We have seen the pictures and videos of the hostages coming out of Gaza. They are horrifying. The images of Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy when they were released was horrifying. It was like watching the survivors of the Nazi death camps all over again.
Eli was brave enough to share his story in a powerful interview. It won’t be shown on 60 minutes or Dateline. It won’t be widely publicized through the western media. The question is if you will have the courage to watch the entire interview. To hear his story of captivity and torture. To experience the evil that he did. And then, will you share the interview? Will you talk about the interview? Will you make sure others see and hear the truth. The video is below. The decision is yours.
Yarden Bibas, who was kidnapped, abused, tortured, and held hostage by Hamas along with his wife Shiri (z’l), and children Ariel (z’l) and Kfir (z’l) spent 484 days in captivity. After his release we all learned that the rest of his family had been murdered by Hamas a month or so after being taken hostage. Brutally murdered, their bodies desecrated afterwards to attempt to hide how they were strangled by their evil Hamas captors. Yarden wrote a powerful letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu this week. In many ways it speaks for the Jewish people. Get the hostages back and then destroy Hamas.
Yarden Bibas giving the eulogy for his wife and two beautiful children, murdered by Hamas
Here os full letter that Yarden Bibas wrote:
Mr. Prime Minister, My name is Yarden Bibs, and while they read my speech to you, I sit Shiva on my wife Shiri and my children Kfir and Ariel. Innocent and innocent children who were kidnapped from their homes and murdered captive. They could have and should have been saved.
The cursed terrorists conquered Nir Oz with flip-flops, my family and I were brutally kidnapped from our home to Gaza.
On that cursed morning, the state was not in Nir Oz. There were only local heroes – members of readiness classes and brave fighters, who did everything they could and even paid with their lives. And today, 514 days later – I returned from Gaza to an unimaginable reality in which I was forced to bury my entire family in one day. I don’t wish this horrible nightmare on anyone. And despite the terrible pain, I ask you at this moment to stop. The stage of revenge has not yet reached. At this point we are obligated to immediately return our brothers, including my best friend David Kunyo and his brother Ariel. David, my friend from the first grade, the neighbor from the Kibbutz, who fell in the Hamas tunnels. I know I won’t be able to hug my children and wife anymore. But Emma and Yuli – David’s daughters, who were kidnapped by themselves to Gaza when they were only 3 years old, are waiting to hug him. Sharon’s wife deserves to hug him.
After we bring back David and all the hostages, I will be the first to support all your actions to overthrow Hamas. As a resident of Nir Oz, I know that we will be forced to defeat Hamas because otherwise we will not have security, but we must always preserve the sanctity of life, the honor of the dead and leave no one behind, otherwise we have lost who we are. Mister Prime Minister, 514 days and nights have already passed and you and your government still have not taken responsibility. The demand to set up a state inquiry committee is a demand that with israel united around it – 83% of israel citizens demand it, along with 1,500 October Council families and I am among them. Its goal is not personal persecution, but to produce lessons to prevent the next disaster. I call you Mr. Prime Minister – unite the nation israel give calm to our souls, uphold the will of the people and the families. Inform today about the establishment of a state inquiry committee that will strengthen the security of Israel prevent another disaster, and give me and everyone with israel answers.
How did it happen that nine-month-old Kfir, and four-year-old Ariel were kidnapped and murdered together with Shiri’s mother in unimaginable cruelty?
How did we get to the point that during the long hours at the police station no one came to save us? I keep thinking and regretting that I didn’t take better care of my wife and kids. It is eating me up inside. And I only had a gun and I will be a simple citizen in a quiet kibbutz. Do you think about it? Do you also find it difficult to get through day and night without a heavy sense of responsibility for what happened? Are you able to say this loud and clear?
So many citizens are asking for forgiveness. So few politicians apologize.
So many civilians and fighters taking responsibility. So few members of government take responsibility. My sister Ofri said at the funeral a sentence that I deeply connect with: “Forgiveness means accepting responsibility and a commitment to act differently, learning from mistakes.” There is no point in forgiving before the defectors are investigated, and all position holders will be held accountable. Our disaster as a nation and ours as a family should not have happened, and it must not, must not happen again. “I have no interest in closing account of the past, I try to gather strength and look ahead. I ask that we all do our best to make it better, more close and stronger here. From the window of the car that led us on the funeral journey, I saw the people of israel I saw a broken country – religious, secular and ultra-orthodox, standing together with flags and tears. I felt like they were really with me. I didn’t know them but I felt they were my brothers and sisters. What are you doing in leadership to maintain this togetherness? Do you get up every morning to separate or to strengthen us a little more from the inside? In my eyes it’s not less important your role than sending planes to eliminate enemies. This is our strength. This is our spirit.
