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How the Media Has Abused the Memory of October 7, 2023

An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
Almost immediately after Oct. 7, 2023, the Guardian began what can be described as the abuse of Oct. 7th memory: failing to acknowledge that, on that Shabbat day, Jews in southern Israel were victims of the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust, while framing the story instead as one about Israel’s military response to that (Trigger Warning) savage pogrom. As we’ve documented, other British outlets’ coverage of the racist massacre and its aftermath have often mirrored that of the Guardian.
This partly explains the legitimization given by journalists at these outlets to the genocide libel against Israel. This toxic and intellectually unserious narrative obfuscates the antisemitic-inspired cruelty and barbarism of those willing Palestinian executioners who carried out the mass murder, rape, torture, and mutilation of men, women and children – an atrocity inspired by Hamas’s annihilationist antisemitic ideology.
Downstream from this Oct. 7th massacre erasure is the widespread failure of these same outlets to acknowledge the scale of the antisemitic surge in diaspora communities since Hamas’ attack, and that pro-Palestinian ‘activists’ have been responsible for the vast majority of this historically unprecedented outbreak of anti-Jewish rhetoric, intimidation and violence.
Why? In part because those who’ve long believed in the purity of the Palestinians and the righteousness of pro-Palestinian movement are – like ideological extremists in previous eras – resistant to even the most undeniable evidence contradicting their beliefs.
So, before pivoting to a Guardian op-ed by Rachel Shabi, which, though putatively about antisemitism, manages to erase both the malign anti-Jewish obsession which inspired Oct. 7th, as well as the British antisemitism which, perversely, the attacks on Israeli Jews spawned, let’s briefly highlight the depth of the problem.
CST’s Antisemitic Incidents Report January-June 2024, released last summer, revealed 1,978 instances of anti-Jewish hate recorded across the UK in the first six months of the year, “the highest January-to-June total ever reported to CST.“ These record figures, CST noted, were driven by anti-Jewish reactions to the war between Israel and Hamas:

Number of incidents, January-June, 2014-2024
The CST also reported that university-related antisemitic incidents in Britain rose dramatically, from 53 incidents in the 2022-23 academic year to 272 incidents in the 2023-24 academic year. CST contextualised the more than 500% increase in antisemitism on campuses to the same wave of anti-Jewish hatred following the Hamas massacre.
It’s important to note that CST is very careful to include in their data only incidents which are clearly antisemitic.
So, though CST “received an unprecedented number of reports of pro-Palestinian campaigning at universities that featured extreme, sometimes violent, rhetoric towards Israel”, and support for terrorism, they didn’t include them in their count “because they did not meet CST’s criteria for recording as antisemitic due to a lack of clear evidence of anti-Jewish language, motivation or targeting.“
So, the numbers would be dramatically higher if the charity included incidents of anti-Israel extremism which, while not falling within the organization’s criteria for labeling something antisemitic, still make most Jewish students feel hated and unsafe.
Further, there’s the antisemitic impact that’s hard to quantify, but to which there’s much anecdotal evidence – such as Jewish artists being excluded from British cultural life because they refuse to denounce Israel.
Not surprisingly, according to a poll by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in Oct. 2024, nearly three in four respondents said they feel less safe as a Jewish person living in the UK since the Oct. 7th massacre.
Yet, on Dec. 31st, the Guardian continued in its effort to gaslight Jews about this tsunami of anti-Jewish racism largely under the guise of pro-Palestinian activism since Oct. 7th, publishing an op-ed by Rachel Shabi titled “The term ‘antisemitism’ is being weaponised and stripped of meaning – and that’s incredibly dangerous.”
Shabi, who’s been denying the proven link between hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews qua Jews for over a decade at the Guardian, and who rarely if ever has a found a ‘real’ instance of anti-Jewish hatred from the pro-Palestinian left, has clearly not allowed events over the last 15 months, as well as the actual fears of British Jews, to intrude on her beliefs.
In her op-ed, for instance, she legitimises the incendiary libel that Israel is committing genocide, while saying nothing about Hamas’s medieval-style barbarism – including their live-streamed torture, mutilation and beheading. She decries that “accusations of antisemitism raised to counter criticism of Israel have gone into overdrive“ — while ignoring the weekly anti-Israel marches in London routinely infested with justifications for, and outright celebrations of, the terror groups’ sadistic murder spree, as well as outright antisemitism and the intimidation of Jews.
Shabi, as Guardian columnists so often do, defends those participating in the anti-Israel demos as merely Britons “crying out for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza” — as if they were peaceniks opposed to all violence, ignoring that condemnations of Hamas, or calls for the terror group to surrender and release the hostages, are never heard at such rallies.
In fact, the cruel tearing down of hostage posters by ‘pro-Palestinian’ activists has become common in London and other major cities.
Further, as The Times revealed, the main groups organising the London marches include some, such as Palestinian Forum in Britain, with reported links to Hamas, and others which supported the Oct. 7th massacre.
Shabi’s egregious dishonesty is especially evident when when she admits that ‘real’ “antisemitism is” indeed “increasing globally“, and that “Britain’s Jewish community has experienced verbal and physical attacks“ — while failing to call out the far-left anti-Israel extremism that’s behind this historically unprecedented spike in anti-Jewish incidents.
While Shabi’s obfuscation of pro-Palestinian antisemitism and her claim of Israelis “weaponising” antisemitism are morally indefensible, it’s, as we noted, completely in line with the editorial direction at the outlet regarding Oct. 7th and its aftermath, content which, for instance, included a Oct. 24, 2023, op-ed accusing Israel of “weaponising the Holocaust,“ and another one more recently accusing Israelis of “weaponising” Oct. 7th commemoration.
What we’ve seen day after day at the outlet since Oct. 7th is antisemitism atrocity deflection, inversion, revisionism and erasure that’s redolent of attempts after World War II – by the Arab and Muslim world, the extreme Left and the extreme Right – to deny and distort Holocaust history and its memory.
What’s truly disturbing however is that, unlike Holocaust deniers and revisionists, who have generally been consigned to the political fringes and rarely given platforms by major media outlets, the whitewashing, obfuscation and inversion of Oct. 7th – one of the most vicious and deadly antisemitic rampages in Jewish history – is not only socially acceptable, but has become de rigueur within mainstream journalistic circles.
The moral rot within institutions that have effectively normalized the rendering of Oct. 7th as a non-event can’t be overstated.
The author is the co-editor of CAMERA UK — an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.
The post How the Media Has Abused the Memory of October 7, 2023 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says It Would Reduce Troops in Lebanon if Beirut Takes Steps to Disarm Hezbollah

