They're Right: It Didn't Start on October 7 2023. Arabs Attacked Jews on Other October 7ths Too.

Israel-haters love to say that "it didn't start on October 7." But no matter how far back they go, there have been Arab attacks on Jews in the Middle East earlier than the other way around. 

In fact, if you look for attacks by Arabs on Jews in the region on other October 7th, you will find quite a few.

I went through old newspaper archives and terrorism databases to see what I could find. This isn't necessarily complete.

October 7-8, 1936. Contemporary reporting around Oct. 7–8 records Arab sniper fire into Neve Yaakov, attacks on Jewish-owned groves near Tel Mond, and an attack near the Kadoorie Agricultural School. (It isn't clear from JTA which of these occurred on the 7th or 8th.)

October 7, 1950: David Weiner, a 44-year-old Jewish watchman at the Mikveh Israel agricultural school, was murdered on the school grounds. The JTA reported that he was believed to have been killed by Arab infiltrators who escaped during a rainstorm. Police dogs followed their tracks toward the Arab Triangle.

October 7, 1975: Workers at Ben Gurion Airport discovered about half a kilogram of explosives and two electric detonators hidden in the false bottom of an abandoned suitcase. Police believed either that the person carrying it had abandoned it after noticing the intensive security checks, or that the explosives were intended for delivery to a hostile group in Israel. No perpetrator was identified, so this one cannot definitively be classified as an Arab terrorist attack, but it certainly belongs on the list of suspicious October 7 incidents.

October 7, 1985: A bomb exploded in a residential building in Jerusalem, wounding 11 people, according to Johnston's Archive of terrorism in Israel.

October 7, 2001: A Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bomber approached Kibbutz Shluhot in northern Israel. When an Israeli drove toward him to investigate, the terrorist detonated his bomb, killing the Israeli as well as himself. Contemporary reports identified the bomber as a 17-year-old Islamic Jihad member.

October 7, 2004: Three coordinated bombs exploded at tourist resorts in the Egyptian Sinai, including the Hilton in Taba, a popular destination for Israelis during Sukkot. More than 30 people were killed, including 12 Israelis, and well over 100 were wounded.

October 7, 2007: Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets and mortars at Israel, including a Katyusha that reached the Netivot area. There were no casualties.

Then came October 7, 2015.

On that single day, Jewish Israelis were targeted in four separate Palestinian attacks.

At Jerusalem's Lion's Gate, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman stabbed a Jewish man in the back. He managed to draw his gun and shoot his attacker.

Near Tekoa, Palestinians attacked an Israeli woman's car with rocks, smashed the windshield and then attempted to drag her from the vehicle. She managed to escape.

In Kiryat Gat, a Palestinian stabbed an IDF soldier, stole his rifle and fled into a residential building. He entered an apartment and confronted an Israeli woman before she escaped; police subsequently killed him.

And in Petah Tikva, a Palestinian stabbed a Jewish man outside a shopping mall. The victim was moderately wounded. Bystanders subdued the attacker. Contemporary reporting called it the fourth terror attack of the day.

October 7, 2018: A Palestinian terrorist entered the Barkan Industrial Park and murdered two of his Israeli coworkers, Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, and Ziv Hajbi, 35, and wounded another woman. Levengrond Yehezkel was reportedly bound before she was shot.

These were all before October 7, 2023.

There is nothing mystical about October 7. It isn't some historically significant Arab or Palestinian date, as far as I can tell. The point is almost the opposite. You could probably perform this exercise for any date on the calendar.

Pick November 12, or your birthday. Start going through a century of newspapers and archives and look for Jews murdered, stabbed, shot, bombed, ambushed or attacked by Arabs on that particular date. Chances are you will find examples.

That's because October 7, 2023 was unprecedented in its scale, but it was not unprecedented in its nature.

The methods changed. Infiltrators became fedayeen; fedayeen became organized terrorist groups; rifles and roadside mines were supplemented by suicide bombs, rockets and eventually drones and a mass cross-border invasion. The terminology changed as well.

But Jews in the Land of Israel had been murdered by Arabs for generations before Hamas terrorists crossed the Gaza border on October 7, 2023.

October 7 didn't start on October 7.

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