10/7: Sad anniversary
Looking back at 10/7, I recall that the news of just how bad it was came out slowly. First it was that maybe 20 Israelis had been killed. Then more, and then more and more and more, in a cascade of escalating horror.
The sadism on the part of the Gazans was perhaps the most shocking part of it, but it should not have been. We had had many indications of that before: the Ramallah lynching, for example. But the scale of that was small and this was huge.
And then there were the pro-Hamas demonstrations all around the Western world, particularly among students. But should that have been a surprise? After all, anyone who paid attention could see it had been building for decades. But still, the size of the group that had been won over by these sentiments, and the intensity and ferocity of the anti-Jew hatred they expressed, was stunning.
And the UN, and the anti-Israel press? Shouldn’t have been any sort of surprise either.
Well, as the poet Philip Larkin wrote of a different subject – pre-WWI Britain – “never such innocence again.” At least, not for those who’ve noticed; they won’t be shocked again by something of this nature. But the truth is that every generation must learn the same things over and over.
What are those things? That Jew-hatred is a poison that can take any number of forms, and does. That its psychological attractions are many, and that malign forces are dedicated to fostering it. That the internet, social media, the MSM, and academia are a big part of its ease of spread in the present day.
If you learn the history of the Nazis’ attempts to exterminate Jews – the Jews, as in the entire Jewish people – you’ll notice that the Nazis dedicated a great deal of time and effort towards that goal, and that they received a fair (although differing from country to country of Europe) amount of assistance from local Jew-haters in each country. And the Nazis were remarkably successful in their goal of making Europe Judenfrei; two-thirds of the Jews of Europe were murdered and many of the rest fled to other places.
One of those places was Israel, which did not yet exist as a country although Zionism did. But the goal of many Jews to make Israel a country predated WWII and the Holocaust by many many years. WWII underlined the need for a safe haven, because without a country the Jews were at the mercy of others. But of course, the existence of Israel has also given the Jew-haters of the world a convenient focus for their rage and target for their attacks, and they have taken full advantage of that.
That is one of the many reasons 10/7 was so shocking. It was a murderous pogrom within Israel itself, at the hands of its Arab neighbors some of whom had pretended to want peace (the Gazan workers Israel let in, for example) while preparing for a barbaric slaughter of Jews and anyone who happened to have the misfortune of being in Israel (Thai agricultural workers, for example). The IDF and Israeli leadership failed on 10/7 to live up to its end of the bargain, which was that no such things would be allowed to happen in Israel, except in small and sporadic ways. The enormity of the pogrom of 10/7 demonstrated, even to many peacenik leftists in Israel, that there was no partner for peace in those who have come to call themselves “Palestinians.”
I wish I had a solution but I don’t. I know that the election of the Harris/Walz ticket would make things worse, because beginning with Obama the Democrats have decided to cater more to Iran than ever before, and to try to block Israel from finishing the job. I know that the universities need reforming in this and so many other ways, but I also know that those who teach the attitudes that have led to Israel- and Jew-hatred being so widespread on campuses all over the Western world are deeply entrenched.
And then there are the hostages. How many are alive and how many dead? And for the living, how deep and horrific is their continuing suffering? It is almost unbearable to think of it. Should it be a surprise that the hostages are still being held? No, because their value to the Palestinians (and Iran) is huge.
The newer phase of the post-10/7 war, which features an increase in Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah (and even Iran at times), does’t bode well for the hostages’ release. But after the initial release of some of the women and children in the exchanges of last fall, I don’t think anything was good news for the hostages except the rescue of a fortunate few who’d been held in circumstances that made rescue possible although highly difficult. The more recent murder of the six hostages as Israeli forces were closing in is the sort of thing I expect for the future, unfortunately.
I see a long war ahead in the region. Next month’s election here will determine the role of the US in that war. But Israel will have to stand alone, if the US doesn’t stand with it. Most Israelis know they have no choice.
Thanks for the reminder—had been waiting for it to come around, but forgot about it today.
From what I have been reading – Hamas & Hezbollah were probably planning on doing this/that kind of attack together, but Hamas jump-the-gun. Hard to imagine something as bad as 10/7 happening, but apparently it could’ve been worse.
I blame the *THREE* past presidents (O-T-B) for leaving Israel in this position.
Still, Israel has the *STRONG* support of a clear majority of Americans—and it would be foolish for any American leader to abandon Israel.
