Florit Shoihet

Florit Shoihet is an Israeli journalist based in the UK.

Today

Florit Shoihet

October 7 was a jihad against Jews

From our UK edition

It is not as though I was unaware that Hamas was a jihadist terrorist organisation. After all, I grew up in a town that was a prime target for rockets from Gaza, routinely fired by Hamas’s military wing. One of my biggest fears as a child during the Second Intifada was hearing ‘Allahu Akbar’ on a bus just before the explosion of a suicide bomber. This bloody jihadist lust came from the very top of the chain of command And yet, when I saw on October 7 the scale of brutality, in what became the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, I suddenly realised how little I, like most Israelis, had understood Hamas’s jihadism.

Wednesday

Florit Shoihet

The campaign against Britain’s Jewish doctors

From our UK edition

It was a short email, like many of the death threats this British Jewish doctor has received. Subject: ‘Legitimate target.’ Body: ‘May I find you walking the streets of London. I’ll put a bullet through that Zionist face of yours.’ These sorts of threats are regularly passed to the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which provides security to Jews in the UK. But as many of the senders are anonymous, not much can be done. The BMA, which already has an impressive track record of anti-Semitic, Israel-obsessed motions and actions, has managed to hit a new low with this vote This doctor’s main crime was to call out anti-Semitism and double standards towards Israel, while consistently condemning other forms of racism and supporting a future Palestinian state.

Wednesday

Florit Shoihet

The Nova exhibition is a glimpse into the abyss of humanity

From our UK edition

The film playing as you enter the Nova exhibition – which commemorates the 7 October attack – was painfully familiar to me. 06:29AM – The Moment Music Stood Still, shows smiling, carefree youngsters in festival clothes, dancing on the dry broad plains of southern Israel around the Gaza Strip. Nothing could indicate that with sunrise, some 6,000 Hamas terrorists and their collaborators would invade Israel. This Nova exhibition is perhaps the rawest, most direct and yet most respectful attempt to confront that day without abandoning Israel’s core values I also danced at parties there with friends, after which we camped in the woods and were woken by the call to prayer of the Gazan muezzin behind the border.

Wednesday

Florit Shoihet

What do the Greens have against Haifa?

From our UK edition

Haifa, a mountainous Israeli city on the coast of the Mediterranean, is a place that makes you believe in coexistence. It is home to Jews, Muslims, Christians, and to some of the region’s most persecuted minorities, such as the Druze, Baha’is and Ahmadis. If you ever find yourself there, you will most likely visit the lush terraces on Mount Carmel. The terraces and the shrine at their summit are among the main sites of the Baha’i faith, a young monotheistic religion that emerged in Iran in the 19th century. The Baha’i are pacifist and preach for the essential worth of all religions. In Iran, despite them being the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, they have long faced persecution.

Sunday

Florit Shoihet

What Britain can learn from Israel’s female fighters

From our UK edition

It is impossible to imagine the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) functioning without its female soldiers. In the last week alone, over 30 Israeli female combat pilots and navigators participated in long-range strikes on Iran. Since 2023, hundreds of women have crossed enemy lines and fought in hostile territory; among them medics who have rescued people under fire and combat dog handlers searching Hamas tunnels. On October 7 there were countless heroic stories about female soldiers. From non-combat surveillance operators (‘spotters’) who didn’t abandon their command posts until their last breath, to navy fighters who stopped much of Hamas’s naval invasion.

Wednesday

Florit Shoihet

Iran and Israel are true allies in London

From our UK edition

In November 2023, a mass rally in support of Israel after the October 7 massacres took place in London. Body parts were still being scraped from burnt Kibbutzim, but the news cycle had already moved on. A crowd of a few thousand Israelis and Jews stood lonely in Parliament square, clutching posters of hostages. Then, suddenly, a tall woman walked confidently on stage, accompanied by men holding an Iranian flag, with the symbol of a lion, sword and rising sun. That support from the Iranian diaspora – at a time when much of the world had little sympathy for Israel – meant a lot to British Jews and Israelis. This weekend, British Jews were able to return the favour. A rally took place outside Downing Street in support of the brave protestors in Iran.

Monday

Florit Shoihet

Inside Your Party’s disturbing Manchester rally

From our UK edition

Before I left for the Your Party rally in Manchester, I carefully looked at myself in the mirror. My Star of David necklace and rings with Hebrew etchings were off, and I ran through, yet again, the alternative name and identity I had prepared in case anyone asked. After all, it’s not every day that a Jewish-Israeli woman sneaks alone into the meeting of a party that proudly describes itself as the ‘only anti-Zionist party in the entire country.’ The party’s obsession with Israel and Palestine was astonishing So I tried to blend in.