Yesterday and today I am consumed with the Bibas family. Shiri Bibas and her children, Ariel and Kfir. Hamas has reported them dead and that their bodies will be returned tomorrow, February 20th. I think of Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and Ariel and Kfir’s father. My heart is torn in two for him. He endured nearly 500 days of brutal captivity and torture only to be released into a different type of brutal captivity and torture.
Yet we cannot think that the Bibas family is the only situation where beautiful young Jewish children were murdered simply for being Jewish.
On Oct 7, savage barbarian Hamas animals shot & killed 9 month old Mila Cohen in Be’eri.
This isthe Siman Tov family, an Israeli-American family. Johnny and Tamar, along with their children Shahar (5), Arbel (5), and Omer (2), were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7th in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel. They were burned alive.
Hamas set fire to the family’s house in an attempt to force them out of their safe room and kill them, but they stayed inside. Johnny, the father, sent a final text to his sister: “They’re here. They’re burning us. We’re suffocating.”
Johnny’s mother, Carol, a 70-year-old woman, was also murdered by Hamas terrorists with her dog in her own home
The Siman Tov family. Johnny (z’l), Tamar (z’l), Omer (z’l), Shahar (z’l) and Arbel (z’l).
On that day, over a dozen other children under the age of 10 were brutally murdered among the 1,200 victims. Thirty eight (38) children were murdered on October 7th with 42 children abducted to the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Here are pictures of some of them so we never forget their faces. Note that they are not all Jewish but they all lived in Israel, killed by genocidal terrorists that the world and college campuses glorify.
Yet today it is the Bibas family that is in my soul. For 500 days I hoped and prayed that they were still alive and would be returned alive. I wanted to see Ariel and Kfir play and laugh and grow up. I wanted to see Shiri and Yarden raise their beautiful children and maybe even add to their family. It appears that will not happen as Hamas has reported that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir’s bodies will be returned to Israel on February 20th. This has not been confirmed by Israel.
This is a picture that should haunt us all forever. It shows the evil of Hamas. A panicked mother, holding her children close, fear exuding out of the image into each of us. What would she have done to save her children that day? What would any of us have done to save our children? Anything and everything that we could. She was powerless and so were we.
I read this powerful piece about this picture and Shiri Bibas and her family. My blood boils. My heart breaks. Imagine it was your children, your grandchildren, your siblings. Imagine it was your nieces and nephews. Babies. This is the face of evil. We cannot let the world close their eyes, bury their heads, and tell more lies. We have gone beyond the place of reason and directly into the fight against evil where there is only one acceptable outcome. Evil is eliminated.
Someone filmed this moment Someone stood there Looking at a mother holding her two babies Protecting them with her body, her heart, her soul. Someone stood there And saw And watched Someone and another someone and another someone and maybe even another mother And no one reached out and said “Come on mama, come on mama…” And all the light went out long ago And what if I were there in her place And what if I had to choose who to keep holding And of whom to let go Because there isn’t a single mother Who can contain her pain over her children And the look in her eyes – this is every mother’s greatest fear It’s a look that stares at the devil And starts a negotiation Take me Leave them Take me, leave one Do with me whatever you want Just have someone take them to a safe corner Only a mother can understand a look like that And I I wasn’t there either…..
Lisa Davidson Oren
When I look at the pictures of the beautiful Bibas children, tears come to my eyes. Sweet, innocent children. A toddler and an infant. Ripped from their home by terrorists. How scared must they have been? How much did Shiri and Yarden try to comfort them? I think back to when my boys were that age and tears come to my eyes, pain in my chest, rage filling my heart.
Rabbi Mendy Kaminker of Chabad of Hackensack wrote this powerful and beautiful poem. It struck me powerfully as I think of this beautiful child, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered simply because he was Jewish. This picture cuts deep in my heart. Evil took him and yet the world responds by encouraging evil to continue.
Oh, young redhead toddler You like a little angle With a smile from heaven But you are stuck in hell
If you were An endangered whale The world would have stopped at nothing To save you
Heads of countries Would have spent millions To bring you back home
But you are not a whale You are just a small Jewish toddler
We prayed for you Your brother, your mother And even now, we keep on praying
And whatever happens We will not forget your smile Because you are our brother
Oh dear Oh G-d Your people have suffered enough We beg you to bring Moshiach And end suffering forever
Far too many of our ‘leaders’ have remained silent or spoken up for the ‘innocent Gazans’ without speaking up for the innocent Israelis. They have been silent about the hostages, complaining about a response by Israel that was too much. How would they respond if the United States was invaded, our citizens mass murdered, kidnapped, taken hostage, and tortured. We saw the results of September 11th which was smaller in scope. A 20 year war. When the claims are that too many people are dying, let’s take a look at what happened after September 11th.
U.S. military personnel
Between 2001 and 2021, 2,459 U.S. military personnel died in Afghanistan
1,922 of those deaths were in action
18 CIA operatives were killed
20,769 U.S. service members were wounded in action
Civilians
The Costs of War Project estimates that 46,319 Afghan civilians died in the war
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that 212,191 people died in the war
Opposition fighters
The Costs of War Project estimates that at least 52,893 opposition fighters died in the war
Other casualties
1,822 civilian contractors died
Thousands of Afghans died
The war also resulted in injuries, illnesses, displacement, malnutrition, and environmental degradation
The war in Afghanistan began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. government spent $2.3 trillion on the war.
The Jew haters and antisemites try to make Israel’s response to Hamas’s attack, declaration of war, murder, kidnapping, and torture of her citizens as more than normal in war. They try to paint Israel and the Jews as overreacting and going beyond the scope of war. This is a bald faced lie. The numbers above prove it. Displacement is a part of losing a war. We have seen that throughout history. It’s part of what discourages countries from engaging in war. Otherwise there is no risk in losing a war so it would happen more frequently. The world is asking Israel to enable Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran to wage continuous war in an attempt to eliminate Israel and the Jews. That is unacceptable.
