PRESS RELEASE: ISRAEL IS AT WAR

Press Release
October 8, 2023
Contact: Sarah Stern
(202) 601-7422
sstern@emetonline.org

ISRAEL IS AT WAR

(October 8, 2023, Washington, DC) – Yesterday, the peaceful calm of Shabbat and Simchat Torah was punctured by a well-orchestrated attack by Hamas terrorists, making it the bloodiest single day in Israel’s history. It is estimated that more than a hundred civilians, men, women, children, teenagers, the elderly and the handicapped were kidnapped, and paraded through the streets of Gaza.  We have no idea if they are being raped, tortured, dead or alive. Beyond that, over 600 people have been killed in that one single day, and over 2,000 wounded. And missiles emanating from Gaza have been launched from the sky into Israeli cities.

There is no doubt in our minds that these are barbarous attacks. Israel is fighting to defend its civilian population. Any notion of the “cycle of violence” is absurd. These are terrorists who have infiltrated into Israeli communities and have abducted Israeli civilians from their homes, butchering them on the roads and on bus stops, paragliding into an open-air dance festival in the desert and abducting young, innocent people.

While the events haven’t ended yet, this dark day marks an unprecedented tragedy in the history of Israel. This has been orchestrated by Iran, and all of its terrorist proxy groups, in a genocidal war against Israel and the Jewish people. And while mourning in shock and disbelief, we hope that this gives the world a glimpse of what many of Israel’s enemies and haters mean by “free Palestine”: the indiscriminate mass murder of Jews in their towns, streets, shops, and from their very own living rooms.

This is a test of good versus evil, and the United States must remain on the side of the good. We were very encouraged by President Biden’s statement, and know that now support is bipartisan, and we hope that people on both sides of the aisle will remember who is the arsonist and who is the firefighter.

This, as we, at EMET, have been saying for years, is a product of what the Palestinians have been taught in their schools, in their media, from the sermons from their imams. It is in the very oxygen that they breathe. Can any of us, therefore be surprised that they have raised a generation or two that wants to kill Jews?

We have no idea how this is going to end, but the reserves have been called up to the northern front, where Hezbollah is equipped with more than 150,000missiles, some of which have been converted into precision guided munitions.

We know that Iran has its fingerprints all over this operation.

EMET will be on Capitol Hill, ensuring that Israel is able to protect itself, by itself. Our goals will be:

· Helping Israel protect and defend its civilian population. They will need more iron-dome protection, particularly if, as we fear, more fronts will open up.

·  Supporting Israel in degrading and destroying the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas to ensure the safety and security of its citizens.

· Painfully and severely punishing the Islamic Republic of Iran, the global sponsor of terrorism, and preventing any attempt to ease or relieve sanctions.

· Forcing Qatar to choose between remaining a major non-NATO ally of the United States and hosting the Hamas leadership. Such support for terrorism must stop if Qatar still wants to pretend it is a member of the international polite society.

What happened yesterday was nothing short of a “pogrom” against the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

We pledge to work with every ounce of our being to ensure that this never happens again.

About The Endowment for Middle East Truth

Founded in 2005, EMET is a pro-American, pro-Israel, and pro-human rights, foreign policy think tank and policy shop in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.emetonline.org