Wednesday, October 08, 2025

10/08 Links: Trump announces Israel-Hamas deal; 7 October: a war for the soul of the West; Manchester synagogue terrorist pledged allegiance to ISIS in call during rampage

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: What have we learned since Oct. 7?
Oct. 7, 2023, was the worst day in the history of the State of Israel and will be remembered as such for all time. But as New York Times columnist Bret Stephens noted in a column analyzing the lessons of that day and the war that followed, “For all its undoubted horrors, this war may ultimately be remembered as liberating.”

Israel responded to Hamas’s day of genocide by waging war to destroy the Iran axis of which Hamas was a member. Stephens explained how Israel’s war had liberated the peoples of the region.

In Lebanon, thanks to Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah, the people are free from Iran’s proxy for the first time in 20 years. Hezbollah’s decimation fomented the fall of Syrian dictator and Iranian proxy Bashar Assad, providing the people of Syria their first shot at freedom in living memory.

Living under the protection of the IDF, the Druze in southern Syria have an opportunity to navigate their future safely. Following Israel’s successful military operation campaign—joined by the United States— to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and amassing an arsenal of tens of thousands of ballistic missiles, the Iranian people have their best opportunity in 46 years to oust their regime of terror and build a future of freedom for themselves.

And with Hamas crippled, Gazans have their first chance in 20 years to live a life free of the jihadist regime, if they choose to grasp it.

While his list was comprehensive, Stephens shied away from mentioning how Israel achieved this list of dazzling victories following the greatest disaster in its history.

On Oct. 8, when IDF forces were still fighting inside the kibbutzim that had been overrun by Hamas the previous day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his still stunned cabinet that Israel would recover from the savage carnage of the previous day and it would transform the Middle East.

At that same meeting, the top military commander told Netanyahu and his ministers that they must forget about seeing the 251 men, women and children who had been taken hostage the day before ever again.

Netanyahu rejected his claim and insisted that with the proper mix of massive force and negotiation, Israel would defeat Hamas and return all of the hostages. So far, Israel has returned 205 hostages, 148 alive and Hamas is on the verge of total destruction.

Thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel may see the return of the last 48 hostages within days.
Brendan O'Neill: 7 October: a war for the soul of the West
It was 2023 and they were burning Jews to death again. Once more, humanity found itself scouring the smoldering wreckage of a burnt-down building for some remnant of the Jews that once lived there. Those who call this day of barbarous racism an ‘attack’ have forfeited the right to be taken seriously. Those who call it ‘resistance’ have exposed to the world their own demented sympathy with Jew murder. As the German novelist Herta Müller said, even calling it ‘terrorism’ feels woefully insufficient. It was a ‘total derailment from civilisation’, she says. There was an ‘archaic horror in this bloodlust that I no longer thought possible in this day and age’.

This is what we should be commemorating today. Not an ‘attack’, not a ‘tragedy’ – an act of Nazi-like savagery. A genocidal burning of Jews. The violent intrusion of the crimes of history into our complacent century. The most fitting tribute we could pay to the grieving of 7 October on this second anniversary would be to give this atrocity its rightful place in the black pages of human history. To acknowledge, at last, that it was an epoch-defining crime against humanity, the raw heir to the era of the Holocaust. It compounds the grief of Israel to continue to deny this truth of 7 October.

Then we come to 8 October. That other dark day, two years ago, when mobs danced outside the Israeli Embassy in London in joy at the mass murder of Jews. When Islamists gathered at the Sydney Opera House to cry ‘Fuck the Jews’. When the righteous dusted down their Palestine flags and waved them with abandon, hours after women had been raped under that flag, hours after children had been murdered under it. When students in America cried ‘Glory to our martyrs’. When professors said they felt ‘exhilarated’ by what had happened. When leftists called it a ‘day of celebration’. When that suicidal alliance of genderfluid activists and Jew-hating Islamists took to the streets to call for further ‘jihad’ against the Jewish State. One pogrom was not enough. A thousand dead Jews was not enough. They wanted more.

This horror, this moral atrocity that followed the physical atrocity, continues to this day. On Saturday, a mere 48 hours after two Jews perished in an act of anti-Semitic terror in Manchester, the mob was back on the streets hollering ‘Long live the intifada’. We are not only in denial about the historic inhumanity of 7 October but also about the glee it ignited among those who call themselves ‘progressive’. We would remember if people had poured on to the streets of London to celebrate Kristallnacht – so we should remember that they did so for 7 October, a pogrom in which 10 times as many Jews were slaughtered.

7 October confirmed that Israel faces an existential threat on its borders. 8 October confirmed that the West faces an existential threat within its borders. From a cultural establishment, a liberal elite, a left and an Islamist mob who have turned their backs on the virtues of civilisation and fallen under the spell of barbarism. Israel is winning the war against the fascists that invaded its lands two years ago. We, alas, are not winning the war for the soul of the West. We struggle even to admit we are in such a war. Two years on, the good ship Israel has been steadied while the West still pitches on the high seas of counter-Enlightenment.

There’s one more thing I will recall today: the heroism of the young on 7 October. Alexander Lobanov, who helped evacuate people from the Nova music festival, leading to his capture and later his murder. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who picked up the grenades that Hamas threw into a bomb shelter and threw them back out again, causing him to lose an arm. Almog Sarusi, who refused to leave his girlfriend’s side after she had been shot, leading to his own capture and his own murder. Shiri Bibas, who held her babies to her breast and comforted them as they were dragged into the hell of Hamas-ruled Gaza. And too many more to mention. There is an alternative universe, one where the West has not yet abandoned reason, where our young wear t-shirts with these people’s faces on them, and cry out their names, and agitate for the erection of statues to these valiant Jews who resisted fascist terror as best they could, just as their forebears in the ghettos did. Making that alternative universe a reality is the task of all of us two years on from 7 October.
October 7 showed Jewish people who their friends are
October 7 unleashed a torrent of antisemitism. Synagogues were firebombed, Jews doxxed, and vile threats were made by nurses, of all people.

Jews arrived in Australia with the First Fleet. Despite being so few, we have contributed mightily to this nation, giving it its greatest military leader, Sir John Monash, two governors-general, Supreme Court justices, scientists, businessmen, winners of the Nobel Prize and Olympic gold and so many of our philanthropists.

Many Australian Jews are now contemplating leaving or at least questioning their place here. Ironically, Israel which has endured two years of war is seen as a safer bet. I regularly get asked for advice on this issue and it’s hard to dismiss people’s safety concerns.

