News Roundup: Looking Back On A Year Since October 7th

By
Dan
-
12
Trees planted at the Nova Festival Site in honor of those murdered by Hamas terrorists, March 2024 ©DansDeals
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Looking back at a hard year

Has it really been a year since that horrible day?

The day that split humanity into 2 camps, those on the side of civilization and those on the side of barbarism, terror, rape, and antisemitism.

Those who saw what happened were changed by it.

Since that day, Israel has fought Iran’s terror proxies and Iran itself. No easy feat as Iran’s proxies have perfected the art of hiding inside and underneath kids’ bedrooms, hospitals, and schools. Hamas knew that using civilian shields would hurt Israel politically, which is what shaped its strategy. All civilian death is horrible to moral people, but to terrorists, it’s just a means to an end that will help their cause.

 

 

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote this 3 part series looking back at a month of war.

Even before Israel responded or buried the murdered, the world marched against Jews and Israel and celebrated Jewish deaths with an antisemitic zeal and euphoria unseen since the 1940s.

But why would the most barbaric pogrom against Jews in nearly a century trigger that response?

Was that level of antisemitism always there, but just dormant for 80 years?

Those are some uncomfortable thoughts, but the past year has felt uncomfortable for Jews facing rising antisemitism across the globe. Just ask my youngest brother, who is a 2nd year law student at Columbia, about how uncomfortable that can be.

But we can’t worry about every spectator’s heckling, people that hate us can’t stop us. we have a game to win. 

Has the world lost its moral compass? Do students born after 9/11 now side with the terrorists? Is TikTok to blame?

 

 

Maybe when Al Qaeda and Khamenei side with you, it’s time to recalibrate your moral compass?

 

Are obvious lies not obvious?

 

 

 

John Fetterman has been one incredible advocate for Israel over the past year.

 

 

 

Would the US have done anything differently?

 

Now this, is what moral clarity looks like:

https://twitter.com/etanadeeIL/status/1770822128629133502

 

 

 

 

Have lessons been learned?

Horrifically, 100 hostages, from babies to the elderly, have now spent a year trapped in Gaza.

Has Israel learned its lessons from what led up to October 7th?

Israel does seem to have a recognition that it can no longer tolerate terror groups firing rockets and missiles into its territory. That’s a good start.

But how did it get so arrogant and reliant on its border wall, as to ignore warnings of the attacks in the weeks leading up to October 7th? And, where was the army that day?

Clearly, Ariel Sharon’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza was just as terrible as many predicted it would be. It effectively handed over the Philadelphi Corridor to Hamas, allowing weapons to flow into Gaza. It also removed Israel’s on-the-ground intelligence in Gaza, which led to the biggest intelligence failure in the country’s history.

October 7th doesn’t happen without the disengagement.

When The Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke about Shleimus ha’aretz and the foolishness of thinking peace could be achieved through giving away land, he was talking about this. When he spoke about those policies putting Jewish lives in danger, he was talking about this.

Or as Golda Meir said, if Israel’s occupation was an obstacle to peace, why wasn’t there peace before the 1967 war?

The 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, which freed over 1,000 terrorists, including hundreds with life sentences for murder, was also as terrible as predicted. In that trade, Yahya Sinwar, the October 7th mastermind, was freed. Is the policy of trading hundreds of murderers for a hostage logical? Or did it just teach Sinwar that the only way to fight against Israel is via hostage-taking?

This in-depth New York Times article on the Israeli Doctor who saved an imprisoned Sinwar’s life is fascinating. The doctor’s nephew was later killed in the October 7th attacks that Sinwar masterminded. No good deed goes unpunished indeed.

But on that note, how is it possible that Israel still doesn’t have capital punishment for murderers? Does that not just encourage more hostage-taking in order to free those murderers?

Of course that all makes the hostage situation in Gaza so terrible. Sinwar wants back murderers and the Philadelphi Corridor, but that would just lead to future October 7th type attacks.

It’s an impossibly sad and heartbreaking situation.

Israel’s ingenuity though, knows no bounds:

 

Operation Grim Beeper

The Washington Post has the inside scoop on how Israel pulled off the most targeted mass attack against terrorists in history. The operation took thousands of Hezbollah terrorists off the battlefield.

The number of moving parts that had to go right for Israel to pull it off is astounding.

