the officials familiar with the plot.
In a feat of engineering, the bomb component was so carefully hidden as to be virtually undetectable, even if the device was taken apart, the officials said. Israeli officials believe that Hezbollah did disassemble some of the pagers and may have even X-rayed them.
Also invisible was Mossad’s remote access to the devices. An electronic signal from the intelligence service could trigger the explosion of thousands of the devices at once.
“You had to push two buttons to read the message,” an official said. In practice, that meant using both hands.
Intelligence officials also talked about a long-held anxiety: With the escalating crisis in southern Lebanon, there was a growing risk the explosives would be discovered.
Ultimately, Netanyahu approved triggering the devices while they could inflict maximum damage. Over the following week, Mossad began preparations for detonating both the pagers and walkie-talkies already in circulation.
In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, meanwhile, the debate over the Hezbollah campaign expanded to include another profoundly consequential target: Nasrallah himself.
Mossad had known of the leader’s whereabouts in Lebanon for years and tracked his movements closely, officials said. Yet the Israelis held their fire, certain that an assassination would lead to all-out war with the militia group, and perhaps with Iran as well.
On Sept. 17, even as the debate in Israel’s highest national security circles about whether to strike the Hezbollah leader raged on, thousands of Apollo-branded pagers rang or vibrated at once, all across Lebanon and Syria. A short sentence in Arabic appeared on the screen: “You received an encrypted message,” it said.
Link: Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah
Iran ‘takes the win’ in the Middle East by Behnam Ben Taleblu, a Senior Fellow at FDD, in The Hill
Politically, the Islamic Republic is benefiting from a contradiction at the heart of how the Biden administration sees the Middle East. Since Oct. 7, U.S. officials have stressed that Washington seeks both “de-escalation” and “deterrence.” But conceptually, to bolster deterrence, a willingness to escalate must be perceived. Conversely, to foster de-escalation, one might inadvertently create conditions in the mind of the adversary that erode deterrence.
By preying on America’s fears of a wider war in the Middle East, Tehran hopes that when push comes to shove, de-escalation will be prioritized over deterrence. Tehran aims to enlist Washington and the broader West in its bid to foil Jerusalem’s war aims, one of which is to destroy Hamas.
To that end, America’s renewed diplomatic push for a ceasefire to include pressure on Israel cannot be divorced from Tehran’s threat of retaliation. In leaks to Reuters, senior Iranian officials have driven the point home that Iran would hold off on retribution in exchange for a ceasefire. The catch? Any ceasefire agreement would necessarily leave Hamas — or what’s left of it — in place as a negotiating partner.
This would achieve Iran’s post-Oct. 7 regional aim of preventing Hamas from being eliminated from its constellation of terrorist proxies known as the “Axis of Resistance.” It might also serve to politically invalidate Israel’s use of force against elements of this axis, because it would have fallen short against its weakest member.
On the proxy front, terrorist groups are increasingly reliant on patronage and direction from Tehran, which has used them to create a “ring of fire” against the Jewish state with minimal cost to Iran. The Houthis for example, which are the newest entrants into this Iran-backed network, have managed to threaten Red Sea traffic using Iranian weapons with little danger to their hold on power in Yemen and with the propaganda boon of “clear failure” by U.S. and U.K. efforts against them, in the reported words of Gen. Michael Kurilla of U.S. Central Command.
As the anniversary of Hamas’s attack nears, rather than international support rallying around the victim, Israel has even become the target of increasing legal and political pressure from the West. This even includes a pause in U.K. arms exports.
Surveying the chessboard, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — who declared in 2015 that Israel will not live to see the year 2040 — is unlikely to abandon course. Iranian officials mean it when they chant “death to Israel.”
Hamas Commander Killed in Israeli Strike Led U.N. Refugee Agency Teachers’ Union, by David Zimmermann with National Review
A Hamas commander in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight was an accredited member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the embattled agency confirmed after his death.
Hamas’s Fateh Sherif and his family were killed in an airstrike at a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Monday. “Sherif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives, as well as Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.”