I counsel people that Australia is worth fighting for.

It’s true that October 7 exposed the antisemites in Australian society, and there are many, but it also showed us who our friends are. It’s been heartening to see support from so many ordinary Australians, mostly from the centre and right and often identifying as Christian.

Every other day our office gets a call from the Western Australia wheatbelt or an email from someone in far north Queensland to express support for the Jewish community and outrage at what the government has done.

The Jewish community discovered friends in the conservative media, in politics, from One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson to the entire Coalition. Again, none of this was a particular surprise to my organisation, as these were the people we had already worked with.

October 7 was also a wake-up call for many ordinary Australians. The attacks on Israel were an attack on the West. Anti-Israel actions here often explicitly targeted Australia. The battle against radical Islam and the Woke, is a fight we must all take up, or our country will be next.

Across the West, in countries like Britain and France, millions of patriotic people want to take their countries back. They are crowding the streets and the voting booths.

It’s been heartening to see ordinary Australians take up this battle for our future, with a rapidly growing movement of patriots.

It’s true that there is a loud but small group of neo-Nazis attempting to subvert the movement. Several current and former politicians on the right have also turned on the Jews, thinking that it will give them popularity. The sensible centre must disavow these extremists or risk losing credibility.

October 7 showed Jews who our friends are. It showed us who our enemies are. It showed all Australians what we must fight for if we want to save our country.
Jake Wallis Simons: Israel has never been stronger. For Europe, it may already be too late
Militarily, Israel has probably not been in such a powerful position since 1967. Culturally, it is a nation that understands how to hold a strong sense of peoplehood within the norms and freedoms of a secular democracy.

Economically, it is robust. Its birth rate is one of the highest in the developed world. Its crime rate is remarkably low. Its people are unified and doughty. OK, so the politics and international reputation aren’t so great, but an election will take place within the year. With a fair wind, this could be Israel’s century.

The same cannot be said of the West. After the Second World War, the vow taken by the civilised world could be summed up in two words: never again. But the meaning of this pledge was evidently profoundly different for Jews and others in the democracies.

In Britain and across Europe, a consensus developed that the nation-state was the source of fascism and had to be downplayed or dismantled. For Jews, however, “never again” meant that the nation-state was crucial and had to be defended.

From this single fork in the road, our fates developed differently. While Israel advanced along the path of strength and confidence, meeting challenge after challenge with resilience, the West slipped down the route of self-undoing...


Trump announces Israel-Hamas deal
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the first phase of an agreement aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hamas.

“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of our peace plan,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The deal is expected to be formally signed on Thursday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

“This means that all of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace,” Trump continued.

“All parties will be treated fairly! This is a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this historic and unprecedented event happen,” he added. “Blessed are the peacemakers!”

Concurrently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a brief statement saying, “With God’s help, we will bring them all home”—a reference to the 48 hostages still held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza who are expected to be freed as part of the deal.

“A great day for Israel. Tomorrow I will convene the government to approve the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home,” Netanyahu said in a subsequent statement.

“I thank the heroic IDF soldiers and all the security forces—thanks to their courage and sacrifice, we have reached this day. I thank from the bottom of my heart President Trump and his team for their dedication to this sacred mission of freeing our hostages,” he added.

“Together we will continue to achieve all our goals and expand peace with our neighbors,” concluded Netanyahu.


EXCLUSIVE: Ben Shapiro Interviews Benjamin Netanyahu
Ben sits down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the state of the war amid ongoing negotiations with Hamas, the need for Israel’s self-sufficiency, and the strategic role of the U.S.–Israel alliance under President Trump’s leadership.


Nicole Lampert: The extraordinary anti-Israel propaganda machine set in motion on Oct 7
On Oct 7 2023, even as Hamas terrorists were still rampaging their way around southern Israel, murdering, raping and taking civilians hostage, plans were already afoot in the UK to rally support for the attacks in Britain.

Radical preacher Haitham al-Haddad, later described by the BBC as a “highly respected imam”, put out a video on YouTube saying of the fighters: “We urge you to stay updated with the news and think of various ways to support them, whether politically or through lobbying and media exposure. Be prepared for mass demonstrations to support them.”

Al-Haddad’s words turned out to be somewhat prophetic.

Mass demonstrations, it has since transpired, were being swiftly organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, with the Met Police logging the first request for a national demonstration against Israel on Oct 7 at 12.50pm. Separately, within a week of the conflict, the first mass petition was circulating, urging the British government to “immediately withdraw UK financial and military aid from Israel”, and MPs were being lobbied en masse.

The petitions and PSC demonstrations were ostensibly organised to support the Palestinian cause rather than the actions of Hamas terrorists on Oct 7, even if some of the PSC’s own activists would go further, along with many of those who turned out to protest. A statement posted on the website of the PSC’s Manchester branch, and later deleted, described how “the brave fighters” of Hamas “gave us all a glimpse of a liberated Palestine” (the branch’s officers were suspended).

Unofficial demonstrations, not organised under the auspices of large groups such as the PSC, began on the night of Oct 7. In some cases, they were celebrations accompanied by fireworks.

The former jihadist turned anti-extremist researcher Hussein Aboubakr Mansour later described how “the protests against Israel […] did not actually start with the IDF operations, but started as a symbolic participation in the Hamas pogrom itself”.

The PSC says its request for a demonstration came after Israel launched initial retaliatory strikes on targets in Gaza, and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, declared at 9am GMT on Oct 7 that Israel would “fight back on a scale and intensity that the enemy has so far not experienced”.

A PSC spokesman says that at the point it submitted its request to police: “It was already clear that the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza, more than 50 per cent of them children, were at severe risk. It is entirely appropriate therefore that PSC would call for a protest that would seek an immediate ceasefire and call for the root causes of Israeli occupation and apartheid to be addressed.”

But it was not just the speed and scale of demonstrations that stood out – it was their content.

Within a few days, university towns were papered with pro-Palestine posters distributed by the Socialist Workers Party.

One, in Manchester, featured a Palestinian holding a weapon and read: “Victory to the Palestinians: Why it’s right to resist Israel”. It advertised a public meeting, hosted by the Socialist Workers Party, at the nearby Quakers’ Friends Meeting House on Oct 11. The pacifist church group later cancelled the meeting under public pressure (the Quakers said the event fell under a weekly booking by the SWP, “but the nature of their meeting had changed […] and publicity for the altered meeting included a clear depiction of violence”).


