From The Spectator of October 14th 2013:
It was 7 a.m. when the ‘peace rave’ outside of Re’im was reaching its peak. Outside the kibbutz, five miles from the Gaza border, the participants of the dance festival were ‘coming up’ at just the moment that the terrorists of Hamas started to come down.
They arrived on motorised paragliders, with machine-guns in position, like something from Mad Max. They came by motorbike and in trucks bearing the marks of Hamas. Rockets had already started firing across Israel from Gaza, but here the twenty- and thirty-something rave attendees were soon running in every direction across the Negev desert – hunted down. At the time of writing, 260 bodies have been recovered from the site. This is just one of the many simultaneous massacres across Israel in the areas nearest to Gaza. It is Israel’s worst security breach for 50 years, and the biggest hit to the perception of Israeli invulnerability in two generations.
Before looking at cause and consequence, we should dwell on what actually happened to those hundreds of young Israelis. Some who survived have described the scene first-hand. The terrorists seemed to make a special target of the young women. One witness said that women were raped on the site of the rave next to their friends’ dead bodies. In a scene that no Israeli in a generation could have believed possible, some of the women were kidnapped and driven into Gaza. Many seemed to have been murdered already, others were only just alive. Videos online show Hamas parading some of these women through the streets of Gaza, blood visibly trailing from between their legs. The naked and desecrated bodies of others are spat on by the Gazans.
I’m just catching up on some earlier Speccie articles, which remind us of the early days post October 7th and that the anti-Israel mob began baying for Jewish blood long before Israel’s counter attack on Hamas. And which they now want to “ceasefire”, just as Israel stands at eye verge of expunging Hamas.
Douglas Murray goes on, presciently:
I cite these details because so many people have already moved past these unimaginable scenes and on to the reaction. On to the blame games, the ‘what-ifs’ and the phase where everybody claims the attacks can be explained by whatever their own political views already were. Pro-Palestinian groups and leftists are already blaming the rape, murder and parading of these women as being caused by the ‘Israeli occupation’ (Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005).
Opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent judicial reforms are claiming that these took his eye off the security ball. Those who oppose President Joe Biden will say he caused this through recently giving another $6 billion in ransom money to Iran – which backs Hamas and appears to be behind the attack.
