I will begin by quoting my peer Hillel Neuer, who I met in person in Israel just over a year ago.
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War has been launched against Israel today by the Palestinians from Gaza. I’m sitting now in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem, where I’ve come to visit for the High Holidays. Over 5,000 rockets were fired into Israel already this morning. And this part is unprecedented: Palestinian terrorists from Gaza also infiltrated into Israeli towns and reportedly slaughtered civilians and abducted hostages. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, know that the world will do nothing — until Israel responds by targeting the terrorists and their infrastructure. Then the U.N. Human Rights Council will spring into action, and accuse Israel of war crimes and racism. This incentivizes the terrorists, granting them a global propaganda victory. It’s what they’ve done repeatedly, like after the last war in May 2021. The UNHRC created a permanent commission of inquiry to target Israel. They made Navi Pillay the chair, after she already declared Israel to be a racist and inhuman war criminal. Sadly, Pillay is being cheered on by some in the West. On October 21st, at Fordham University in New York, Pillay will receive an “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the American Branch of the International Law Association.
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October 21st is my birthday. I have a plan. I think I’ll gatecrash Fordham University.
As for tonight, my eyes are glued to the news.
For the past few hours, I have been on calls, text threads, Signal groups, email and WhatsApp chains with Jewish friends, variously feeling nauseous, terrified and incensed. Friends in Israel are messaging. I have been forwarded voicenotes of people on the run, seeking shelter anywhere they can.
Fifty years to the day of the ambush that occurred in Israel and began the Yom Kippur War, one that Israel won but not without a bloodbath and severe gut-wrenching losses, Hamas has launched a nationwide war against Israel. Today at 1pm Israel time, the Jewish State will declare a State of War. This will be the first full-scale war during times of unprecedented civilian journalism and social media obfuscation and disinformation.
I am scared of what that means for Jews. Not just in Israel, but all over the world.
I have questioned my place in this work for a few years now, ever since the fallout of May 2021. But now is not the time for that conversation. The Jewish advocacy world has not done enough to prepare for this moment; one that will be even worse than the last. My DMs tonight are flooded with messages from Israelis all over the country in bomb shelters, grateful for communicators in the Diaspora who are posting the real unfiltered truth of what they are facing. I am not on the side of Bibi's government, but now is a time of unity. This is clearly one of the most embarrassing intelligence failures in Israeli history. Currently there are Palestinian militia walking from Gaza into Southern Israel. They are not organized operatives. They are terrorists. They are kidnapping and dragging the dead across the Gaza border. They are shooting elderly men and women at bus stops, leaving their bloodied bodies in the streets. The images and – worse yet – the videos online are sickening, horrifying, monstrous. The terrorists are filming their murders and broadcasting the footage live to audiences back home who are celebrating jubilantly in the streets. Palestinian channels are publishing videos that are extremely difficult to watch.
I have seen a few. One of a naked Israeli women being paraded. Another of an IDF soldier’s body being pulled out of a car over the Gaza border as Palestinian terrorists further maul the body and dance gleefully. It’s the sort of repulsive imagery that can and will inspire a lifetime of division and hatred. I wish I’d never seen it.
This is a video of Hamas terrorists entering an Israeli neighborhood unlike anything witnessed in my lifetime:
My own mother heard from her friend this morning. Her grandson’s apartment narrowly missed rocketfire but the windows have been blown out.
So far there is no civilian count. But reports state dozens of civilians, including women and children, murdered by Iranian-backed terror in a gruesome invasion of Southern Israel. Rockets have killed civilians too. Let’s watch, shall we, as the mainstream media give zero energy to the truth of who loves killing innocent children? If they hadn’t done so before, Hamas are making it really clear for you now: either you're a Zionist or you want Jews to die.
Those who chant "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free" watch it live in action. Palestinian terrorists performing barbaric killing sprees in the streets of Israel and leaving a river running red. Thank you to all the white non-Jewish people for your Palestinian virtue-signalling. Where's your Palestinian flag today? You sound dreadfully quiet. And greetings: Human Rights Watch, The UN, Amnesty International etc, what do you have to say now about your “freedom fighters”? Oh and shout-out to the Biden Administration for your recent transfer of $6 billion to Iran, Hamas's bank for death cult funding.
To residents in hiding, we pray for your safety. Hold your families, seek cover.
The status quo is:
Door-to-door fighting in Southern Israel
Continued rocket fire in Jerusalem and central Israel
Unconfirmed reports of civilian deaths, hostages + IDF vehicles taken into Gaza
Israel has made a terrible blunder. And what has been exposed clearer than ever, in a more accessible manner than ever, is Hamas - a terrorist regime, who if given unlimited access will murder every single Jew in sight. The mainstream media has a choice right now. Shill to terrorists, or actually report the truth.
Likely the world will continue to be ambivalent about the Jewish state, unless of course the world can demonize it for all its unrelated problems. But we’re not going anywhere. Israel has a right to defend herself. And as one of my closest friends said to me tonight: Thank g-d we have a moral compass. We know who we are. Strap in, folks: we're in for another season in which we find out who our real family are.
We are am echad.
But how about the rest of the world? Will you stand with Israel?
Eve, your dispatch is incredibly moving, insightful, real. I've sent it all over. To your point, those of us fighting in the Diaspora need photos of the most brutal sort coming out of the war to put on placards for protesting anti-Israel campaigns over here. They appear to be censored in the States; we're not seeing what you are. Please post somewhere so we can grab them. The higher the pixels the better. And, yes, gatecrashers unite!
Should we all show up at Fordham on the 21st and gatecrash this awards ceremony?