Trump Admin Gets UN To Slash 'Ineffective' Peacekeeping Force's US-Funded Budget
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz reached an agreement with the international body this week that will see the United Nations slash its global peacekeeping force by about 25 percent and reduce peacekeeping funding by 15 percent, according to those briefed on the matter. The United Nations' concessions are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to reduce the organization's ballooning budgets funded in large part with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Waltz secured the agreement during a Tuesday meeting with U.N. secretary general António Guterres, according to U.N. officials briefed on the matter. The deal stipulates that the United Nations' international peacekeeping force—composed of more than 50,000 soldiers from varying nations—will repatriate around 25 percent of its troops and equipment across nine global missions. The move will be accompanied by a 15-percent cut to the force's $6.7-billion budget, around 25 percent of which comes from the United States.

The agreement comes after the Trump administration withheld roughly half of the United States' $3-billion annual investment in the United Nations, citing the organization's skyrocketing budgets and failure to implement a series of cost-saving reforms. U.N. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon said that Waltz is "demanding reforms first and upfront at the U.N." before the United States will release any more taxpayer money.

The United Nations' global peacekeeping missions have long faced accusations of being ineffective. The International Peace Institute's Global Observatory noted in a May 2023 analysis that the U.N.'s peacekeeping missions—which operate in conflict zones around the world—are largely perceived as "ineffective and problematic." Allegations of rape and other forms of sexual misconduct among U.N. peacekeepers reached triple digits in 2024 for the third time in 10 years, with many in the Congo and the Central African Republic reporting that peacekeepers have abused children.

A Western diplomat told the Free Beacon the deal signifies how serious the United States is about changing the way the United Nations operates.


Italy’s Meloni stunned by accusation of ‘complicity in genocide’ in Gaza war
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday that she and two Cabinet members were reported to the International Criminal Court for alleged “complicity in genocide” tied to Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

“I don’t believe there is another case like this in the world or in history,” Meloni told state television RAI, expressing amazement at the accusation given that “Italy has not authorized new … arms supplies to Israel after Oct. 7.” (Italy blocked all new arms deals with the Jewish state weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.)

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani were also denounced to the ICC, Meloni said, adding that she thought Roberto Cingolani, CEO of Italian defense firm Leonardo S.p.A., had also been named.

Cingolani, in a Sept. 30 interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera, called the accusations of complicity “an unacceptable stretch,” noting it was based on the fact that Leonardo helped build F-35 stealth strike fighters for countries around the world, some of which were sold to Israel.

Cingolani said Leonardo’s workers were the target of a “completely unfair media campaign.” However, he also criticized Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Oct. 7. Most Popular U.S. President Donald Trump gestures to members of the media before greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the West Wing Lobby of the White House, Sept. 29, 2025. Credit: Daniel Torok/White House.

Nationwide anti-Israel strikes on Sept. 22 and Oct. 3 called by two Italian trade unions, CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro) and USB (Unione Sindacale di Base), brought Italy to a halt.

Protesters blocked roads, threw stones and clashed with police.

Meloni told RAI of “a climate that is becoming significantly more barbaric” among “those who say that I and my government have blood on our hands.”

She appealed to a “sense of responsibility,” especially to “those who thought of stirring up a public outcry: Be careful, otherwise things will get out of hand.”


Hamas attempts raid on army post in Gaza City outskirts; IDF says 3 gunmen killed
Hamas operatives tried to raid an Israel Defense Forces position on the southern outskirts of Gaza City on Wednesday, the military said, the latest in a series of recent attempts by the group to attack army sites in the Strip.

The incident took place at an army encampment near the Netzarim Corridor area of central Gaza, south of Gaza City, where troops of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit were stationed.

Five Hamas gunmen emerged from a tunnel and approached the post, according to preliminary findings by the military.

The IDF said the troops, with air support from the Israeli Air Force, struck and killed at least three of the gunmen. Scans were being carried out to locate the other two operatives, who, according to an initial IDF probe, likely fled back into the tunnel.

The military said no soldiers were injured in the incident. It also published images showing weapons left behind by some of the gunmen.

Defense Minister Israel Katz had visited troops in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood shortly before Hamas launched an attack on the nearby army position.

Katz’s office said the defense minister was briefed by commanders on the IDF’s activities in the area and he “praised them for their powerful actions, which created the conditions for negotiations to secure the release of all the hostages and the achievement of the war’s objectives.”


IDF, Shin Bet foil large-scale Iranian weapons smuggling plot
The Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced on Wednesday that they had thwarted an Iranian weapons-smuggling operation aimed at supplying terrorist operatives in Judea and Samaria.

“This shipment, like its predecessors, is part of an ongoing Iranian effort to destabilize security in the region by arming terror cells, whose goal is to carry out attacks against Israelis and IDF forces,” the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement.

The seized cache was sent by Iran’s Unit 4000, the special operations division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Unit 840, a special operations unit of IRGC’s Quds Force, which has primarily operated out of Syria, according to the Shin Bet. Both units report to Asghar Bakri, head of Unit 840.

The smuggling was exposed following the arrest of an arms dealer from the Ramallah area in recent months. During the investigation, authorities uncovered his connection to Iranian-backed weapons smugglers.

Weapons seized included: 29 claymore anti-personnel mines; four drones (two of which were explosive drones); 15 anti-tank rockets and an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher with three rockets; 20 hand grenades; 53 pistols; seven assault rifles of various types; nine machine guns; and 750 pistol bullets. The IDF noted that the seizure follows interceptions of similar Iranian arms shipments on March 25 and Nov. 27, 2024.

“This counterterrorism activity is part of an overall campaign against weapons smugglers. Last July, the IDF and the Shin Bet in Lebanon eliminated Qassem al-Husseini and Muhammad Sha’ib, who operated under the Quds Force and were involved in sending weapons and directing activity in Judea and Samaria,” the IDF and Shin Bet said.


Israeli Navy intercepts another Gaza-bound flotilla
Jerusalem said on Wednesday morning that naval forces intercepted the latest protest flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip, which reportedly included nine vessels carrying anti-Israel activists.

“Another futile attempt to breach the legal naval blockade and enter a combat zone ended in nothing. The vessels and the passengers are transferred to an Israeli port. All the passengers are safe and in good health. The passengers are expected to be deported promptly,” the Foreign Ministry stated on X.

The Hamas– and Muslim Brotherhood-linked “Global Sumud Flotilla,” which has been organizing the stunts, said that the Israeli Navy intercepted at least three of its boats on Wednesday.

