“Oct 7 2023”

On his recent visit to Israel, President Joe Biden insisted that most Palestinians oppose Hamas’s barbaric efforts against the Jewish state. At the same time, back in Washington, D.C., a mob of 300 broke into the Capitol. While the intruders resembled people you might see frequenting your local organic food co-op, they grabbed headlines because they described themselves as Jews protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, wearing shirts proclaiming, “Not In Our Name.”

In the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, fliers depicting the hostages have become ubiquitous. But in cities and on college campuses across the globe, anti-Israel protesters have removed them.

“KIDNAPPED,” the posters say, in big block letters above pictures of people taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, urgent reminders of the men, women and children still being held hostage in Gaza.

But on college campuses and in cities around the world in recent weeks, people have been caught tearing them down.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” a man says in a video posted on social media as he watches two young people at the University of Southern California shove wadded-up posters into the trash.

FOR the first time in my adult life I am ashamed of my country.

This past weekend I was inundated with messages from friends abroad asking if it was any longer safe to come to London.

Last week, with 120 votes in favor, 15 against and 45 abstentions, the United Nations General Assembly passed a shameful resolution calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors in Gaza — without condemning the crimes of Hamas. While four European countries voted against and fifteen abstained (including Germany), France approved a UN General Assembly resolution that makes not even mention of Hamas’s crimes. At the recent European Summit in Brussels, the heads of state and government did not make the call for “humanitarian pauses” conditional on the release of the Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza by Hamas.

Wolf Blitzer tried to shame Israel on Tuesday’s CNN News Central for a strike that took out a top Hamas commander because he was hiding at a refugee camp. Thankfully, retired Major General Dana Pittard would eventually remind him that any civilian casualties that resulted from the strike would be Hamas’s fault.

“Israel is a country that has no place in our land,” Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told the Middle East’s LBC International news network on Tuesday. “We must remove that country.”

“It constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished.” Hamad added, completely unnecessarily after the attacks on Israeli civilians we all witnessed on the weekend of October 7, “We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.”

Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on Oct 7 has understandably been described as Israel’s ‘9/11’ moment.

Leaving more than 1,400 people dead, it was in fact many times worse than al-Qaeda’s terror attacks in the United States two decades ago. In the wake of those attacks in 2001, fuelled by a desire to destroy terrorist threats and assert strength on the international stage, the US invaded Afghanistan and later Iraq.

While those wars raged, eventually leaving at least 400,000 dead, the terrorism threat metastasised, growing in scale, scope and sophistication across the globe.

Police in New York have arrested a Cornell University student who is accused of posting violent threats to Jewish classmates over the weekend.

In a series of posts to a website called Greekrank, a user with the name “hamas” threatened to shoot Jewish students at the prestigious university.

Patrick Dai, 21, is in his third year at the university.

Police say he made threats to bring a gun to campus and rape Jewish women and “behead any Jewish babies”.

Every target in Gaza struck by Israeli jets has been assessed in advance to minimise civilian deaths, the chief of staff of the air force has said in its highest-level defence of the scale of Palestinian casualties.

Brigadier General Eyal Greenbaum said every strike went through 11 or 12 stages of approval before it was authorised. He insisted that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were closely following rules of war that demand the rate of civilian deaths be proportional to the importance of the military target being struck.

Yesterday another activist shouted ‘free Palestine’ before emptying a box full of rodents into Perry Barr McDonald’s, also in Birmingham. And the day before, a different McDonald’s was targeted by the mice-hurling yobs in an incident which saw horrified diners flee the restaurant.

It comes after a slew of vile mice attacks by pro-Palestinian activists who have accused McDonald’s of supporting Israel’s war against Hamas, the band of terrorists who slaughtered more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and kidnapped more than 220 more on October 7.

The attacks follow calls to boycott Starbucks and McDonald’s following claims they have backed Israel amid the crisis. Last month, Starbucks sued its union, Starbucks Workers United, after the labour organisation posted a since-deleted message on X expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

More Palestine and Hamas supporting scum throw mice into McDonalds in Small Heath, Birmingham. With extra cruelty they are thrown up in the air.

They oppose McDonalds' links with Israel. pic.twitter.com/stPhs1JNln

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) November 1, 2023

Becoming a thing …

This is #Erdogan's #Turkey & Turks are becoming more radicalized everyday! Today, this Islamist attacked a McDonnald's Branch in #Mersin while was chanting "Allahu Akbar". They believe all famous American brands such as McDonnalds, Starbucks, Pepsi, Coca Cola belong to #Israel! pic.twitter.com/MjsyqK7QZ5

— Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) October 28, 2023

Ryan Albom, 22, was standing just outside the student centre of York University’s Keele St. campus, watching a pro Palestinian rally last Monday when one of his friends pulled out an Israeli flag — and held it up.

At first, no one seemed to notice. Or care, says Albom, a student president of Hillel York, the Jewish students union. But as the rally drew to a close and the crowd disbursed and thinned, one of the protesters turned around, he said, and called Albom and his friend “terrorists.”

“We just stood there,” Albom said. “It was scary and we just didn’t feel comfortable saying anything.”

A man walks down Bethnal Green Road E2, London, commenting on the road festooned with Palestinian flags. His most controversial comment is, "Let them come into the country & this is the shite they come up with."

He posted the clip to Facebook & the @metpoliceuk arrested him. pic.twitter.com/f0dHdM6vs3

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) November 1, 2023