by WorldTribune Staff, October 25, 2023
A large number of Gaza Strip residents who were not members of any terrorist group followed Hamas terrorists into Israel and participated in the massacre of Jewish civilians, including children.
"The second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave," Gadi Yarkoni, the mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, which encompasses most of the Gaza border communities, told the Washington Free Beacon. "We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us. It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim."
In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, several U.S. elected officials chose to, instead of criticize Hamas, call for an end of U.S. aid to Israel. Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan even amplified the false reporting that an Israeli airstrike had hit a Gaza hospital, killing 500 people. Though the reports have been completely debunked, Tlaib has yet to delete the tweet blaming Israel.
Fellow Democrat “Squad” member and Palestinian advocate Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was widely denounced for re-posting a photo of children killed in a 2013 Syrian chemical weapons attack with the headline “CHILD GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE.”
Government watchdog group Open The Books found that the Biden administration has sent more than $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars to a Palestinian relief organization that has previously been accused of providing safe harbor to terrorists in Gaza.
On college campuses throughout the United States, leftist students who insist misgendering someone constitutes violence have come out by the thousands in rallies that appear to deem the depravity of Hamas acceptable.
Washington Times reporter Valerie Richardson noted: "Examples include praise for 'our heroic resistance in Gaza' by Ohio State University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, a Cornell University professor saying he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack, and University of North Carolina’s SJP group sanctioning “violence” in the name of “liberation.”
Conservative campus group Turning Point USA said there was a “massive difference” in how pro-Palestinian rallies had been treated versus appearances by right-tilting speakers.
“The entire academy has been infected with anti-civilization, anti-white, anti-Semitic bigotry producing much less real knowledge than ever while empowering and giving credibility to ‘professors’ who are actually just highly paid activists whose sole job is to indoctrinate the next generation,” said Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet.
Yarkoni, who survived the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in the safe room of his house in Kibbutz Nirim, estimated that 3,000 Gazans were involved in the attack. Half of those were "civilians," he said.
A video posted online shows Gazans using a bulldozer to tear down a section of Israel's border fence. Once the fence was breached, hundreds of unarmed men and boys crossed into Israel.
"They came mostly on foot but also by bicycle, scooter, and motorcycle. Someone appears to have brought a donkey," the Free Beacon reported. "Other online videos show ordinary Gazans taking selfies on and around Israeli tanks and ransacking a military base on the border. All the while, cries of 'Allahu Akbar' rang out."
Raz Cohen, a 24-year-old former Israeli commando, told the Free Beacon that he saw both Hamas terrorists and ordinary Gazans kill and rape attendees of the Nova music festival in Re'im, where at least 260 people were slaughtered. After escaping the Hamas terrorists, Cohen hid in a bush with a group of friends for almost seven hours. He watched as a gang of Gazan civilians — men wearing Adidas and armed only with knives and axes — raped and murdered a young Jewish woman.
"While they were raping and killing, they always laughed. I can't forget how they laughed," Cohen told the Free Beacon.
Several members of Cohen's group later ran from the bush and were caught by the same gang of Gazans. He said he heard his friends' screams as they were tortured and stabbed to death.
"You know when you hear the screams of someone who is dying," said Cohen, who was eventually rescued by Israeli soldiers.
Daniel Meir, Nirim's security chief, told the Free Beacon that dozens of ordinary Gazans attacked his kibbutz on Oct. 7 along with about 50 Hamas terrorists. During an hours-long gunfight with the invaders, he climbed to the top of a grain tower, where he was able to survey the battlefield.
Meir, echoing Yarkoni, said the differences between the Hamas terrorists and the other Gazans were easy to see: The Hamas terrorists wore green camouflage or black uniforms and were armed with automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and hand grenades. The ordinary Gazans wore everyday clothing and came unarmed or carrying only knives, although some appeared to have taken firearms from fallen Israelis or Hamas terrorists.
There was "complete cooperation" between the two groups, Meir said, with Hamas doing most of the fighting and the ordinary Gazans focused on looting and kidnapping.
"The civilians went into houses and turned them upside down. They took phones, computers, jewelry, whatever they could find," he recalled. "From what I know, they also took most of the hostages."
Meanwhile, in Washington, Squad member Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel; Omar called for an end to "unconditional" military aid to the Jewish state; and Tlaib said "this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue" unless the funds to Israel are cut off.
"I was pained to read those comments," Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee told Axios. "There should have been reflection on the horrors that were caused to Israeli victims. I think it's a political mistake, and a moral mistake. It's morally wrong not to reflect on the atrocities."
New York Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres told Axios that "everyone in politics should clearly condemn" the attacks. "No one should blame the victim, no one should explain or excuse the terrorism."
That is exactly what was happening on college campuses.
After the Hamas massacre, Harvard President Claudine Gay "condemned terrorism while championing the free speech rights of the 33 student groups that signed a letter blaming Israel for the terrorist assault on Israeli civilians that left more than 1,400 dead, including 30 Americans," Richardson wrote for The Washington Times.
“That commitment extends even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous. We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views. But that is a far cry from endorsing them,” Gay said in a video message.
The response came as no surprise to many observers who noted that Harvard ranked dead last in the 2024 College Free Speech Rankings compiled by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard received a free speech score of 0.00.
The university has pressured students to use preferred pronouns based on gender identity, not biological sex, and warned that failing to do so could constitute a violation of the university’s “sexual misconduct and harassment policies.”
Also scoring in the bottom five of free speech scores was the University of Pennsylvania, which was accused last year of warning female athletes to keep quiet about Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who smashed women’s records after having competed for three years on the men’s team.
Following the Hamas attack, UPenn was hit with a donor revolt over Palestine Writes, a literature festival held on campus last month that included speakers with a history of antisemitic statements. The university responded by condemning antisemitism as “antithetical to our values” while defending free speech.
