The Road to October 7
Hamas, the Holocaust, and the Eternal War Against the Jews
Published on 1. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-8276-1574-8 (ISBN)
Description
The Road to October 7 examines what paved the way for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and its aftermath.
Part 1, "The Present," documents the Hamas invasion, the rise of Hamas, the education of Palestinian Arab children to hate and kill, the diplomatic decisions that helped enable the attack, and the propagation of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish libels.
Part 2, "The Past," analyzes how in both method and ideology, the Hamas assault echoed the pogroms in medieval Europe, Czarist Russia, and Ukraine; the Holocaust; and a century of Palestinian Arab terrorism. It also examines select American universities' cultivation of friendly relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s (the same universities that tolerated pro-Hamas protests after October 7) and October 7 as a turning point in the long history of antisemitism.
Readers will emerge with important insights on the Hamas attack, antisemitic education in Palestinian Arab society, pro-Hamas groups on U.S. campuses, the responses of women's and human rights organizations to mass sexual violence, misconceptions and fabrications about Israel's conduct in the ensuing war, and why October 7 needs to be viewed as one segment of both the century-long Palestinian Arab war and the centuries-old international war against the Jewish people.
Part 1, "The Present," documents the Hamas invasion, the rise of Hamas, the education of Palestinian Arab children to hate and kill, the diplomatic decisions that helped enable the attack, and the propagation of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish libels.
Part 2, "The Past," analyzes how in both method and ideology, the Hamas assault echoed the pogroms in medieval Europe, Czarist Russia, and Ukraine; the Holocaust; and a century of Palestinian Arab terrorism. It also examines select American universities' cultivation of friendly relations with Nazi Germany in the 1930s (the same universities that tolerated pro-Hamas protests after October 7) and October 7 as a turning point in the long history of antisemitism.
Readers will emerge with important insights on the Hamas attack, antisemitic education in Palestinian Arab society, pro-Hamas groups on U.S. campuses, the responses of women's and human rights organizations to mass sexual violence, misconceptions and fabrications about Israel's conduct in the ensuing war, and why October 7 needs to be viewed as one segment of both the century-long Palestinian Arab war and the centuries-old international war against the Jewish people.
Reviews / Votes
"Compelling reading for anyone who believes in the security of the State of Israel."-Seymour D. Reich, former chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and past president of B'nai B'rith International "I cannot imagine a more important book for the Jewish community and indeed all human rights advocates than this brilliant volume."-Neil J. Kressel, author of Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror "A champion of Jewish memory and an expert on the Jews' abandonment during the Holocaust, Rafael Medoff confronts the Hamas attack, the global explosion of antisemitism, and the historical lessons that can help guide the Jewish future."-Walter Reich, former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum "Even politically hostile readers will have a hard time contesting the conclusions in Rafael Medoff's extensively researched, methodical, data-driven, and accessible volume. It should be read by everyone who wants to understand October 7 in historical context."-Eunice G. Pollack, coeditor of the Encyclopedia of American Jewish HistoryMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Philadelphia
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 227 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8276-1574-8 (9780827615748)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and coeditor of the institute's online Encyclopedia of America's Response to the Holocaust. He has written more than twenty books, including The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust (JPS, 2019) and America and the Holocaust: A Documentary History (JPS, 2022).
