"We Are All Suffering"

"I love you and miss you..." [final words of 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, one of six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza].  Neither she, nor the other five hostages that were murdered by Hamas operatives just prior to the IDF special forces entering a tunnel in Rafah with the intention of freeing them, will ever send another message to their grieving families. Their deaths resulted in a message to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that any further attempts to free Israelis from their ravaging captivity will result in further murders.

Hamas released a video of slain hostage Eden Yerushalmi before her death, giving a message directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (credit: Screenshot/Hamas Telegram)

And the spillover from this carnage, this playing with peoples' fears and anguished hopes of deliverance from hell-on-earth is a raging population that disowns their government committed to the total annihilation of the psychotic evil force that threatens its survival and that of its Jewish population, demanding that the government cease its aspirational destruction of the death-cult that has slaughtered far too many Jews, in favour of suspending the response to Hamas's October 7 atrocities choosing instead to bring the remaining hostages back home to Israel.

A suspension that would meet the Hamas terms of disengagement to allow the terrorist group's pause to refresh; a time when it would rearm, regroup, retain a new influx of eager recruits anxious to prove their capacity to rape, maim, murder en masse in the name of courageous 'resistance' to a military tasked to protect its vulnerable population and secure the state against further deadly intrusions by terrorist mobs of psychopaths steeped in the mad heat of delivering death.

Eden Yerushalmi was at the Nova music festival not far from the Gaza border during the October 7 massacre. As chaos and slaughter broke out, she hid among the bodies of her dead friends, then sought to secure herself in nearby shrubbery. While there she communicated by cellphone with her sister: "Shani, they caught me"; the last words she spoke as she was captured and taken to Gaza, to a dread fate of vicious torture, starvation, fear and human deprivation, her freedom taken, her future uncertain.

 

After almost a year in captivity under inhumane conditions, she was freed from her nightmare. Found shot in the back of the head, in a tunnel under Rafah. Killed by Hamas operatives, with the anticipated near approach of Israeli forces. Shot at close range -- she and the five other young Israelis, all taken hostage on October 7, all from the Nova music festival site --several days before an autopsy revealed their conditions of death.

"We prayed. We wanted to believe this was not true."

"This is not how I imagined your end. I wanted you back alive."

"I apologize that we were not able to save you."

Eden Yerushalmi's mother, at her daughter's funeral

Hamas made videos for all of the six Israeli hostages they murdered. They tutored the hostages in delivering messages for their families. All the while planning to kill them, and through the videos to extract the ultimate pain and grief from bereaved families, and from the horrified Israeli population at large. In effect, telling the Israeli government that there is no hope for appealing to the humanity in people without any.

Haunting video posted on Telegram on Monday shows the six doomed Israeli hostages speaking before their murders. X

 

'Violent Rhetoric From Extremist Actors'

"While the long-term impacts of the current crisis cannot be easily predicted, it is clear that this conflict has raised tensions within our society."

"Violent rhetoric from extremist actors has increased since the attack by Hamas and, as the conflict continues to unfold, it is possible that these events could impact certain individuals' intent to mobilize to violence." 

"Activists are receiving backlash, being labelled as antisemitic, and facing various consequences for shouting chants such as, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' as well as calling for 'intifada'."

"As an overwhelming majority of Jews identify as Zionists and believe in the need for a Jewish state ... calls for attacks against Zionists should be seen as calls for attacks against Jews."

Eric Balsam, spokesman, Canadian Security Intelligence Service

"The 2023 statistics make it abundantly clear when there is unrest in Israel, Jewish Canadians suffer unduly."

"The levels of antisemitism were already on the rise prior to the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict."

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy, B'nai Brith Canada

The pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill's lower field has grown slightly in size as seen on Saturday, May 4, 2024. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette

"Violent rhetoric" from "extremist actors" have been identified by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as a potential lead-up to societal violence, particularly targeting Jewish Canadians. Such violence has already occurred, with criminal acts of arson at synagogues, Jewish parochial schools and Jewish community centres, along with vandalism perpetrated on Jewish-owned businesses. Moreover, the 'pro-Palestinian' protest groups have interfered with Jews attending synagogues, shouting invectives at Canadian Jews, creating an environment of hostility leading to fear and isolation.

CSIS has issued a statement at a time when newly released documents point out discussions among the spy agency, federal Public Safety Department and Muslim and Jewish leaders have taken place relating to an increase in hate crimes in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel, in which Hamas operatives flooded towns and villages for the singular purpose of mayhem and murder, which they themselves documented on video of the mutilation, rape and murder of Israeli girls and women, along with the slaughter of 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis.

