Don't Look Away

Meet "Palestine". 2 IDF reservists accidently made a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah on October 12, 2000. The Palestinians lynched them, ripped out their organs and celebrated their murder in the street. An Italian film crew which was there and was threatened by the Palestinian Authority (The "Partners for peace") to not release the footage, but they did anyway. Another British photographer named Mark Seegar was there as well. But he was attacked by the mob and his camera was destroyed. After the event he said: "The lynching was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, and I've reported from Congo, Kosovo, and many other bad places... I know not all Palestinians are like that, and I'm a very forgiving person, but I'll never forget it. It was the most barbaric kind of murder. When I think about it, the man's head, all smashed up, I know I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life."

On October 26, 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a historic peace treaty at the Arava border crossing near Eilat, making Jordan the second Arab country, after Egypt, to formally make peace with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam al-Majali signed the agreement, with King Hussein in attendance and US President Bill Clinton signing as a witness. The ceremony brought a relationship long conducted behind closed doors into the open. Despite years of conflict, Israeli and Jordanian leaders had maintained secret contacts for decades. Shared security interests helped sustain those channels, even when public relations remained hostile. In July 1994, Rabin and Hussein signed the Washington Declaration, formally ending the state of war between their countries and preparing the way for the treaty three months later. The agreement addressed practical issues that mattered to both sides: Borders, water sharing, diplomatic relations and security. It committed both countries to preventing their territory from being used for attacks against the other, and established a framework for cooperation in trade, tourism and other civilian fields. Israel also recognized Jordan's special role in Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem. The significance went beyond a handshake or a signing ceremony. Two neighboring countries that had fought each other chose to settle their disputes through negotiation and build a relationship around mutual recognition and shared interests. It was a major step toward a Middle East where peace with Israel could become an accepted reality.

This day in history, 1994: Hamas committed what was then the most deadly suicide bombing in Israel's history. The Dizengoff Street bus bombing in Tel Aviv which has murdered 22 and injured 104 more. The Dizengoff Street bus bombing was a Hamas suicide attack on a passenger bus driving down Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv in 1994. At that time, it was the deadliest suicide bombing in Israeli history, and the first successful attack in Tel Aviv. 22 civilians were killed and over 100 were injured. At approximately 9:00 AM, as the bus was slowing down for a stop 100 metres north of Dizengoff Square, al-Souwi detonated the bomb killing 21 Israelis and one Dutch national. The powerful explosion lifted the bus off its chassis and the heat melted the fiberglass bus frame. Limbs were projected like missiles into the seating area of nearby restaurants. Israeli police quickly identified al-Souwi as the perpetrator. The day after the bombing, with his identity confirmed using DNA, al-Souwi's family threw a neighborhood party celebrating his "martyrdom."

On this day in 2024, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the main planners of the October 7 massacre, was finally eliminated. The supposedly fearless "Resistance leader", spent months hiding in Hamas's tunnels while the people he dragged into war suffered above ground. His DNA was found in the same tunnel complex where six Israeli hostages were held and later executed by Hamas. Among them was Eden Yerushalmi, just 24 years old. After months of starvation in captivity, her body weighed only 36 kilograms when it was recovered. Hamas murdered all six as Israeli troops approached the area. Sinwar's own end came weeks later in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. He had cash and reportedly someone else's passport. Possibly preparing to escape and abandon the people already paying the price for his decisions. The soldiers who encountered him did not even know who they were fighting. Infantry and tanks engaged his position, and a drone filmed him wounded in a chair, throwing a stick at it. The man responsible for the slaughter of civilians, hid like the rat he was until he was flushed out, while Gaza suffered, and ended up throwing a stick at an Israeli drone.