An Israeli tank is positioned on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel on Monday signaled it would scale back its military presence in southern Lebanon if the Lebanese armed forces took action to disarm Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.
The announcement from the Israeli prime minister’s office came a day after Benjamin Netanyahu met with US envoy Tom Barrack, who has been heavily involved in a plan that would disarm Hezbollah and withdraw Israeli forces from Lebanon.
“If the Lebanese Armed Forces take the necessary steps to implement the disarmament of Hezbollah, Israel will engage in reciprocal measures, including a phased reduction” by the Israeli military, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement did not explicitly say if Israeli forces would fully withdraw from the five positions they hold in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has maintained a presence in southern Lebanon near the border since agreeing to a United States-backed ceasefire with Hezbollah in November.
Israel was to withdraw its forces within two months and Lebanon‘s armed forces were to take control of the country’s south, territory that has long been a stronghold for Hezbollah.
This month, Lebanon‘s cabinet tasked the army with drawing up a plan to establish state control over arms by December, a challenge to Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to disarm.
The prime minister’s office described the Lebanese cabinet’s decision to back the move as a momentous decision. Israel stood “ready to support Lebanon in its efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” the statement said without saying what support it could provide.
Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, has said Israel should comply with the plan for Hezbollah disarmament, which would mean the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The Israeli military continues to carry out periodic air strikes in Lebanon that it said targeted Hezbollah terrorists and facilities used by the Islamist group to store weapons.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon surrendered some weapons to the armed forces last week as part of the disarmament plan.
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Syria Says Israel Takes Some Territory Around Mount Hermon Despite Talks

Israeli forces operate at a location given as Mount Hermon region, Syria, in this handout image released Dec. 9, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Syria said on Monday that Israel had sent 60 soldiers to take control of an area inside the Syrian border around Mount Hermon, saying the operation violated its sovereignty and posed a further threat to regional security.
Israel did not immediately comment on the accusation by Syria‘s foreign ministry, which comes as the two countries engage in US-mediated talks on de-escalating their conflict in southern Syria. Damascus hopes to reach a security arrangement that could eventually pave the way for broader political talks.
Monday’s incident took place near a strategic hilltop that overlooks Beit Jinn, an area of southern Syria close to the border with Lebanon, the ministry said. Israel also arrested six Syrians there, according to residents in the area.
The area is known for arms smuggling by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group and by Palestinian jihadist factions. Previous Israeli incursions have mostly been in the southern Quneitra governorate.
The Israeli military on Sunday shared footage of what it said were troops locating weapons storage facilities last week in southern Syria.
“This dangerous escalation is considered a direct threat to regional peace and security,” the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israel has cited its own security concerns for its military interventions inside Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December, including what it sees as its obligation to protect members of the Druze minority in southern Syria.
Hundreds of people were reported killed in clashes last month in the southern province of Sweida between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes and government forces. Israel intervened with airstrikes to prevent what it said was mass killings of Druze by the Syrian government forces.
In January, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli troops would remain on the summit of Mount Hermon indefinitely.
Israel has since then formed a de facto security zone, where it regularly patrols, sets up checkpoints, and carries out searches and raids in villages.
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Widespread Anti-Israel Protests Held in Australia

Demonstrators hold a placard as they take part in the ‘Nationwide March for Palestine’ protest in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Thousands of Australians joined anti-Israel rallies on Sunday, organizers said, amid strained relations between Israel and Australia following the center-left government’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state.
More than 40 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, Palestine Action Group said, including large turnouts in state capitals Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The group said around 350,000 attended the rallies nationwide, including around 50,000 in Brisbane, though police estimated the numbers there at closer to 10,000. Police did not have estimates for crowd sizes in Sydney and Melbourne.
In Sydney, organizer Josh Lees said Australians were out in force to “demand an end to this genocide in Gaza and to demand that our government sanction Israel” as rallygoers, many with Palestinian flags, chanted “free, free Palestine.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, told Sky News television that the rallies created “an unsafe environment and shouldn’t be happening.”
The protests follow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week stepping up his personal attacks on his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision this month to recognize a Palestinian state.
Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel soured after Albanese’s Labor government said it would conditionally recognize Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain, and Canada.
The Aug. 11 announcement came days after tens of thousands of people marched across Sydney’s iconic Harbour Bridge, calling for peace and aid deliveries to Gaza, where Israel began an offensive nearly two years ago after the Hamas terrorist group launched a deadly cross-border attack.