inexplicable: How on the morning of Oct 7, 2023, 22 quiet and innocent Israeli villages were attacked at dawn and 1,200 of their people were slaughtered while still in bed. The attack was accompanied by thousands of missiles that were launched from Hamas positions in Gaza, a few hundred yards to the west.

The 1,200 innocent Israelis who were slaughtered included entire families, babies in the arms of their mothers, the elderly, and some 300 youth at an adjoining music festival. Some were beheaded and mutilated, the women abused, and 240 of them were ferried or forced into captivity in horrible conditions, deprived of medicine and basic care. Meanwhile, their murderers incarcerated in Israel are being fattened in Israeli prisons with their "rights" being strictly observed by Israeli authorities.

This pogrom, guided by Iran and applauded by most of the Arab and Islamic world, was perpetrated by thousands of Hamas operatives who invaded unprovoked from Gaza. The extreme and inhuman savagery has not been equaled by any explosion of hatred and cruelty since the Nazi era, and triggered the Gaza War.

(About the Author)

Raphael Israeli has taught Islamic, Chinese, and Middle Eastern history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A graduate of Hebrew University in history and Arabic literature, he earned a Ph.D. in Chinese and Islamic history from the University of California, Berkeley. Now retired, he has been a Fellow of the Harry Truman Research Institute at Hebrew University and the Jerusalem Center since the1970s. He is the author of more than 100 books and 100 articles.