Three years, familiar fears on 10/7 anniversary
Plus, the freshmen of Oct. 7 are seniors now
Add JewishInsider on GoogleGood Wednesday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we look at how Israel’s security landscape has changed in the three years since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, interview former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel and Shoshan Haran, and talk to Jewish college seniors about how the events of Oct. 7 and ensuing war in Gaza shaped their university experiences. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Sen. Chris Coons, Kevin Roberts and Danielle Bernstein.
Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss, with assists from Tamara Zieve and Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
Today’s Agenda
Today marks the three-year anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks. In Israel and around the world, communities will mark the day with solemn ceremonies and memorials. Ceremonies on individual kibbutzim and at the site of the Nova music festival began as early as 6:29 a.m. local time, marking the minute that the attacks began three years ago.
Meanwhile, some will be marking the anniversary by protesting against the Jewish state, including on several college campuses and at New York City Hall, where anti-Israel groups including PAL-Awda, Within Our Lifetime and the youth chapter of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America are promoting a rally with a flyer that features the phrase, “Glory to the martyrs, victory to the resistance.”
Former hostages will be speaking at events marking the day. In Israel, Eli Sharabi is co-hosting a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv, where he will be joined by other former hostages. In New York, Omer Shem Tov is slated to speak tonight at Yeshiva University, while Or Levy will address a commemoration ceremony on Long Island. Eliya Cohen and his wife, Nova survivor Ziv Abud, are speaking in Boston, and Yosef Chaim Ohana, along with Nova survivor Daniel Sharabi, is speaking at a community memorial in Denver. In France, Omri Miran will speak at the European Union’s official commemoration event.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch vowed that “Jewish institutions will not be left to protect themselves without a strong partner in the NYPD” amid the demonstrations.
Mamdani, for his part, is slated to attend an Oct. 7 vigil today before meeting with Palestinian New Yorkers, according to his official schedule.
One Thing To Know
ANALYSIS
This year, three years since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks, Israelis are marking the first anniversary in which no hostages remain in Gaza. Daily life has shifted to a new phase: one in which fewer reservists are being called up, Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square sits quiet on Saturday nights and Israelis tuning into the evening news normally see something other than war — usually election coverage.
Israelis now face a reckoning on the heels of last week’s FlyDubai attempted hijacking and ahead of the first election since Israel’s south was invaded by thousands of terrorists. The questions that loomed in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks regarding the security of Israelis and the key role the government plays in that security are again front and center.
The terror attack on a FlyDubai flight bound for Israel, foiled by a miraculous set of events and the bravery of the Indian captain and Israelis on board, serves as a reminder of the threats that Israelis still face — and of the ways in which the institutions designed to protect them failed their societal covenant to do so.
The Big Reads
lessons learned?
On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel, the Jewish state’s borders are more secure, but there are still dangers looming and lessons to be learned, according to military and national security analysts. Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on Tuesday that Israel “is in a better place in terms of its security. Kinetically, militarily, in counterterrorism and on the battlefield, we are in a much better place,” he said. “We have defensible borders. That’s an important point. It’s not only in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], but we have them 10 kilometers deep into Lebanon, security zones in [Syria] up to 20 kilometers, and some strategic depth in Gaza. We have multi-border strategic depth that we need to survive, and a consensus that we’re not going anywhere.”
life after captivity
Keith Siegel was held captive by Hamas for 484 days. Of those, 433 were spent apart from his wife, Aviva, who was taken hostage with him but released after 51 days in captivity. “Every day counts,” he was quick to point out on Tuesday, when he and Aviva met with Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss in Tel Aviv ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. “Maybe every hour.” In part to deal with the trauma of her abduction and ordeal in Gaza, Aviva wrote a book about her experiences, Survived to Tell: A Hostage’s True Story of October 7 and 51 Days in Captivity. “I remember thinking, ‘I have to leave all these words for our grandchildren, because if Keith doesn’t come home, and he might never ever come home alive, that they’ll be able to read the love between us and how amazing Keith was,’” Aviva reflected.
Next chapter: On the third anniversary of the attacks, and with every hostage either returned alive or brought home for burial, Kibbutz Be’eri survivor Shoshan Haran, who was, like the Siegels, taken hostage, is allowing herself to think about what comes next. “This is the first anniversary that we can start looking at the future,” she told JI’s Haley Cohen. Her new memoir, Mission in Captivity: One Woman’s Struggle to Survive and Save Her Family in Gaza, is part of that next chapter — an effort to document what she experienced, mourn what she lost and make her voice heard about the events of Oct. 7 and their aftermath.
campus chronicles
Seven months after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, Erica Ho stood beneath a Chabad tent on Harvard’s campus and became a bat mitzvah on her 20th birthday. Growing up in Albuquerque, N.M., with a Chinese father and Jewish mother, Ho lived miles away from the nearest synagogue and felt disconnected from the local Jewish community. For Ho and other members of the college class that arrived on campus just weeks before Oct. 7 — most of whom are now seniors — the three years since have become a defining chapter of their Jewish lives. As the third anniversary of Oct. 7 approached, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen spoke with three Jewish students who entered college weeks before the attacks.
The Rundown
education consternation
survey says
speaking out
fundraiser fallout
chesapeake challenge
On Our Radar
● The Live Briefing. Word on the street, clips, podcasts and quick updates — the items we’re tracking all day in our Live Briefing on the app (on Apple and Android) and website.
