From Music To Death On October 7th
A Graveyard Of Cars Hides Thousands Of Horrific Stories & Events
Sometimes, I genuinely believe humanity is afflicted with short-term memory loss. Events that took place just a month ago are relegated into the dust heap of not-applicable, or “that was then, but we are talking about now,” as if thirty days turns one into an ancient creature.
The October 7th war, as it is now being referred to by many in Israel and outside of it as 10/7, for the apparent connection to 9/11 in symbology, is still going full steam. Just yesterday, the Pope mentioned it in his traditional Christmas speech and alluded to events on both sides of the fence.
But the narrative for the outside world seems to have begun to turn. No, I am not going to discuss the racists, idiotic students, professors, or members of Congress. I will discuss them in future post articles as I have done.
**If you do not see the entire post in your email, as it has many photos and some videos, please go to The View From Israel on Substack or the website to see it in its entirety.
This piece is about the 24-hour news cycle and our proven short-term memory.
So today, if you will allow me, I would like to back up almost 3 months to the morning hours of October 7th and those first few hours of the Hamas attack.
Today, I want to travel back to 10/7 and the aftermath. And just to one place. The peace concert (rave) that took place near Kibbutz Re'im.
Of course, there is a great deal of news to cover. Yet, I have noticed that each piece of news seems to be treated as an independent block, with no past and a 24-hour future.
Visuals are always the best, so I am going to present many visuals from the original concert where Hamas attacked, killed, and grabbed hostages. I think these visuals may impact readers as to exactly what happened and the aftermath.
Do not worry. None of these visuals depict the horrific acts that occurred (except one video - which I marked with a specific trigger warning). I was careful about this.
First, let us look at the map. It is critical in this case.
Now let us look at the map of what was attacked that day. This is just for understanding of what you will see below.
Once you have your compass, as it were, we can go to the rave itself, billed as a celebration of “friends, love, and infinite freedom.”
To explain what you are looking at, I will borrow from Wikipedia and elsewhere.1
Supernova Sukkot Gathering was a weekend-long outdoor trance music festival that began on 6 October 2023 and was produced by an organizer called Nova (also referred to as Tribe of Nova). It was the Israeli edition (pre-festival event) of Universo Paralello, a psytrance festival started 23 years prior in Bahia, Brazil. It took place in the western Negev desert, approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) from the Gaza–Israel barrier, near kibbutz Re'im. The line-up included artists well-known in the psytrance scene, such as Astral Projection and Man With No Name. The organizers switched to the site only two days before, after the original location in southern Israel did not work out. Scheduled to coincide with Jewish holidays: the final day of Sukkot (6 October) and Simchat Torah (7 October), the rave was billed as a celebration of "friends, love and infinite freedom". The festival site had three stages, a camping zone, and an area with a bar and food. Attendees described the crowd as mostly consisting of Israelis of ages 20–40 from across the country. Attendance was reported to be 3,500 but figures vary. Security guards and police were present at the festival.
I think it is important to note that October 6th was the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, according to English Dates. This is eerie or planned. I do not believe in coincidence. Precisely fifty years to the day this attack began.
So what happened? Well, I can explain the events of that day, as I have done in many of my Newsletter posts and on the podcast, but let us leave that to Wikipedia. (I am on purpose using Wikipedia here, and not the official Israel announcements or posts, to avoid the argument that I am presenting a specific side.) In all cases, I think the visuals will speak for themselves.
On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas initiated a surprise invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded by Hamas at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival celebrating the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. At least 40 hostages were also taken. This mass killing had the largest number of casualties out of a number of massacres targeting Israeli civilians in settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, that occurred as part of the 7 October invasion, alongside those at the settlements of Netiv HaAsara, Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz and Holit.
At 6:30 am around sunrise, rockets were noticed in the sky. Around 7:00 am, a siren warned of an incoming rocket attack, prompting festivalgoers to flee. Subsequently, armed militants, dressed in military attire and using motorcycles, trucks and powered paragliders, surrounded the festival grounds and indiscriminately fired on individuals attempting to escape. Attendees seeking refuge in nearby locations, such as bomb shelters, bushes, and orchards, were killed while in hiding. Those who reached the road and parking were trapped in a traffic jam as militants fired at vehicles. The militants executed some wounded individuals at point-blank range as they crouched on the ground.
The details of the whereabouts and condition of the hostages are not publicly known. The massacre at the festival was the largest terror attack in Israel's history, and the worst Israeli civilian massacre ever.
So at 6:30 AM on 10/7, we went from the photograph above and this one to what you will see below.
From Rolling Stone:
‘They Wanted to Dance in Peace. And They Got Slaughtered’
This is how it began, taken from a video of someone at the concert.
Now let us jump to how it ended.
Hiding from Hamas
Hamas terrorist chases and kills women near Nova music festival during October 7 attacks - Trigger Warning Here!
And now the aftermath:
The famous lady in the red shirt who escaped:
Watch the first second of this video to see this woman. The rest of the video is the attack itself.
Here, she is explaining what happened.
Let us now look at the actual aftermath:
This is not an ordinary vehicle graveyard.
Please look at that picture carefully. These are all the vehicles attacked and destroyed by Hamas. In every single vehicle, some people were hurt or killed or taken hostage. This should give you a visual of the extent of what actually happened.
There is nothing more to be said. If you still do not understand why Israel will not stop until Hamas is eradicated, you will never understand.
Bear in mind this is just one place that was attacked. It by no means paints the extent of the entire attack and massacre.
No. We will not forget. We will not forgive.
Maybe you will rethink. Maybe you will understand. Maybe you will stop pulling down posters and rethink your position.
Or maybe you think Jews and Israelis should all die.
This is the visual. You decide.
Re'im music festival massacre. (2023, December 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re%27im_music_festival_massacre
Thank you for your essay and for bearing witness.
Thank you for putting this together. People need to see many more posts and visuals like this