“Three vessels—Gaza Sunbirds, Alaa Al-Najjar and Anas Al-Sharif— have been attacked and illegally intercepted by the Israeli military,” the organizers said on X, also claiming that another ship carrying more than 90 anti-Israel activists was “under attack.”

The early morning interceptions took place around 140 miles off the coast of Gaza, according to organizers.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said the boats were carrying “vital aid worth over $110,000 USD in medicines, respiratory equipment and nutritional supplies that were destined for Gaza’s starving hospitals.”

Last week’s flotilla carried a minuscule amount of humanitarian aid, Israeli authorities demonstrated.


Greta uses Israeli hostage pic in Palestinian prisoner post
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has drawn criticism for posting a picture of Israeli hostage Evyatar David in a social media post about the “suffering of Palestinian prisoners.”

“Ignorance blinded by hate is trending: Greta Thunberg posted about ‘Palestinian prisoners’ using the image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David—starved, abused, and forced by Palestinian Hamas to dig his own grave,” the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem wrote on X Tuesday.

David is a 24-year-old Israeli who was abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, and has been held hostage in Gaza for nearly two years. Recent videos released by Hamas show him severely emaciated, forced to dig what he claims will be his own grave, and suffering from abuse in a cramped underground tunnel.

Thunberg is a 22-year-old environmental crusader who has recently become a vocal advocate for the Palestinians and highly critical of the Jewish state’s policies in Gaza. She was among more than 170 aid flotilla activists deported by Israel on Monday after they attempted to breach its naval blockade of Gaza to deliver what Israeli authorities described as a minuscule amount of aid supplies.

Thunberg and fellow campaigners were apprehended by Israeli forces, held in custody and flown to Athens, where she was greeted by fellow critics of the Jewish state.


Red Alert: Drama series about horror and humanity of October 7 is for everyone who needs reminding
Ori Ron Gilad as Eitan, Shay-Lee Keren Sharvit as Tamari, Rotem Sela as Batsheva Yahalomi and Libi Atia as Yael in Red Alert, episode 2, streaming on Paramount+

If the aim has been to get the world to acknowledge what happened on October 7, then a drama series with the title Red Alert might just achieve it. It’s a title which suggests the thrills and danger that attract the kind of audience who would not watch a show about the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. Should that ‘unlikely’ audience take the bait, their interest may be piqued when, 20 minutes into the first episode, a Palestinian woman is murdered. That she is murdered by Hamas terrorists is what they will have to compute.

The woman is the wife of Ayub, a Muslim Palestinian who has lived inside Israel for 20 years. Their baby is in the back seat when she is shot and killed beside her husband by terrorists with AK47s on motorbikes.

This opening isn’t fiction. It’s based on a true story — one of many that unfold in Red Alert, the new Paramount+ drama re-creating the Hamas terror attack on Israel. Born in Gaza, Ayub immigrated to Israel in his twenties. “He married a Bedouin Muslim wife,” explains director and co-creator Lior Chefetz. “He was in limbo in terms of getting his permanent residency because Israel can be slow in approving those requests. Every year he had to renew his ID card,and couldn’t apply for a driver’s licence. That’s why his wife drove him everywhere.”

Chefetz says Ayub’s story captures everything the show stands for – humanity caught in horror, complexity inside tragedy. “We wanted to open the series with a story that no one could politicise. You only feel compassion for this man. It’s about what happened to human beings that day.”

October 7, 2023, was Simchat Torah, one of the most joyful days in the Jewish calendar. Families were gathering for the holiday weekend, many already outside enjoying the early light. But by dawn, the celebration was over. Rockets streaked across the sky and the deadliest day was underway.

For Hollywood producer Lawrence Bender that day changed everything. The man behind Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds and Good Will Hunting, who built his career on genre-defining hits, knew he had to do something.

“A few weeks after October 7, I was hosting survivors at my house, having them speak,” Bender recalls. “Early on, we were all asking ourselves, ‘What can we do to help?’” Then Avi Nir, CEO of Keshet, one of Israel’s largest media companies, came to give a presentation. “As an Israeli he was greatly affected on a personal level,” says Bender. “That morning, the government didn’t know what was going on, but Keshet had reporters already in the field, reading off their cell phone messages in real time: ‘There’s a terrorist in my kibbutz!’ ‘There’s a terrorist trying to break down my door!’ He was seeing it as it happened. It was extremely emotional, and afterwards I said to him, ‘Listen, we’re going to have a big problem. It’s already clear that the world is turning against us. We need to work together.’ And that’s how it began.”
Ask Haviv Anything: Episode 49: Finding hope in the tunnel of Hamas, with Eli Sharabi
On October 7, 2023, Eli Sharabi's home was surrounded by Hamas terrorists. As he was dragged into Gaza, he shouted to his wife Leanna and two daughters Noiya and Yahel that "no matter what they do to me, I'll be back."

It was only in February 2025, as he arrived back in Israel after enduring 491 days of physical and psychological torture at the hands of his captors, that he learned that his family was murdered that day.

Eli's new book, "Hostage," is the first comprehensive account of the experience of an Israeli hostage. It contains unique insights about the experience of captivity, about how hostages supported one another and searched for hope in the dark tunnels, about the world-conquering fantasies and fondness for American movies of their Hamas captors, about near-lynchings by ordinary Gazans, about Hamas's expectation that the war that followed their attack would be a short one and their desperate hope that Trump will force an end to the war.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Eli Sharabi's Story
04:09 The Impact of October 7 on Eli's Life
08:52 Reflections on Captivity and Family Loss
12:01 Insights on Gazan Society and Hamas
18:02 Conversations with Hamas: Isolation and Ignorance
24:11 The Psychological Struggles of Hostages
29:51 The Role of International Organizations
35:56 Hope as a Muscle: Surviving Captivity
41:47 Messages of Unity and Resilience
50:50 Remembering Loved Ones and Moving Forward


He Spent 491 Days as a Hamas Hostage. This Is How He Survived.
Two years ago today, five terrorists broke into Eli Sharabi’s safe room on Kibbutz Be’eri. He had been sheltered there for hours with his wife, Lianne, and teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel, reading horrific texts flooding in from neighbors and hoping somehow his family would be spared.

They were not. The terrorists shot and killed their dog, then dragged Eli away, leaving his family behind. As they pulled him out the door, he looked back and shouted: “I’ll come back!”

After 491 days in Hamas captivity, Eli did come back. He survived—with most of his time buried deep underground, shackled, starved, subjected to constant humiliation, and psychological and physical torture—all because he believed he would one day be reunited with his wife and daughters. That belief kept him alive.

