Marking One Year Since the October 7 Attacks

Happy Monday. It’s been a bleak week—with tragic scenes out of Appalachia, where the recovery is only just beginning after Hurricane Helene swept through—and it’s a grim day, as we remember the victims of Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack one year ago today. 

Amid the darkness, we were uplifted by this beautiful rendition of  “Amazing Grace” played Saturday by the combined marching bands of rivals North Carolina State and Wake Forest universities as a tribute to their fellow North Carolinians whose homes were devastated by flooding.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck a mosque and school in an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, saying terrorists were using it as a “command and control complex.” According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, the Israeli airstrike killed 26 people and injured 93 others—though it did not distinguish between civilian and terrorist casualties. The IDF confirmed the airstrike on Sunday—acknowledging the targeted area was “previously used” as a school—and said the IDF took “many steps” to reduce harm to the civilian population, including the use of precision weaponry. “The terrorist organization Hamas systematically violates international law, brutally exploiting civilian institutions and the population as human shields for terrorist acts,” an IDF spokesperson added. 
• Meanwhile, Israel’s air force struck targets in Beirut and in the Lebanese capital’s surrounding suburbs on Saturday night and into Sunday as IDF soldiers continued with their ground mission in southern Lebanon. The U.S. State Department on Friday confirmed that Kamel Ahmad Jawad—a Michigan resident who was killed by an Israeli air strike in Lebanon last week—was a U.S. citizen. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called Jawad’s death a “horrific tragedy.” 
• Citing a Lebanese security official, Reuters reported Sunday that Hashem Safieddine—a senior leader of Hezbollah and a potential candidate to lead the organization following the death of the terrorist group’s previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah—has been unreachable since Friday. Axios had reported on Friday that the IDF targeted Safieddine in an airstrike on Wednesday, but Israeli sources were unsure if the terrorist leader—who was reportedly sheltered in an underground bunker—survived the attack. Meanwhile, the IDF announced on Friday that its forces had killed Hezbollah terrorist Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, who headed the terrorist organization’s communication networks and had been involved with the group since 2000.
• U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Friday that it conducted airstrikes on 15 Houthi targets in Yemen to “protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels.” The Iran-backed, Yemen-based terrorist organization has attacked dozens of commercial vessels in the Red Sea in recent months. While U.S. officials did not specify the target sites or site locations, CENTCOM said the strikes included the Houthis’s “offensive military capabilities.”
• Haitian gang members killed at least 70 civilians—including 10 women and three infants—on Friday in an attack on the small Haitian town of Pont-Sondé that left 16 other people seriously injured. United Nations Human Rights Office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said Friday that members of the violent gang—known as “Grif Graf”—shot civilian residents with automatic rifles and set at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles ablaze. A U.N. force led by Kenyan police officers has been tasked with restoring order to the violence-plagued Haiti but has yet to make substantial progress. 
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 254,000 non-farm jobs in September—well above both the Dow Jones consensus forecast of 150,000 and August’s revised total estimate of 159,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.1 percent in September, a 0.1 percentage-point decrease from the month prior. Employment gains in three industries—food services and drinking places, health care, and the government—accounted for more than half of job gains recorded for September. Meanwhile, average hourly earnings—a measure often used to monitor inflationary trends—rose 0.4 percent month-over-month and 4 percent annually.
• The Biden administration on Saturday made $100 million “immediately available” to the North Carolina Department of Transportation to assist emergency work and recovery efforts in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. The funds will help ensure that “there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden urged congressional leaders in a letter on Friday to draw up legislation that would further aid hurricane victims and facilitate recovery operations. 
• The Biden administration announced on Friday that it would not renew legal status for thousands of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants currently living in the U.S. legally through a two-year temporary sponsorship program. Now, migrants living in the U.S. under that program will not be permitted to apply for an extension after the two-year stay, though some can pursue alternative federal programs to retain their legal status—including applying for Temporary Protected Status, available for certain Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants, due to the dangerous conditions present in those countries. Otherwise, the migrants must leave the country or face deportation. 