The White House stood by comments made by President Donald Trump on Monday that Iran could “take out” major California cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego; Trump’s comments prompted condemnation from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials…
Vice President JD Vance said that Iran would have to make a “meaningful” change to its enrichment capacity in order to reach an accord with the U.S. to end the war, adding, “If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue”…
During Maine’s Senate debate last night, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she supports continued aid at current levels to Israel, while Democratic challenger Troy Jackson said he does not want “any more offensive weapons going to murder people in Palestine”; he added that he believed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a “war criminal, but Sen. Collins likes him”…
The Cook Political Report shifted its ratings of three key Senate races — in Kansas, New Hampshire and North Carolina — to further favor Democrats…
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, who had previously defended far-right commentator Tucker Carlson over his friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes — prompting a series of resignations from the right-wing think tank — told The New Yorker in an exposé on Heritage that he now believes Carlson is “exacerbating antisemitism in America”…
The Wall Street Journal profiles WeWoreWhat founder Danielle Bernstein, who has amassed a large social media following even as she has courted controversies that have garnered her the tabloid nickname “America’s most hated influencer”…
Politico profiles Berlin mayoral candidate Elif Eralp, whose Left Party has galvanized younger supporters even as it faces antisemitic incidents within the party; media have dubbed Eralp the “Berlin Mamdani,” owing to her progressive politics and campaign style, which were influenced by political consultant and Mamdani advisor Morris Katz, who is also advising Eralp…
The New York Times spotlights former hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, twins from Kibbutz Kfar Aza who were among the last living hostages to be released, as they adjust to life post-captivity…
The Wall Street Journal interviews young Americans who chose to immigrate to Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks…
British Airways is set to resume daily nonstop flights between London and Israel on Oct. 25…
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen struck two airports in Saudi Arabia overnight amid a Riyadh-backed effort by Yemen’s internationally recognized government to retake areas claimed by the Houthis…
Counterterrorism officials in the U.K. arrested a seventh man in connection with an investigation into a security incident near the country’s RAF Fairford base, which had been used by the U.S. during its operations against Iran…
Actor Eva Marie Saint, known for her role in “Exodus,” died at 102…
Worthy Reads
Find more Worthy Reads in our Live Briefing via our app (on Apple and Android) and website.
Foreign Influence Peddling: In The Washington Post, Sander Gerber and Eugene Kontorovich argue that the government has a role to play in addressing covert foreign influence operations on social media. “Most of us calibrate our opinions at least in part by watching our neighbors. When a foreign government floods our Instagram feed with counterfeit neighbors, real citizens see a consensus that may not exist — and subconsciously adjust toward it. The deception lies in trying to pass off foreign (and often foreign-based) — and perhaps not even human — messages as apple-pie American.” [WashPost]
Seeing Red Over the Greens: In The Free Press, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair raises concerns about the rise of the country’s Green Party, amid its vote over the weekend in favor of a single Palestinian state. “For most of its history, the Green Party was a party on the margins. Today it is a significant force in British politics. It won its best-ever results in this year’s local elections, and its membership has almost tripled. And it has moved itself, and many of its supporters and sympathizers, from condemnation of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war to a full-on denial of the State of Israel’s right to exist.” [FreePress]
Coons’ New Tune on Israel: Politico’s Daniella Cheslow looks at Sen. Chris Coons’ (D-DE) political evolution on Israel in the three years since the Oct. 7 attacks as he positions himself to assume control of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if Democrats flip the Senate. “Coons depicted his approach as providing moral clarity to an ally in an uneasy time. Oct. 7, Coons said, made Israelis ‘dramatically more concerned about security and less willing to tolerate or engage in conversations about a two-state solution or a path towards peace with Palestinians.’” [Politico]
Picture of the Day
Birthdays
Matthew Sklar, composer for musical theater on Broadway and the West End, television and film, turns 53
JOHN NACION/GETTY IMAGES
Robert Ian Kaufelt, former owner of Murray’s Cheese, the nation’s leading purveyor of artisanal cheese, turns 79
Allan Nelkin, retired chairman and CEO of Halco Lighting Technologies
Margery Nyberg, Highland Park, Ill., resident
Barry Curtiss-Lusher, co-founder, chair and former CEO of energy company Nexus BSP, he is a former national chair of the Anti-Defamation League, turns 75
Jill Smith, former chair of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women and chair of the Prize Committee of the Genesis Prize Foundation, turns 73
Bruce Lawrence Bialosky, founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, turns 73
Ron Vosatka, former deputy director of community security at the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County
Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, entrepreneur and political activist, he co-founded the Israel Policy Forum in 1993, turns 71
Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, he served as assistant secretary of education in the Trump administration, turns 60
Eli Saulson, president of Detroit’s Imperial Management and a board member of the William Davidson Foundation
Gabriele Corcos, creator, host and producer of “Extra Virgin” on the Cooking Channel, turns 54
Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Closter, N.J.
Arie Lipnick, political fundraiser and strategist, advisory board chairman of the Combat Antisemitism Movement
Michael Malchieli, member of the Knesset for the Shas party and former minister of religious affairs, turns 44
Natalie Lascar Lefkowitz, SVP of the leadership institute at AIPAC
Adam Teitelbaum, founder of Level III Industries after holding roles at the Jewish Federations of North America, AIPAC and AEPi
Daniel Mael, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based MW Impressions
Tayla Harris, executive assistant for global client operations at WPP
Barbara Martinez, an original Politico staffer, now a manager of editorial and content strategy for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Sam Schear, principal on the real estate team at Korn Ferry
Tamara Harel-Cohen, co-founder and chief growth officer at Riseup
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
Please log in if you already have a subscription, or subscribe to access the latest updates.
Continue with Google
Continue with Apple