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By John Hasten, JNS
New York conservative talk-radio show host Sid Rosenberg is back in Israel this week—to show his solidarity on the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Before broadcasting his four-hour, top-rated show, “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” to his 77 WABC audience, live from the Jerusalem studios of JNS, he reflected on the atrocities that sparked the Swords of Iron war against Hamas in Gaza.
“A year later, it still feels like yesterday,” he told JNS on Tuesday. “What’s tough here is that the war is still going on. In fact, now, with the war raging in the north, and the situation in Judea and Samaria, it’s a lot worse than we thought. That being said, there is hope.”
The previous day, on the one-year anniversary itself, Rosenberg toured the communities in the southwestern Negev, and visited the site of the Nova Music Festival where some 400 Israelis were murdered.
He then traveled to Sderot to record his program, but minutes before the show was to air, his crew had to seek shelter from an incoming barrage of Hamas rockets.
“Driving south was intense yesterday,” he recounted. “Passing kibbutzim and the site of the Nova festival, and seeing people crying on the side of the roads, probably the relatives of those killed on Oct. 7. And then we get to Sderot, and end up in a bomb shelter, and immediately experience the reality of what it’s like living here. And that was just the first two hours of our trip.”
The show proceeded smoothly, however, with Rosenberg hosting his good friend, former President (and current presidential candidate) Donald Trump over the phone.
“President Trump was quick to remind everybody how much he did for the State of Israel,” Rosenberg said.
“No president did what he did. He moved the U.S. embassy [to Jerusalem], which is what Israelis wanted; recognized the Golan Heights as part of Israel; put together the Abraham Accords; and stopped delivering palates of cash to the Palestinians, which ended up in the hands of Hamas. When he was president, he got along great with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. They’re both strong leaders and they’ll get along great again. So, if I’m living in Israel, I almost want Trump to win as much as I do living in Queens, New York.”
When asked about the anti-Israel protests that have taken place throughout the U.S., especially on college campuses, since the beginning of the war, Rosenberg said that while they are disturbing, he still believes the American people stand with Israel.
“It is disheartening that there are thousands of people who side with a group [Hamas] that commits rape, murder, torture,” he said. “But I still believe in my heart of hearts that the majority of people in the U.S. stand with Israel.”
Rosenberg added, “I don’t believe we are losing that war in terms of sheer numbers. They are a very loud minority; that’s the problem. And the media love to cover them, so it seems that everybody in the U.S. is pro-Hamas. That’s not the case, but there is work to be done.”
Rosenberg is adamant that the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas be freed or rescued, but he’s outraged at those screaming at the Israeli government to “bring them home,” rather than demanding that Hamas “let them go.”
“That’s complete nonsense,” said Rosenberg. “If Bibi [Netanyahu] had the choice to bring them home, he would bring them home. He doesn’t have that choice. He doesn’t have the hostages; [Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas do. So, what should be said is ‘let them go,’ not ‘bring them home,’ which puts the onus on Bibi.”
Rosenberg is confident that Israel will achieve victory on all fronts in the war.
“We’re going to win, because we just win,” he asserts. “We’re like the [Miami] Dolphins in 1973; they never lost a football game that year. That’s the last undefeated team.”
He added, “Look what happened just a few weeks ago. What other country or military can figure out sending beepers and walkie-talkies [to Hezbollah] and blowing off their fingers and making them blind.”
He elaborated, “Our intelligence here in Israel is so far and away the best in the world. I understand we got caught flat-footed on Oct. 7, and maybe one day Bibi will pay a price for that, but since the war has started, there is nobody better. And even though we are outnumbered, we have the intelligence, the weaponry, the capability. We will win all these wars on all these fronts, I promise you that.”
