Last night, my dad (z’l) came to visit me. It was the second time he has come to visit me since he died on September 6, 2022. The first time was well over a year ago and it was very emotional for me. We spent a lot of time talking and I really needed him at that time. Things in my life we unsettled and he has always been my ‘go to person’ to talk about my life and get perspective. I was very lucky that way. Lately, I have been missing him and treasuring my mom a lot. I have asked him to come visit again, something I didn’t expect would happen but I knew that if I asked, maybe it would happen. After a month or two of asking, he showed up last night.
Many of you may not believe that those we love can come visit us in our dreams at night and that is perfectly fine. I do believe it and have now have had it happen twice with my dad. It was a crazy dream – things were all over the place and nothing was connected until all of a sudden I walked up to the gym counter and there he was. He started to talk to me and I just reached out and gave him a big hug. I hugged him intensely the entire time, tears in my eyes, until he was gone. Whatever words he was saying didn’t matter. I needed that long hug from my dad and I got it.
I think this is because of what happned with the hostages this past Saturday. I was deeply affected not just by the way they looked and how they were clearly mistreated, but also by the story of Eli Sharaby. A bright eyed, vigorous, healthy man, who is only 5 years younger than me, was taken hostage on October 7th. His wife and daughters were murdered by the Hamas terrorists that day but he didn’t know this for his 491 days of captivity. He actually spoke about how much he looked forward to seeing them when when Hamas paraded him before release and forced him to speak. They knew his family was murdered and they watched him and laughed. It was painful to see. It was painful to hear. I cannot even imagine what it was like when he was told they were murdered 491 days ago.
Perhaps it is because we are close in age. Perhaps it is because I have one child who has started his career and lives in North Carolina doing what he loves and isn’t at home. Perhaps it is because my second child is graduating college in May and while he wants to get a job and stay local, who knows what will happen. Eli’s loss felt very personal to me.
Perhaps it is the story of the Bibas family. This family of four, mother, father, and 2 boys who are just about the same age difference as my boys, were kidnapped on October 7th. Yarden, the father, was released a week ago from captivity. His wife Shiri and two beautiful boys, Ariel and Kfir, remain hostages and we don’t know if they are alive or dead. More and more, I have been preparing myself for their bodies to be returned and to have to know that these beautiful young children were murdered by terrorists out of hate while the world didn’t care. They remind me of my family. With Yarden home, perhaps I am identifying closely with him and the fears for his family and their lives. I can’t imagine that feeling nor do I want to imagine it. Last night, I needed my dad and his hug and I got it.
These are crazy times. After more than a year with nothing strong coming from the American administration, President Trump spoke loudly and clearly yesterday about the condition of the returned hostages. CNN reported that the hostages “appeared to look gaunt”, a horrible minimization of their condition. The legacy media still can’t report the news, they have to insert their own Jew hatred and anti-Israel takes into their reporting.
Today, Hamas announced they are pausing the release of the hostages this upcoming weekend. It was only a matter of time before they would violate the agreement. Everybody knew that because Hamas has no morals and no ethics. Their word is not reliable nor dependable. It is why there can be no peace. It is why there is no hope for a Two State Solution. As my friend, Fleur Hassan Nahoum has eloquently stated, “The Palesteinian leadership have never wanted a state. It is not their dream. It was our dream.” She continues, “The problem of the conflict is not that there isn’t a Palestinian State. The problem is that there is a Jewish State.”
Hamas’s announcement suspending Saturday’s planned hostage release is an intentional plan for them to regain world sympathy through their lies. Their reason for suspending the release is a complete lie, as available data shows consistent humanitarian aid flow since January 19, with 12,600 trucks entering Gaza, maintaining the 600 trucks per day requirement. This steady flow, averaging 4,200 trucks each week, directly challenges Hamas’s claims of aid restriction. It is not just the COGAT (Israeli data) that shows this. Other monitoring mechanisms confirm these figures, with their own data validating that Israel has consistently met the agreement’s humanitarian benchmarks.