But when he was released on February 8 under a ceasefire agreement, he soon learned the devastating truth: Lianne, Noiya, and Yahel were dead. Hamas murdered them on October 7, 2023. His brother Yossi, also kidnapped, had been killed in captivity as well.

Eli’s memoir, Hostage, out today, is the first published account by a released Israeli hostage. He writes in unflinching detail about being held in the tunnels, about his Hamas captors, and about his singular focus on survival.

I read the book, through tears, last week on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and forgiveness, but it’s really a day of reckoning with life and death. The story Jews around the world read that morning is of Moses’s final speech to the Israelites before his death, delivered as they stand on the edge of the Promised Land—after slavery in Egypt, after 40 years of wandering in the desert and the loss of an entire generation. Moses tells them: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live.”

If anyone has earned a right to despair, to give up on life, it’s Eli Sharabi.

But he doesn’t. What’s remarkable about Eli is that he chose—and continues to choose—survival at every turn. He chooses life in the face of death. Again and again and again.


Freed October 7 hostage shares story of 491 days in captivity
Former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi joins Sky News host Sharri Markson to share his story as a hostage.

“We’ve done everything they told us, so I was sure they will be okay,” Mr Sharabi told Ms Markson.

“The terrorist will leave them and unfortunately five minutes after I’ve been kidnapped from the house they’ve been slaughtered.”


Jewish community hailed for its ‘ancient DNA of resilience’ in the face of antisemitism
Sky News host Sharri Markson highlights how the Jewish community demonstrates resilience and strength amid a global effort to demonise them and dismiss their history.

“Chilling new footage from that notorious rally on the Opera House steps shows protesters chanting Allahu Akbar and declaring support for Hamas, saying the terrorists have a right to fight,” Ms Markson said.

“This extraordinary new vision comes as the Palestine Action Group wants to, yet again, stage a protest at the Opera House this weekend, with the case being heard in court tomorrow.

“And the Jewish Community has tapped into an ancient DNA of resilience and strength - drawn from intrinsic values of empathy, kindness, inclusion and tolerance.”


Chilling Details of How Hamas Treated Hostages in Captivity
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Moran Stella Yanai about her terrifying kidnapping from the Nova Music Festival and being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza for 54 days; the chaos and fear of the Hamas terror attack; her desperate escape attempts and the physical and psychological abuse she endured; how her faith, hope, and will to live gave her strength; the manipulation and cruelty of her captors; the mental resilience needed to survive unimaginable conditions; and her powerful call for peace, understanding, and the value of human life; and much more.




Nepalese family of Hamas hostage releases video of captive
The family of Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese agricultural student kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, released footage of Bipin in captivity, on Wednesday.

The video, believed to have been filmed in Nov. 2023, shows Bipin identifying himself.

The family authorized the release of the video.

“Marking two years since the horrific massacre that plunged thousands of families into the circle of loss and grief, and froze time for our family and other hostages families, we have chosen to share a sign of life of our beloved son, Bipin,” the family said in a statement.

The family described the footage as “an anchor” and a “confirmation” of their belief that he is still alive.

“For many months, this footage was under strict censorship. Only recently were we granted permission to release it. It is not easy for us to share it publicly, but we are in critical and historic days that will determine the fate of the 48 hostages, whether the living will return to their families and the deceased to a proper burial, or whether we will remain in pain without closure,” the family added.

Bipin, 23, was taken captive from Kibbutz Alumim, less than 2.5 miles from the Gaza border, during the Oct. 7 attack when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during its onslaught on southern Israel.

Bipin managed to pick up a grenade thrown into a shelter by Hamas terrorists and hurl it back, an eyewitness told JNS earlier this year.

“Bipin was brutally abducted from Kibbutz Alumim, while ten of his friends were murdered that same day. Young students, beautiful and innocent souls. For two years, it has been difficult for the world to imagine Bipin as a hostage in the tunnels. Not anymore,” the family said.

The family is in the United States advocating for Bipin. They expressed hope that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with them: “We call on all diplomatic and international actors involved: Do not give up on them. Bring the day. Bring them home.”


EXCLUSIVE: Israeli Ambassador speaks to Sky News on October 7 anniversary
Israel's Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon has spoken to Sky News Australia on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, saying Israel remains in a “state of trauma”.

Mr Maimon also claimed Australia's recognition of Palestine "didn’t help" curb the global threat of antisemitism.

“I believe that talking about the recognition, it’s important to also understand that it will not change anything on the ground,” Mr Maimon said.

“Declaration will not create a Palestinian state, a declaration will not bring about the release of our hostages.”


Israeli envoy blasts ‘abhorrent’ pro-Hamas graffiti in Melbourne
Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon on Tuesday condemned what he called “abhorrent” pro-Hamas graffiti in Melbourne, Australia on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

“Today, on the day that two of my family members were brutally murdered two years ago, I am appalled and shocked by the abhorrent pro-Hamas graffiti seen across Melbourne,” Maimon wrote on X.

Maimon’s two relatives murdered on Oct. 7 were Maor Shalom, 46, an IDF reservist and retired Shin Bet agent, and an IDF soldier, Staff Sgt. Ido Harush, 21. Both were killed while fighting Hamas terrorists who had infiltrated into southern Israel.

“To celebrate Hamas is to celebrate rape, murder and mutilation,” he continued. “Urging them to ‘do it again’ is to endorse barbarism, to burn children and desecrate bodies.”

Maimon said such displays were not expressions of political opinion or solidarity, but rather outright support for terror. “This is not politics; it is not solidarity. Praising Hamas is praising one of the purest evils this world has to offer.”

Victoria Police said they were investigating the graffiti on a billboard in Melbourne, where the words “Glory to Hamas” were painted on a billboard in the suburb of Fitzroy.

The police said the words “Oct 7, do it again” had been partially removed from a wall in the nearby neighborhood of Westgarth.


Bari Weiss: Niall Ferguson on October 7 and Our Changed World
This week commemorates the two year anniversary of October 7, 2023. That morning, Hamas invaded Israel. They slaughtered some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. Forty-eight hostages, some alive and some dead, are still being held in Gaza.

In these last two years, the world has changed. In many ways, the past two years have felt like two decades. The world feels like it has tilted on its axis.

There is nobody better suited to make sense of this moment—the lessons learned, the harsh realities that have been revealed, and America’s changing role in the world—than Niall Ferguson.
This war is being LOST: Douglas Murray
New York Post columnist Douglas Murray discusses the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack and the state of peace talks between Israel and Hamas on ‘America’s Newsroom.’


