History and Context: Israel-Hamas War

Noa Fay is a Jewish student leader at Columbia University, the epicenter of the anti-Israel protest movement that has unfolded on American college campuses in recent weeks. Pro-Hamas, antisemitic, and anti-Israel demonstrators have occupied academic buildings, set up overnight tent encampments, and staged demonstrations, while Jewish students have faced increasing threats, antisemitism, and violence.

Two initiatives that claim to help the Palestinian people are currently making waves at the UN. Both support the unilateral and unconditional advancement of Palestinian statehood. Sadly, if successful, these resolutions would have the opposite effect, setting back the fulfillment of Palestinian national aspirations.

Rape and sexual violence are war crimes and violations of international law. Yet that was overlooked in an Oct. 13 statement by U.N. Women, which equated the Hamas attacks on civilians in Israel with defensive actions taken by Israel and made no mention of Hamas’ barbarism.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is not a “genocide.” I write this first, because within three sentences of a column published March 6 in the Sun by Alison Slow Loris, “Our role in conflict's generational violence,” that is the accusation made. This allegation relies on two false assumptions. First, that every death Hamas has reported in Gaza is accurate, civilian in nature, and deliberate, and second, the belief that the Jewish state seeks not avenues for peace, but opportunities for conflict.

“Listen to me, Edan. I'm here. I'm with you. I love you. Just protect yourself. Just be safe.” These were the last words Yael Alexander spoke to her then-19 year old son, Edan, on the morning of October 7, 2023. Edan was later taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. Yael joins us from her New Jersey home to tell her story.

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden is expected to highlight key accomplishments during his first term in office and make the case for his re-election. While many domestic issues will take center stage, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war will likely be a topic addressed by the president. In the audience will be the families of Americans held captive or murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023.

As has been the case for over a hundred years, women around the world will take to the streets this March 8th to draw attention to their rights and the gender discrimination that still exists. Even if women's demands vary greatly across the globe due to their respective realities, it has so far been assumed that the rejection of misogynistic violence unites everyone.

Last month I returned to Israel for my first visit since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
It felt very different. My heart was as full as ever, but my eyes were filled with tears and my soul with trepidation. The pain and fear provoked by that horrific day still feel so present.

What’s it like being a Jewish student at Harvard today? With us to tell their firsthand accounts are Nitsan Machlis, co-chair of the Harvard Kennedy School Jewish Caucus, and Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity school student who is part of a group that sued the university–alleging that they failed to address campus antisemitism.

With the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre with now 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals reported dead and 134 still held hostage, there have been renewed attempts to rewrite history and assert that Jews are “foreign occupiers” with no ties to the land of Israel. Among the lies being spread is an effort to undermine Israel’s legitimacy by accusing it of being a settler-colonial state.

The timeline here aims to address frequently asked questions about Israel's history and to help dispel misinformation about the events leading up to this point.

Following the brutal Hamas massacre on October 7, any discussion of peace between Israelis and Palestinians or a two-state solution seems like a very distant reality amid the Israel-Hamas War. Here is an overview of known efforts undertaken by Israeli leaders in the pursuit of security and peace.

In Philadelphia, we are all too aware of how antisemitism has affected Jews, especially since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and slaughtered more than 1,200 innocent civilians and kidnapped 240 men, women, children and babies.

AJC CEO Ted Deutch and Holly Huffnagle, AJC’s U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism, discuss the impact of antisemitism on the lives of American Jews including those on college campuses.

Hezbollah’s arsenal of weapons poses a direct threat to Israeli cities, strategic sites, and civilian population centers and could be activated by the Iran-backed terror group at any time.

And if Israel was truly a settler-colonialist state dominated by white Europeans, that would make it hard to explain how 21% of Israelis are Palestinian Arabs, who have the same rights and responsibilities as Jewish Israelis. That includes serving in the military, the Knesset, and Israel’s Supreme Court. But that is yet another inconvenient truth for those who hated Israel even before Hamas went on its spree of murder, rape and kidnapping.

On October 7, 2023, the music industry suffered the deadliest event in its history when more than 400 people were brutally murdered and kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival in Israel. The event was billed as a celebration of “unity and love.” We should honor that spirit this weekend at The Grammys.

Amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, questions have been raised about UNRWA's ties with Hamas, and what function, if any, it would fulfill in a post-war Gaza. On January 26, the U.S. announced it would temporarily pause funding to UNRWA after Israel revealed that at least a dozen employees were allegedly involved in the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

Belle Etra Yoeli, AJC Chief Advocacy Officer, sends a clear and unequivocal message: the accusation of genocide against Israel is not only baseless and meritless, but is deeply offensive.

South Africa’s outrageous case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) was dealt a major blow today, as the Court plainly rejected South Africa’s request for Israel to be ordered to cease its defensive military operation against Hamas in Gaza.