In conclusion, I appeal to you Mr. Prime Minister, I have not yet entered my home in Nir Oz and I do not know what awaits me inside. I’m asking you to come along with me, to join me for the first time since October 7. I ask we do it together. If we do not look disaster in the eye, we cannot recover.“
Yaron Bibas letter published in many newspapers
This should be the lead on the news. After having his wife and two babies murdered by Hamas, he is not calling for vengence. He wants the rest of the hostages home. He also acknowledges the evil of Hamas and that they must be destroyed but the lives of the hostages come first. Despite the lies of the media, despite Hamas using child soldiers and human shields, the humanity of Israel is real and continues to be hidden, the lies continue to be told, and the world continues to believe them.
Amotz Eyal
My friend Amotz Eyal is the founder and CEO of TPS-IL. It’s something you have probably never heard of. Until I met Amotz, I hadn’t either. TPS-IL, officially known as The Press Service of Israel, is an Israeli news bureau. It is the equivilant of AP and Reuters only when it comes to reporting from and about Israel, TPS-IL is actually factual. Their reach across the globe, outside of America, is incredible. Last month, Amotz was in Orlando and we spent two days together. I learned so much, not just about TPS-IL but also about him.
On October 7, 2023, Amotz got a phone call that something was happening but the photographers couldn’t get there to document it. Of course he volunteered to go take pictures and video, even though he is the CEO. He told his wife he would be home by dinner. As he began taking pictures, he quickly realized that this wasn’t something small and he put his camera away and moved towards the fighting. He ended up in Sderot and took over operational command to defend the city against the Hamas invaders. He ended up home 3 months later. He is still active in the IDF, commanding an elite unit. The first morning in Orlando, he stood outside our first appointment on the phone with his unit, planning their raid of Jenin to eliminate terrorists and capture weapons. He hung up the phone, joined me for our meetings that day as if nothing was happening. The next day he showed me pictures of the weapons they captured in Jenin. If only the mainstream media (MSM) would cover what really happens.
Hamas child soldiers. This is what the Jew haters are defending.
Amotz just wrote a powerful piece in the Jerusalem post titled, Propaganda without boundaries: How Hamas exploits, abuses, weaponizes children. It should be on the front page of every newspaper, covered by every major news network, but it won’t. You can read it and see just how Hamas is inculcating hate, using children as weapons and as soldiers. It is horrifying.
The truth is cleverly hidden by the media that we see and the narrative that they tell us and want us to believe. A perfect example is the recent ‘documentary’, No Other Land, about Masafer Yatta in Judea and Samaria (often called the West Bank). The truth of the village is very different than what this alleged documentary claims and what the mainstream western media tells you. Read the article by Honest Reporting and learn the real history.
If you want another source to read, check out the JNS article about Masafer Yatta. The truth is out there. Documented history is out there. You can choose to find out what the truth really is or you can believe what you are being fed. The choice is entirely yours.
It gets worse. Oscar-winning Pallywood star Basel Adra of NoOtherLandwas caught on video, lying about what happened. Here he is setting fire to Palestinian structures —but telling people to say “the Jews did it” for the cameras. Facts don’t matter. The truth doesn’t matter. The media determines the story they want to tell and makes up what they need to tell it. My blood boils when I see it happen over and over and over again and nobody held accountable.
Basel Adra, now an Oscar Winning Director of a documentary that lies, is shown lying on film.
Yesterday, President Trump met in the Oval Office with eight hostages that have been released. I found this video of their interaction incredibly powerful. A few quotes really stood out for me. “Horrible, horrible stories. Not even believable.” Then, “Don’t worry, we’ll get them out.” I don’t care what you think of President Trump. Love him or hate him, it doesn’t matter. These are statements that are long overdue. You can see and hear from these 8 hostages what powerful words and actions mean to them and the hostages still in captivity. Our media will not run the stories of these hostages. The media will not highlight the torture that they endured. Freedom of the press was designed so that the press would be able to report the truth, not so they could hide behind it and lie over and over and over again. Yet that is what we are seeing. Lie after lie.
