Hamas Attacks: At least 150 Israelis Murdered, 1,100 Injured, 53 Kidnapped

I'm in a state of shock... and rage.

Oct 07, 2023

Click here to check out the first 30 Installments - Volume I - in this series on Antisemitism and Culture. The top 5 most important pieces from this first wave:

This is the 28th installment in Volume II, a second collection of 30 essays exploring the many manifestations of Jew Hatred and the issues surrounding it in America and globally. See the 27 previous installments listed at the end of this article.

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day. Since May, most of my writings on these subjects have shifted over to news reporting at Jewish News Syndicate, including a weekly report of antisemitic incidents around the world.

“Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

As I lay on the floor before sunrise, rolling on my yoga mats, trying to overcome the morning’s PTSD episode, the texts from sources started beeping on my phone, and soon it became clear the newest genocidal Islamist assault to annihilate the Jewish state was at a different level of magnitude than one can process while still waking up on Saturday morning:

The Hamas terrorist organization claimed this Saturday morning that 53 Israelis, including soldiers, had been kidnapped in what has been called by both sides a war.
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics updated that at least 100 Israelis had died by the Hamas multi-front attack. The hospitals in Israel reported that over 900 people are being treated in emergency rooms, ranging from light to very serious condition.

As I read the details a sense of horror and deep sadness rushed inside me:

Hamas claims to have kidnapped dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers to Gaza.
These reports are not officially confirmed by Israel. Channel 12 news reports, however, that Hamas has kidnapped men and women, young and old, civilians and soldiers to the Gaza Strip. The infiltration is proving “far more successful” from Hamas’s perspective than it would have expected, the TV station’s Ohad Hemo says, and Hamas almost certainly doesn’t know itself how many Israelis it has kidnapped.

I’ve received word from a source about videos circulating of Hamas terrorists celebrating as they murder Israeli women and children - and that the death counts are higher than what’s being reported so far.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released a statement declaring the nation at war:

The sadness soon shifted, though, to a raw rage.

These terrorists are trying to murder my friends and colleagues. They’re capturing Israeli citizens to torture and swap for imprisoned Hamas murderers.

Yet for most people it’s just another Saturday morning. This is just another blip of a news story, a distraction compared to other subjects which they deem more worthy of attention.

“Oh, there’s another conflict going on between two countries overseas? Yawn. What else is on? Oh, this is a funny Netflix cartoon. Oh, that celebrity I mildly like from that sitcom decades ago is in trouble now - how long is he going to be in jail? Oh, look at this adorable video of this kitty trying to climb out of a cardboard box. You can’t miss this one - I’ll email it to you so you don’t forget to check it out. And how big is Trump’s lead in the GOP primary right now? And shouldn’t we be concerned about real problems like the Fentanyl flowing over our Southern border and all the illegal immigrants just coming here and breaking our laws? And don’tcha know that Wokeism is such a bigger problem than terrorists? And that the mainstream media is exaggerating how much white supremacy there is? And that leftist groups are sabotaging Elon Musk’s wonderful free speech platform with lies about antisemitism on it? They’re just being political. Why aren’t you more concerned about these pornographic books in our children’s libraries and the drag queens reading them — grooming our kids! — and all the insidious critical race theory curriculum indoctrinating students to hate themselves for being white? Isn’t that a problem, that people are made to feel guilty just for being white? Shouldn’t we focus on that too? And even though Roe v. Wade has been overturned, we really need to focus now on banning abortion at the federal level. The fight isn’t close to being over to protect unborn life! And have you seen the price of gas and milk going up? These phony ‘Bidenomics’ are really putting a dent in my bank account. And have you heard about all the crime in San Francisco because of Soros-backed leftist prosecutors? Why, people are just shooting up in the streets and openly selling drugs! Look at BLM too! January 6 was nothing compared to the riots they did! And aren’t you concerned about cancel culture? Look at these various c-level celebrities and people you’ve never heard of who have lost their job over saying things that are just normal. And what about the weaponization of the justice department against our beloved fighter Donald Trump when he did absolutely nothing wrong! The same thing could happen to you, you know! And haven’t you heard about all these kids thinking they’re trans when they’re not? Look at these sad stories of young people who regret being pushed into being trans. We need to protect our children and put a stop to this! Those are the real things you should be focusing your time on right now. Who cares about just another war in some desert in the Middle East? Honestly, I just don’t have a dog in that fight. They’re just going to keep fighting forever. We don’t have the emotional energy to care about everything, man. We have to pick and choose where we put our time. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about our own country?”