When our leaders do speak out, it is important to note it and thank them. Unfortunately they are rare. Representative Ritchie Torres has been one of them. His post below is clear, powerful, and on-target. I thanked him and encourage you to do the same.
Thank you @RitchieTorres for continuing to be a voice of compassion and clarity against evil. I only wish more of your members of the US House of Representatives would follow your leadership. https://t.co/l6Hab1RMg7
My friend Rabbi Leor Sinai reminded us of an important fact that the world fails to recognize. He wrote, “Shiri, Ariel & Kfir Bibas were taken by Gazan civilians, not Hamas. In fact the majority of 3,000+ invaders on Oct 7 were Gazan civilians. Let that sink in. It is a culture and society in disease. This Thursday is going to be hard. All of Israel will mourn.” The media and the world fail to acknowledge that much of what happened on October 7th were civilian driven. I’ll never forget hearing from a man at Kfar Aza who was there on October 7th. His front porch became the headquarters for Hamas leadership as he and his wife hid in their safe room. His description of watching a man come from Jabaliya on crutches, crossing the fields and the broken fencing, going into a home and coming out with a television strapped to his back as he used his crutches to return to Jabaliya, will always remind me that this was not just Hamas. This was civilians. On November 20, 2024, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered $5 million and safe passage out of Gaza to anyone returning a hostage. We know hostages were being held and are being held by private citizens. Three (3) months later, not a single person has taken him up on this offer. It’s not just the Hamas militants that are involved.
On the same day that Hamas announced that the Bibas children and Shiri Bibas were murdered, in the United States, in New York, in Borough Park, we had this violence. There is no condemning of this from the media. Even New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued the weak statment of, “Last night we saw protesters in Boro Park targeting Jewish New Yorkers with hateful rhetoric and antisemitic chants. This is unacceptable. We are grateful to @NYPDnews for their diligent work keeping all New Yorkers safe.” Nothing about the violence. Only about ‘chants’.
The violence in Borough Park from an anti-Israel, Jew hating, ‘pro-Palestinian’ mob.
On November 7, 2023, just a month after the horror of October 7th, Senator John Fetterman not only put up the posters of every hostage on the walls of his office, he also posted this on X and pinned it to his account where it remains today. It’s sad that our allies are so few and inspiring when they are so public.
In my front office I have displayed the posters of the innocent Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 7, 2023
I am conflicted. With stage 1 about to conclude, with Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas likely confirmed dead tomorrow, with most of the remaining hostages likely dead, where do we go from here? I hope that Israel demands all the hostages back immediately for there to be a phase 2. I hope the US will back them up. I hope Hamas will agree. I don’t think they will agree. I’m not sure a phase 2 will happen otherwise. The slow process cannot continue. After 500 days it is enough. The hostages have suffered enough. The families of the hostages have suffered enough. The people of Israel have suffered enough. The families of IDS soldiers and those serving in milium (reserves) have suffered enough. The Jewish people have suffered enough. It’s time to put an end to this once and for all. Whatever it takes.
I am reminded of a few quotes from former Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Menachem Begin to ring true more than 40 years after they said them. Read and them and think. Read them and ponder. It’s clear to me what we have to do, no matter how much the world doesn’t want to let us because the world doesn’t want us to exist. I won’t apologize for wanting to live. I won’t apologize for fighting those who want me and all Jews dead. For those of you who do apologize, think of how your words of apology will look on your tombstone if you are lucky enough to have one and not be in a mass grave. That’s the harsh reality we face. The truth isn’t easy and neither is the path forward. But if we want a path forward, we must do whatever it takes to ensure there is one.
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The poster reads, “500 Days, Get Them Out of Hell”
500. An unbelievable number. Growing up, I remember when the US hostages were taken in Iran. The TV show Nightline, was created to track the daily updates on the hostages. The program began on November 8, 1979, four days after the start of the Hostage crisis. It is still on television, more than 45 years later. Yet the stories of the 250+ hostages taken on October 7th remain largely unknown. More than 40 Americans were murdered on October 7th by Hamas and I doubt most Americans could name one. 12 Americans were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th and I doubt most American know the number or know how many remain a hostage today (thankfully the number is only 1 and he is scheduled to be released this Saturday).
Hamas targeted individuals from over 40 different nationalities during its attacks in Israel. The victims included citizens from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Nepal, and several other countries. Yet the world has largely been quiet as their citizens were attacked, murdered, and kidnapped by terrorists all because they are Jewish or because they were in Israel at the time of their kidnapping or murder. It is a horrific indictment of the world’s antisemitism and Jew hatred.
Today, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, announced that six living hostages, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, will be released on Saturday. Bedouin Arab Israeli Hisham al-Sayed, seized in 2015 and Ethiopian-Israeli Avera Mengistu, seized in 2014, have gotten no world attention. Avera has spent the last DECADE as a hostage of Hamas while Hisham has been a Hamas hostage for nearly a decade.
Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, hostages of Hamas in Gaza for a decade
al-Hayaa also announced that four deceased hostages will be released on Thursday, with the remaining four deceased hostages from Phase A to be released next week. This release plan has been confirmed by Israeli officials. While we can take a deep breath once they are home that phase A of the ceasefire and release will be completed, there are still 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, including at least 28 deceased. How the world allows this is horrifying. How the world defends this is horrifying. How the world demands that these terrorists and monsters be allowed to rebuild Gaza and remain in power when they openly state that they will do this again and again is beyond offense. All I can say to the world is “F YOU”. Israel knows better. It appears the new US administration knows better.
After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese during World War 2 and the killing of 2,400 Americans, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress and, via radio, the nation. He spoke powerfully with the famous line, “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.” and immediately declared war on the Japanese. The Japanese attacked not just Pearl Harbor but also US bases throughout the South Pacific. Thousands of American’s were taken prisoner, hostages, and experienced unbearable cruelties.
FDR addressing Congress and the country after the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Former Ambassador Michael Oren asked a powerful question today. Imagine if instead of declaring war and fighting the evil of Japan and Nazi Germany, Oren wonders what if FDR had instead said the following“The enemy has not just massacred our citizens, but they have also taken hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners. They are now being held hostage and will be raped, starved, and tortured to death, unless we agree to Tokyo’s demands.We have no choice but to concede, America must do everything to liberate the hostages.”
