Death toll rising as Israel retaliates against Hamas
FOX News’ Trey Yingst reports on continuing Israeli airstrikes and naval attacks against Gaza before their anticipated ground invasion to retaliate against Hamas.
Hamas' horrific attacks against Israel over the past weekend invoke a "historic connection" to past persecution of Jews, according to a top official at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The attacks, which have resulted in the murder of at least 1,000 Jews, brought back "tragic memories" for ADL's senior vice president for international affairs Marina Rosenberg, who has ancestors who fled pogroms in the Russian Empire and were murdered during the Holocaust. She also pointed to the wheelchair-bound Holocaust survivor who was taken from her home by Hamas, as confirmed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The assault by Hamas, she noted, marked the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
"So, here we see a historic connection, how things have not changed a lot from the pogroms in Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others, that their only purpose is to murder Jews," Rosenberg told Fox News Digital.
LIBERAL WRITER ARGUES THE WORD TERRORISM IS A ‘SLUR’ AND SHOULD BE ‘RETIRED’ AS HAMAS ATTACKS ISRAEL
Israeli security forces evacuate an injured woman from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Oren Ziv)
Another disturbing development Rosenberg cited was the demonstrations happening around the world, including in the U.S., "celebrating" the slaughter of Jews in supposed solidarity with Palestinians.
"In those rallies, not only we see in New York a swastika, but we hear speakers in New York and Philadelphia and elsewhere in the country talking about ‘freedom fighters’ and claiming that the Israelis were not innocent… you saw the photos and the videos of babies and teenagers and young people and disabled people murdered. And to say that they were not innocent, this is just horrible hate speech," Rosenberg said.
"This is not about who is pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. This is about who has the morals to denounce this fully. A horrible terrorist organization whose sole aim is to murder Jews and to put an end to the Jewish state. And those that are celebrating in the streets of the U.S., in Europe and the Middle East the slaughter of innocent civilians in the past couple of days, so from our perspective, this is clear antisemitism," she added.
Demonstrators attend an "emergency rally for Gaza" outside the Israeli Consulate in New York City on Monday, October 9, 2023. Supporters of both the Palestinians and Israel clashed at the event. (Jennifer Mitchell for Fox News Digital)
Rosenberg stressed the distinction between being critical of Israel's government, which she said is not antisemitic, and what crosses the line, in addition to the rallies that occurred in recent days, is the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, citing its founders' past admission that it's anti-Zionist.
"Anti-Zionism is antisemitism," Rosenberg said. "It's negating the right of the Jewish people to have their own country in their ancestral lands. And this is clear antisemitism."
She also was critical of the media's coverage of the attacks, claiming news organizations are "copy-pasting" from previous years as if it were simply "another round of conflict" between Israel and Hamas and calling out their selective coverage in showing the devastation in Gaza amid Israel's response to the attacks instead of the carnage that Hamas committed.
NETANYAHU TELLS BIDEN ‘WE HAVE TO GO IN’ TO GAZA FOLLOWING HAMAS ATTACKS: REPORT
A ball of fire rises over buildings in Gaza City on Oct. 9, 2023, during an Israeli airstrike. (Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
"This was an act of war invading Israeli villages, taking hostages, having families murdered… So we are in a completely different scenario from what we and the media knew before," Rosenberg said. "This was an unprovoked act of war from the Hamas terrorist organization and from what we see from certain media outlets, it seems pretty clear that behind that was Iran. And let's not forget that Iran is not only the number one state sponsor of terrorism, but they're also the number one state that sponsors antisemitism in the world."
The death toll has risen to at least 1,000 Israelis and over 2,500 injured since Hamas launched its coordinated attacks on the Jewish state. President Biden said at least 11 Americans were among the murdered.
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