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10 numbers that define the 100 days since Oct. 7
(JTA) — For Jews who were not directly ensnared in the violence and terror of Oct. 7, the days that followed were characterized by rapidly changing numbers. The number of people known to be dead shot up, as did the number of rockets fired from Gaza and the number of mobilized Israeli troops. The number of kibbutzes that remained unsecured ticked downward. Reports of antisemitic incidents worldwide began to accumulate.
One hundred days later, some numbers have come into focus as meaningful for the long haul. Here are 10 that help explain what happened on Oct. 7 and in its aftermath.
1,391
Israelis killed since Oct. 7, as of Jan. 10. Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel was a seismic moment in Israeli and Jewish history: Hamas terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, took hostages and wounded thousands — making it the bloodiest day in Israeli history and the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The attackers also committed numerous atrocities and destroyed several communities.
The attack shattered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and launched the war. Israel invaded Gaza, aiming to depose Hamas. So far, more than 185 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the invasion.
136
Hostages still held in Gaza, as of Jan 7. On Oct. 7, Hamas took more than 240 people hostage, hailing from countries worldwide and ranging in age from an infant to an octogenarian. The campaign for their freedom — led by the hostages’ family members — has become a global activist movement. It spans a large-scale flier campaign, rallies and art installations in cities across the world and political advocacy.
Hamas freed more than 100 hostages during a seven-day truce in November. A number have been killed, including at least three unintentionally by the Israeli military. Relatives of the remaining hostages are pushing the Israeli government to negotiate for their release. The current total includes the bodies of hostages who were killed and two Israeli hostages believed to have been held alive in Gaza for years before Oct. 7.
23,357
Palestinians killed since Oct. 7, as of Jan. 10. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza, launched in the days after Oct. 7, has devastated the coastal enclave. The casualty figure, provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, covers both combatants and civilians, including thousands of children. Tens of thousands more have been injured.
The casualty figure — far higher than that of any previous Israel-Hamas conflict — has driven global calls by international bodies and left-wing activists for a ceasefire. Israel has rebuffed those calls and maintains that it makes extensive efforts to safeguard civilian life. It blames Hamas for putting noncombatants in harm’s way.
200,000 + 1.9 million
Israelis and Palestinians, respectively, displaced by the fighting. In addition to the war’s death toll, it has also driven masses of people from their homes. Hamas’ invasion of Israel ravaged the Gaza border region, sending thousands of residents to hotels where they have been living since Oct. 7. Tens of thousands more evacuated the area as it became a war zone, and further tens of thousands evacuated their homes on Israel’s northern border as clashes with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah have ramped up.
Ahead of its invasion Israel ordered the population of the northern half of the Gaza to evacuate to the southern half, and its counteroffensive in the Gaza City area has destroyed a large number of homes. As Israel’s focus has moved south, residents there have also been told to evacuate, with Israel creating routes for safe passage. The vast majority of residents are now displaced.
768,533,361
Dollars raised by the Jewish Federations of North America, as of Jan. 3. Most American Jews have expressed sympathy with Israel in the wake of Oct. 7, and many have conveyed that feeling via their pocketbooks. The outpouring of donor dollars parallels spikes in Jewish giving to Israel during the country’s 1967 and 1973 wars.
JFNA, via its network of local Jewish federations, has raised perhaps the biggest single number, and allocated roughly a third of that money to a range of Israeli nonprofits. An array of synagogues and other organizations have also reported substantial hauls. It’s likely that American Jews have directed more than $1 billion dollars to Israel since Oct. 7.
72
Percentage of American Jews who said antisemitism has increased in their local communities, in a November survey. Alongside the Israel-Hamas war, many American Jews are increasingly concerned about reports of spiking antisemitism since Oct. 7. A recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League tallied 60 antisemitic assaults in that period and hundreds of incidents of vandalism. Anti-Jewish hate crimes have also spiked in New York City.
In the most severe incident, a Jewish man, Paul Kessler, died after being struck on the head at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish students have contended with death threats, while kosher and Jewish restaurants nationwide have been defaced or ransacked.
2
Ivy League presidents who resigned after a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. The now (in)famous hearing, in early December, in which the presidents of three elite universities all declined to say outright that calling for the genocide of Jews would break school rules, led to two of the leaders stepping down. Penn’s Liz Magill resigned after pressure from students, faculty, donors and officials. Harvard’s Claudine Gay followed suit weeks later, bedeviled by a string of plagiarism accusations. MIT’s Sally Kornbluth appears to be hanging on.
In parallel, as concern about campus antisemitism has risen, the Department of Education has opened 45 civil rights investigations since Oct. 7, many concerning antisemitism at universities. “We take these threats and these beliefs of students of being unsafe on campus very seriously, and we’re going to thoroughly investigate them,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told JTA.
19
Percentage of Israelis who want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue in office after the war, as of Dec. 8. Netanyahu, unlike other leaders of Israel’s defense establishment, has not explicitly taken responsibility for Israel’s missteps ahead of Oct. 7. But Israelis are signaling that they will hold him responsible at the ballot box.
His government, which took office only about a year ago, is deeply unpopular. Election surveys show Netanyahu’s Likud party plummeting while centrist parties gain steam. Netanyahu, who is also on trial for corruption, has so far rejected calls to step down.
5
Trips Secretary of State Antony Blinken has taken to Israel since Oct. 7. After Hamas’ invasion, the Biden administration said it was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel. President Joe Biden gave an Oval Office address calling for funding for Israel’s war effort, he visited Israel and has met with families of hostages. The United States has continued to defend the war in international bodies.
But recently, daylight between Biden and Netanyahu has begun to appear. Biden wants the Palestinian Authority to be in charge in Gaza on the day after the war, which Netanyahu opposes. Biden has also called on Netanyahu to disavow his far-right partners’ calls for transfer of civilians from Gaza — something the prime minister did this week.
300,000
West Bank Palestinians whose work permits into Israel have been revoked. Alongside the conflicts in Gaza and Israel’s northern border, violence has spiked in the West Bank. Following Oct. 7, Israel revoked the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian work permits, plunging the territory into economic crisis.
And Israel has taken aim at Hamas cells in the West Bank, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. There have also been reports of settler violence. In December, the Biden administration banned entry to the United States to Israeli settlers and Palestinians who harm “peace, security, or stability in the West Bank.”
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The post 10 numbers that define the 100 days since Oct. 7 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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