Everyone knows that in the last Republican president debate, Israel was not mentioned once, right? No, almost nobody knows. I wrote the story about it last month. It’s just not something that people care much about anymore, if that many ever really did. “America First!”

What is there to say to people who just don’t care? At least 100 people — now updated to 150 — are murdered by a terrorist group and it isn’t a big deal because it didn’t happen on American soil? But even if it had taken place here, would it even be that big of a deal at all to many Americans more focused on “other issues” that are “more important”? “Did you know 73,654 people died from Fentanyl overdoses last year? And look: 2.76 million illegal immigrants crossed the border last year! This isn’t that many people who died - Israel can handle itself.”

It’s not fall 2001 any more, Islamist terror now falls even lower on the priority scale of most Americans. And it still stuns me every time I bump into it — people who intensely care about abortion, or illegal immigration, or know all when it comes to sports trivia and celebrities’ banal “personal lives” — but they don’t have room in their consciousness to consider the possibility that there are state-sponsored terror armies with the single-minded goal of finishing the job Hitler started.

We’re genuinely on the verge of a second Holocaust — Iran gets nuclear weapons inside Israel and the death count in an instant could be higher than what the Nazis did in years. But people do not give a fuck. They didn’t give a fuck 90 years ago when the Nazis were on the rise, and they don’t give a fuck now that their ideological descendants are continuing their war of extermination.

And many people in America will even be more offended by using the word “fuck” than the fact that Hamas has now kidnapped at least 53 Israelis. Just imagine for a moment what their lives are likely to be now. Just dwell on that - put yourself in their shoes — a Jew captured by an antisemitic terror group that believes you’re part of the global conspiracy to oppress Muslims, drink their children’s blood, and gather the organs of their dead martyrs.

I’m sorry, I should stop ranting. Just one quick check of any further developments in the war before I send this out. What else should you and I know about this? How about this:

The death toll from the Hamas terror group’s war on Israel rises to more than 150, Hebrew-language media cite medical officials as saying.
The Health Ministry says 1,104 people have been wounded in the attacks, which included Hamas terrorists infiltrating into Israel and gunning down soldiers and civilians. Others were wounded in rocket attacks.
The death toll is expected to rise higher.

New Jersey’s legislator Josh Gottheimer - one of the best in congress on the threats of terrorism and antisemitism - released a statement this morning and I’d want to echo one of its points, my emphasis added:

We must continue our work to provide Israel with the resources she needs to defend herself from terror, including increased counter-drone capabilities, investment for the Iron Dome, David's Sling, and Arrow missile defense systems, and additional offensive munitions to preserve Israel's qualitative military edge.

Genocidal antisemitic Jihadists want to speak the language of violence and warfare? Both Democrats and Republicans need to affirm their parties’ Zionist rhetoric and come together to further boost Israel’s ability to destroy its enemies. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic regime oppressing Iran need to get the fucking message loud and clear: the consequences for unleashing warfare against the Jewish state will be overwhelming and terrifying.

The Angel of Death came before for those who engaged in child sacrifice against the people of Israel, and now he is coming again…

UPDATE, 11:34 AM:

The Israeli death count is now up to 200. And the fucking Islamist regime oppressing the people of Iran has put out a statement declaring this bloodshed as Palestinian self-defense.

See the previous installments in volume II of this series:

Fred Tribuzzo

Oct 8, 2023·edited Oct 8, 2023Author

David, I believe that Israel will now do what they have to do to rid themselves of these Nazi savages. What will harm their resolve is pressure from our current administration to exercise restraint. Unlike the Yom Kippur War of '73, where war material was seriously needed, what they need now from us is to support them unconditionally on the world stage and get out of their way.

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Hamas Attacks: At least 150 Israelis Murdered, 1,100 Injured, 53 Kidnapped

I'm in a state of shock... and rage.

UPDATE, 11:34 AM:

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