That is what Israel has faced since October 7, 2023. 500 days since the murder of more than 1,200 people with more than 250 people taken hostage by the evil of Hamas. The world and many nations demanding that Israel surrender. Requiring that Israel negotiate with terrorists. It made me think of this classic scene from the movie, Tropic Thunder. Negotiating with terrorists means you always lose because they have no morals or ethics. Their word means nothing. They will give you whatever you want to get what they want because they never intend to hold up their end of the bargain. They will simply do it again and again to get more and more. At some point, the answer must be no, so why not start there? FDR did and the Japanese and Nazi Germany were defeated. Imagine if he had caved to their demands. Imagine if he had surrendered instead of fighting to defeat them.
500 days. 500 days of suffering for the hostages. 500 days of suffering for those who have had loved ones murdered or kidnapped. 500 days of a nation in shock, in mourning, dealing with rage and PTSD. 500 days of the entire Jewish people impacted. What would have happened if the world had said NO on October 8th. What would have happened had the world not accepted what Hamas did as resistance and instead treated it as it was, an act of war. What if the leadership of America and the world stood up like FDR did in 1941 and clearly stated that it was not acceptable, not ok, and we would do whatever was necessary to defeat this evil? Unfortunately we will never know.
What we do know is that we cannot allow Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran to continue their reign of terror. After the release of the six living hostages on Saturday, there will be at least 28 bodies to reclaim and perhaps as many as 31 people to get returned alive. Each one of their souls is precious. Each one of the families of those murdered deserves to have the body of their loved one returned for a proper burial and an opportunity at closure. The question we have to ask is, at what cost? Is it a fair trade to get them back if it costs us another 1,200 people being murdered in the next attack? Another 250+ people taken hostage? More women raped? Babies beheaded? Lives and families destroyed? These are difficult questions and I am glad that I am not the one who has to make that decision. The one thing I know is that IF I had to make that decision, that is the question I would be asking. At what cost? Am I willing to address the families of those 31 people who don’t come home and explain myself? Or would I rather face the families of 1,200 people in the future who have loved ones murdered because of my decision? The families of 250+ people who’s loved ones are hostages because of that decision?
As I am writing this, the following press release from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters came out, which broke my heart.
Statement from the Bibas family:
“In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil following Hamas spokesperson’s announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday as part of the hostages’ remains release phase.
We want to make it clear that while we are aware of these reports, we have not yet received any official confirmation regarding this matter.
Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.
We ask the media and the public to respect our privacy and refrain from contacting us about this matter.”
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas. It appears our worst fears are true.
I have written a lot about this family in part because I so identify with them. They had two boys. I have two boys. The age difference with their children is almost identical to the age difference of my children. I felt as if my family could have easily been their family. At my Passover table, I had their pictures on empty chairs as if they were sitting at my table. I left these pictures up on the chairs for a few months because I couldn’t bear to take them down. When their bodies are returned, like Hersh Goldberg-Polin, I will watch the funeral. I may light a shiva candle for them because I so identify with them.
So what comes next? Will there be a phase 2? How do we reconcile the murder of this mother and her two beautiful children with the release of more terrorists? How do we enable the people who murdered this beautiful mother and her two babies to walk free, let alone stay in power? Is the cost of getting those 31 hostages home too high? A friend of mine has had a number of his family members who are hostages. All but one have been returned and that one is scheduled to be released on Saturday. I can hear his voice in my head telling me that no price is too high. I also hear the voice of friends of mine who are Generals and Lt. Colonels in the IDF telling me that we simply must win this war and we can only do that by ending Hamas and their rule and influence. Not only in Gaza but also in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank).
I never really thought that the first phase of the agreement would actually be completed because of Hamas. If it wasn’t for the strong response from the current American administration when Hamas threatened to pull out of it, it wouldn’t have. I never expected that the talks about phase two would actually happen like they are. I am not optimistic that phase 2 will happen. As Bibi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and President Trump have said, it’s time to end the ‘drips and drabs’ of hostage releases. Yet if Hamas releases the hostages, what do they have left to bargain with?
We must never forget the hostages and do all we can to get them home. We cannot also allow a situation to occur where future hostages will be taken because Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, or Iran think Israel and the United States are weak. These are challenging times with no clear answer. The future of Israel, the future of America, the future of the West and our values are at stake here. No matter what anybody tells you, don’t forget that. Evil cannot be allowed to win. Evil must be eliminated. Whatever it takes it what it takes because if we let Evil win, if we let Evil flourish, the world we want to live in will cease to exist.
Am Yisrael Chai – Release them all NOW!
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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.
“Hamas has been a disaster… I watched the hostages come back today. And they looked like Holocaust survivors, they were in horrible condition. They were emaciated… I don't know how much longer we can take that.” –President Trump pic.twitter.com/Ku7gHaEjvk
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.
I’m not Jewish, but there’s a reason that I’ve risked everything to speak up for the Jewish community.
And when I say everything, I mean everything. I mean being blocked by friends that I grew up with, unfollowed by most friends and associates, accused of being a spy for the…
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.
Mahmoud and me at this American Colony Hotel bookstore in May 2024
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.
Three more hostages were released. Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy were all taken hostage on October 7, 2023. They were held by Hamas for 491 days. We shuddered as we thought of the abuse they were undergoing. When we saw them today, we realized how horrible it has been. How evil Hamas is. How useless the Red Cross is. That UNRWA and the UN are terror organizations. All you have to do is look at the before and after pictures of them to understand. These pictures bring tears to my eyes.
Pictures of Ohad, Eli, and Or, before they were kidnapped and upon their release. It is horrifying.