Over a decade ago, I had the opportunity to learn about a new organization, Fuente Latina, that was doing something unbelievable. Having learned that Iran was targeting the Spanish speaking world with anti-Israel propoganda and lies, founder Leah Soibel decided to create a pro-Israel media outlet to share the truth with the Spanish speaking world. In the dozen years since, the work they have done is incredible. In 2024, they took over 100 journalists from Spanish speaking countries to Israel to see with their own eyes what happend on October 7th and what Israel is really like. The content they provide to the Spanish speaking world is incredible.
They created an incredible 4 part docuseries about October 7th that focuses on the Latin Americans that were murdered and taken hostage on October 7th. Most people don’t know that Latin Americans were the largest immigrant group attacked on October 7th or that the Bibas family is Argentinian. I watched the trailer and was captivated. I don’t speak Spanish and as I listened to the tone of their voices and read the subtitles, I was overwhelmed. There was something about watching these people tell their stories, while in Israel, living as Israelis, and speaking Spanish, not Hebrew, that was incredibly powerful. Once again, you won’t see this on 60 minutes or Dateline. You won’t see this type of reporting in our mainstream media. The truth has to fight ten times harder to overcome the lies. Watch the trailer. I’ve seen it half a dozen times or more and it gets me every single time. I can’t wait for the docuseries to be available.
Fuente Latina’s trailer for the docuseries. I can’t wait to see the full series. Incredibly powerful.
So what do you want to do? Do you want to be a lemming who believes the lies they are told? Do you want to ensure you are on the wrong side of history? Do you want to find real information and fight for truth and against the lies. Are you willing to do the work it takes in today’s world to get beyond consuming whatever those in charge want to feed you and instead learn for yourself?
I always go back to the great CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite for inspiration. He knew his job was to share the news, the facts, and the truth and let the viewer consume, digest, and interpret. His tag line, “and that’s the way it is” was the gold standard and his newscasts should be required viewing for all those who are a part of the media today. His final broadcast as the anchorman of the CBS Evening news, ironically enough March 6, 1981, was a classic, but in hindsight, he was very wrong. He talks about a supurb team of journalists and unfortunately that isn’t the case any longer. The news is part of the entertainment division and they are going to tell you a story, the story they want to tell, and it is up to you to decide if you want to consume it. Far too many people don’t understand they are now watching a story created by the entertainment division, not getting the facts. The hardest thing to hear him say is, “and none of that will change.” Walter was very wrong. It has changed.
Each time I write this blog, I think of Walter Cronkite, because I’m going to tell it like it is, or at least how I see it. I’m tired of lies. I’m tired of being fed BS by those with their own agenda. I’ve long tired of being told by others who is good and who bad, who is right and who is wrong, what I should believe in and what I should fight against. The days of Walter Cronkite being the voice and face you could trust to give you the facts are long gone. Now it’s up to each of us to be our own Walter Cronkite. Are you up for the challenge?
Hollywood has been a bastian of Jew hatred. Despite there being a long history of Jewish leadership in Hollywood and in the industry, many of today’s celebrities are open with their Jew hatred and have no fear of sharing their bigotry and hate of Jews while condemning hate against any other organization. Whether it is Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Selena Gomez, Mel Gibson, Bella and Gigi Gigi Hadid, Jon Cusack, Roger Waters, Cynthia Nixon, Kanye West, or many others that I could fill this blog with by name, they are not afraid to share their Jew hatred on a public stage.
The Oscars (Academy Awards Ceremony) is no different. Once again they banned the yellow ribbon hostage pins as being too political while allowing the red hands pins, which celebrate the murder of Jews. I have lost interest in the movie industry and rarely go to the movies any longer. I no longer watch anything these hateful people are affiliated with. It is much easier than you would think.
