It Began with Beheadings—Full Stop

The Jewish people will never again be the same—which is ironic given that the trademark on “Never Again” belongs to them. Jew-hatred is everlasting and prone to repeat performances.

Happening again is a communal curse. The Hebrew tribes of the Old Testament came to realize that the genetic code of the Jewish people foreshadowed a future of violent enemies—and that carrying a spear or sword was probably a good idea.

Jews who have even marginal Zionist affinities are aware that the Nova Music Festival, and the date 10/7, will become this epoch’s Tisha B’Av and Kristallnacht. Even Jews who pump their fists and chant slogans for Black Lives Matter and Queers for Palestine (louder than the Blacks and Queers do!), and the moral narcissists serving on synagogue social action committees, must know that what happened to Israeli civilians on October 7 was barbarism.

Israel’s response in Gaza, and now Lebanon, are war tragedies, however—no different from America’s wars against ISIS and Al Qaeda.

Palestinians hate Jews more than they love themselves. And their longing for martyrdom is truly otherworldly. It is self-annihilation rather than self-determination that largely accounts for the civilian dead of Gaza. When you ignore warnings that your building is next to be bombed, self-preservation dictates moving to a humanitarian corridor. Those who remain have a death wish.

Genocide is what has happened to Jews, and never by them.

And yet, despite the grisly crime scene in southern Israel, the West did not rally around the Jewish state. Yes, there were declarations that Israel had the right to defend itself, but not if it entailed actually killing Muslims. Even before Israel retaliated, it was bombarded by both bombs and calls to surrender.

Harvard University students, and many others at top-tier colleges, blamed Israel for the deserved punishment its women, children, and elderly received. Professors professed that they were “exhilarated” by all that Jewish blood. Most are still imparting their wisdom to deliriously indoctrinated students.

So much for a liberal arts education.

Posters of the hostages were torn down and defaced. What would possess people to do that? The likely, morally twisted explanation: “Jews deserve no sympathy; releasing the hostages is Islamophobic.”

Wait, it gets worse. Despite reams of Go-Pro evidence, the most heinous crimes committed by Hamas were instantly denied by the progressive left and Arab Street.

The ghastliness of those crimes should have caused all human beings to stop in their tracks, recover their senses, and then demand that their nations provide Israel with everything it needs to punish the terrorists and retrieve the hostages.

But that’s not how this past year played out. The crimes of Hamas were ignored; Israel’s response was condemned.

Perhaps it’s only natural that human beings would cast the image of these horrific acts aside. Push it away, refuse to take it in. When the reality of 10/7 was revealed, the crime scene included beheaded and torched babies, along with gangraped and mutilated teenage girls. Breasts severed; machine gun fire lodged in vaginas.

Even the ghosts of the Nazis gasped.

The #MeToo movement had nothing to say about the fate of those girls. “Believe Survivors”? Apparently, not Jewish ones. People who beat their breasts on behalf of Palestinian babies shrugged their shoulders when it came to Jewish ones.

This was more than just crimes against humanity. It was a glorification of the Dark Ages, that time period that Islamists admire so much. And it was as much an attack against Western Civilization as it was a manifestation of antisemitism at its most demonic.

This was more than just crimes against humanity. It was a glorification of the Dark Ages, that time period that Islamists admire so much. And it was as much an attack against Western Civilization as it was a manifestation of antisemitism at its most demonic.

Despite all that had happened on that day a year ago, Israel was denied victim status. Instead, it was vilified as the aggressor. Yet, since 10/7, there have been 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States, a 200% increase from 2023—the highest number the Anti-Defamation League has ever reported. Among them: nearly 2,000 acts of vandalism against Jewish homes and businesses; nearly 2,000 incidents at Jewish institutions; and 81 bomb threats.

Terrorist-worshipping, anti-Zionist rallies and encampments made life miserable, and classes cancellable, for Jewish students. The entrances to synagogues, bridges, railways, Christmas tree lightings and landmarks were blocked by keffiyeh-masked mobs. Any defense of Israel was simply not tolerated.

Unimaginably, it was worse in capitals throughout Europe, Canada and Australia. A worldwide pogrom was taking place a mere 74 years after Auschwitz. Signs that read, “Globalize the Intifada!” were hoisted alongside those demanding that Jews “Go Back to Poland!”

Thanks for the tip, given that 90% of Polish Jewry was murdered in the Holocaust.

Meanwhile, Israel was left to fight a multifront campaign against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran—taking on all terrorists, surrounded from all sides. The West benefitted from the removal of common enemies, but rather than offer gratitude, nations berated Israel to exercise restraint. A lot of words like “disproportionate” and “over the top.” Never, “congratulations” or “well done.”

What led Israel to retaliate in the first place—the precariousness of its existential position; the moral quandary of having to kill terrorists clinging to civilians—would not exonerate the Jewish state.

What the one-year anniversary of 10/7 brutally reminds Jews everywhere is that they are truly hated the world over. When they needed sympathy after 10/7, the world offered none. When Israel called for the release of the hostages, not a single nation made it clear to the Palestinians—and their benefactors and friends in Qatar and Egypt—that the continued captivity of those Israelis would come with severe consequences.

When Israel began to establish deterrence against its Islamist enemies, the world second-guessed its military decision-making. Yes, munitions were sent, but nearly always delayed, or linked with a caveat. Ships were deployed, but they remained mostly anchored. The world watched from a comfortable distance as thousands of drones, rockets and precision-guided missiles were fired at Jewish population centers from four separate countries.

When nations called upon Israel to cease its fire, no similar demand was made of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran. Hamas never retracted its promise that Israel should prepare for many more days like 10/7 in its future.

Yes, some nations helped thwart Iran’s April attack against Israel, and intelligence has been shared. But Israel spent the past year maligned and alone. The Jewish state may have lost fewer lives than Palestinians since 10/7, but there is little doubt whose life the world values more.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Is Israel Fighting a Just War in Gaza?”