Today marks one year since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel, the deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil.
Broadcast on:
07 Oct 2024
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People carry flags as members of the Jewish community gather at a park in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, as mourners marked the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)(Rick Rycroft/AP / AP)
Today marks one year since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel, the deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil, taking 1,200 lives.
Since then Israel has responded by declaring war against Hamas. In the aftermath of the growing conflict, Gaza has been left in a humanitarian crisis, and thousands more have been killed.
Shockwaves of the war have been felt across the nation, and according to the Anti-Defamation League, there have been more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States since the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, making it the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year since the ADL started tracking in 1979.
American Jewish Committee regional director for the region that include Idaho Regina Sassoon Friedland joined Idaho Matters to talk more.
(upbeat music) From the studios of Boise State Public Radio News, I'm Gemma Gaudet. This is Idaho Matters. Today marks one year since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel. The deadliest attack ever on Israeli soil, killing 1,200 Israelis just that day. And since then, Israel responded by declaring war against Hamas. And as thousands more people have been killed, there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including a collapse in the healthcare system, as well as food shortages, clean water, and medicine. And according to the Anti-Defamation League, there have been more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States alone since the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, making it the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single year since the ADL started tracking back in 1979. American Jewish Committee Regional Director Regina Sassoon Friedland is joining us today to talk more about this past year. Regina, thank you for taking time today to talk with us. - Thank you for giving me the opportunity to join you. - Regina, I wanna go back to one year ago today. Can you talk to us about your reaction when you found out what had happened in Israel? - It was almost catatonic, I would say, at the beginning, a friend of my, one of my younger sons was over and we were finishing Shabbat dinner, Friday night dinner, still at the table, 'cause Israel is 10 hours ahead of Seattle. And my son's friend was out of the table, kept coming back, and he said there's something, there's something going on that I keep getting alerts on my phone, and it doesn't, it seems really out of the ordinary, they're very excessive. And the next thing he showed us was a photo of senior citizens waiting at a bus stop. And then there was another image right after where you see them all slain. They're just murdered on the ground, all of these seniors. And I think I just knew at that point something, this was not just, not that any terror attack should be normalized, but this was something that seemed totally in another realm. And we moved on to looking at more and more graphic images, videos, still photos, testimonies. And I just, I have to say that it's been a year, but for where I stand, and I think a great deal, probably the bulk of Jews are feeling, it's still going on. I mean, we're still, it's not over yet. We still have 101 hostages remaining captive in Gaza. Some of those, we don't know exactly how many, we know many of them are not alive anymore, and they're just keeping the bodies hostage. So this is really an ongoing assault. And it feels, I'm not living in Israel, I didn't directly lose my first line relatives. But we do, I think it would be very hard to find someone that hasn't been impacted by knowing someone who was murdered in the most barbaric fashion or impacted in some way by the events of 10/7 and as they continue right now. - You know, there are so many perceptions around this conflict. Can you try and break down these perceptions versus the actual reality of the Israel Hamas war? - Yes, I mean, I think this is a genocidal terror war that was launched by one of the proxies of the Iranian regime, Hamas to the south. We can talk about Hezbollah to the North later and also missiles that have come in from the Houthis. All three of those terror organizations are Iranian proxies. And the impact, there are so many narratives out there that are just, couldn't be further from the truth. This was a very precise premeditated war. I mean, to the point where you had terrorists were carrying maps of every kibbutz and every village and they were so detailed as, you know, as a divorced mother with two kids. This family has two dogs, a cat. This is an elderly couple. This one is handicapped. It was so detailed and they knew exactly what they were doing to target civilians. As well as, you know, that is on the kibbutz team and then you also have what happened at the Nova Music Festival on the grounds of kibbutz regime, also in the south where close to 400 people were murdered. And when I, any act of murder is awful, but the acts of barbarism were unbelievable from the weaponized barbaric sexual violence back, also at the, with many that were killed at the kibbutz team, there are not only testimonies, but we have video footage from closed caption cameras and we have a lot from the GoPro cameras that were used by Hamas terrorists themselves who were very proud to show what they were doing. Of murder in the way that would inflict the most trauma to those involved. You had parents that were murdered in front of their children, children that were murdered in front of their parents, you know, cutting fingers and limbs off at a time where parents have to watch that happening to kids. I mean, these, these acts were just, I mean, they were so viciously sadistic and very well planned. And I think that the world, many in the world have forgotten what started this and there are all these calls for a ceasefire. There was a ceasefire in place for over two years that Hamas broke the morning of October 7th. And I think we need to remember that. Another, another misconception that keeps getting thrown in is about the starvation in Gaza and the suffering that's going on there. Now, I am not denying that there's suffering or there might be starvation in Gaza. I think if you check the facts, there are trucks and trucks of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza daily from Israel. And one needs to check what is happening because of that humanitarian aid. All the information that most of, when you quote any kind of ministry from Hamas, the Hamas Ministry of Health or any of the other ministries, I mean, the, I'm sorry, the Gaza Ministry of Health, that is all Hamas, Hamas controls every operation, every step of Gaza. And they have an interest in bumping up numbers, both for civilian casualties and the suffering of their people. This is why they store munitions in hospitals, under schools, in places where you have a lot of civilians because they are not interested in saving lives and the value of human life. They're interested in their cause and furthering their ideology that includes the, not only the eradication