It is uniquely challenging to address in neutral and objective terms the various legal, psychological, economic, and other implications and consequences of the brutal and cruel massacre of Israeli and foreign nationals carried out on October 7, 2023, by Hamas and other terror organizations based in the Gaza Strip. No less uniquely difficult is it to analyze the consequences and implications of the war between Israel and Hamas following the October 7 massacre.
Such consequences and implications are relevant both in the context of the actual fighting on the ground and in the wider context of the international legal, political, psychological, and economic repercussions, as well as in the incredible renaissance of mass, public antisemitism that has been flooding and continues to flood the Western world.
Therefore, the title of this compilation – “Israel Under Fire” – is intended to refer, both figuratively as well as literally, to the wide range of legal and other aspects emanating from the events and phenomena of the October 7 massacre and the ensuing war.
This includes, first and foremost, the total and utter inhumanity demonstrated by Hamas and other terrorists on October 7, 2023, and their violation of humanitarian norms, principles, and international conventions.
Such violations include the massive barrage of missiles fired indiscriminately against Israel’s civil population centers, the barbaric acts of murder and rape and the burning of families, and the taking of over 250 hostages. It includes the legal dilemmas facing Israel in dealing with terror groups embedded within and under the Gaza civilian population, using, as a matter of policy, homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, and international aid facilities as human shields.
The concept and title “Israel under Fire” relates in no less a manner to the concerted and blatant hostility against Israel within the international community, and chiefly within the United Nations and among its senior staff, including the Secretary-General himself, and in the refugee agency UNRWA, the staff and leadership of which has been actively involved in incitement against Israel and even in participation in the October 7 massacre.
The figurative aspect of the concept “Israel under Fire” covers the unprecedented renaissance of massive international antisemitism and hatred of Israel and Jews taking place on campuses and on the streets, principally in North America and Europe.
Motivating Factors
Any analysis of the various legal and other aspects surrounding Israel’s unique situation on October 7 would be incomplete without considering the deep-seated religious and political motivating factors behind and beneath the actual events.
The stark Iranian influence and pressure on its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas, Hizbullah, and the Houthi regime in Yemen, have played the most dominant role in fanning the flames of this war. Public pronouncements by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei supporting and inciting continued violence, Iran’s heavy financial and material involvement in providing weapons and weapons systems to its terror proxies have played, and continue to play, a central contributing factor to the war. Furthermore, the heavy Iranian encouragement, incitement, and financing of the wide range of antisemitic demonstrations in Europe and North America – all add to the complexities of this crisis.
An additional motivating factor includes the formally declared desire and intention of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations, in their respective national charters, to seek the utter annihilation of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people.
The echoing of such motivation and intentions in the mass calls by incited and ignorant demonstrators on the streets and campuses in Western countries, including calls of “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” is indicative of mass negation of Israel’s legitimate right to exist. This is no less evident in the extensive and elaborate propaganda and brain-washing in Western countries and on campuses, orchestrated, encouraged, heralded, and financed by the Iranian leadership with the often-willing support of elements hostile to Israel, especially in Europe.
A further major motivating factor is the manipulative, utterly false, and long-existing incentive created by fanatic Muslims and adopted by Hamas of a contrived and non-existent Israeli threat to destroy one of Islam’s holiest sites – the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The title given by the Hamas leadership to the October 7 massacre – “The Al-Aqsa Flood,” is indicative of the constant Muslim incitement using this theme. It gives rise to a need to clarify the role played by religion and such false incitement regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the events leading up to the October 7 massacre and the ensuing war.
Chapters of this Compilation
The following experts have contributed to this authoritative compilation of articles under the collective heading “Israel under Fire”:
1. Robert L. Mayer – The Attempt to Deny the Foundational Legal, Historic, and National Rights of the Jewish People.
This article addresses the unceasing attempts to delegitimize Israel and to negate the rights of the Jewish People, illuminating the foundational legal and historical rights underlying the Jewish people’s long struggle to establish their national home in the area.
2. Dan Diker, President of the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs – The Iranian Connection to the October 7 Massacre.
This article likens Iran’s involvement in every aspect of the war to an octopus with tentacles touching all the various aspects of the war, from ideological, tactical, strategic, financial, and military angles.
3. Prof. Nicholas Rostow – Israel’s Survival: Little Room to Maneuver.
This article analyzes Israel’s strategic and tactical challenges and difficulties in waging multi-dimensional, asymmetric warfare against an opponent who violates the most fundamental rule of distinctions in the battle between combatants and non-combatants and between military and civilian installations and structures.
It also analyzes the unique dilemma where every Israeli action is placed under a global microscope in the international environment, and Israel is inevitably blamed for the destructive consequences of Hamas’s illegal actions.
4. Amb. (ret.) Alan Baker – The War in Gaza: Can Contemporary International Law Cope with Today’s Terror?
International law is faced with the challenge as to how sovereign states, obligated by the customary and conventional rules of international humanitarian law, may engage in asymmetrical war with terror organizations embedded within the civilian population that purposely, and by definition, do not consider themselves bound by such rules and therefore can violate them.