CSIS monitors and identifies threats within and to Canada and Canadian society for the purpose of alerting government. It seems clear from the months following those exchanges by CSIS with the groups involved, that government has failed to take heed of the toxic environment emanating from Muslim-Canadians in their expressive targeting of Canadian-Jews, while at the same time heroizing Hamas and their terrorist agenda.

One released document recounts that CSIS representatives "assured all participants that they will continue to monitor threats and to look for evidence of attacks being planned", while remaining in touch with leaders from both Muslim and Jewish communities to be briefed on their concerns. CSIS Director David Vigneault had meetings personally with federal envoys appointed to 'combat antisemitism and Islamophobia'. Which is strange, given how matters have unfolded over the past seven months where Jews are under siege by Muslims in Canada.

 

Ottawa police’s hate crime unit is investigating allegations of hate speech at a pro-Palestinian rally on Parliament Hill over the weekend, where some participants were heard chanting in support of the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

 

In the course of these meetings, federal officials heard out concerns expressed by Muslim and Arab leaders on public rhetoric surrounding the conflict; what one attendee noted, remarking on 'silence' from the federal government on  how the Middle East situation would affect the safety of Palestinians and other Muslims living in Canada. Which amounts to typical Palestinian portrayals of themselves as perpetual victims, while in reality they are responsible for victimizing Jews by organizing these repeated protests that lionize Hamas and denigrate Israel.

The 'intifada' spoken of so religiously in these protests have association with periods of conflict intensity in the Israel-Palestine standoff, which precipitated attacks by Palestinian terrorist groups and individuals on public venues within Israel all of which which resulted in predictable murderous bloodshed. Leaders in the Jewish community point to examples of protesters that glorify the October 7 Hamas attack against southern Israeli towns and villages at demonstrations in cities across Canada.

Federal officials frequently were informed by Jewish leaders of the need for police to take effective action to put a halt to "the hateful rhetoric expressed at rallies", specifically pointing out the pejorative use of the word "Zionist". The RCMP, according to the documents was providing a "tool kit" explaining the historical background of the conflict to assist officers to "identify signs of overt and covert hate that may be seen at protests". Local police have been tasked with paying attention to Jewish-owned business, schools, synagogues and community centres.

As well, from the documents it was indicated that Public Safety Canada would be communicating with universities "to discuss the dampening of rising tensions and antisemitism on campuses". Information was being relayed to schools "on the current threat environment" linked to anti-Israel protesters joined by outside organizers placing encampments at McGill University in Montreal, University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto, where school administrators claim hate would not be tolerated, warning students of punishment, running afoul of  university policy. 

 

Words, thus far, lacking action.

The protest began at U of T last week. (Paul Smith/CBC)

"First We Fight, Then We Investigate" Israel Defense Forces

"There clearly were warnings and indications that should have been picked up."

"Or maybe they were picked up, but they didn't spark necessary preparations to prevent these horrific terrorist acts from happening."

Bradley Bowman, senior director, Center on Military and Political Power, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Washington

"We knew about the drones, we knew about booby traps, we knew about cyberattacks and the marine forces."

"The surprise was the coordination between all these systems."

Michael Milshtein, retired Israeli colonel, military intelligence

"I just was impressed with Hamas's ability to use basics and fundamentals to be able to penetrate the wall."

"They seemed to be able to find those weak spots and penetrate quickly and then exploit that breach."

U.S. army Lt.Col. Stephen Danner, combat engineer, retired

This image from video posted to social media by Hamas on Sept. 12, 2023 shows a live-fire exercise dubbed operation “Strong Pillar” outside Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. (Hamas via AP)

 

On September 12 a two-minute propaganda video was posted by Hamas to social media, showing fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of Israel's high-tech "Iron Wall". The video then shows Hamas terrorist fighters sweeping through on pickup trucks and finally moving stealthily building by building through the streets of a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli village while firing automatic weapons at paper targets of human silhouettes. A strategy rehearsed, documented and flaunted in full view of any interested enough to view it. 

The live-fire exercise showed fighters wearing body armour and combat fatigues with an operation including destruction of mock-upped concrete towers on the wall along with a communications antenna. Deadly practise for a deadly attack that was carried out on October 7-8 in Israel itself. Practise, it is said, makes perfect, and the deadly invasion was a perfect example of a rehearsal giving skills and confidence for a planned operation through scene-by-scene strategic orchestration.

Israel's security and intelligence services had no idea of an enactment rehearsal being carried forward to the gruesome, lethal reality of last weekend. Hamas, it seems, felt sufficiently emboldened to take some precautions not to be detected, but hubris led to their exultantly publishing a pre-operation preparation video. Which, if Israeli intelligence picked it up, which would have been easy enough to do, wasn't taken seriously. There were, in fact, it would appear, dozens of similar videos released by Hamas in the space of the last year, through Telegram.