Iran should’ve been brought to it knees—certainly long before now, but American voters have continually chosen weak leaders recently. However, it seems that Israel may have been planning for this moment in time…
NB, if the refugee situation in 1949 had been handled the way it was in Europe at the time, the population would have been resettled and the camps shut down by about 1963. Arab governments and UNRWA own this situation, though they’re assisted in this by the degenerate culture of much of the Arab population on the West Bank and Gaza, who have no constructive objects.
I blame the *THREE* past presidents (O-T-B) for leaving Israel in this position.
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Kinda stupid. Israel has its own intelligence services and any failures in that regard are theirs. Unlike BO, Trump is not antagonistic to Israel and his diplomacy in the Near East bore fruit.
I have been modestly relieved so far today that there has not been violence in the US to mark this grim anniversary.
I really hope that Israel can teach its terrorist enemies a lesson they will feel in their bones for generations to come, that it is safer to eat white arsenic than to murder Jews.
When push comes to shove Israel can’t trust to anything but its own strength and I hope they don’t listen to the Biden administration. The Biden administration’s obvious lack of any competence, and obvious collusion with Iran, would I hope make that a non-starter.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/french-fm-defends-arms-embargo-call-argues-move-aimed-at-guaranteeing-israels-security/
Psychopath.
Those who condone jihadist terrorism make themselves complicit in it.
Lots of people hate lots of people. Why the Jews? Ask Prager and Telushkin.
The Germans used substantial resources to accomplish this, right up to the end of the war, which might have been used to hold off the Allied forces. But, first things first.
sdferr quotes French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot:
That diplomacy to end the 2006 conflict in Lebanon didn’t turn out very well. UN Resolution 1701 banned Hezbollah arms and personnel south of the Litani. From Day 1 or Day 2, Hezbollah violated 1701.
Nor did the diplomacy to broker the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas work out. From the beginning, Hamas violated it, throwing rockets galore at Israel. Then October 7…
Consistency? Will Iran cease sending armaments to Hezbollah? No way José. It is more of the unilateral nonsense, handcuffing Israel but not those who want to destroy it.
Psychopath? Or evil? Or just plain stupid?
So the French government is stupid. Either that or stupid and evil. Of course, they have admitted a large and growing militant Muslim minority, and they’re afraid of them.
Let us not forget the warm cooperation of the French Vichy government with the Nazis in the Final Solution. French antisemitism is not a controversial mystery.
As well as the French intelligentsia’s embrace of Soviet communism.
Now, almost thirty years late France is finally coming clean on its complicity in the Rwandan genocide, killing 800,000 people, in 1994 — including, as I recall, French shipments of machetes to the Hutus used to kill Tutsis and anyone else not with the program … or pogrom.
–“France was ‘blind’ to Rwanda genocide, French report says” (March 2021)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56536659
Then there was the 1961 French massacre of Algerians, which the French covered up for decades:
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The Paris massacre of 1961[a] (also called the 17 October 1961 massacre[b] in France) was the mass killing of Algerians who were living in Paris by the French National Police. It occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the National Police attacked a demonstration by 30,000 pro-National Liberation Front (FLN) Algerians. After 37 years of denial and censorship of the press, in 1998 the government finally acknowledged 40 deaths, while some historians estimate that between 200 and 300 Algerians died.[4][5] Death was due to heavy-handed beating by the police, as well as mass drownings, as police officers threw demonstrators into the river Seine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_massacre_of_1961
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I admire the French for many things, but not Macron and they can spare me their moralizing.
Mr barrot is a supposed moderate well like the gaullists when the algerians were bombing the paris metro were they calling a ceasefire
Papon who had been the milice chief for paris, during the war
Not long after that there was the ben bella affair and how they handled him think jimmy hoffa in arabic
@huxley:I admire the French for many things
They seem to make up the butt end of more than their share of moral compasses.
This time around there is a substantial amount of Westerners who value ” Multiculturalism” over Western Civilization.
And self hating whites.
And remember the Nazis were not kind to the ” special needs” , even the non Jewish German ones.
Which side would now abort special needs children before they are born?
Israel won’t have peace, which it wants, unless they occupy and control Gaza, which they don’t want to have to do. And isn’t quite yet an option until Hamas is gone from Gaza.
I hope for a humane and successful Singapore-Swiss style 5 canton, secular Gaza Confederation, occupied by Israel, as the start of a 3 state solution.