As Or Levy was being paraded before Hamas and the ‘innocent Gazan people’ before his release, you can see the condition he is in. He has to be help up on both sides to walk. He is barely able to stand. He looks like a Holocaust survivor. The images of walking skeletons from the liberation of the death camps in the 1940s are being repeated in 2025 as they come out of Gaza after 491 days of captivity. They are what famine and starvation look like. There will be no apologies or retractions from those who claimed Israel was starving Gaza, proven wrong once again. There will be no criticism of Hamas for how they treated these men and the hostages. The world doesn’t care. That’s the reality.
We have seen images of family members as they see their loved ones for the first time upon their release. Most images we have seen are those of joy and celebration. They know their loved one underwent terrible abuse. They know that the person coming home isn’t the same person that was taken on October 7th. But they have been able to watch them return with a sense of joy. Today’s release was different. While the anticipation was that of joy, when they saw the images of their loved one and what they looked like, there was shock and horror. This was captured best in the image of Ohad Ben Ami’s family as they got their first view of him. The shock. The horror. The pain in their eyes. I can’t get over the look in their eyes. It brings tears to my eyes. It makes me filled with rage and my jaw locks with anger. What the monsters of Hamas and those who support them, both in and out of Gaza, did to these men is horrifying. That the world allowed and enabled it is even worse. I think of the celebrities wearing their red hands pins, not even knowing the story behind them, who bear responsibility for what happened to these men. If looking at the images of Ohed, Eli and Or aren’t enough to wake you up to the reality of Hamas, let the faces of Ohed’s family show you.
We talk about cruelty. Eli Sharabi was held for 491 days and allowed to maintain the hope of reuniting with his wife and daughters. This is despite Hamas murdering them on October 7th. This is despite Hamas knowing they murdered his family. As they released him today, they allowed him to speak about how much he looked forward to reuniting with his family. They cheered and jeered him. They mocked his hopefullness because they knew. It was their final ‘fuck you’ to Eli. You may be free from out captivity but soon you will know that we murdered your entire familiy, destroyed what you loved the most, and we will always live in your head and in your heart. Monsters. It is not just the monsters of Hamas that are responsible. We see the people in the street cheering Hamas and what they do. We see some of our politicians and celebrities who support Hamas. We see students on campus supporting Hamas. They all own this as well. They are playing their role in this inhumanity.
Erin Molan spoke out powerfully today. She has been a powerful, clear voice since October 7th. When you listen to her talk, you hear her pain, not just as a human being seeing the abuse these men underwent, but how the rest of the world stood by and stayed silent. How the rest of the world blamed Israel and held Hamas blameless, while Hamas starved and terrorized the people they kidnapped. Listening to her talk captured my anger. Her words were perfectly stated. “The world is a disgrace.”
Why do we release 30 terrorists and murderers for every one of our people held hostage? Shouldn’t it be a 1-1 ratio? Why is Hamas emboldened to ask for an even greater ratio in phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement? It is because we love life. It is because we value life. It is because we all feel the pain of those murdered and kidnapped and desperately want their return. We feel for their families and what they are going through. And it is because of pictures like the one below of Or hugging his 3 year old son Almog after 491 days of captivity. It touches us deeply. It is core to who we are. We all feel the love from Or to Almog and from Almog back to Or. It makes us want to hug our children a little tighter, no matter how old they are.
Or hugging his 3 year old son Almog after 491 days of captivity.
The events on October 7th and since then have impacted me greatly. I wrote and shared about the two tattoos that I got related to October 7th. On my left arm, I have a tribute to the Nova festival with the Golani tree. When an Israeli sees it, they are taken aback. They can’t imagine that as a diaspora Jew, I would feel their pain so strongly that I would make it a part of my physical being. There are a number of people who have told me they didn’t see me as a ‘tattoo guy’. This image speaks loudly and strongly to me and I wanted to make it a part of who I am.
After seeing what Hamas did to Emily Damri, I was deeply moved, not only by what happened to her but how she responded. Her smile, her determination, and her wililngness to share what happened to her hand with the world was inspiring. Moshe Shapira, a father and artist who lost his oldest son, Aner Shapira, on Oct. 7, 2023, turned the image of Emily’s injured hand into a symbol of blessings. This symbol spoke to me in a powerful way. On my other arm, I had gotten the same tattoo that Mia Schem did after her release, saying “we will dance again”, reminding her and me of the resilience of the Jewish people. We will dance again. We will continue to live and to thrive. I found the art of Moshe a perfect fit with the words of Mia. On Friday, I went to get Moshe’s image added under Mia’s words on my right arm. I asked the artist to move the hands slighty apart so they would frame the October 7th date.
The addition to my arm. It’s a powerful image and reminder.
The image of Emily’s hand also is the same as the the American Sign Language symbol for “I love you”. It’s also the symbol of the priestly blessings, the first of which is inscribed underneath this image. In Hebrew it says, “May the lord bless and protect you.” Powerful words. And yes, this is the symbol that Leonard Nimoy, a Jewish man, used to create the vulcan image used by Mr, Spock on Star Trek.
The world may not wake up, even as the physicians have reported that the three hostages released today were in the physical condition of people who had spent a year in a concentration camp. That is Hamas. That is what some of our politicians and many Hollywood celebrities support. It is what the UN supports. The same with the Red Cross. The condition of these hostages was so alarming, so shocking, that Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon wrote the following letter to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN. The UN is a hate organization. They are a bank account for Hamas and Hezbollah. The letter documents Hamas’s inhumanity and crimes against humanity. The UN will do nothing which is why it is time for them to be disbanded. Secretary General Guterres will do nothing, which is why he needs to be indicted for crimes against humanity. UNRWA is a UN agency that participated in all of this. He is the leader of the UN which oversees UNRWA.
The images of today are shocking. They should spur us all into action. Those who are Jew haters will ignore it or celebrate it. We must continue our fight. We must continue to live and fight for our survival. If you haven’t spoken out yet, start now. This is no time to be silent. This is no time to ‘go along to get along.’ This is no time to put your head in the sand and hope they will leave you alone. Ohad, Eli and Or are images we cannot forget or they are destined to be images of us in the future.