Leave it to the Jews to make a profit while selling devices to terrorists that will explode in their hands!

Not even Fauda had the audacity to picture an operation like that.

 

Taking down the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center

The NY Times has the incredible story on how Israel took out the so-called Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center.

In fact, it was an Iranian underground precision missile factory that would supply Hezbollah with weaponry more easily than getting it from Iran to Lebanon. And it was impossible to destroy it from the air.

Israel’s Unit 8200 may have failed to prevent October 7th, but they managed to get the full site plans via a computer hack, down to where each guard would be stationed. Armed with that information, Israel was able to land commandos on the site and destroy it in just 15 minutes.

Once again, proving that fiction is no match for real-life operations when Israel is on its A-game.

 

Yalla Ya Nasrallah

Israel may have taken its eye off the ball in Gaza, which led to October 7th and a difficult war. But it was clearly preparing for a war with Hezbollah for a long time.

Nasrallah has been hiding underground since the 2006 war in Lebanon.

 

The Wall Street Journal writes about how Israel managed to eliminate him, even while hiding 60 feet underground.

It brought back memories of the 2006 song about reuniting Nasrallah with his maker:

 

 

May all terrorists meet a similar end.

 

Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran

The US wouldn’t let Israel target Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh while in Qatar. That left having to take him out in Iran.

The New York Times writes that Israel smuggled a bomb into a Tehran guesthouse months ago, biding their time until Haniyeh returned for the swearing-in of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran arrested dozens of officers in the aftermath of Haniyeh’s assassination.

Pezeshkian won the election after his predecessor,  Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash. No word on whether he was carrying any Israeli pagers, or whether Eli Kopter was the pilot that day.

 

Aziz Salha faces justice

Whenever Jews see bloody hands, our minds go right to Aziz Salha holding up his blood-stained hands to a crowd after lynching 2 Israeli soldiers in Ramallah during the 2nd intifada.

As Israel has no capital punishment, he was sentenced to life in prison for murder. And he was released as part of the ill-fated Shalit trade.

Since then, he has been involved in planning terror attacks in the West Bank and Gaza, but no longer. Israel targeted and killed him in central Gaza.

Good riddance.

 

Learning to fight in the tunnels

The Telegraph has an in-depth look into how Israel learned to fight Hamas across hundreds of miles of Gazan tunnels.

No war has been extensively fought underground, so the learning curve was high. But after several months, Israel learned how to fight against Hamas on their home turf.

One thing that made it easier for Israel to fight in the tunnels? That Hamas didn’t allow Gaza civilians to seek refuge in the tunnels.

 

Ali Baba and the 40 thieves

What is the future of a post-war Gaza? Will the UAE take it over?

Not until the Palestinian Authority can reform itself.

Axios reports that UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed called the Palestinian leadership “Ali Baba and the forty thieves” and claimed senior officials in the Palestinian Authority are “useless.”

Ouch.

Bin Zayed also warned the West and Europe back in 2017:

 

The Crown Prince of Bahrain didn’t mince his words either:

 

Of course, this was all said by the Shah of Iran, before the Islamic Republic took over. If only the Palestinians took those words to heart, they could be living in peace and thriving instead of having a destroyed Gaza.

 

Rafah and the end of Hamas as a military force

Israel had to finish the job and destroy Hamas’ final brigades in Rafah. It also had to retake the Philadelphi Corridor.

The US has repeatedly tried to stop Israel from finishing the job in Rafah and Lebanon. It had withheld bombs from Israel to stop it from fighting. But this is nothing new.

 

And the US has been wrong about Rafah and Lebanon.

The Spectator writes about the success Israel had in Rafah. Fewer than 100 civilians died there, in Israel’s most impressive part of the Gaza war.

 

Nuseirat rescue operation

The WSJ writes about the rescue operation in the Nuseirat Camp.

Hostages Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kozlov were freed in an incredibly complex rescue operation.

It would be renamed Operation Arnon, after the Yamam squad leader, Arnon Zamora, was killed in a gunfight.

But it showed that Israel would stop at nothing to rescue hostages whenever possible.

 

War with Iran

All of the fighting with Iran’s proxies has inevitably led to war with Iran. Iran is terrified of losing deterrence from Hamas and Hezbollah. As Israel destroys their military capabilities, Iran is left more vulnerable.

