The Road to October 7

The Road to October 7 examines what paved the way for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and its aftermath. Part 1, “The Present,” documents the Hamas invasion, the rise of Hamas, the education of Palestinian Arab children to hate and kill, the diplomatic decisions that helped enable the attack, and the propagation of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish libels. Part 2, “The Past,” analyzes how in both method and ideology, the Hamas assault echoed the pogroms in medieval Europe, Czarist Russia, and Ukraine; the Holocaust; and a century of Palestinian Arab terrorism. It also examines select American universities’ cultivation of friendly relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s (the same universities that tolerated pro-Hamas protests after October 7) and October 7 as a turning point in the long history of antisemitism. Readers will emerge with important insights on the Hamas attack, antisemitic education in Palestinian Arab society, pro-Hamas groups on U.S. campuses, the responses of women’s and human rights organizations to mass sexual violence, misconceptions and fabrications about Israel’s conduct in the ensuing war, and why October 7 needs to be viewed as one segment of both the century-long Palestinian Arab war and the centuries-old international war against the Jewish people.  

Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and coeditor of the institute’s online Encyclopedia of America’s Response to the Holocaust. He has written more than twenty books, including The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust (JPS, 2019) and America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History (JPS, 2022).  

Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1. The Present: Understanding October 7 and Its Aftermath 1. In the Cities of Slaughter The Ideology behind October 7 Attack on the Music Festival Devastation of Towns and Kibbutzim How They Died The Collaborators Sexual Violence Parading the Hostages Abuse of the Hostages “In the City of Slaughter” 2. The Rise and Strategy of Hamas Jews and Muslims in Gaza Terror from Gaza, Then and Now Islam and the Jews The Birth of Palestinian Nationalism New Audiences for Mein Kampf The Birth of Hamas Hamas Terror Hamas in Power Military Challenges after October 7 Terror Centers in Universities and Hospitals 3. Killers Are Made, Not Born Jihad Education in Schools UNRWA’s Hate Education Matriculation and Martyrdom PA Responses to Curricula Criticism Schools Named after Killers Hateful TV and Video Extracurricular Activities Promoting Terrorism Martyr Games Summer Camps of Terror Terrorist Role Models for Girls Raising Martyrs Aspiring to Martyrdom 4. The War on the Truth Staged Disruptions October 7 Denial Blood Libels, Old and New The Gaza Genocide Blood Libel The Famine Lie Truth as Casualty: World War II Lessons Feminists Excusing Hamas Rapes Human Wrongs by Human Rights Advocates 5. The War on Campus Students for Justice in Palestine Jewish Students Assaulted How Universities Responded Harvard Columbia MIT Yale George Washington University University of Pennsylvania Showdown in Congress The Second Explosion Ignorant Protesters Tent Encampments and Student Demands Appeasing Extremism Fizzled Protests The First Anniversary Addressing the Problem Part 2: The Past: Tracing the Echoes of History 6. Historical Parallels to October 7 The Crusaders Medieval Blood Libels Glorification of Horror Cossack Massacres Terror in Russia Terror in Ukraine Arab Terror, Then and Now The Role of Antisemitic Ideology Civilian Collaborators Raising German Youth to Kill Genocide Trophies 7. Universities and the Nazis Harvard Columbia MIT Yale George Washington University Isolationism on Campus Other Troubling Echoes 8. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Emergence of Secular Antisemitism Antisemitism in America Anti-Zionism, Then and Now Postwar Changes in Antisemitism The U.S. Government vs. Antisemitism Defining Antisemitism Facing the New Antisemitism BDS and Antisemitism Biden and Harris Break New Ground Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index