While leading terrorist activities, Sherif also headed the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon. Though employed by the U.N. agency, Sherif was suspended without pay in March due to allegations involving “his political activities,” UNRWA told the Times of Israel in a statement.
Israeli intelligence alleged in January that 13 UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack, some 190 UNRWA staffers are Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and about 1,200 UNRWA employees are linked to Hamas. Some UNRWA teachers reportedly held Hamas hostages in their homes. In March, the IDF released audio recordings of at least two employees, one of whom said, “We have female hostages, I captured one!”
Link: Hamas Commander Killed in Israeli Strike Led U.N. Refugee Agency Teachers’ Union
Iran Is Not Ready for War With Israel by Arash Azizi with The Atlantic
Iran’s attack on Israel yesterday evoked a sense of déjà vu. On April 13, too, Iran targeted Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones—at that time marking a first-ever in the history of the two countries. The latest strikes were notably similar: more show than effect, resulting in few casualties (April’s injured only a young Arab Israeli girl, and today’s killed a Palestinian worker in Jericho, in the West Bank). No Israeli civilians were hurt in either attack, although it’s likely that Iran’s use of more sophisticated missiles brought about greater damage this time.
Shortly after the missile barrage, Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced that Iran had made a “big mistake” and would “pay for it.” Israel’s dedicated X account echoed this threat in Persian. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on Netanyahu to attack Iran’s nuclear and energy sites, claiming that this could lead Iranians to rise up and bring down their regime at last. Israel has had no better chance in half a century to change the region fundamentally, Bennett said.
This is a terrifying moment for Iran. Khamenei has long pursued what he calls a “no peace, no war” strategy: Iran supports regional militias opposed to Western interests and the Jewish state but avoids actually getting into a war. The approach was always untenable. But Iran is not ready for an all-out war: Its economically battered society does not share its leaders’ animus toward Israel, and its military capabilities don’t even begin to match Israel’s sophisticated arsenal. Iran lacks significant air-defense capabilities on its own, and Russia has not leapt to complement them.
“We don’t have a f*cking air force,” a source in Tehran close to the Iranian military told me, under condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Of the attack on Israel, he said, “I don’t know what they are thinking.”
Iran’s diplomats have said that the attacks were an exercise of self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Iran targeted “solely military and security sites” that Israel was using to attack Gaza and Lebanon (an odd fit for self-defense claims, because neither of these is Iranian territory). He added that Iran had waited for two months “to give space for a cease-fire in Gaza,” and that it now deemed the matter “concluded.” Other regime figures have contributed more bluster. “We could have turned Tel Aviv and Haifa to rubble, but we didn’t,” said Ahmad Vahidi, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. “If Israel makes a mistake, we might change our decision and turn Tel Aviv into rubble overnight.”
For Israel, a war is worth avoiding for strategic reasons. “Israel has no choice but to retaliate,” Yonatan Touval, a senior policy analyst at Mitvim, a Tel Aviv–based liberal-leaning foreign-policy think tank, told me. But the Axis of Resistance is on its back foot, and for this reason, he said, Israel has a stake in not escalating: “Israel should ensure that, whatever it does, it does not reinforce an alliance that is remarkably, and against all odds, in tatters.”
The Council for a Secure America (CSA) released a new survey of American voters that shows continued support for Israeli military action against Iran’s proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and support for US military engagement in the region. The poll, conducted by Morning Consult, also measured US public opinion on the importance of the alliance between the United States and Israel and other key policy areas.
My visit to the UN: Discussing proportionality in conflict by Andrew Fox
It still feels somewhat surreal, but last night I spoke as part of a panel event at the United Nations in New York. The other speakers were Natasha Hausdorff, Richard Kemp, John Spencer and Alan Derschowitz. The subject was ‘Proportionality in Conflict’ but the wider political ramification was the importance of an event sharing the truth about Israel’s ongoing war, within the United Nations building itself.