Stand up. Speak out. Be loud. Be proud to be Jewish. Don’t let those who hate win. Am Yisrael Chai – the Jewish people live!!
I went to get my hair cut and beard trimmed yesterday. I’ve gone to the same barbershop since we moved to Central Florida. It is a true, old school barbershop. What makes it a little unique is that it is a Latin barbershop. Most of the people working there do not speak much English. The owner, Gomez, does and he usually cuts my hair now. My previously guy, who was great, didn’t speak English so we communicated with pictures and hand guestures, unfortunately left.
It is a barbershop with an interesting history. When we began going there in 2016, it was in a different location than it is now. A year or so into going there, there was a major gang shooting there leaving one barber dead and a few injured. It closed for a few months and then reopened. I never thought of going anywhere else. Maybe that says more about me in many ways than anything else. I wasn’t going to be afraid and I wanted to continue supporting this small business where I had become friendly with the owner. They added a buzzer to be let in, tinted the windows, and business went on as usual. A few years later, the land was sold and they had to move. The new location is a little further away, in a little sketchier area, but once again, I wasn’t going to stop supporting the business.
When I went yesterday, the only person working was a young barber that I had never met before. He didn’t speak English so I showed him a picture of what I wanted and we managed to figure things out. He cut my hair and we didn’t talk because of the language barrier. As we got near the end of the haircut, he took out the straight razor to get the close shave and make things look good. A man I don’t know, where we have a language barrier, has a razor to my neck, and I’m laying back with my eyes closed. I began to think about what it would take for an Israeli Jew to get into a barber chair and let a Palestinian Arab not just give them a haircut with sharp scissors but then take a straight razor to their neck. It was something that I no longer could imagine. Prior to October 7th, I could imagine places in Israel where relationships between Jews and Arabs are good where this could happen. Today, I can’t fathom it.
The buzzer rang and two teenage latin boys came into the barbershop. The conversation was all in Spanish. I had no idea what they were saying and the barber had the straight razor on my neck. I tried to imagine two Arab teens coming into an Arab barbershop, speaking to the Arab barber in Arabic, with a Jewish Israeli who doesn’t speak Arabic in the chair, a straight razor on their neck. Again, it was incomprehensible. How can something be so absolutely incomprehensible in one place that is so easily done in another? What is the difference that makes that happen? How do we change the reality?
It comes down to hate. The terrorists hate the Jews. They want them all dead. They hate the Christians, Druze, and even the Arabs who work with the Jews. There is no compromise. There is no opportunity for commonality. When there isn’t hate, there is opportunity. I saw it myself in 2019 when I spent 4 days meeting with leaders of Palestinian civil society. Those who lived in hate gave me no hope, made me angry and frustrated. Those who chose not to live in hate gave me lots of hope and made me want to do better. When I was in Israel in May, I walked from Ben Yehuda Street through East Jerusalem to the American Colony Hotel. I walked through Arab neighborhoods, past Arab schools getting out for the day, passed by Arabs on the street. I met my friend who owns the bookstore at the American Colony Hotel and we spent 90 minutes talking about October 7th, the hope for peace, if the 2 state solution was dead, Hamas, hostages, and much more. It was a thoughtful and insightful conversation. I didn’t agree with everything he said and he didn’t agree with everything I said, but we had a great dialogue. It gave me hope. In September while doing work with Dror Israel, a client of mine, we went to visit their youth movement, Hanoar Haoved, in Ein Mahil, an Arab village. This is an Israeli, Zionistic Youth Movement that is in EVERY Druze Village in Israel along with 55 ARAB VILLAGES with over 20,000 Arab children involved. The Mayor of Ein Mahil came to speak with us because he enrolled his daughters in Hanoar Haoved. We spoke to leaders of the movement in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, Arabs who grew up in the movement and have dedicated their lives to it. We met with children in the youth movement and it was beautiful. Throughout the time at Ein Mahil and ever since, this has given me hope.
In Ein Mahel with the leaders and children of Hanoar Haoved.
Israel is a different place today than it was on October 6, 2023. The hostages remain front and center in our hearts and minds. The IDF soldiers, risking their lives every day, are in my thoughts. My friends who are serving or who’s children are serving in the IDF, the families dealing with the challenges of having their mother and/or father away for long stretches of time due to milium (reserve duty). One of the people I met in September was from Kibbutz Nir Oz. He lost his mother and father on October 7th although he didn’t know his father was murdered for a few weeks and didn’t know his mother was murdered until July 2024 when they found her body in Gaza. I thought of him today as hostages Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes were released from Gaza. Both are from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small kibbutz of 380 people on October 7th. I can’t imagine the way he is feeling, watching them come home. I can’t imagine the emotions he has thinking of his parents, who were murdered after being taken hostage, and his friends and neighbors, who were also taken, finally coming home after 482 days of captivity.
The Unites States and the world are different since October 7th as well. Antisemitism is on the rise and we see violence against Jews and Jewish organizations and buildings. It is often times hard to find hope. It often feels that where we are and where we are heading is hopeless. We cannot allow that to be our reality. Without hope we are lost. I think of two different quotes about hope from two remarkable people. Anne Frank wrote, “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that remains”. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”. In these challenging times, I think of their words and of my 4 days in 2019, my meeting with my friend in May in East Jerusalem, and the visit to Ein Mahil in September to give me hope for a better future. I refuse to be lost so I will continue to find hope.
Four more hostages returned home on Saturday. Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, all members of the Israeli Defense Forces, were released from captivity in Gaza by Hamas after 477 days. They were released early in the morning Eastern Time, so when I woke up, they were already out of Gaza.
L: Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag, Naama Levy
When I watched the video of their release, I was horrified. Hamas held a parade to show them off to a cheering crowd. The video clearly shows the support of Hamas and of terrorists who brutally murdered 1,200 people on October 7th and kidnapped another 251 people. It’s more proof of the lies told by the media, the ICC, and the world. There is something very wrong about giving gift bags and certificates to people you have brutally kidnapped and held for 477 days.
The Hamas parading of the 4 hostages to a celebratory crowd in Gaza.