Last night, I had no plans to watch the award ceremony when my son turned it on. I didn’t pay much attention and didn’t ask him to turn it off. When Selena Gomez was announcing the awards, I thought in my head, this is why I stopped with this industry – a clear Jew hater who has shown this over and over again, is given the honor of presenting. A few minutes later, the documentary No Other Land won. I didn’t pay much attention until the director began to speak. When he called to ‘stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” I asked my son to turn it off. There is no ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Their population continues to increase year over year. It is yet another lie that the media continues to allow and often encourage. I knew there would be no consequence for this statement, no correction of his lie, and nobody with the courage to stand up on that stage at a later date with morals and ethics to address what he said. Last night Hollywood and the movie industry officially died for me. I have no interest in them, the big screen actors, or the films they make. I won’t watch anything that those who actively speak out with Jew hatred are affiliated with. I can live without them. We all can live without them. They can’t live without us.
This is a big part of the problem we face. Those who hate us will openly say so. They will lie, make up facts with no basis, speak their lies from every public stage possible to get them spread far, wide, and fast. Those who have the same stage and platform to combat this hatred simply don’t. There are a few who will speak out. Most do not. Nobody last night after Basel Asdra’s lie was going to address it because they might lose a future job. They might get criticized. They were too afraid to simply say, “war is terrible but there is no ethnic cleansing and there is no genocide in Gaza. We must stop the lies.” So the lie becomes the story as if it was truth. Adra gets congratulated for speaking out against something that isn’t happening.
This cannot continue to happen. It is our obligation to speak out against Jew hatred and the lies that are being told. Our silence simply ensures our destruction. Nobody spoke out about how Hamas murdered the Bibas children. Nobody spoke out about how Hamas won’t extend the ceasefire. Nobody spoke out against the terrorists murdering civilians in Israel and Hamas and the Houthis congratulating them and encouraging more. Nobody spoke out against the pay for slay policy of the Palestinian Authority, which got great coverage when they supposedly stopped it but really haven’t.
We have failed in teaching our people to speak out in our defense. We have failed in teaching our people how to lead and how do what is right. They know the talking points. Tikkun Olam. Tzedukah. Wonderful words that are meaningless without real action. Where were the Jewish celebrities at the Oscars last night who got up after the lie of ethnic cleansing was stated and walked out. Who made public statements that they won’t stay in a room where those lies are allowed to grow. Where were the celebrities who boldly stated, “If I can’t wear a pin to bring awareness to people kidnapped, tortured, and murdered, I won’t attend!” Nowhere to be found.
While we won’t find them in Hollywood, we finally had somebody who did stand up. Professor Deborah Lipstadt, United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism under the Biden Administration finally spoke loudly from her public forum. I have met her in the past and she is a woman of integrity. I was disappointed in her performance in her role with the Biden Administration as I had hoped she would be much more vocal and public. I had hoped she would be the public face and leading the fight against the Jew hatred on college campuses and outside Jewish spaces that we saw after October 7th. Unfortunately, we never saw that side of her. No longer in that role, she finally spoke up and spoke out loudly against the Jew hatred on college campuses, specifically addressing what has been happening at Columbia. While I wish she had done it in her official role, she has finally done it. In a powerful piece published in The Free Press yesterday, she explained clearly why she has rejected the opportunity to be a visiting professor at Columbia. It was long overdue.
A few quotes pulled from her piece struck me. “But watching Barnard capitulate to mob violence and fail to enforce its own rules and regulations led me to conclude that I could not go to Columbia University, even for a single semester.” If she, a learned professor, highly educated, well written, read, and spoken, couldn’t go there even for a semester, how could we as a Jewish people send our children there for college? How can the Federal Government continue to fund an institution that has gotten so bad that the former United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism wouldn’t go there to teach for even a single semester? What makes Jew hatred so special that it is allowed to flourish while all other hate is quickly addressed? What will it take for Federal funding to be removed from these type of institutions? Lynching of Jews? Is one enough? Half a dozen? Do we need 50 or 100 on a campus?
As she lists her three (3) reasons for declining the appointment, Professor Lipstadt makes an incredible indictment of Columbia, our current University environment, and the lack of response from our Government, especially the administration she served. She wrote:
My decision to withdraw my name from consideration for a teaching post at Columbia is based on three calculations.
First, I am not convinced that the university is serious about taking the necessary and difficult measures that would create an atmosphere that allows for true inquiry.
Second, I fear that my presence would be used as a sop to convince the outside world that “Yes, we in the Columbia/Barnard orbit are fighting antisemitism. We even brought in the former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.” I will not be used to provide cover for a completely unacceptable situation.
Third, I am not sure that I would be safe or even able to teach without being harassed. I do not flinch in the face of threats. But this is not a healthy or acceptable learning environment.