Don’t expect the media to report the facts. They will report what Hamas says and the lies. I’m telling you now so that you have the accurate information before the lies come out. Hamas is trying to frame this violation of the agreement through a humanitarian lens because they know the media will report their lies and not the truth, helping them to gain international support. I can already see the tweets coming from Antonio Gutteres, Secretary General of the UN, complaining about the lack of aid going in despite the documentation saying the opposite. I can already see the tweets from the bigoted and racist Francesca Albanes, they UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, claiming Israel is starving the people of Gaza despite having just seen what starvation looks like with the release of the hostages on Saturday.
The world will demand that Israel maintain the ceasefire even though Hamas has broken the agreement unilaterally. The world will demand that Israel move into phase 2 of the ceasefire even though Hamas failed to live up to phase 1 of the cease fire. The world can kiss my a**. This is when I am glad that Bibi is the Prime Minister and Trump is the President. They don’t live in a delusional world when it comes to Hamas. The proof of this is right after Hamas announced they will break the ceasefire agreement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) issued a decree revoking the payment system to families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison or to families of Palestinian terrorists. This “Pay for Slay” program has been an abomination that UNRWA has been funding for years. Abu Mazen didn’t just announce it, he made sure to inform the Trump administration in advance. This is what happens when you stand up to bullies. They stop their awful behavior. Hamas is a bully and while the media and the Western nations will support their lies and hatred, there is a growing population that will not do so any longer.
An example of this is that over the past few months, I have seen more and more people standing up for Israel and the Jewish community. More people willing to be public in calling out the lies and the Jew hatred. Douglas Murray, comedian Michael Rappaport, Senator John Fetterman and Representative Ritchie Torres along with newscaster Erin Molan seemed to be alone for a long time. Today, I read this post on X that warmed my heart. Not just the post but the comments by others stating that they are not Jewish and why they speak up for the Jewish community. People quoting her with their own reason along with those commenting below. It appears that we are finally seeing the type of support that has been missing for the past 16 months. Read the entire post. Look at the comments of those sharing why they support the Jewish community. You can find those who quoted her post and their reasons. It is heartwarming. It is hopeful.
With Hamas ending the ceasefire, we are going into another phase of Jew hatred on the public stage. At least this time we have a President who understands the evil of Hamas. We have many more people speaking out in support of the Jewish community and of Israel. Perhaps we are moving closer to a resolution where Hamas will be ended, where we will get as many hostages as possible home alive, and where Israel can return to peace and a chance to recover and heal.
For all of those in Israel, they desperately need it. And for those of us in the diaspora for which every day since October 7th has been October 7th, we need it as well. As President Trump said, I don’t know how much longer we can take this. Perhaps Hamas showing who they really are once again will finally be noticed. I doubt it but I can hope.
As I finish writing this, I learned that my friend Mahmoud, the owner of the Educational Bookstore in East Jerusalem and at the American Colony hotel was arrested by Ben Gvir’s police for basically selling books. I met Mahmoud in 2019 as he took us around East Jerusalem and talked to us about his experience living there as a Palestinian. We went to his big bookstore for lunch and talked some more. That afternoon, we went to him home where we dug even deeper. He said something there that I will never forget and that gave me great hope. He said, “If Zionism means the Jews have a right to the land and that we have a right to land as well, then I am fine with Zionism.” It was a profound and huge statement for a different future. In May when I was in Israel, a friend and I walked through East Jerusalem to his bookstore at the American Colony hotel where we spent 90 minutes engaged in a deep conversation. Mahmoud was devastated that Hamas took hostages and wanted them returned on October 8th. We covered many challenging topics and disagreed about many things but the one thing we agreed on was the hope for peace and a desire to live in peace with each other. There are many people who advocate for violence, for murdering the Jews, for eliminating Israel, and who actually engage in violence. They should be arrested. Somebody like Mahmoud who actively wants peace should be supported, not arrested. I am angry. I am hurt. It has been bad enough when it is Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, Syria, and others doing it. It is horrible when it is the US media and our supposed Western allies that are doing it. Yet it is far worse when it is Israeli leadership doing things.
If we truly want peace, if we truly want to heal, we have to build relationships with our potential partners, not arrest them. There are plenty of people to arrest for their criminal behavior. It’s time Israel gets rid of those bigots in her government. Bibi can do better. Israel can do better. The Jewish people deserve better.
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