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Expert on Oct. 7 Terrorist Attack Notes the One Positive Outcome of the Hamas Massacre
Some of the thousands of people who gathered in New York City’s Central Park on Oct. 6, 2024, to mark the one year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack and to demand the return of the hostages. Photo: Hostages and Families Forum.
Warning: The following news story contains some details of the atrocities committed during Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel that readers may find upsetting.
An author, journalist, and former Israeli government spokesperson who extensively investigated the deadly Hamas terrorist attack that took place on Oct. 7 of last year told The Algemeiner that he believes the only “positive” outcome of the massacre across southern Israel is that it made Jews worldwide and the nation of Israel more united.
“I’m not sure if people who don’t live in Israel realize how divided the people of Israel were before Oct. 7,” said Alon Penzel, referring to a time when mass anti-government protests were rampant across Israel for several months. “It felt like we were unable to live together having very different ideological thoughts … And right after Oct. 7, and since Oct. 7, there are no people in the world who are more united than the Jewish and Israeli people.”
“I don’t think there has been any other nation in history that has come together so much to volunteer and help its brothers and sisters,” he added. “And for me, I see [Hamas] have not managed to eliminate and exterminate the Jewish spirit, as they tried to do on Oct. 7 … We are overcoming. We are prevailing … It was a national tragedy, but for each and every one of us — either an Israeli citizen or a Jewish person around the world — it felt like an individual tragedy; a personal tragedy. These faces have become our brothers and sisters.”
The grandson of a Holocaust survivor, Penzel formerly served as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson for the foreign press in the Unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). His friend, schoolmate and Kiryat Bialik neighbor Matan Angrest, was abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7 and is one of the 101 hostages still held captive in the Gaza Strip a year later.
In June, Penzel published the book “Testimonies Without Boundaries: Israel: October 7th 2023,” which is an uncensored, unfiltered, and verified collection of first-hand testimonies regarding the atrocities that happened last Oct. 7. Penzel spoke to survivors of the attack – including children and elderly, and women and men who faced sexual abuse – volunteers of the Israeli emergency response organization ZAKA, the head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, survivors of the Nova music festival, and many others. The book is dedicated to the victims of Oct. 7 and calls for the immediate release of the remaining hostages taken captive that day.
Among the graphic and difficult-to-read testimonies included in the book, rescue and recovery forces talked to Penzel about finding a completely naked couple tied to a mattress with a metal wire that was inserted into their stomachs. Penzel also documented accounts about children who were murdered using knives and hammers, and civilians who were crucified. “I had to ask difficult, sometimes insensitive questions to get to the bottom of what happened,” Penzel told The Algemeiner. “The conversations might have been challenging, and those interactions are described very genuinely in the book.”
The 50-60 testimonies in the book have all been completely verified by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, as well as women’s organizations that were assigned on behalf of Israel to investigate sexual abuse that took place on Oct. 7. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also distributed the book worldwide to embassies and world leaders.
Penzel told The Algemeiner that the main purpose of his book is to commemorate the testimonies, the families of the victims, the heroes and the survivors of Oct. 7. “These testimonies need to be out, as challenging as they are, and the book is challenging to read, there is no question,” he said. “But if we say ‘this is too hard for us [to read],’ what would those who went through the atrocities say?”
“This is our duty, for the families of the victims and the victims themselves, to make sure that what happened to them is not forgotten and denied,” he added. “I felt the duty to commemorate the atrocities that occurred.”
The author also included only raw, unedited testimonies in his book because he anticipated global denial about the Hamas terrorist attack. “It’s exactly what we experienced with the Holocaust — a worldwide denial,” he said. “And I believe the only way to combat it is with the uncensored, unfiltered testimonies.”
“The purpose from the very beginning was to fight the worldwide denial that I foresaw that we would face very quickly, and unfortunately we are,” he noted. “If people are trying to contradict and refute what we are saying about the atrocities that occurred to us, what’s going to happen 50 years from now if we don’t have all the testimonies, and proofs, and evidence, and the very clear elaborate and specific details of what happened? How are we going to be able to commemorate those brothers and sisters of ours? I think the families of the victims also want the world to know for generations to come what happened to their loved ones.”
Reflecting one year later on the atrocities that took place on Oct. 7, 2023, Penzel said that while Hamas-led terrorists carried out the deadliest attack against the Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust, they were not able to break the Jewish spirit.
“I feel that although [the terrorists] did manage to infiltrate Israel and murder us and take many of us hostage, the fact that we are prevailing with our spirit is what matters,” he said. “The fact that we able to commemorate our loved ones means that we are prevailing and that we are trying to overcome, while remembering our brothers and sisters who were butchered and slaughtered on Oct. 7.”
Penzel also noted that the terrorist attack on Oct. 7 helped Israeli citizens understand “that unity is more important than any political disagreement.”