I was very wary of the topic of proportionality. It is a very dry and legal way of explaining away human suffering. Balance was my biggest concern. War is dreadful, and innocents suffer. This suffering is an inevitability of conflict. Whilst adherence to the Law of Armed Conflict is both necessary and important, it is of no consolation to war’s victims that they have died in a legal and ethical manner. There should never be an easy acceptance of innocent civilian deaths in war under the umbrella of proportionality. In my speech I wanted to make sure I placed those innocent deaths front and centre.
Excerpts from his speech:
The State of Israel currently faces war on several fronts. Any compassionate observer must note that innocents are suffering. Israeli citizens: some massacred or taken hostage by Hamas; tens of thousands displaced and targeted by Hezbollah. Innocent Gazan civilians caught between Hamas and the Israel Defence Forces, forced to shelter in tents in the Mediterranean heat with limited aid distribution. Innocents in Lebanon, forced to flee to avoid Israeli missiles, targeting the Hezbollah fighters who have turned their homes into weapons sites.
Israel is a country created by a resolution from this very organisation in which we sit. No country on Earth could accept a threat of the repeat of 7th October. Nor could any country in the UN accept over 9,000 rockets fired indiscriminately at civilians, displacing some 60,000 of their citizens. Israel’s jus ad bellum is beyond question.
I can speak from firsthand experience that war is, indeed, repugnant. We cannot, however, assess a war based on those feelings of repugnance. Never in history has a war been fought that has not included visceral and bloody death, extreme violence, and the suffering of innocents. It is not, however, the death that is to be used as our vehicle for assessment of any conflict. Under international law, what matters is the manner and legal justification for that death.
That said: it is inevitable that when young men and women are trained to violence, and placed in the most horrific of settings, some will break those laws. What matters is how those breaches of law are dealt with. Since last October, the IDF has launched 74 criminal investigations into the conduct of IDF soldiers. This is a tiny percentage of the 300,000 troops who have served in Gaza. Having examined the IDF’s legal mechanisms, I am convinced that they are correctly holding their soldiers to account. This is what moral armies do.
War is repugnant. Proportionality can only be assessed through an objective lens: is the war just, and is conduct during the war just? Even whilst innocents suffer, as they always do in war, I am convinced that Israel meets both those criteria.
Antisemitism
The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) publishes weekly information from over 300 million online data sources including public social media, traditional media, websites, blogs, forums, and more. The bigger the phrase on the above image, the more total mentions it had in the time period.
Americans’ attitudes about college campus protests vary significantly by age. An FCAS survey this summer revealed that while many Americans (41%) didn’t have an opinion about the protests, of those who did, people 30 and over supported pro-Israel protesters more than pro-Palestinian protesters, and the opposite was true for 18-to-29-year-olds.
18-to-29-year-olds were also less likely to think the Pro-Palestinian protests went too far (39% vs 64% for people 50 and older). In addition, younger Americans were less likely to believe the protests crossed the line into antisemitism (34% vs 53% for people 50 and older). On an issue as polarizing as the Israel-Hamas war, it’s expected that Americans’ attitudes about these campus protests differ, particularly by age, but it is tragic when honest debate about war descends into Jewish hate among many students, as so many Americans saw happening.
He looked her in the eye and said 'October 7 rapes are justified’; the professor said nothing, by Dror Feuer in Y-Net News
"A woman ran at me screaming, 'f*** you, Jew' and I reported it to the school. I made it very clear how I don't feel safe on campus. Tulane University's response was to label 'f*** you, Jew' as political speech," says Yasmeen Ohebsion, a student at Tulane University in New Orleans (one of the universities with the highest percentage of Jewish students in the U.S. – about a quarter of the students there are Jewish).
"So at Tulane University 'f*** you, Jew' is political speech but 'f*** you, gay' would probably lead to expulsion. 'F*** you, black;' forget about it. You're not going to have a career. You're not going to be able to talk to anyone. You'll be kicked out. Nobody will ever talk to you again. You'll be canceled. Your life is over. Goodbye. You're done. So that is the difference. If you're Jewish, people can do whatever they want, including physically attacking you, and still, the university does nothing.