I anxiously awaited the videos and pictures of them reuniting with their families. Last week, those videos were incredibly emotional and both broke and warmed my heart at the same time. Thinking of those who will never come home alive, thinking of those still in captivity, and thinking of what nearly 500 days of captivity would do to a person.
The pictures and videos were amazing. They brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me why Israel made such a terrible deal. 200 terrorists and murderers went free to bring these 4 women home. A terrible deal. And worth it. When I looked at their faces, the faces of their family members, and listed to the sounds of their squeals of delight, it was an insight into the values of Judaism. Life. Family. Love. Perserverance. Humanity.
Naama Levy greeting her family
Daniella Gilboa with her family
Karina Ariev meeting her family
Liri Albag with her family
I’m not sure how any human being can watch these videos and not smile and have tears in their eyes. We’ve seen the brutality of Hamas on October 7th. We’ve seen them murder hostages. They kept these 4 women in captivity for 477 days. An incredible number of days. The hostages in Iran were held for 444 days in much better conditions.
I can understand how these women could be bitter and angry. How they could be filled with resentment. I would expect they would want privacy with the families and loved ones. Amazingly, I would be wrong. Last week we saw the amazing Emily Damari, who lost two fingers on her left hand, inspire us with her bravery and smile. The story of how she tried to get Hamas to release her friend’s father, Keith Siegel, instead of herself, is an epic exhibition of selflessness. This week we got the story of Liri Albag, now 19 years old, send the world a message of love. She has every right to be angry. She has every reason to hate the world that allowed her to remain in captivity for 477 days. Instead, she sent a message of love.
I was astounded as I watched it. Her smile. The heart symbol at the end. Extraordinary. How does somebody come out of 477 days of captivity at 19 years of age with this type of attitude? How much gratitude for her family and for life must she have?
As the day went on, we learned more about their 477 days of captivity. They were used as domestic slaves, often given no food and not allowed to bathe or have any personal hygiene. They were kept in civilians’ home for a good amount of time. Civilians who harbor and hide hostages are not civilians. They are complicit and combatants. As the media decries attacks on civilians, it’s important that we remind them that these ‘civilians‘ are anything but innocent. They were part of the looting after the attacks on October 7th and they helped hide hostages. When the UN or the ICC makes their absurd claims, we have proof that they are lies.
Later in the day, word came out that a member of the Israeli Health Ministry said that the released hostages are in an “emotionally and medically complex” situation. None of us know what that means but it hurts to the core of our hearts. These brave women clearly faced things that are unimaginable. Yet the had brave faces for the world. She wanted to show strength and love in public. We can only pray for their full recovery, physically, mentally, and emotionally.
To summarize what we know about Hamas and these hostages on the day of their release:
They were held together in captivity along with Agam Berger, who remains in Gaza, and were separated from her just days ago.
In the first days of captivity, an elderly hostage helped ensure they had food and were able to shower. They were able to share that he was killed in captivity.
There were periods when there was no food and they were starved
The girls were held both in civilian apartments and in Hamas tunnels
They were disguised as Arab women when moved from place to place
They were able to see some news, mostly to Al Jazeera, and learned to speak Arabic
When they spoke about Hamas’ “release ceremony,” they said, “We showed them on the stage that it did not bother us. We are stronger than that.” Now we all say a mishaberach (prayer for healing) for them to have a full recovery.
The other topic of the day is the Bibas family. They are on the list to be released but have not yet been included. This beautiful family with two beautiful babies were taken hostage on October 7th. We don’t know if they are alive or not. We know that they have a deep meaning to us all. We need them to be alive. We need them to be ok. We need them to come home. If they aren’t alive, I am concerned about what the Jewish world will demand as a pound of flesh for their murders. Kidnapping a 9 month old and a 4 year old is bad enough. Murdering them is unforgivable. If they come home dead, I’m concerned that I will feel like I did at Kfar Aza while I watched and listened to Israel bomb Jabaliya, less than a mile away. In May, that was the only time I felt any relief at Kfar Aza, when the bombs were dropped and exploded. Listening and seeing buildings collapse. It’s not who I am but it is who I was in that moment. The murder of the Bibas family may be that way for not just me but many others. All we can do is pray and hope. All we can do is wait for Hamas to send them home.
The Bibas family – 2 beautiful babies and their parents taken hostage
It is hard to believe that we will go through this same emotional rollercoaster every week for another 5 weeks in this first stage of the ceasefire. 33 hostages will come home over a 7 week, painful period. Hamas wants us to feel the pain. Hamas wants us to agonize. We will. But we can also look at the videos of the released hostages. We look at the images of their reunification with their familes and see the love and gift of life. Their hope and their spirit can get us through this. After nearly 500 days in captivity, the three girls released last week and four girls released this week will continue to give to us. It feels selfish but somehow, I think they would disagree and would understand and appreciate our pain.
I will use this picture of Naama Levy reuniting with her parents. Naama, who’s kidnapping was one of the most seen videos from October 7th. Naama, who we begged to come home and now is. When I look at this picture, it reminds me of a picture I have with my dad, one from my older son’s bar-mitzvah, when we were both filled with joy, happiness, gratitude, and awe. Just like the Levy family who got their precious daughter back alive.
Emily Damari’s hand has become an international symbol. The pictures are stunning and shocking. When you see her face and her hand, you realize that her hand does not define her, yet it also is a par tof her identity now. Shot in the hand by Hamas on October 7th, kidnapped and held hostage for 471 days, nobody knew what Emily would be like upon her release. What we have seen in just a week is truly remarkable. Her spirit, her smile, and the videos of her with her family warm my heart. It gives me hope for the other hostages and their pending release. It reminds me of my obligation to live and to be an inspiration, not just to my family, but those who know me or know of me.
