“Oct 7 2023”

NAHAL OZ BASE, Israel—It was about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7 when dozens of heavily armed men burst into view on Maya Desiatnik’s video screen. The Israeli soldier, charged with monitoring a stretch of the Gaza frontier, picked up the radio at her side and raised the alarm.

“There is a Turkish knight!” she said, using the Israeli military code word for an incursion into Israeli territory. Palestinian militants were breaching the border.

For months, Desiatnik, now 20 years old, and her colleagues in the observer unit, all of them young women, had warned their superiors repeatedly—and with increasing vehemence—that the Islamist militant group Hamas seemed to be preparing a major attack. Their concerns were dismissed.

When we think of antisemitism, Canada is not the first place that comes to mind. However, the country, known for its cosmopolitan citizenry, beautiful landscapes, and high quality of life, has increasingly emerged as a place in which Jews are fearful.

Adam from Vancouver needs to think twice about attending synagogue for Rosh Hashanah. “Walking around Vancouver, you would think that we live next door to the Gaza Strip. Pro-Hamas protests and bomb threats to Jewish institutions make me feel uncomfortable disclosing I am Jewish and for my own safety.”

We are approaching the one year anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Filmmaker Igal Hecht created the film “The Killing Roads” for you to see for free in its entirety.

Watch it now. Viewer discretion advised. @TKR_moviepic.twitter.com/gVTGiUh32E

— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) October 5, 2024

h/t MP & Patti Jo

Maybe a 4K crowd at its height?

#WATCH: | Massive Protests Are Taking Place World-Wide Including Toronto Marking 365 Days Of G3n03ID3 In Palestine Which Is Now Expanding Into Lebanon pic.twitter.com/jnPzsi9eij

— Habibi6ixtv (@habibi6ixtv) October 5, 2024

This is shameful. These people are calling for the end of the Jewish state and Toronto allows it. Can you imagine calling for the end of "Palestine"? https://t.co/hlgXkWtvEV

— Diane Weber Bederman (@dianebederman) October 5, 2024

They are now starting to march up Yonge Street to the Israeli embassy. The say they want to show Toronto "shock and awe"

This has to stop.#TakeBackCanada pic.twitter.com/GTUerWhUGu

— Jon Fraser (@JonFraserTF) October 5, 2024

Beautiful and massive rally for Palestine in Toronto. Hands off Lebanon and end the genocide in Gaza! pic.twitter.com/ddoiJoU0yS

— Spring Magazine (@springmagca) October 5, 2024

Sunday and Monday may see larger crowds.

During the last four years since the Biden-Harris administration assumed office, the world has been marked by escalating global crises. One of the most significant has been the war against Israel, in which, a year ago, on October 7, 2023, Hamas, a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, launched a brutal attack on Israel. The assault consisted of massacres, rapes, torture, beheadings, burnings-alive, kidnapping and other crimes against humanity.

Possibly emboldened by the perceived weakness of the US, since its surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021, and its constant appeasement of China, Iran, for the first time, took direct military action on April 13, 2024 by launching hundreds of attack drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at Israel.

I always assumed the anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 pogrom in southern Israel would get ugly. Too many in the anti-Israel crowd either don’t believe it happened, or believe the death toll was exaggerated, or think it was a false-flag event. And of course there are some who seem pretty much OK with what actually happened.

I doubt we will see the Hamas loving crowds we did a year ago but I don’t think that means support for Israel’s annihilation has lessened.

Some will have become circumspect fearing real world consequences such as job loss and a few may have renounced their beliefs.

What surprised me last year was the unabashed hatred of the “anti-Zionists”  and also how deep it ran within our institutions. 

Few will consider their support for a Free Palestine a citizenship test.

They believe themselves the best of humanity.

Speak of the Devil – Looks like London is having a large turnout.

One year on from the 7 October Hamas attacks, tough questions are still being asked within Israel about the deadliest day in its history, when the country’s powerful army was caught off guard and swiftly overwhelmed.

The BBC has heard accounts given to families of what happened at one military base that guarded the border with Gaza.

The Nahal Oz base was overrun by Hamas gunmen on the morning of 7 October and more than 60 Israeli soldiers are reported to have been killed – with others taken hostage.

Arrests have been made as tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in central London ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel.

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, the Metropolitan Police said, as part of a “significant” policing operation in place across the capital in response to planned protest and memorial events.

The #Israel counter-protest has started playing air raid sirens as the #Palestine protesters move past Bush House in London. The police have now moved to stop #Palestine protesters from approaching the #Israeli counter-protest from the rear. pic.twitter.com/zAeoRSHnnl

— Matt Capon (@MattLCapon) October 5, 2024

It has now been a year since Hamas attacked Israel, took hostages, and murdered around 1200, not only Israelis, but also foreign nationals, including eight Canadians. The attack happened thousands of kilometres from where I was teaching, at McGill and Concordia universities, but the effects on campus were shocking and immediate. And I don’t see any sign that universities are prepared for its anniversary, unless you call prepared asking professors to move their classes online, and insisting it has nothing to do with safety.

Police in Toronto and York Region plan on having an increased presence this weekend to mark the one-year anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. It is a sad statement on the country that police feel the need to increase patrols ahead of the anniversary of a terrorist attack.

The TPS has become a little less Hamas friendly than they were a year ago.

I do suspect they are instructed to go easy on the Mohammedans so as to avoid violence.

As we began our Zoom call, John Spencer made a statement that should resonate globally. “Everything that the world has heard about Gaza has actually been counterfactual. It has been wrong. What Israel has done to protect civilians, and despite what Hamas has wanted, has been an amazing achievement that I didn’t even, personally as an urban warfare scholar, think was possible.”

Maj. John Spencer speaks from extensive experience. After a long combat career in the U.S. Army, including two tours in Iraq as both soldier and commander, he emerged as one of the world’s foremost experts in urban warfare. Many consider him the top authority in the field.