This is the ENEMY within: Mark Levin
'Life, Liberty & Levin' host Mark Levin reacts to the anti-Israel protests planned around the world as the country marks two years since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.




Former IDF Spokesperson Jonathan Conricus on MEDIA'S MORAL ROT and is TRUMP PEACE DEAL REAL
Jonathan Conricus is a former international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, widely recognized for his clear, direct insights on geopolitics and security in the Middle East. With years of frontline and diplomatic experience, he has become a trusted voice on how media narratives shape global perceptions of conflict and peace. Heis a senior fellow at the FDD. On The Erin Molan Show, Conricus takes a hard look at what he calls the “moral rot” in media coverage, and weighs in on whether Donald Trump’s peace deal proposals hold any real promise—or are just political theater.


Israel —and America— two years after the 10/7 massacre
Haviv Rettig Gur joins Hugh to discuss in detail if and when Israel will forget the horrific events of that day.


‘Men, women and children’: October 7 massacre remembered two years on
Sky News host Peta Credlin highlights the “atrocities” committed by Hamas on October 7 as the second anniversary rolls around.

“Today is, as you know, the second anniversary of the October 7 atrocity when some 1,200 Israelis were butchered where they danced,” Ms Credlin said.

“Men, women and children … those not slaughtered where they stood were taken hostage.”


‘Tough day’: Solemn mood among global Jewish community as Israel marks October 7 anniversary
AIJAC Executive Manager Joel Burnie has reflected on the October 7 anniversary, claiming it was a “very tough day” for Jewish people across the globe.

“It’s a very tough day for Israelis. It’s a very tough day for Australian Jews,” he told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power.

“It’s been a torturous and abundantly difficult period for Australian Jews in the shadow of, as you say, the most horrific attack on Jews since the end of the Holocaust.”




“Jihadism Is The Problem” | Warning Against Un-British Pro-Palestine Protest
University leaders have urged students protesting on the anniversary of the October 7 attacks to think carefully about their actions, as the Prime Minister described the demonstrations as “un-British”.

Pro-Palestine protesters are set to defy Sir Keir Starmer’s call not to demonstrate on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, with students from several institutions set to gather at events around the country.


"Absolutely SHAMEFUL!" | Jake Wallis Simons SLAMS Keir Starmer For Not Appearing At October 7 Vigil
The UK will “always stand tall” against those who wish harm and hatred upon Jewish communities, Sir Keir Starmer said as he urged students not to protest on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage in the deadly attacks on Israel by Hamas in 2023.

Every child of Israel should be able to live alongside their Palestinian neighbours in “safety and security”, the Prime Minister said as he marked the anniversary.

Talk's Mike Graham is joined by author Jake Wallis Simons, who criticises the PM for not showing up to any October 7 vigils.


"They are HAPPY About It"| NHS Doctor Glorifies Attack On Jewish People
Julia Hartley-Brewer and journalist Nicole Lampert focus on the terrifying surge in antisemitism in the UK, particularly on university campuses, around the anniversary of the October 7th attack. They examine the failures of major institutions and the government to address the issue.

Nicole Lampert says at nearly every university, people are "screaming, celebrating, calling for more Intifada" and wishing for "more war," highlighting the "particular joy" in these expressions of hatred. She notes that these actions are often presented as "pro-Palestinian" but are actually calls for violence and denial of atrocities.

Lampert identifies the dangerous root of this rhetoric, arguing that a "Soviet ideology" is being promoted.

Julia and Nicole discuss Rahmeh Aladwan, an NHS doctor who posts on social media glorifying the "breaking of the 17-year-long illegal siege," praising "Palestinian resistance" and "martyrs," alongside a photo of the fence breach that enables the massacre.

Julia Hartley-Brewer expresses shock that this individual, who works at a hospital serving a Jewish area, remains employed by the NHS after the General Medical Council (GMC) attempts to suspend her licence are overruled by a medical tribunal citing "free speech."


Antisemitic doctors will have licences suspended before tribunals under crackdown on NHS extremism
ANTISEMITIC doctors will be stripped of their licence to practise BEFORE a tribunal, under new plans to crack down on extremists in the NHS.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is “urgently” drawing up measures to bar racist and radical Islamist medics from treating patients while awaiting the outcome of a General Medical Council probe.

A Health Department source told The Sun Mr Streeting is “furious with the glacial pace the system operates at and the failure to recognise blatant antisemitism”.

It follows outrage after a junior doctor escaped suspension despite making a “slit your throat” gesture at Jewish protesters.

The GMC sparked fury after ruling that Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, who has repeatedly posted antisemitic remarks about Britain’s Jewish community, was fit to continue practising.

Among her vile rants, Aladwan shared a post claiming media focus on the Manchester Synagogue terror attack was proof of “Jewish supremacism.”

Her case has now been referred back to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, with a new hearing set for October 23.

A GMC spokesman said it had “referred Dr Rahmeh Aladwan to an Interim Orders Tribunal.”

They added: “The GMC will make a referral where it believes an interim order is necessary to protect the public or public confidence in doctors during an investigation.”

The case has triggered major alarm over patient safety in the NHS – particularly for Jewish patients at risk from radicalised medics.


Woman interviewed under caution following yellow ribbon cutting in Muswell Hill
Metropolitan Police have interviewed a woman under caution following the deliberate vandalising of ribbons recalling the plight of Israel’s hostages, Jewish News can reveal.

On the eve of the second anniversary of the Black Shabbat massacre in Israel, a woman was filmed cutting down yellow ribbons in Muswell Hill. She was later identified on social media as Palestinian activist and PhD student Nadia Yahlom.

Her actions and declaration that the ribbons are “condoning genocide” were met with widespread and nationwide revulsion.

In a statement to Jewish News, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “A woman has been interviewed under caution following an incident in Muswell Hill. At approximately 16:25hrs on Monday, 6 October, officers were made aware of a video circulating online which appears to show a woman removing ribbons from fence poles in Muswell Hill.

“A 36-year-old woman attended a police station on Tuesday, 7 October, for a voluntary interview in connection with the incident, which is being treated as racially-aggravated criminal damage and a racially-aggravated Section 5 public order offence.

“Officers are continuing to carry out reassurance patrols in the Muswell Hill area.

Yahlom is a self described Palestinian-Jewish arts and humanities research council funded student at the University of Westminster’s Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media. The University has failed to condemn her actions.
How my confrontation with woman cutting down yellow ribbons in support of hostages left me angry and afraid
I took out my phone to film her because, even in that split second, I knew the world needed to see this.

