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Driving down there was pretty open until Highway 232 where traffic was a bit backed up. Highway 232 became known as the Road of blood or the Road of Death, in the ocntext of October 7. A lot of the massacre happened on 232 with the terrorists attacking the Nova festival at the more southern side and going north towards Kibbutz Beeri, attacking cars with automatic weapons and RPG and just horrible bloodshed everywhere along that route. Obviously driving down and seeing the road signs pointing to the various towns and communities whose names we are all familiar because of how they were attacked 3 years ago was surreal. The road was lined with the protective shelters that were very much part of the events of October 3 as people tried to hide in them but they became sitting ducks for the terrorists. The road was lined with ad hoc memorials as well.

After a bit of traffic we made it to Reim and went in. I must note it has changed a lot since I was last there (dont know if the changes are recent - I have been there a few times but not recently). First, the road there is no longer a dirt road but has been paved. New displays and presentations have been established with a lot of signage both giving directions and giving the stories and events of the day. There are displays of the yellow trash bin people tried hiding in but most were eventually massacred, exhibitof the police who fell trying to protect the civilians, the people who died in the destroyed ambulance, obviously the party goers, and more. There was a tefillin stand present along with the main tent in which a religious scribe spends his time writing sifrei torah in honor of the soldiers and in memory of the victims.

We walked through much of the site and the presentations learning and listening. There were a lot of people there today, obviously, including many family members of victims. We listened to parents tell the stories of their kids and listened to other people (we didnt necessarily know who they were) who were guiding groups or just describing the events to individuals.

After leaving Reim we stopped on the 232 heading north at a migunit, one of the enforced roadside shelters that became a killing site 3 years ago. 

From there we continued a little further north and visited the Tatzpitaniot Memorial site - the site honoring the IDF spotters who were slaughtered. The site overlooks Nachal Oz and sits between Saad and Beeri, Kfar Azza and Alumim. 

The spotters were stationed in the Nachal Oz Army outpost and it was overrun by some 150 terrorists. The tatzpitaniot are a particularly tragic story as in the months preceding October 7 they had warned their superiors of the activities they were viewing just over the border on the Gaza said but their warnings and concerns were dismissed.

Hashem Yikom Damam

 

  -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a State memorial for the victims of the Oct 7 War

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An event has been arranged to celebrate Simchat Torah at the site of the Nova festival that turned into a massacre, as Simchat Torah (aka Shmini Atzeret, especially here in Israel where this is the primary name of the day) is the yahrtzeit of those killed at the Nova festival 3 years ago.

Some survivors and families of victims are opposed to holding such a celebration at the Nova memorial site. 

Eran Littman, father of Oriya Littman Ricardo, who was killed at the Nova festival during the massacre, thinks this event should not happen (at this location) - to go make a celebratory event with dancing and camping out for two days at a place where our children were murdered is not appropriate and is not a celebration of life or appropriate behavior. 

Littman stresses, nobody would dare think of celebrating Simchat Torah by arranging dancing at Yad Vashem. Nobodygoes to Har Herzl and dances there. 

This is in bad taste.

source: Kan

What do you think? Is it inappropriate to celebrate at that specific place which has become a memorial site? Is it appropriate to do it specifically there to show them (Gaza? the world? terrorists in general?) that we won, that we celebrate life?

Let me know what you think

shkoyach Boy George!

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The family of fallen soldier Moshe Noll walks from their house in RBS through what has become the traditional flag escort flanked by Rabbis, community leaders and community members, on their way to the funeral of Moshe

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I dont know why now and not earlier, I dont know what he said while there (though I saw he met with some freed hostages and family members of still-held hostages), but it is good he finally went to visit the community. 

Better late than never.

I think the people who stood outside and screamed insults at him were wrong (though well within their rights) for doing so - they screamed for the past nearly two years at him for not coming to visit the community and now that he finally went they scream at him for not having come earlier. 

Of course he was wrong for not going earlier, but he finally went and that is a good and important move, maybe even towards some reconciliation.

That is a good thing.