The international community, geared to anachronistic conceptions of armed conflict, presumes to judge those fighting terror by such anachronistic criteria and standards rather than adapting itself to the new situations and challenges that they bring.
Under the guise of “national liberation movements” or “freedom fighters,” terror groups enjoy international respectability and acceptance, enabling them to gain political, legal, and financial legitimacy and support from some states’ international and regional organizations.
5. Anne Bayefsky – Anatomy of a UN Crime against Humanity
This article illuminates the UN’s role as the central vehicle for hijacking and perverting international law and the principles of universal human rights in the service of warfare and antisemitism, intending to deny Israel’s right to defend itself. It points to the various UN facilities and services that were connected to the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, as well as to the UN employees who were physically engaged in atrocity crimes.
For more than half a century, the United Nations and its international appendages have become engorged with a terrible—and lethal—combination of antisemitism, wealth, and global influence. Today, we bear witness to the perversion of law and human rights in the cause of the destruction of Jews and the Jewish state.
6. Rephael Ben-Ari and Dr. Shaul Sharf – UNRWA: Humanitarian Terrorism?
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is one of the largest UN programs, with over 30,000 personnel operating in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA has become susceptible to political manipulation, particularly by the Palestinian leadership, extremist groups, and some Arab (host) countries, which manipulate it and influence its performance. It has lost its credibility and even its legitimacy in the eyes of many of the main stakeholders in the region, in particular within Israel.
The lack of any serious accountability framework prevents the international community and donor states from scrutinizing UNRWA’s performance.
7. Amb. (ret.) Alan Baker – Religion in the Service of Barbarity: The “Al-Aqsa Flood” Slogan and the October 7 Massacre
The massacres of October 7, 2023, were committed in the name of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy site in Islam, while the cruel, brutal murders, rape, and burning alive of over one thousand people were carried out under the name of religion while blessing the creator.
This illuminates the inherent linkage between Islam and the call to violently eliminate Israel and the Jewish state in the name of the antiquated and discriminatory “status quo” on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
The article stresses the inherent dichotomy between the archaic “status quo,” still recognized and acknowledged by the international community, and its acute undermining of accepted humanitarian norms of freedom of worship.
8. Prof. Talia Einhorn – Israel’s Legal Rights Regarding Settlements
This chapter analyzes from an international law perspective the legality of settlements in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, deriving from the historical, indigenous, and legal rights of the Jewish people to settle in those areas, as validated in international documents.
Denying such rights is tantamount to denying Jews’ ties to their biblical and historical homeland, precisely those ties that have been recognized in these international documents.
9. Lt. Col. (ret.) Maurice Hirsch – Detention, Prosecution, and Punishment following the October 7 Massacre
This chapter discusses the legal frameworks and complexities associated with detaining, prosecuting, and punishing those who invaded Israel and conducted a heinous massacre.
It offers an overview of the relevant provisions of Israeli law, the laws applicable in Judea and Samaria, and, where necessary, references to international law.
A substantial factor complicating any legal action and due punishment against the terrorists, including a consideration of the possibility of capital punishment, is the fact that Hamas is holding 115 hostages, living and dead, in captivity.
10. Gerald Steinberg – NGO Warfare: From Human Rights Watch to Campus Mobs
This article highlights the central role in the international anti-Israel campaign by the extensive NGO network, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, and others. This campaign is also fueling the campus-based anti-Israel and antisemitic mob violence that has accompanied the terror attacks launched on October 7.
Such influential NGOs claiming to promote universal human rights and moral principles are the engines that drive lawfare campaigns, including the 21st-century blood libels of genocide and starvation, adopted by the UN, the ICC, and the ICJ and manipulated to attract liberal students and faculty. They seek to deprive Israel of the fundamental right to self-defense against brutal enemies seeking its destruction.
The article analyzes over two decades of the NGOs’ biases, hypocrisy, and propaganda, amplified by the UN, journalists, academics, and Western political officials.
11. Irwin J. Mansdorf, PhD – Assessing the Damage: How the Events of October 7, 2023, Have Conditioned the Israeli Psyche
This article reviews the significant emotional and behavioral impact on the Israeli public of the October 7 attack on Israel and its aftermath, leading to an increased need for psychological intervention.
It concentrates on internal distress among the Israeli public due to the often personal or family involvement in the war. It analyzes the distress emanating from external factors and threats, international criticism – even from allies – and accusations of genocide in judicial bodies.
The psychological effects of the street and campus demonstrations and the revival of massive international antisemitism have created a feeling of isolation and opprobrium among the Israeli public, with many Israelis experiencing a siege mentality.
12. Economist David Brodet – Israel’s Economy in War and its Aftermath
The article deals with the main economic developments since the war in the areas of macroeconomics, the cost of the war, the budget, the labor market, the economy’s industries, and the financial system.
It analyzes the risks that have challenged the Israeli economy, their significance, and future challenges.