'You can call the police if you think it's illegal,' she said.

A man who had joined me in the street added his voice. 'You're disgusting,' he told her.

To which, the woman responded, predictably: 'I think committing genocide is disgusting.' Here we go, I thought.

There is a horrible war going on in Gaza, with an appalling loss of life, but how is putting up yellow ribbons 'supporting genocide', exactly? The ribbons are to remember those poor young men still in captivity.

The woman eventually skulked off. A bunch of north London Jews had dispatched their vigilante justice in the way we always tend to: with words. I later found to my great joy that the ribbons had been put back up.

Sitting in the coffee shop after this altercation, my anger turned to sadness, then a tiny pop of fear.

What if the woman was waiting for me on the way back? What if she'd hired a mob of friends to berate or attack me?

It turns out my anxiety wasn't just paranoia: the woman had in fact enlisted a male friend to turn on another Jewish lady in the crowd, who'd been reduced to tears.

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Fear among British Jews has been rising since October 7, 2023. On October 9, before the first bomb dropped on Gaza, pro-Palestinians held a demonstration in London.


Virginia Democrat gubernatorial nominee worked at Saudi school known for Hamas links, jihadi grads
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Virginia worked for a Saudi government-controlled school just after 9/11, at a time when the Islamic academy was already controversial for being controlled by the Saudi royal family and for its extremist textbooks which taught hatred of non-Muslims.

Abigail Spanberger, a former Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, is currently the favorite to be the state’s next governor, according to polling averages. When it was revealed during her first congressional run in 2018 that she had worked for the Islamic Saudi Academy in northern Virginia during the 2002-2003 school year, Spanberger said that she was “proud” and “not ashamed” of her work history, despite the fact that, when she chose to work at the school, it was also already well known for its links to the terrorist group Hamas and for its recent graduates who had seemingly considered carrying out a jihad-inspired suicide attack in Israel.

The problematic nature of the Saudi academy — known as the ISA in shorthand — would be revealed even further in the years which followed. Accusations of radical Islamic views

A review by Just the News of hundreds of contemporary and historical news reports found that the following facts were widely-reported and well-established by the time that Spanberger chose to take her brief job at the ISA:
The school was controlled and funded by the Saudi government;
Numerous local citizens in northern Virginia were opposed to the relocation and expansion of the ISA due to concerns about the school’s teachings, about its control by and funding from the Saudi government, and about the Saudi government’s human rights record;
A top leader of Hamas had sent his children to the school;
The school’s comptroller had been linked to Hamas;
Then-recent graduates of the school had come under suspicion by federal authorities of potentially seeking to carry out a suicide attack in Israel;
The school’s textbooks contained hateful language, including animosity toward non-Muslims and Jews in particular;
The ISA had withdrawn from membership in a major accreditation organization; and
The ISA’s own website stated that it was controlled by the Saudi government and was guided by the Saudi Ministry of Education.


Israel slams Mamdani for serving as ‘Hamas mouthpiece’
The Israeli Foreign Ministry blasted New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday for “acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda” over his statement on the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre accusing the Jewish state of genocide and war crimes.

The rebuke of the far-left mayoral frontrunner comes ahead of the Nov. 4 election in New York City, where his anti-Israel views have caused a split among American Jewry.

“Two years after Hamas launched its barbaric massacre against Israel and the Jewish people, Mamdani has chosen to act as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda—spreading Hamas’s fake genocide campaign,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X. “By repeating Hamas’s lies, he excuses terror and normalizes antisemitism. He stands with Jews only when they are dead. Shameful.”

In his earlier statement issued on the anniversary of the single worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Mamdani said the U.S. government had been “complicit” in a “genocidal war” against Hamas.

“Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities,” Mamdani wrote.

“In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war: a death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals and schools into rubble,” Mamdani added, citing the unverified figures issued by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. “Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered. Our government has been complicit through it all.”


Democrat Running for Senate Draws Outrage for ‘Unbelievably Tone Deaf’ 10/7 Fundraising Email
Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, sent out a fundraising email commemorating Oct. 7, 2023 that drew sharp condemnation for “completely ignoring” the Israelis killed by Hamas on that day.

El-Sayed, 40, was born and raised in the Detroit area to Egyptian immigrant parents who were both engineers, and is a former public health professor and former director of the Department of Health, Human, and Veterans Services for Wayne County, Michigan. El-Sayed earned his medical degree from Columbia University but did not complete a residency, choosing to pursue a career in public service instead, and is therefore not a licensed physician. He’s also been a CNN contributor.

He previously ran for governor in Michigan, coming in second in the Democratic primary in 2018.

On Oct. 7, the two-year anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel, El-Sayed sent out a fundraising email, as reported by Politico’s Nicholas Wu.


Pro-Palestine speaker blasts Donald Trump as a 'devil' as Gaza protests are held in Sydney and Melbourne
Hundreds of Muslim Australians have gathered to mark two years since Israel began its military assault on Gaza in retaliation to Hamas' terrorist attack.

Speakers at the emotional rally in Bankstown on Tuesday evening told attendees waving Palestinian flags that Israel's lethal campaign in which it has decimated much of Gaza is grounded in decades of illegal occupation.

They gathered despite pleas from Australian leaders, including Anthony Albanese, to leave October 7 alone for Jewish groups to mourn Hamas's attack two years ago in which more than a thousand were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

'We are gathered here today, despite immense pressure on the organisers of this rally ... through the politicians of this country that today is not a day to mourn ... or in remembrance of the Palestinians,' speaker Firaz Nomin told the crowd.

Among the handful of other speakers was one man known as Bilal who blasted Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan.

'Do you not see what is happening on the ground in Palestine? Why are you not sending a flotilla of navy ships to attack?' he said before calling the US leader a 'devil'.

Other speakers lambasted Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying they should be concerned with seven Australian citizens detained in Israel as part of an aid flotilla to Gaza shouting 'Bring them home'.

Other speakers recounted the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Franckom and six-year-old child Hind Rajab, as they led the crowd in chants of 'Stop killing children'.


BBC apologises for internal language about 7 October on massacre anniversary
The BBC has reportedly apologised for internal messaging sent today via the organisation’s intranet, which referred to 7 October 2025 as an “the two-year anniversary of the escalations in the Israel-Gaza conflict”, and featured a picture of subsequent destruction in Gaza rather than the mass-terror attack on Israel.

An article shared with BBC staff via the organisation’s internal “BBC Audiences” site was introduced with wording stating: “As we reach the two-year anniversary of the escalations in the Israel/Gaza conflict, we asked UK audiences what they want and need from news coverage moving forward.”

