Oct. 7 Brings Out the Monsters. Green Party Embraces Antisemitism. The French Love to Riot. This Time It’s Different. Cornell & the Sexual Revolution. York on Senate Races. More

On the third anniversary of October 7, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, “SOULLESS” anti-Israel protestors plan to march on the streets of New York in support of Hamas terrorists.

New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin responds to the celebrations planned in honor of the atrocities of Oct. 7:

Groups calling themselves “anti-Zionists” say they will mark the event with rallies in Gotham and many other cities around the world.

In effect, they aim to turn Oct. 7 into an international day of joyful celebration of the butchers who carried out the initial attack, and hail their ultimate cause of eliminating the Jewish state.

“Glory to the martyrs, victory to the resistance,” say some flyers for the rallies. Some display a figure wearing a keffiyeh and an upside-down triangle, a symbol often used to signify Hamas.

Goodwin rightly calls these remorseless supporters of horror, inhumanity and savagery “monsters.”

Meanwhile, “The Israelis Who Never Left October 7 Behind” at The Free Press observes: “Three years after October 7, survivors and their families are still learning how to live with what happened.” Polina Fradkin writes:

Lihi shouted [her brother] Bar’s name, thinking he’d fallen asleep there—it was a place he regularly visited—but he didn’t answer. He had shot himself in the heart. He was 30.

“I think about the day I found him a lot,” Lihi told me. “Finding the person you know and love, a person who is so happy. . . and you’re calling his name and he’s not answering.”

“We couldn’t even cry,” she said. “We were too shocked.”

The Free Press publishes an exclusive excerpt from the new memoir of Avinatan Or, kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, and subsequently held hostage in the tunnels under Gaza for 738 days. “Avinatan’s attention to detail in captivity was extraordinary; his will to live, even more so,” the editors write.

Eli Lake writes that we’re “still drowning in myths about the Gaza War,” while Brendan O’Neill of Spiked Online calls Gaza “the most liked about war in history.” Spiked also notes the U.K.’s Green Party’s embrace of antisemitism. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair writes at TFP that “Britain’s fastest-growing party has a Jewish problem.” “If you care about the future of the UK and the future of the Holy Land: Pay attention,” urges Sir Tony. What should be done with the site of the kibbutzim Hamas attacked three years ago?

The French are still rioting. A Wall Street Journal editorial refers to “France’s Bonfire of Inanities.” The problem in a nutshell: “Leftists riot in defense of a welfare state the country can no longer afford.” The editors write:

It’s easy to scoff at French rioting as its national pastime, but what’s unfolding now is different. France is approaching its most serious crisis in decades, and the disorder in the streets may be only the start.

Ostensibly the destructive rioting of the past few days is a student protest against underfunded schools. If you believe that, we have a pont over the Seine to sell you. The riots have been encouraged by politicians on the left, as Dominic Green recently reported on the Journal’s Free Expression newsletter….

The violence obscures the related crisis engulfing public finances. France doesn’t have more money to spend on schools because it doesn’t have more money to spend on anything….

France’s main problem isn’t math. It’s slow growth. The right fiscal reforms, such as tax cuts and welfare and pension reforms that encourage work and investment, would create new opportunities for prosperity. Young people would be the biggest beneficiaries. The alternative is what’s happening in the streets.

Americans can’t afford to gloat from the sidelines. U.S. debt is 100% of GDP, and its politicians can be as feckless as the French. At least the U.S. economy is growing at a healthy clip, but that could change in a hurry with the wrong mix of regulation and a ham-handed attempt to tax our way out of our fiscal hole.

The Muslim element of the French riots cannot be ignored. Brendan O’Neill calls the riots an intifada in the heart of Europe. Matt Vespa’s take: “‘From the River to the Sea’ Isn’t So Fun When It’s the Seine to the Mediterranean, Huh?“

Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff is in the hot seat as a result of the Cornell rape allegations. Kotlikoff is now talking about “body autonomy.” Ira Stoll of the Free Beacon argues that Kotlikoff is “missing the point—in a telling way”:

It’s an illuminating message nonetheless as Kotlikoff, or his speechwriters, struggle for language to explain to themselves and the community why the events alleged by Jane Doe are wrong. The word “wrong” doesn’t appear in the statement. Maybe he doesn’t want to prejudge what happened, but given that the university already conducted a Title IX investigation and expelled two students, it seems a little late on that. It’s hard to draw moral judgment without any framework of shared moral values.

In “How the Sexual Revolution Led to Cornell,” Emma Camp of Free Expression poses an argument: “The rebels of 1968 sought ‘freedom’ from traditional attitudes. But the trade-off may be the occasional shocking failure of modern sexual culture.” A snippet:

For this is what we ask of the young people at a frat party in the post-1968 world. Both the boys and the girls are encouraged to have sex, including with strangers, including while inebriated. The only rule is that everyone must consent at all times, which sounds simple enough.

But, for a young man, this simple rule demands fine-tuned social judgment. His libido urges him to seek out as much sex as possible, as do his frat brothers, and the young male mind is addled when he is part of a pack. He must seek out certain proof of consent from young women whose signals he can’t reliably read. Is this woman he’s never met before too drunk, or just drunk enough? Does that body language indicate a “no,” even if she hasn’t said as much?

Will the Senate flip? Byron York writes that it is likely to do so, starting with the Dems taking North Carolina. Here are the Washington Examiner’s high points of the debate featuring Maine’s moderate GOP Senator Susan Collins and progressive challenger Troy Jackson. Former President Barack Obama is on the campaign trail, most notably for Senate hopeful Abdul E-Sayed. Powerline’s John Hinderaker doesn’t mince words:

The fact that Obama is willing to campaign with the radioactive El-Sayed illustrates the fact that there is no division between moderate Democrats and far-left Democrats. They are all far-left. The only division in the Democratic Party is between those who think that their constituencies are far enough left that they can come out as socialists–Communists by the ballot–and those who think that the American people are not yet “ready” for socialism/Communism, so progress toward that goal should be more gradual.

We are informed that Christa Pike, the death row inmate who survived a botched execution, is “conscious and speaking” after the ordeal. Charles Fain Lehman helpfully recalls Pike’s victim and the obscenely horrible manner in which she died. Don’t Miss. “Preparing to Fire“: The Wall Street Journal this morning publishes fascinating transcripts of audio recordings of months of warnings, confusion, and attacks in the blockade on Iranian oil exports. Iran is increasing attacks on ships, but the flow of oil and gas is also increasing. Welcome news: “Reports about taking out Los Angeles and San Diego are greatly exaggerated.”