The Associated Press matched the mocked-up town location to an area of desert outside Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town on the Gaza Strip's southern coast. "Horesh Yaron" read a large sign printed in Hebrew and Arabic at the town's entrance gate. It was, in fact, the name of an Israeli settlement in what the legacy press persists in naming the Palestinian West Bank. Which led one intelligence expert to come to the conclusion that this was a deliberate effort to persuade Israeli intelligence that a Hamas raid would be planned for the West Bank, not Israel itself.

 

Hamas terrorist fighters are shown storming a mock-up Israeli military base complete with full-size model of a tank with an Israeli flag on its turret, in a separate video posted to Telegram last year. The modus operandi is similar to that of the Israel town's rehearsal video; terrorists moving through cinder-block buildings grappling with and overwhelming others acting as Israeli soldiers before taking them hostage.

 

The barrier in question, considered to be so high-tech as to be impregnable, is a "smart fence", six-metres in height, cameras able to 'see' in the dark, razor wire and seismic sensors able to detect tunnel digging over 200 feet below. Guard posts that were formerly manned were replaced with concrete towers topped with remote-controlled machine guns.

Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepts rockets launched from Gaza City on May 10, 2023. (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

"In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts. At the end of the day, as I see it, there will be a fence like this one surrounding Israel in its entirety", stated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the high-tech fence was being contemplated before its installation. He was absolutely correct that Israel needed protection from 'wild beasts' but the monstrous Hamas beasts planned well and orchestrated even better to connive and prosecute a horrendous butchery of human life beyond anyone's wildest nightmares.

 

The invaders used explosive charges to explode areas of the wall, then followed up with bulldozers to flatten the breaches so their colleagues could stream through on motorcycles and pickup trucks, to be followed by civilian Palestinian men looking for action and loot. Some of the deathly atrocities can be attributed to the enthusiasm of Palestinian wannabes alongside the terrorists themselves. Seems the common stock-in-trade among Palestinians. 

Palestinians from the Gaza Strip enter Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7, 2023 amid a massive assault by the Hamas terror group. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)

Cameras and communications gear bombarded by commercial off-the-shelf drones adapted with hand grenades and mortar shells, copying strategic moves from Ukraine's battlefields. The roboguns were targeted by snipers hitting their exposed ammunition boxes which exploded. Armed with assault rifles, terrorists sailed over the broken defences slung under paragliders. Rockets, crude, but improved to the point of being able to strike distances such as reaching Tel Aviv also came into play.

 

One hole at the heavily fortified Erez border crossing was over 70 metres wide. As the Hamas terrorists streamed through by their hundreds, a single Israeli battle tank rushed to the attack site, was attacked and destroyed in an eruption of fire. Radio towers and radar sites were disabled by Hamas, so Israeli commanders were kept in the dark about the extent of the unprecedented attack. 

Palestinian terrorists take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (SAID KHATIB / AFP)

A nearby army base was struck and an intense firefight ensued with Israeli troops before the post was overrun, dozens of Israeli soldiers killed. At that point the estimated thousand terrorists fanned out across southern Israel's countryside to attack kibbutzim, towns and villages and a music festival. During the invasion, a search of the bodies of some of the dead Hamas terrorists revealed detailed maps in their possession, showing planned zones and routes of attack. 

 

Four days later Israeli authorities announced that bodies of about 1,500 Hamas terror fighters had been recovered. A Beirut-based senior Hamas official revealed that the group had received supplies, financial support, military expertise and training from its allies, including Iran and Hezbollah, insisting the recent operation breaching Israel's border defences was attributable to Hamas's self-agency, and it alone knew of the timing of the event, it alone wanted to take credit for disabling the defences of Israel's border. 

 

And it alone wishes to take credit for slaughtering defenceless families in their homes, for raping and mutilating Jewish women before killing them, for murdering children along with their parents, for abducting elderly women, young girls and infants. Ample evidence has been found of grisly, brutal murders, including beheadings, incinerations, and utterly devastating loss of human life. Women taken as sex slaves paraded naked in Gaza streets to the acclaim of their residents.

 

An entire society befouled by the devastatingly inhuman exploits of the world's latest iteration of an Islamofascist ideology of death and destruction. One, moreover, so inured to shame at its raw brutality that it takes pride in taking videoed records of the atrocities it commits, flaunts them on social media with the certain knowledge that while they may inspire loathing by civilized members of society, they will elicit admiration and joy from their many supporters who have infiltrated the world of the West.                      

"The fence, no matter how many sensors ... no matter how deep the underground obstacles go, at the end of the day, its effectively a metal fence."

"Explosives, bulldozers can eventually get through it."

"What was remarkable was Hamas's capability to keep all the preparations under wraps."

Victor Tricaud, senior analyst, Control Risks consulting firm, London