One of the most beautiful pictures I have seen. Her face, her smile, and her hand show resilience
Her hand is a symbol and an inspiration. But of what? Rabbi Daniel Gordis, in his Israel from the Inside substack, writes about this, stating
“Here are some of the thoughts that I’ve heard from others:
It’s a “V” symbol, for “victory”
It’s “just” a wave, but Hamas turned her simple into “V”
It looks like the letter shin, ש, which is the letter on the Mezuzah, as “shin” stands for “Shadd-ai”, one of the Hebrew names of God
It sort of looks like a heart
And then, the one that I thought was the most profound:
“She’s home, and she’ll heal. But she’ll never be whole. Just like this country.”“
There is so much to think about in that analysis. It may be a ‘V for victory’, but what did we really win? She is home safe, which is a victory, but it is hard to say that we have won anything. Israel defended her citizens, crippled Hamas and Hezbollah, weakened Iran, and as a result, allowed for the toppling of the Assad regime. Yet it’s hard to think of that as a ‘win’. I believe almost everybody would rather the world be as it was on October 6th rather than where we are today, so it’s hard to see anything as a victory.
I love the concept of her hand now looking like the Hebrew letter shin, standing for the name of God. It’s a physical symbol of God and how God is inside all of us. In Emily’s case, she now has an outer symbol of God. It has been noted that her hand is now the same as the sign for “I love you” in American Sign Language. This ties even more into the letter shin as it shows God’s love for us all. I had the privilege and honor of meeting Elie Wiesel three times and having dinner with him twice. Sitting with him, it was clear that he had been touched by God. I feel the same way about Emily. Her hand is the symbol.
When I look, I don’t see a heart. I think it’s a bit of a stretch but I do love the concept. Emily and all the hostages have had our hearts since October 7th. When we learn one of them was murdered, our heart breaks. When we see one of them released, our heart sings. As Jews, we are all mishpacha (family). It’s a reminder of that as well. It is a reminder that no matter how much the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah try to take away our morals and ethics and our commitment to life, we will not let them do that. When I see her hand, it reminds me that I have to do better, be better, to make the world a better place.
I agree with Rabbi Gordis on the last one. It is the most profound. And perhaps the most true of them all. October 7th broke us. Going to the Nova site at Re’im was incredibly painful. Visiting Kibbutz Kfar Aza felt like being at Auschwitz just after liberation. I’ll never forget that feeling. Meeting and spending time with the displaced families from Kibbutz Alumim in Netanya as heartbreaking and inspiring and then visiting Kibbutz Alumim two months later, meeting those who moved back, and seeing what the terrorists both did and tried to do there, was deeply moving. We will all heal in some way. Yet we will also not be whole. Emily is the symbol for the entire Jewish world. She is the symbol for Israel. When I visited Israel in May and July iof 2024, you could feel how the country was different. When I went back in September, after the murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Carmel Gat, the country had changed yet again. Israel will heal. Israel will recover. But the Israel of October 6, 2023 will likely never exist again. Neither will any of us.
Kfar Aza in May 2024. When I watch and listen, I still feel the pain and anger that I did on that day.
My friend Fleur Hassan Nahoum picks a scumbag of the week and a hero of the week on her podcast, The Quad, each week. This week, her hero was Emily. As you listen to her talk about Emily, there is so much to identify with. She, and all the hostages, are family. We cried when they were taken. We ached as we thought of what they were enduring. We spoke out for their release and safe return. We celebrate when they are released and we mourn when we find out they have been murdered. Her hand should be the new symbol of giving Hamas “the finger”. They tried to murder us all and kill our spirits. They took her captive and held her for 471 days. She wouldn’t be detered. She is emblematic of the Jewish and the Israeli spirit. When I look at her, when I watch videos of her, I see life. I see future. I see hope.
Emily reminds us all of who we used to be, who we currently are, and who we aspire to be. As she comes home after 471 days that none of us can imagine, after 471 days than none of us would to experience for a single day, she exudes hope, love, and beauty. In a world filled with despair, filled with immense challenges, filled with incredible hate and bigotry, Emily reminds us that there is another path. Even in the worst of times, in the worst of places, enduring the worst of humanity, Emily’s smile shows us we can perservere. We can win by living our lives. We can defeat evil by never letting go of who we are and what we believe.
Drawing by artist Moshe Shapira, the father of Alex Shapira z’l, murdered on October 7, 2023, while hiding with his friends and others in a shelter in Re’im, after fleeing the Nova music festival
Emily is an inspiration. She is a reminder than good can defeat evil. It takes effort. Sometimes herculean effort, like surviving 471 days of captivity and brutality by Hamas. Losing two fingers and having their stubs fused together. Who knows what other horrors she had to face. Yet she survived and brings light to all of us. If Emily can do it, so can we. Let Emily’s spirit inspire all of us to do better, to be better, and to fight harder. Am Yisrael Chai!!
Yesterday was a challenging day, emotionally. After 471 days, three of the remaining hostages were set to be released. As expected, Hamas didn’t follow the agreement, resulting in a 2 hour delay. When word came out that ‘our girls’ were being handed to the Red Cross, it once again came with mixed reports. Terrorists and ‘innocent civilians’ were in the street, harrassing them as they were taken to the Red Cross. If you aren’t aware, the Red Cross is the most expensive and well funded taxi service in the world. In 471 days, they have yet to visit a hostage, to make sure they get medicine, and are being humanely treated. They are a great taxi service between Gaza and the terrorists and Israel though. In the first hostage release they served that role and they did it again today. I have confidence that as the deal moves forward and more hostages are released, the Red Cross will continue to be an excellent taxi service between Gaza and Israel. As a relief organization, a disaster relief organization, and one that purports to take care of human beings, they simply exclude the Jews and the hostages.
The word came out that they were with the Red Cross and able to walk on their own. Soon we heard that they were officially in Israeli hands. The relief was overwhelming. After 471 days, these 3 women were finally home. They were finally safe. When the video below was released, it was comforting to see them.
We can see the bandage on Emily Damari’s hand and her missing fingers. Hamas took 2 of her fingers, shooting her in the hand and not getting her proper medical treatment. We also see she isn’t consumed by her damaged hand. She is filled with life. It’s a reminder of the difference between terrorists and the rest of us. We celebrate life. We want to live. They celebrate death and destruction. They don’t care about life.