"It's watching my friends be beaten with a metal microphone and having all these bones and their faces broken. The ambulance comes, and before the ambulance can even move this Jewish student from the street into the car, there is a group of 10 maintenance people scrubbing the Jewish blood off of the street to make sure that there's no evidence, there are no pictures and I have the pictures of the blood. Same thing as when someone says 'f*** you, Jew' and they say 'here's a link to three sessions of free therapy. You go fix yourself.'"
"I hope you get gassed out in the basement of AEPi (a Jewish fraternity). P.S. What is your Auschwitz prison number?" Daniella Ludmir, a student at the University of Michigan, shows me a message she received. Signed: Adolf.
"I know that at MIT and also at Stanford, the school administrations paid for safe housing for Jewish students who were threatened and harassed to such an extent that their physical safety was at risk if they stayed in their dorms. They're putting Jews in separate housing to protect Jewish safety, but they're not stopping the bullies," says MIT student Talya Kahn.
"[The University of Michigan] president sent emails to the entire university right after October 7 saying standing up to terrorism should not be controversial at the University of Michigan. There was a protest at his home," says Ludmir.
"Even though we received public support from our administration, and this is not something that's common at every university, Jewish students still feel unsafe to walk on campus because they see a giant banner all across the center of campus saying 'Long live the Intifada.' What are they doing to make us feel safe?
Chloe Katz, a student at Columbia University, says she's been told that the sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israelis on October 7 was justified. "I'm a helpline volunteer for sexual violence response at Columbia and I'm also part of all of these Israeli activist groups. And so when my group had the idea of publicizing the fact that these testimonies of sexual violence from October 7 and in captivity are being denied or pushed aside, I went to my boss in sexual violence response, asked her to collaborate on an event together and gave her our idea. They initially said 'yes, that's great,' And then they stopped responding to me.
"I want to paint the picture for Israelis of what it's like to be a Jew on campus right now. It feels post-apocalyptic," says Columbia student Eli Gelb. "When you walk down the street next to Columbia, you see torn kidnapped posters. You see the pictures with swastikas drawn over them. Penises vandalizing the babies on the kidnapped poster. Every single spot is covered with stickers and posters for Palestine. 'Free Palestine,' 'Zionism is terrorism' and 'Zionism is Nazism.'
"When you walk onto campus, it is covered with people wearing keffiyehs, it is inescapable. You go onto campus during the encampment, they're shooting flares, they're starting fires, they're rioting and you see the heat in their eyes. And this isn't a small number. It's hundreds of people gathered every single day.
"There are specific nights when you walk around and it is anarchy. Zero public safety. The entire area where Jewish students live is smothered with adults running around, ripping the flags off of the backs of Jewish students, spitting at us, throwing liquids at us, and I was physically chased off of campus with the rabbi and told to go back to Poland. I was called 'Al-Qassam's next target.' But this is in the hundreds, and that's what I don't think they really understand. We're small but we're powerful. We're not going anywhere."
Kahn: "Being in Israel is the first time since October 7 that I finally felt like I can finally take a breath and like feel comfortable and not have to worry that there's going to be some crazy rioters. Like when I turn the corner, they're yelling 'free Palestine' and 'bomb Tel Aviv' wearing keffiyehs. Even though I obviously didn't have the same October 7 experience as the people here, I feel so close with everybody, even the people I don't know. I feel very connected to everybody and we're all going through this together. Just having other people who understand, that you don't have to explain to them, it's a comforting feeling. Although the stuff that we're experiencing on campus is not at all the same level of danger that these people are going through. But we've all had our lives totally changed and turned over."
"Since October 7, the proportion has changed. We used to have maybe one protest a month, now we have more than one a week. We saw celebrations of October 7 on campus the next day, before Israel had even fully regained control of the situation."
Kahn describes the "Apartheid Wall," a mobile exhibit that has been traveling between U.S. campuses since 2016—essentially a mini version of the West Bank separation barrier.
There’s an argument that we need to distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of Israeli policy. After all, even in Israel, some oppose the occupation, and that's acceptable.