On this day in history, October 6, 1973, the Battle of the Valley of Tears began in the Golan Heights. Over the next four days, heavily outnumbered Israeli soldiers would fight one of the most desperate and heroic battles in Israel's history. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Across Israel, people were fasting and praying when Egypt and Syria launched their attacks. Sirens broke the silence. Reservists rushed from their homes and synagogues to join a war that had already begun. In the northern Golan Heights, Israeli tank crews faced wave after wave of Syrian armor. The defenders included the 7th Armored Brigade, commanded by Avigdor "Yanush" Ben-Gal, and soldiers from the 188th Armored Brigade. Among them was the 77th Battalion, led by Avigdor Kahalani. Their task was to stop a much larger force from breaking through the northern Golan. Behind them lay the roads toward northern Israel. For days, they fought under heavy shellfire. At night, Syrian tanks had night-vision equipment that the Israeli crews lacked. Enemy tanks slipped through the darkness, and some clashes took place at terrifyingly close range. The defenders lost tanks and friends, but kept fighting. By October 9, the fourth day, the Israeli force was badly worn down. Crews were exhausted. Tanks had been destroyed or damaged. Ammunition was running dangerously low. Then the Syrians launched another major attack. Under heavy bombardment, some Israeli tanks pulled back from the high ground overlooking the valley. If the Syrians took those positions, the defense could collapse. Kahalani rallied the remaining tanks and led them forward to regain the heights. His men were pushed close to their limits, but they followed. They reached the firing positions and fought Syrian tanks at distances of just tens of meters. Eleven tanks led by Yossi Ben-Hanan arrived to reinforce the battered defenders. Israeli artillery poured fire onto the Syrian attack. Together, the crews, commanders and supporting forces held on. By midday, the Syrian tanks began to withdraw. The line had held. The valley was left littered with hundreds of wrecked Syrian tanks and armored vehicles. The victory came at a terrible cost to the Israeli soldiers who fought there and the families who would never see them return. After the battle, Ben-Gal told Kahalani over the radio: "You are a hero of Israel." The Valley of Tears became a symbol of Israeli courage because the men who defended it kept fighting through fear, exhaustion, loss and dwindling ammunition. Their stand stopped a breakthrough in the northern Golan and helped give Israel the time it needed to turn the war around.

On this day in history, October 4, 2003, Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried out a suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel, murdering 21 people and wounding dozens. It was Saturday lunchtime. Families had gathered to eat at a seaside restaurant jointly owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, where Jewish and Arab Israelis regularly worked and ate together. Hanadi Jaradat, a female Palestinian lawyer, a suicide bomber from Jenin, detonated an explosive belt among the diners. The bomb was packed with metal fragments to make it more deadly. The explosion sent shrapnel through the crowded restaurant, destroying its interior and killing children, parents, grandparents and staff. Two families each lost five members across three generations. The Zer-Aviv family lost Bruria, her son Bezalel, his wife Keren, and their children: four-year-old Liran and one-year-old Noya. A grandmother, both parents and both children were murdered in the same attack. The Almog family lost Ze'ev and Ruth, their son Moshe, and their grandchildren: nine-year-old Tomer and eleven-year-old Assaf Staier. Ten-year-old Oran Almog survived, but the blast left him blind. His father, brother, grandparents and cousin were dead. He lost his sight and five members of his family in one afternoon. Four Arab employees were also murdered. The terrorists attacked a place where coexistence was part of everyday life, and killed the people who made it possible. In 2012, the Arab Lawyers Union awarded Jaradat its highest decoration and sent a delegation to present it to her family. A union representative said its lawyers were proud of her actions. The woman responsible for murdering children at lunch was being honored for it. Maxim was rebuilt and reopened. A memorial near the restaurant remembers those murdered there.