I do find it humorous though that the government is demanding the IDF hurry up and finish its own investigation into the events of October 7 while the government itself has done nothing but delay even starting an investigation because it does not want to either learn the lessons of what happened or bear the responsibility for what happened.

Al-Dhaya said that they should not have perpetrated the attack so as not to destroy the lives of the affected people. They should not have attacked. Further, Hamas had committed to distancing the fighting from the local civilians and to distribute aid and security in various forms. The Koran and Suna, Dr Al Dhaya says, lay out the conditions for jihad and in jihad one is supposed to avoid actions that will cause an exaggerated and disproportionate response from the enemy that will create a response more costly than the benefits of the jihad.

source: N12

The good cleric better watch himself, considering he just issued a psak against Hamas...

That being said, despite this psak being against Hamas, he isnt perturbed by the brutal massacre and horrors perpetrated by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians. He is only upset at them for having caused Israel to respond disproportionately and hurt Palestinian civilians. 

On the eve of the 25th, this year will be October 26 at night, a Motzei Shabbos, the Day of Mourning will begin at 7:45pm. Flags will be flown at half mast. On the 25th of Tishrei, October 27, educational institutions will be instructed to spend some time having memorial ceremonies, as will army units. All places of entertainment will be closed - theaters, cafes, restaurants, etc. 

There will be a State ceremony on the Day of Mourning, in cooperation with all four symbols of the State - the Prime Minister, the President, the Speaker of the Knesset, and the President (in this case the interim President) of the Supreme Court.

No siren will be sounded.

The Day of Mourning will conclude at sundown.

I understand some people are good with this and some want different aspects of it changed...

Personally, I have no problem with the form of memorialization and I think a Day of Mourning is a natural outcome for the event that is being memorialized (nor do I have a problem with Miri Regev running the show, as some people do). However, like the Oct 7 State (not private), "official" ceremonies, I think this should wait until after the war. I dont understand the idea of commemorating an event we are still in. We are commemorating the soldiers who fell in a war we are still in the middle of? On the 26th or 27th of Tishrei or the 5th of Cheshvan, or whenever, more soldier will, god forbid and bite my tongue, fall in battle in a war that was already commemorated? Just last week they announced one of the hostages was actually killed on October 7th - in a month maybe they will say that about another, and we already commemorated the murdered on the 25th of Tishrei? 

It does not make sense to me. Finish the war and the following year on the 25th of Tishrei commemorate it. 

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Obviously there are laws and everyone has to follow them. I am not privy to the evidence for or against whatever is claimed they did so I am not going to comment on their innocence or guilt. 

However.

However.

October 7, 2023 was an outrageous day, a chaotic day, a day of fear and adrenaline. A day the government and the IDF took 8-10 hours before responding. A day that private citizens from all around the country grabbed a personal weapon, if anything, and drove down south to fight the terrorists and save lives while the government and IDF did nothing. Private citizens, amidst overwhelming chaos and fear, with no organization, with perhaps not enough knowledge of laws and/or ability to evaluate the situation.

I don't know what they did or did not do. If it is clear and obvious that they were just murdering terrorists already in captivity, that is one thing and that situation has to be stopped. if it was not so clear and there is room to think the terrorists might still have been a threat in some way, the authorities should approach this differently. These were unusual and exceptional circumstances. The authorities should be saying thank you to all those people who went in and filled the void and prevented the situation from being even worse than it was. If there is any room for leniency, any way to see that the situation at the time was unclear and uncertain, they should be treated with the utmost leniency

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Exceptional times calls for exceptional measures. Unusual times calls for unusual measures.

Yarin Shriki, a survivor of the Nova massacre, won the gold medal today at the Ju Jitsu Grand Prix competition in Paris today. Congratulations! and he uses the opportunity to memorialize the victims of the October 7 massacre and specifically his friend

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Sorry, or maybe not. 

The Palestinian government of Hamas didnt respect our holiday and attacked us on it. I do not really see any reason to press pause just because they have a holiday now. If they want us to press pause they can send back our brothers and sisters that are being held hostage in their tunnels and then maybe we'll give them a holiday vacation from the war.