"One of the important things," says Ludmir, "is that it's hard to differentiate the two because it's not being critical of the Israeli government, it's rewriting Jewish history to erase any connection to Israel and completely delegitimizing the state, essentially saying that Israel should not exist at all."
"I think that this is a very important point in America," Kahn says. "It's very ingrained in programming, called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or DEI. Part of that programming gives education about black history and anti-black racism, LGBTQ communities, everything including sizeism discrimination about being fat or skinny, ableism, discrimination about being disabled, and Jews are left out."
Talya Kahn from MIT: "These people are indoctrinating the next generation of American voters into hating Jews, Western values, democracy and supporting deglobalization, Intifada and pushing Sharia law into the West. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's very scary, especially in the wake of the upcoming elections, and we're going to see people be very hateful, very violent. I think we're all very scared for the future of America and especially America's relationship with Israel."
There's a hard core, no doubt, but it's small. At Tulane University, for example, there are 2,500 Jewish students—so many that it's nicknamed "Jewlane"—making up about a quarter of the student body.
However, an average protest draws only around 150 participants, and no more than 10 students are actively involved in organizing initiatives. The rest are either afraid or simply not interested.
The percentages are not significantly different at other universities. Gelb and Katz say that it was easier to organize large demonstrations at first, but momentum is fading and participation is dwindling.
"A trip we took to Israel was able to connect us and unite us," says Katz. "I had never met Yasmine or Talya before, or any other people like me. I only knew the activists at Columbia. So we're already connected and we're strong, a network of Jewish activists. Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, they're already national, they have that connection. So it's time for us to do that.
Link: He looked her in the eye and said 'October 7 rapes are justified’; the professor said nothing
October 7 has reached US soil, as violence against American Jews is surging by Michael Masters, national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network, in the Jerusalem Post
What began in Israel has reached US soil.
The FBI just reported that the Jewish community is the most targeted religious group in the United States for hate crimes. Jews are just 2% of the population but account for 67% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.
These include the 1,005 bomb threats and swatting incidents in the last year logged by the Secure Community Network (SCN), the official security organization of the North American Jewish community – incidents that can force evacuations as people are abruptly pushed out of their facilities.
Religious services, school days, and other events are interrupted, causing fear and sometimes trauma for those who engage in Jewish life. People go to synagogues to pray. They should not have to flee.
ALL OF THIS is happening within our country and being stoked, in some cases, by outside influences. Iran is fomenting some of these violent groups and has been actively involved in financing anti-Israel protests. In so doing, Iran and Hamas have found their way into our cities and towns and systematically infiltrated our institutions. They are actively influencing and working to undermine American life.
It’s time for Americans to wake up and face these threats before a mass attack takes place.
Instead of universal outrage, what we have seen – too often – is tolerance. Too many of our own institutions have stood idle against this fierce rise in hate and violence toward Jews.
The leaders of the most prestigious schools in our country believed overtly calling for genocide is not severe enough on its own – as if the value of Jewish lives requires context.
At Emerson College in Boston, 118 protesters were arrested after police cleared an anti-Israel encampment. The school then posted bail for all the students, signaling institutional support for students breaking both the law and the college’s own code of conduct.
This institutional tolerance has a direct impact on the safety and security of Jews. If this were to happen to any other community, it simply would not be accepted.
But no matter what, we won’t let these attacks and threats stop us. We will continue to worship, gather, and pass our religion on to the next generation. For thousands of years, people tried to stop us. No one has ever been successful, and especially in the United States, we must not let anyone succeed.
As we reach the anniversary of the October 7 mega-atrocity by Hamas, we need Americans from all walks of life to support our community. We need pressure applied, especially to university leaders, who tolerate violence and illegal encampments. We need people, if they see something, to say something to law enforcement. We need those with authority to prosecute people who engage in hate crimes.
And we need our community to stay engaged: to implement security and safety protocols at our institutions that are based on best practices, not fear. We need community members to get trained to be empowered and resilient. We need to keep showing up to Jewish life.
Link: Violence on US Jews surge as Oct. 7 reaches country's soil - opinion
Sources: 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, and the Times of Israel