On this day in history, October 2, 1938: Arab attackers massacred 19 Jews in Tiberias, including 11 children, during the Arab revolt in British Mandatory Palestine. The attack began around 9 p.m. Telephone lines were cut and roads were blocked. Armed attackers struck government buildings and entered the Jewish Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood, breaking into homes, murdering families and setting buildings on fire. Around 70 attackers took part. Only 15 Jewish guards were defending a neighborhood of roughly 2,000 residents. The approach facing the Sea of Galilee had been left unguarded because an attack from that direction was considered unlikely. Rachel Mizrachi, 26, was murdered with her five children: Ezra, 12; Miriam, 5; Yochebed, 3; Samuel, 2; and Hephzibah, just one year old. Their father, Shimon, was on guard duty elsewhere in the city when his family was killed. In another home, Joshua Ben-Arieh, his wife Shoshanah and their son Arieh were reported stabbed and burned to death. Their other son, Moshe, just a year and a half old, was shot dead. Three children from the Leimer family, aged 12, 10 and 8, were also reported stabbed and burned to death in that house. The synagogue was set ablaze. Its elderly caretaker was stabbed to death, killed beside the Torah scroll. Two Jewish guards who came to help were ambushed and killed. Alex Morrison, who arrived shortly after the massacre, described seeing the bodies of babies still burning. His account also described naked female bodies bearing evidence of horrific knife violence. The British government's report to the League of Nations described the massacre as "systematically organized and savagely executed." It stated that 15 of the 19 Jewish victims had been stabbed to death. The Haganah subsequently investigated the failures in the city's defenses. Later that month, Tiberias's Jewish mayor, Zaki Alhadif, was also assassinated. Entire families were destroyed in their homes. Eleven children never grew up. This happened in 1938, a decade before the State of Israel was established.

This day in 1972: Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes during the Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany, in an attack which is known as the Munich Massacre. The photo shows one of the kidnappers on the balcony of the building where the hostages were held at before they were killed.

This day, two years ago, Hamas murdered six Israeli hostages in a tunnel beneath Rafah. Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Eden Yerushalmi. Ori Danino. Alexander Lobanov. Almog Sarusi. Carmel Gat. They had survived nearly 11 months of captivity. In their final weeks, they were held 20 meters underground in a tunnel so narrow they could not stand upright and only two of them could lie down at once. There was almost no air, no light, no toilet or shower, and barely any food. They were starved until they were frighteningly thin. Eden weighed only 36 kg when her body was found. Hersh weighed 52 kg. Alexander had fallen from 86 kg to just 60 kg. Who knows what others forms of physical, and emotional torture they had to endure. And still, they held on. They survived all of it. When the IDF began getting closer. Rather than allow them to be rescued, their Palestinian captors shot them at close range and fled. Israeli soldiers reached the tunnel less than two days later. Yahya Sinwar's own DNA was later found in the same tunnel complex, only a few hundred meters away. They suffered for nearly 11 months. Freedom was almost within reach. Hamas murdered them before they could touch it. May their memory be a blessing. We are only left with an endless pit of sadness. And rage.

Greece is building a €3.1 billion Achilles Shield using Israeli SPYDER, Barak MX and David’s Sling systems, combined with its Patriots, drones and AI command software. This also strengthens the growing Greece, Cyprus and Israel alliance. They may not officially call Turkey their common enemy, but Erdogan is clearly the shared threat. Turkey still occupies northern Cyprus, threatens Greece with war over the Aegean, hosts Hamas members and has even threatened to "Enter Israel" as it did Libya and Karabakh. Turkey claims it is fighting terrorism, but its decades-long campaign against Kurdish groups has killed and displaced countless civilians. Including atrocities such as destroying water infrastructure for millions of people. This is also part of a much larger trend. Germany, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Greece and many others have recently signed major deals for Israeli missile defense, drones and artillery systems. Israeli defense exports reach new records every year. Interesting to see how when countries need protection from real threats, many rely on Israeli technology.

On this day in history, August 29, 1897: Theodor Herzl opened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. The gathering founded the Zionist Organization and set out its goal of establishing a secure national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. Herzl believed that assimilation and success would not make antisemitism disappear. He warned that wherever Jews moved, if they prospered, their success could provoke renewed antisemitism. His chilling prediction was that Jewish success could bring not acceptance, but even greater hatred and persecution. This warning proved tragically prophetic when European antisemitism reached its most horrific expression in the Holocaust. Herzl died in 1904, without ever knowing how horrifyingly accurate his warning would prove to be, and 44 years before the State of Israel was established.