of the state of Israel, but Jews everywhere they are in the world, as well as Western culture. And I think that we need to delve a little deeper into the realities of what is happening on the ground in Gaza, who was in control. Are these numbers accurate when they're just coming from Hamas statistics as just a starting point? - So with that said, I do wanna talk a little bit about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza because I think sometimes it is difficult to recognize and remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization. That does not mean that every single person in Gaza is part of Hamas. And the United Nations Children and Armed Conflict Reports show that the number of Palestinian children killed by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank. And it did report that over the last year, more than five times more children were killed in Gaza and we're talking, and this is according to the United Nations statistics, 11,000 children, then in its entirety between 2005 and 2022. So with that said, is there a way to justify Israel's right to defend itself? But at the same time, allowing for Palestinians who are also caught in this conflict to have dignity, to have self-determination. - I think that the civilian deaths are tragic, whether they're children, women, any innocent person who is dying in a conflict is a tragedy. One, I don't know how accurate those numbers are, but there definitely have been, there are, undisputably, there have been a lot of civilian casualties. I think that we need to ask the question of why is this happening? This all could stop. There could be a ceasefire right now if Hamas would release the hostages and stop this whole conflict that they started. It's very unfortunate that they are putting children and innocent civilians in harm's way. I think that there's no way to get around that war is a very ugly, brutal, and difficult thing. And there's no way we can't sugarcoat it. It's horrible. But Israel cannot just sit, if there's a ceasefire today and Hamas remains in control and the hostages remain captive, what does that look like for Israel? It's just, I think another mistake we make is Hamas officials and other, they are a terror organization, like you said, a designated terror organization, not just by the United States, but by multiple countries in this world. And we need to place some blame there. And this isn't just to go back and forth on a blame game. I mean, this is a factual thing. They can stop this right now. If Israel just pulls away, they have said again and again, and I think you should take what they're saying at face value, that they want to do October 7th over and over again. It's not going to stop. We have to get the Gazans need to be free from Hamas for them to live a life with peace. We need to not have them under the rule of Hamas and have Hamas control everything they're doing. I saw a story on September 27th about a woman who's the director of an organization called, I think it's the Heal Palestine Association that deals with medical support and humanitarian aid in Gaza. I think her name is Islam Hijazi and she was murdered by Hamas because she would not transfer the humanitarian donations that she received to give out to those in need to Hamas. And this is what happens to people that stand up against them. They're tortured, maimed, or in most cases, murdered. And I would hope that the media would bring more attention to people in Gaza that are trying to do the right thing and really take care of their people and are paying with the biggest consequence of being murdered when they don't fall in line with what Hamas wants. I think we need to really focus on that when we talk about a humanitarian crisis. - And with the understanding that as you said, Hamas is a terrorist organization. - Exactly. - And exactly. - And Gazans are under this rule, right? So there are so many layers to this. And then on top of this, as I mentioned at the beginning of our conversation, this new statistic that came out this morning from the Anti-Defamation League, 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents in just one year in the United States. For those of us who are not Jewish, what do we need to understand about this and about how this impacts all of us? - It's not, I mean, it might start with the Jews and with acts of anti-Semitism, but it is not going to stop there. This is, I hope your listeners can realize that this is actually a war on Western culture. Their frontline targets might be to eradicate the state of Israel and the Jewish people, but they want to eradicate Western culture altogether. And if you don't fall in line with their ideology, their answer is to eradicate it. And they state that plainly. I recommend that people read the Hamas Charter. It's all there, it's very clear. I'm not giving you, this isn't my subjective view, this is their charter. And the impacts across this country, I think what's been, I don't even know if I can call it surprise. We've been swirling in this prior to October 7th, but October 7th just amped it up to an incredible degree. But there has, unfortunately, there is almost a social acceptance of acts of anti-Semitism that are going on. And you just gave some pretty alarming statistics, but you wonder if that was happening to any other group of others in this country, there would be such an outrage. The mainstream media would be blasting reports of it at a constant. And that's really not happening. Most of the coverage that we see is not coming from mainstream news outlets. A lot of what we're seeing from, I'm putting that in quotes, of the mainstream news outlets is more on the plight of the Gazans and the humanitarian crisis there. And again, I'm not denying there is a plight of the Gazans, but I think we need to look into what that means. When allegations come up again and again, and I've been to countless rallies where there are calls where Israel is committing genocide against the people in Gaza, the population in Gaza has been toppled. And that's not a genocide. That is not a genocide. We also keep seeing the, you know, they want Israel out, Israel's an occupying force there. Israel has not been in Gaza at all since 2005, not with any military installations, not with any Jewish settlements. There was a complete disengagement in 2005. And it seems that a lot of people, most people are not aware of that. - Regina, I want to thank you so very much for taking time to talk with us today. I know this is such a solemn day and I do appreciate your time and your perspective. So thank you so much. - Thank you. - We've been speaking with Regina Sassoon Friedland. She is the American Jewish Committee Regional Director for the region that includes Idaho, speaking about what happened one year ago today and where we are as of today with the Israel Hamas war. Thanks so much for listening to Idaho Matters. Boise State Public Radio and Idaho Matters are members of the NPR Network. It's an independent coalition of public media podcasters. You can find more shows in the network wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jamika Det. We'll see you tomorrow. - The candidates for November are set. - I know Donald Trump's tight. - Between now and election day. - We are not going back. A campaign season unfolding faster. - Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion. - Then any in recent history. - Make America great again. - Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast.