Remembering October 7

Editor’s Note: On the one-year anniversary of the day Hamas invaded southern Israel, murdering 1,200 people and abducting more than 200 others, we’re sharing an excerpt of Charlotte’s piece on the site today, in which she spoke to an October 7 survivor living in one of the kibbutzim attacked that day. 

KIBBUTZ NIR OZ, Israel—When Bat Sheva Yahalomi awoke to air raid sirens on the morning of October 7, she didn’t think much of it. The mother of three lived with her husband and children in Nir Oz, an idyllic community of 400 on the western edge of the Negev desert and, given its proximity to the Gaza Strip, an occasional target of cross-border rocket fire. 

“But very quickly we understood something was different. We started to hear shouting outside in Arabic,” she said from her ruined family home. “We heard ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and we started to hear shooting on our house.”

At around 10 a.m., four terrorists in Hamas headbands and tactical gear entered the home and opened fire on her husband, Ohad Yahalomi, as he guarded the safe room …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full story on the aftermath of October 7 is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• China is ready for war, Seth G. Jones argued in Foreign Affairs. “Given China’s economic problems—high youth unemployment, a troubled real estate market, increased government debt, an aging society, and lower-than-expected growth—some scholars and policymakers hope that Beijing will be forced to constrain its defense spending,” he wrote. “Others go so far as to say the Chinese military is overrated, contending that it will not challenge U.S. dominance any time soon. But these assessments fail to recognize how much China’s defense industrial base is growing. Despite the country’s current economic challenges, its defense spending is soaring and its defense industry is on a wartime footing. Indeed, China is rapidly developing and producing weapons systems designed to deter the United States and, if deterrence fails, to emerge victorious in a great-power war.”

Presented Without Comment

The Oklahoman: ‘Trump Bible’ One of Few That Meet [Oklahoma State Schools Superintendent Ryan] Walters’ Criteria for Oklahoma Classrooms 

According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.

…

But one Bible fits perfectly: Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump and commonly referred to as the Trump Bible. They cost $60 each online, with Trump receiving fees for his endorsement. 

Also Presented Without Comment

CNN: Dubai’s Emirates Airline Bans Pagers, Walkie-Talkies After Device Attacks in Lebanon

In the Zeitgeist

It wouldn’t be a Tennessee team knocking off Alabama if fans didn’t immediately storm the field, take down the uprights, and dump them in the nearest river—which is, of course, exactly what Vanderbilt fans did on Saturday night after beating No. 1-ranked Bama. (Congrats to our friend and Vandy alum Mike Warren.) 

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: The Dispatch Politics team reported on former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney’s message to voters at a Kamala Harris’ Wisconsin campaign rally, Nick considered how (🔒) Cheney should address Harris’ more progressive policy proposals, Jonah delved into the religious roots of tradition, culture, and time-tested institutions, Chris crunched the numbers (🔒) to explain how undecided voters are declining in numbers but growing in importance, and in Dispatch Faith, Rabbi David Wolpe reflected on why remembering tragedies—like Hamas’ October 7 attack—is integral to the Jewish faith.
• On the podcasts: Jonah ruminated on the news week that has felt more like a news epoch and explained how perceptions of the GOP’s voter base have adapted. In a special, two-part episode of the Dispatch Podcast, Jamie is joined by Jonah, Adaam, and Charlotte to discuss the ramifications of the October 7 attacks one year later and by Dan Senor of the “Call Me Back” podcast to break down the future of the war. 
• On the site over the weekend: Grant Lefelar panned Francis Ford Coppola’s attempt at political allegory in Megalopolis, and Giancarlo Sopo revisited Mikhail Kalatozov’s movie, I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba), on its 60^th anniversary, exploring how the propaganda film inadvertently undermined Fidel Castro’s regime. 
• On the site today: Ken Pollack marks one year since October 7 in The Monday Essay with a look at the military landscape in the Middle East, and Charlotte interviews survivors of the October 7 massacre.