“It’s proven. We have come together. We have assisted each other,” he said. “People from all around the world; Jews from all around the world have come to Israel to volunteer. Israelis are volunteering, helping each other, no matter from where they are on the political map, no matter where they have come from ideologically.”
“Obviously I wish [Oct. 7] never happened, but it gave us a wake up call of how important unity is among the people of Israel.”
The post Expert on Oct. 7 Terrorist Attack Notes the One Positive Outcome of the Hamas Massacre first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has denounced the latest nuclear proposal from the United States as “unprofessional and untechnical,” reaffirming the country’s right to enrich uranium and announcing plans to present a counteroffer in the coming days.
“After receiving the American proposal regarding the Iranian nuclear program, we are now preparing a counteroffer,” Ali Shamkhnai, political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an interview on Wednesday.
Shamkhani criticized the White House draft proposal as “not well thought out,” emphasizing its alleged failure to address sanction relief — a key demand for Tehran under any deal with Washington.
“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” Shamkhnai said.
The Iranian official also warned that Tehran will not allow the US to dismantle its “peaceful nuclear program” or force uranium enrichment down to zero.
“Iran will never relinquish its natural rights,” Shamkhani said.
Washington’s draft proposal for a new nuclear deal was delivered by Omani officials — who have been mediating negotiations between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff — during last month’s talks in Rome.
On Wednesday, Khamenei dismissed such an offer, saying it “contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance” and runs counter to Iran’s key objectives.
“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests,” the Iranian leader said during a televised speech.
“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei continued.
After five rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have yet to yield results as both adversaries clash over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.
In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
Amid the ongoing diplomatic deadlock, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamist regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Tehran from enriching uranium.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference last month, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
The post Iran Rejects US Nuclear Proposal, Says ‘Counteroffer’ Coming as Talks Stall Over Uranium Enrichment, Sanctions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of WithinOurLifetime (WOL), leading a pro-Hamas demonstration in New York City on Aug. 14, 2024. Photo: Michael Nigro via Reuters Connect
Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the radical anti-Israel organization Within Our Lifetime, chastised those within the pro-Palestinian movement who only support “resistance” in the abstract but not in practice following Sunday’s antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.
“A lot of people who call themselves anti-Zionist or pro-resistance don’t actually understand what resistance is,” Kiswani posted on X/Twitter on Monday. “They support it in theory, but when it shows up in practice, they hesitate, distance themselves, or shift the conversation entirely.”
She continued, “And it makes it even harder for those of us who are principled to take public stances. We’re already marginalized, already painted as extreme or dangerous and that isolation only deepens when others in the movement won’t stand firm when it counts.”
Kiswani’s comments came the day after a man threw Molotov cocktails at a Boulder gathering where participants were rallying in support of the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza — which resulted in 15 injuries, including some critically, in what US authorities called a targeted terrorist attack. Her tweets also came less than two weeks after a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they were leaving an at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. In both attacks, the perpetrator yelled “Free Palestine” as they targeted innocent civilians, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
After Kiswani’s social media posts sparked some backlash among pro-Israel users on X, she provided limited pushback on the idea that it was an expression of support for the prior day’s attack in Colorado.
“Zionists are freaking out in the QTs about this, insisting it’s about Colorado,” she wrote. “Newsflash: the world doesn’t revolve around you. Resistance hasn’t stopped in Gaza, look at what just happened in Jabalia [where three IDF soldiers were killed] for instance. The perpetual victimhood is getting old.”
However, Kiswani did not say her comment had no connection to the attack in Colorado, and she did not say that she opposed the firebombing.
Kiswani and her group, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), have been at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas activism since Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a massacre that started the war in Gaza.
On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the biggest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, WOL organized a protest to celebrate the prior day’s attack, which it described as an effort to “defend the heroic Palestinian resistance.” Kiswani notably refused to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre following the atrocities.
Then, in Apil 2024, Kiswani refused to condemn the chant “Death to America” and organized a mass demonstration to block the “arteries of capitalism” by staging a blockade of commercial shipping ports across the world in protest of Western support for the Jewish state. That same month, she was banned from Columbia University’s campus in New York City after leading chants calling for an “intifada,” or violent uprising.
The following month, Kiswani led a demonstration in Brooklyn, New York in which she lambasted the local police department, claimed then-US President Joe Biden will soon die, and called for the destruction of Israel.
That proceeded the activist saying she does not want Zionists “anywhere” in the world while speaking in defense of a person who called for “Zionists” to leave a crowded subway car in New York City.
WOL, which planned a protest last year to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, was also behind demonstrations at the Nova Music Festival exhibit, which commemorated the more than 300 civilians slaughtered by Hamas while at a music festival.
The latter protest prompted widespread condemnation, including from Biden and even progressive members of the US Congress who are outspoken against Israel.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for example, posted on social media that the “callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple.”
The post Day After Colorado Attack, Founder of Anti-Israel Group Chides Activists Who Are Insufficiently ‘Pro-Resistance’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
The post Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo first appeared on Algemeiner.com.