This day in 1929: Before the Nakba, the "Occupation" and Netanyahu. Before Israel existed in fact, Arabs from Hebron committed the Hebron massacre on the centuries old Jewish community. Almost 70 Jews were murdered, with scores of others injured. Homes and Synagogues were pillaged and burned. The massacre murdered 67-69 Jews (Some of them under torture) including women and children, and led to the elimination of the Jewish community in Hebron, which had existed continuously for centuries. "It didn't start on October 7"

This day in history, August 9, 2001: A Palestinian Hamas suicide bomber committed an attack in Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem. The attack murdered 16 people, 8 of them children, and injured 140 others. The Sbarro Restaurant suicide bombing occurred on Thursday afternoon, August 9, 2001, in the heart of Jerusalem, when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated an explosive device he was carrying at the Sbarro Restaurant on Jaffa Street. The attack killed 16 Israelis, (8 of whom were children) and injured about 140, and was one of the deadliest attacks of the Second Intifada. The attack was carried out by Hamas. The bomb, which was buried inside a guitar, weighed between 5 and 10 kilograms and contained numerous nails, screws, and nuts (which are scattered everywhere during the explosion and cause greater personal injury). Among those killed in the attack were five members of one family, the Sakhivshorder family (the father of the family, Mordechai, his wife, and three of their children. Two other children from the family were seriously injured). Following the attack, celebrations broke out in the Gaza Strip, including the distribution of sweets and the glorification of the terrorists. On September 23, 2001, to mark the anniversary of the Second Intifada, students at An-Najah University in Nablus opened a celebratory exhibition that included a reenactment of the horror of the suicide bombing at the Sbarro restaurant. At the entrance to the exhibition room, the Israeli and American flags served as mats, and a Sbarro sign was hung above. Inside the room, the exhibition included pizza triangles and body parts of the murdered people scattered throughout the room.

Today in history, July 30, 1997: Palestinian Hamas suicide bombers committed a terror attack in Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem. They were disguised as ultra orthodox Jews and held bags filled with nails and explosives. 16 were murdered, with 178 others injured.

Two years ago today, 12 Druze Israeli children were murdered by a Hezbollah missile, fired from Lebanon by Iran’s proxy, while playing football in their village. May their memories be a blessing 🕯️

This day in history, July 24, 1995: We remember the Ramat Gan line 20 Bus bombing. A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a 15KG TNT and nails bomb, murdering 6, and injuring 33 more. Hamas claimed responsibility and boasted that the attacker was a member of their youth agency, from the West Bank.

This day in history, July 18, 1994: We remember the AMIA bombing. The Iranian backed Hezbollah terrorist organization committed a suicide bombing targeting a Jewish community center in Argentina. 85 were murdered, with over 300 others injured. On July 18, 1994, a suicide bomber drove a van packed with around 400 kilograms of explosives into the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The blast destroyed much of the building, killed 85 people and injured more than 300. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina's history and one of the worst attacks ever carried out against a Jewish community outside Israel. The victims were just ordinary people who had come to work, receive services or visit the community center. Israeli rescue teams, medical specialists and forensic experts were sent to Argentina to help search the ruins and identify the victims. The investigation was delayed for years and was surrounded by claims of corruption and political attempts to hide the truth. Argentine investigators later accused senior Iranian officials of ordering and organizing the attack, with Hezbollah carrying it out. Interpol arrest notices were issued for several Iranian and Hezbollah figures, but most were never brought to trial. In 2024, an Argentine federal court officially ruled that Iran planned the bombing and that Hezbollah carried it out. The court described it as a crime against humanity. More than thirty years later, the families of the victims are still waiting for full justice. The AMIA bombing is also an important reminder that the threat from Iran and Hezbollah has never been limited to Israel or the Middle East. Jewish civilians were deliberately targeted thousands of miles away simply because they were Jewish.

This day in history, July 17, 2002: Like in so many other days, we remember and mark yet another brutal Palestinian terror attack. Five were murdered and around 40 wounded when two Palestinian Islamic Jihad suicide bombers detonated explosives packed with nails on Neve Sha’anan Street in Tel Aviv. Two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts containing approximately 33 kilograms of explosives detonated the charges on their bodies while standing 20 meters apart on Neve Sha'anan Street in Tel Aviv, near the new Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. The explosives hidden on the bodies of the terrorists contained nails to increase the intensity of the attack. Three Israeli civilians were killed instantly in the attack and approximately 40 other people were injured. Two more people died from their wounds a few days after the attack.