Jewish News understands that a picture of Gaza was used since the article itself was specifically on about current audience attitudes towards coverage of the conflict, rather than specifically about the attacks of 7 October.

Danny Cohen, a former director of BBC Television and Controller of BBC One, said:

“This is shocking but not surprising. It is another example of the everyday, institutional bias at the BBC. To call the 7 October terrorist massacre an ‘escalation’ is deeply offensive. It is the kind of language Hamas might use. One might also assume that on this day the picture used by the BBC would focus on Jewish victims of the 7 October pogrom. But the BBC’s instinctive bias meant that this was not the case, even on this day of mourning.”

A BBC staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
“It is shocking that such a description of a one-sided atrocity is used in, of all things, a briefing about audience expectations from the BBC! It demonstrates – again – unconscious bias and terrible insensitivity towards Jewish staff.”


Elizabeth Tsurkov recalls her Iraqi captors were ‘overjoyed’ by news of Oct. 7
Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian researcher who was held for two years by a Shiite militia in Iraq and released last month, on Tuesday recounted being in captivity when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and lamented the “horror” that Palestinians in Gaza have since faced.

“On this day two years ago, I was detained in my second prison at the Popular Mobilization Forces camp,” she wrote in Arabic on X.

Tsurkov was held by Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned militia.

“The guards from ‘the Brigades’ turned up the volume on their television so I could hear the news from behind the walls about the October 7 operation.”

“From the news I overheard from channels supportive of Iran’s axis, I thought the operation targeted only military sites because the broadcasters mentioned ‘prisoners’ (not ‘hostages’) and talked a lot about ‘soldiers.’”

The Hamas-led invasion from Gaza — which took several days for Israeli forces to finish off — involved thousands of terrorists, who killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Tsurkov said that, watching news of the attack, her captors were “overjoyed.”

But, she said: “I knew a catastrophe would befall Gaza and its people, though I could not imagine the scale of the violations and their horror.”

The researcher noted a Hebrew-language interview from July with the wife of former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi, who led the military when the attack happened. As her husband left their home early that morning, she recalled him telling her, “Gaza will be destroyed.”

Tsurkov wrote: “May God grant relief to the people of Gaza and to the starving, injured, and exhausted hostages.”

“All of them are paying a heavy price for the decisions of leaders who care about staying in power and are indifferent to their fate,” she added.
'Haaretz' repeats Iranian propaganda while IRGC undermines Gaza peace
On Sunday, October 5, I was at Rav Aron Schuster Synagogue in Amsterdam to commemorate the October 7 attack on the Jewish people.

This gathering was scheduled to take place around 6 p.m. However, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema (GL/PvdA, The Labor Party and Green Left) was unable to guarantee security due to an anti-Israel demonstration in which her party leader Frans Timmermans was participating. What are they protesting? Are they protesting against Hamas or the Ayatollah regime? No, they are protesting against the Jewish state and rejecting President Trump's peace plan. Does the left want the Gaza war to continue?

The meeting was attended by Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof. In conversation with him prior to the meeting, I told him that we must not abandon Dutch Jews. Dutch Jews are threatened by rising antisemitism and concern about the security of the Jewish people in Israel. Dick Schoof is a dignified leader. Other politicians were also present, such as Carolien van der Plas, Ulysse Ellian, Don Ceder, and Claudia van Zanten. Left-wing politicians did not appear.

The EU, America, and other democratic countries condemned the October 7 attack and affirmed Israel's right to self-defense. The Gaza war began. On October 10, Iranian leader Khamenei said in a speech to his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers that he kissed the foreheads and arms of those who planned and carried out the October 7 attack. What role did Khamenei and his IRGC play in this horrific attack?

As early as October 8, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Iran had been helping to plan the attack on Israel for several weeks. WSJ spoke with several Hezbollah commanders who revealed that “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas's Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed terrorist group.” The Biden administration claimed in the same article that they had seen no evidence of Iranian involvement. That was a false claim.

Last week, General Esmail Qaani, commander of IRGC-Quds, said that Hezbollah had helped with Hamas' plan for the attack. He himself was in Beirut on October 7, 2023, and spoke with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Qaani said, "During this meeting on October 7, it was decided that Hezbollah would start rocket attacks on Israel on October 8."


Two men on trial over ISIS-inspired plot to attack UK Jewish community
Two men plotted an Islamic State-inspired terror attack on the Jewish community in northwest England with the aim of “killing hundreds of innocent people,” British prosecutors said on Wednesday at the start of their trial.

Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, are charged with preparing terrorist acts, while Walid Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel Saadaoui, 36, is charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism.

All three have pleaded not guilty and are on trial at Preston Crown Court. Judge Mark Wall told jurors that the case had nothing to do with last week’s deadly terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester, and the timing of the trial was coincidental.

Prosecutors say Walid Saadaoui and Hussein had “embraced the views of the so-called Islamic State … (and) were prepared to risk their own lives” in order to become martyrs. Defendants planning ‘untold harm,’ says prosecutor

Walid Saadaoui had arranged for two assault rifles, an automatic pistol, and ammunition to be smuggled into Britain, with a further three weapons and more ammunition to be delivered, when he was arrested in May 2024, prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said.

Sandhu said the assault rifles were similar to those used in a 2015 attack in Paris, which killed 130 people, and were “capable of causing untold harm.”

“Untold harm was precisely what Walid Saadaoui had planned to cause, together with the defendant Amar Hussein,” Sandhu said, before he was interrupted by Hussein shouting from the dock: “How many babies?”

Sandhu said that Walid Saadaoui and Hussein’s plan was to “identify a mass gathering of Jewish people whom they could attack,” with a third man they thought was called “Farouk.”
Manchester synagogue terrorist pledged allegiance to ISIS in call during rampage
The man who carried out a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue made an emergency call to police during the rampage to “pledge allegiance” to the Islamic State group, UK counter terrorism police revealed Wednesday.

The attacker, identified as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police within seven minutes of the terror attack, in which two Jewish people were killed — one likely by a stray police bullet.

But “in the initial stages of the attack… a call was made by the attacker to police claiming to pledge allegiance to the so-called Islamic State,” a spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing in northwest England said Wednesday.

Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were both killed, and three others were seriously wounded in Thursday’s attack in the northwestern city on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The terror attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue was one of the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe since the October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel led by Hamas-led terrorists.

Four people, two men and two women, remain in custody for questioning after the attack by Shamie, a UK citizen of Syrian descent.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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