Incredibly, no Israelis have died in Iran’s missile assaults on Israel.

Will Israel seize the moment to rid the world of nuclear threats from the largest state sponsor of terror?

Only time will tell.

 

The Tefillin Revolution

I couldn’t be prouder of JJ’s work on our DansDeals campaign to sponsor Tefillin for IDF soldiers and civilians committing to wearing Tefillin daily.

 

Since October 7th, many Jews around the world have never been prouder of their Judaism and have been looking for ways to grow that connection.

Seeing proud Jews fighting back through prayer has been incredible.

 

Indeed, all prayer helps.

 

 

 

 

Then again as it says in Genesis 12:3 or Numbers 24:9, those that bless Israel will be blessed, but those that curse Israel will be cursed:

 

There was a time when an Israeli Prime Minister wouldn’t mention G-d or be seen in Tefilin, but that glass ceiling has been shattered. Maybe we really are in a new era?

And who brought the Tefillin to Bibi? Ruchama Davino brought her son Moshiko’s tefillin to him. Moshiko was a D9 soldier who was killed in the 2014 Gaza War.

Earlier this year, I went on a mission with Chabad of Katamon to the Gaza Envelope. At the end of the day, we sponsored a BBQ for soldiers at the Zikim Base just north of Gaza, which came under attack on October 7th. Ruchama Davino operates the Fun Truck that goes around making BBQs for soldiers. You can donate to it here. Ruchama is truly an inspiration!

 

Ruchama spoke lovingly to our group (translated by our guide as well):

 

October Rain

I’ll leave off with the poignant cover from Shulem on Eden Golan’s October Rain (Kol Isha), which was changed to Hurricane (Kol Isha) when Eurovision couldn’t stomach lyrics like “promise me that never again,” or “I’m still wet from this October Rain.” Did you expect any different from Europe?

There’s even an Arabic cover of October Rain (Kol Isha) by Lebanese-born and raised Carine Bassili.

But Shulem’s version is hauntingly beautiful:

 

We remember the lives of all of those lost.

We pray for the safety of Israel and her inhabitants, along with a return of the hostages, and a speedy victory against Iran and all of its terror proxies.

May we experience true peace in the holy land and around the world very soon!

Leave a Reply

12 Comments On "News Roundup: Looking Back On A Year Since October 7th"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Abe2023

Wow amazing thank you
Ever thought of a news blog or maybe a nightly round up!?

Reply
October 7, 2024 11:35 pm
Dan

Thanks.
I would have to clone myself to do that. 😀

Reply
October 8, 2024 10:08 pm
Work-for-ur-muny

Thank you

Reply
October 8, 2024 12:38 am
Texas Totty

If you, like me, don’t want to read the NYT, here’s a Mishpacha article about how Israel saved Sinwar twice. https://mishpacha.com/saved-to-slaughter/

Reply
October 8, 2024 2:49 am
JR

Thank you and what a wild post with both heartbreaking bits and positive ones as well. The cover of October rain by Shulem was really great never heard it before. Amen to all your final messages. Am yisroel chai!

Reply
October 8, 2024 3:20 am
Dan

Thanks!

Reply
October 8, 2024 10:08 pm
Yitzchok

Thank you for the news update. Im on look for kosher news without loshan harah and some positivity. This was perfect. Have a great new year!

Reply
October 8, 2024 10:52 am
Dan

Pleasure, to you as well!

Reply
October 8, 2024 10:08 pm
OD

Dan awesome review thanks for time and effort!

Reply
October 8, 2024 3:50 pm
Dan

Thanks!

Reply
October 8, 2024 10:09 pm
Imayid2

I enjoy these roundups and appreciate the time and effort you put into them.

Reply
October 8, 2024 11:10 pm
aerialdag

I know these types of news roundups take up a lot of time don’t always get the same amount of attention as your other posts but many of us appreciate them, so thank you!

I will just add that one common theme here between releasing Sinwar, failing to take Hamas in Gaza seriously (especially from the women observers in the precious few hours before the attacks), and moving soldiers away from Gaza towards the WB is Bibi Netanyahu. We can blame Ariel Sharon for the disengagement but Oct 7 doesn’t happen without Sinwar and a focus away from Gaza.

Reply
October 9, 2024 1:57 pm
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