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. The Present: Understanding October 7 and Its Aftermath
1. In the Cities of Slaughter The Ideology behind October 7
Attack on the Music Festival
Devastation of Towns and Kibbutzim
How They Died
The Collaborators
Sexual Violence
Parading the Hostages
Abuse of the Hostages
"In the City of Slaughter" 2. The Rise and Strategy of Hamas Jews and Muslims in Gaza
Terror from Gaza, Then and Now
Islam and the Jews
The Birth of Palestinian Nationalism
New Audiences for Mein Kampf
The Birth of Hamas
Hamas Terror
Hamas in Power
Military Challenges after October 7
Terror Centers in Universities and Hospitals 3. Killers Are Made, Not Born Jihad Education in Schools
UNRWA's Hate Education
Matriculation and Martyrdom
PA Responses to Curricula Criticism
Schools Named after Killers
Hateful TV and Video
Extracurricular Activities Promoting Terrorism
Martyr Games
Summer Camps of Terror
Terrorist Role Models for Girls
Raising Martyrs
Aspiring to Martyrdom 4. The War on the Truth Staged Disruptions
October 7 Denial
Blood Libels, Old and New
The Gaza Genocide Blood Libel
The Famine Lie
Truth as Casualty: World War II Lessons
Feminists Excusing Hamas Rapes
Human Wrongs by Human Rights Advocates 5. The War on Campus Students for Justice in Palestine
Jewish Students Assaulted
How Universities Responded
Harvard
Columbia
MIT
Yale
George Washington University
University of Pennsylvania
Showdown in Congress
The Second Explosion
Ignorant Protesters
Tent Encampments and Student Demands
Appeasing Extremism
Fizzled Protests
The First Anniversary
Addressing the Problem Part 2: The Past: Tracing the Echoes of History
6. Historical Parallels to October 7 The Crusaders
Medieval Blood Libels
Glorification of Horror
Cossack Massacres
Terror in Russia
Terror in Ukraine
Arab Terror, Then and Now
The Role of Antisemitic Ideology
Civilian Collaborators
Raising German Youth to Kill
Genocide Trophies 7. Universities and the Nazis Harvard
Columbia
MIT
Yale
George Washington University
Isolationism on Campus
Other Troubling Echoes 8. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Emergence of Secular Antisemitism
Antisemitism in America
Anti-Zionism, Then and Now
Postwar Changes in Antisemitism
The U.S. Government vs. Antisemitism
Defining Antisemitism
Facing the New Antisemitism
BDS and Antisemitism
Biden and Harris Break New Ground Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Part 1. The Present: Understanding October 7 and Its Aftermath
1. In the Cities of Slaughter The Ideology behind October 7
Attack on the Music Festival
Devastation of Towns and Kibbutzim
How They Died
The Collaborators
Sexual Violence
Parading the Hostages
Abuse of the Hostages
"In the City of Slaughter" 2. The Rise and Strategy of Hamas Jews and Muslims in Gaza
Terror from Gaza, Then and Now
Islam and the Jews
The Birth of Palestinian Nationalism
New Audiences for Mein Kampf
The Birth of Hamas
Hamas Terror
Hamas in Power
Military Challenges after October 7
Terror Centers in Universities and Hospitals 3. Killers Are Made, Not Born Jihad Education in Schools
UNRWA's Hate Education
Matriculation and Martyrdom
PA Responses to Curricula Criticism
Schools Named after Killers
Hateful TV and Video
Extracurricular Activities Promoting Terrorism
Martyr Games
Summer Camps of Terror
Terrorist Role Models for Girls
Raising Martyrs
Aspiring to Martyrdom 4. The War on the Truth Staged Disruptions
October 7 Denial
Blood Libels, Old and New
The Gaza Genocide Blood Libel
The Famine Lie
Truth as Casualty: World War II Lessons
Feminists Excusing Hamas Rapes
Human Wrongs by Human Rights Advocates 5. The War on Campus Students for Justice in Palestine
Jewish Students Assaulted
How Universities Responded
Harvard
Columbia
MIT
Yale
George Washington University
University of Pennsylvania
Showdown in Congress
The Second Explosion
Ignorant Protesters
Tent Encampments and Student Demands
Appeasing Extremism
Fizzled Protests
The First Anniversary
Addressing the Problem Part 2: The Past: Tracing the Echoes of History
6. Historical Parallels to October 7 The Crusaders
Medieval Blood Libels
Glorification of Horror
Cossack Massacres
Terror in Russia
Terror in Ukraine
Arab Terror, Then and Now
The Role of Antisemitic Ideology
Civilian Collaborators
Raising German Youth to Kill
Genocide Trophies 7. Universities and the Nazis Harvard
Columbia
MIT
Yale
George Washington University
Isolationism on Campus
Other Troubling Echoes 8. Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Emergence of Secular Antisemitism
Antisemitism in America
Anti-Zionism, Then and Now
Postwar Changes in Antisemitism
The U.S. Government vs. Antisemitism
Defining Antisemitism
Facing the New Antisemitism
BDS and Antisemitism
Biden and Harris Break New Ground Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index