Her first reason questions the integrity and purpose of the University. If it isn’t doing that, should it even exist? Perhaps Columbia should be shut down entirely, the way a campus would shut down a fraternity that was behaving poorly and allow them to restart a few years later. Perhaps Columbia should be shut down for 3-4 years, all staff fired, all students forced to transfer elsewhere, while they then had an opportunity to restart with integrity and a new, clear focus on education.
Her second reason has been obvious to most who have been paying attention on college campuses for a while. It’s not new, merely new to her because it would be her name being used. Bringing Peter Beinart or Norman Finklestein to campus as the token Jew does not represent the larger Jewish community and does not provide cover except to those who are Jew haters and want to say they brought a Jew who agreed with them. It’s sad that it took her until now to speak out about this instead of when she had a powerful position within the Biden administration.
The thired reason is a clear indictment of the Federal Government’s enforcement of Title VI. Students have had to deal with an unacceptable learning environment while the Government sat on its hands and did nothing. They made settlements with Universities that accomplished no change. If Dr. Lipstadt, a true icon in the field, an educator with incredible credentials and a history of addressing antisemitism says it is not a healthy or acceptable learning environment, then WHY IS IT ALLOWED TO CONTINUE? Why does the Federal Government continue funding their research, student loans, and every other type of funding they provide? If a true expert on antisemitism says it’s not an acceptable learning environment and so she won’t teach there, why should any student be learning there? Why should we be funding this type of education?
What I have come to realize is that as the author David Baddiel wrote, Jews Don’t Count. Written and released well before the horrific events of October 7, 2023 and all that has happened since then, this should be required reading by all members of Government. If we are truly to have, what President Lincoln so elequently stated in the Gettysburgh Address, a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and that it “shall not perish from the earth” then we must address this. We cannot allow Jew hatred to go unchallenged. We cannot encourage those who find reasons to allow or support Jew hatred to continue to do so. Jews do count. It is our job and responsiblity to make sure the world knows this. Staying silent doesn’t work and we can never stay silent again.
Earlier today I was talking with a friend who shared the frustration of having a conversation where two others were debating whether Jews had to join with the far left or the far right to accomplish our goal of staying alive. I found that topic absurd. Should we pander to the far left who thinks we are evil and only want to harm other groups or are we better pandering to the far right, who thinks we killed Jesus and use the blood of Christian children to make Matzo for Passover? When we pander to any group, we always lose.
The comedian Michael Rappaport wrote a great piece about this today. A Canadian politician, Heather McPherson, is trying to ban his entrance into Canada using lies, mistatements, and overgeneralizations. Instead of doing her job and protecting Canadians, she is focused on attacking the Jews. Rappaport won’t take it. He won’t be silent and he won’t let her win. He openly calls her out, writing, “The irony is that McPherson, in her post, asserted that “hate has no place in Canada”—except, of course, when hate is directed toward Jews, which Canada apparently has no problem with.” He doesn’t stop there, writing, “the real issue is this: Fifty-nine hostages, both dead and alive, are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Rather than call attention to that—or the horrific antisemitism sweeping her own country—this member of Parliament is spending her capital making pleas to keep me out, rather than fixing whatever is going wrong in her own backyard. (Hey Heather, you might want to get to the bottom of why the great people of Edmonton are sawing down the statues of women’s rights pioneers!)”
The same way that I won’t be quiet and won’t hide, Rappaport is one of the most public and vocal supporters of Israel and fighting the lies. He writes, “I don’t look for trouble. I do, however, refuse to give in to bullies. That’s why, since October 7, I’ve called out people in Hollywood who have remained silent on this issue, who haven’t had the moral backbone to denounce the moral depravity of those who stand on the side of a terrorist regime.” Let’s be like Michael Rappaport. Let’s fight back, stand up to bullies, and use our moral backbone. We can call out those who need to be called out and stop supporting those who hate us.
Michael Rapaport speaks at rally outside ‘The Hostages and Missing Square’ on December 16, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld via Getty Images)
I can be done with Hollywood and the movie industry. I can refuse to support the actors and musicians who show their Jew hatred. I can take action with those who support Jew hatred included our elected politicians. I can support those who stand up to Jew hatred and publicly commend them. The one thing I can’t and won’t do is be silent. I urge you not to be silent either.
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