Because I have only the worst expectations of Hamas, it didnt’ surprise me when I learned that the terrorists gave these three women ‘gift bags’ when they released them. After 471 days in captivity and who knows what torture and abuse, Hamas thought it would be nice give them a reminder of their captivity. Bags filled with pictures of them as hostages, a commemorative photo of Gaza, and a certificate. Treating their 471 days of captivity as if it was a vacation.
The girls with the Hamas gift bags.
We got to see video of the mothers of the three girls talking to them on the phone. I have met with family members and parents of hostages when I was in Israel in May and July. I’ve been the Hostage Family Forum and Hostage Square. I’ve heard the anguish in the voices. The anger, fear, and hope. I’ve felt it deep in my soul. Watching these mothers see their daughters was heartwarming. It brings hope to a terrible situation. It’s the reason we made a bad deal, because we value life and family.
The mothers of Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher waiting to video chat with their daughters after 471 days of captivity,
Israel released pictures of each of the released hostages with their family. It was heartwarming. I could feel the emotion in each picture. The joy. The love. Looking at the pictures is a reminder of who we are – people who value life. People who do whatever it takes to save a life. People who will hold their nose and allow their stomachs to churn as 99 murderers, terrorists, and people who are pure evil are released from prison so that these three girls can return home. As distasteful and dangerous as it is to let these 99 terrorists back into the world, we pay the price because it is who we are and what we value. It is because of our morals and ethics. It is what makes us human and separates us from the evil that is Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian regime.
Whenever I think about what a bad deal this is, how we are releasing 999 murderers and terrorists to get 33 of our hostages back, I focus on the faces of these three girls. On the faces of their mothers. On the pictures of them embracing. It’s a reminder that no matter how bad the deal is, it’s worth it. It’s worth it because we value life. It’s worth because we understand that nothing is more important than life. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) tells us:
Translated, this means that “Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved an entire world.” When you look at the faces of these 3 women, you realize this deal has saved 3 entire worlds. The next 41 days will be difficult as we watch terrorists and murderers released and wait anxiously for the release of the remaining 30 hostages in phase 1 of the deal. We don’t know how many are alive and how many are dead. We don’t know what will happen with the other 64 hostages and how many of them are alive and how many are dead. We know the Bibas family is on the list but are Kfir and Ariel still alive? Are their parents, Shiri and Yarden still alive? How will we react if it is only the bodies of these beautiful children are returned?
It’s a reminder of both who we are and what we are faced with. It is a reminder that whatever the cost in a deal to get our hostages back, we must remain vigilant fightng the evil of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Iranian regime.. There may be a ceasefire, but the war isn’t over because they simply want us all dead and will continue to do whatever they deem necessary to accomplish that goal. These political cartoons do a good job of showing what we face after the hostages are returned.
Peace is not easy. Peace is not free. Peace does not happen unilaterally. As we find hope in the faces of Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari, the faces of their mothers and their families, we need look for the hope that may result in change. The Abraham Accords. The fall of Assad. The people of Iran fighting the regime. Perhaps there will be a new world order in which we can live in peace. We can work for it, hope for it, and pray for it. We cannot act as if it is a given and allow Hamas and Hezbollah to regroup, to rearm, and to attack once again. Lives are too precious to take that risk and leave things to chance. We did that once and got October 7th. Never again.
It appears there is a hostage deal. When dealing with terrorists like Hamas, it is better to see it happen than listen to the words they say or even the agreements they make. They lie, cheat and steal. They say whatever they need to achieve their ultimate goal, the genocide of the Jews.
There is a lot of talk about the deal and is a good deal or a bad deal. I’ll be blunt. It’s a bad deal. It was ALWAYS going to be a bad deal. From the moment Hamas took the hostages, there was never going to be an opportunity for a good deal. Perhaps if Israel had said on October 8th that Hamas had 24 hours to return the hostages alive or she would turn Gaza into a parking lot, they would have been returned and it would have been a good deal. Israel was never going to kill the civilians in Gaza like that. The United States was never going to allow Israel to do that.
Hamas does not value human life. We have seen that with their use of human shields. Their use of hospitals, schools, mosques, and private homes as military bases. The way they value those who will become terrorists and give their lives to murder Jews. The way they murdered hostages when the IDF got close instead of leaving them alive and escaping themselves. This was never going to be a good deal.
It is a deal Israel had to make. Not because of Biden or Trump. Not because of world pressure or the ICJ. Not because of the U.N. or the antisemites. This is a deal Israel had to make for the soul of the country. Israel does value human life. If you walk the streets in Israel you will see the pictures of the hostages everywhere. It is a constant reminder that they are our family and they have been kidnapped and undergoing unspeakable horror for well over a year. We have to get them home so the people of Israel can begin to heal.
I was talking to somebody yesterday who said that all Israel has done is trade lives today for more lives in the future. That is very possible. It is also a trade Israel has always been willing to make because we value human life today and everyday. Because the future is uncertain and being alive today is what matters. Israel did not surrender. Israel did not lose. The war was not lost. The war was also not won. Yes, the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah were destroyed. Yes, Syria is no longer under the leadership of Assad and there may be hope for Lebanon. Iran has been weakened. The job is not finished.
The announcement of the deal is showing the world the realities of Hamas yet once again they are not paying attention. They don’t care. The video posted below shows Hamas emerging from tents in the displacement camps in full uniforms with guns. They are not displaced civilians. They are Hamas soldiers and terrorists. Hiding with the civilians. The world doesn’t care because they can’t blame Israel and the Jews.
Hamas will regain control of Gaza even while the IDF is there, just as fast as the Taliban took over Afghanistan before the US completed the withdrawal. They are literally remerging from displacement tents, as you can see in the 1st video, with uniforms, insignia, vehicles & guns pic.twitter.com/emNmqhIJn4
This is a deal I will believe as it happens. When the hostages are home, I will believe we have a deal that involves the hostages that are released. Every step in the process is not guaranteed. I am not optimistic that phase 2 will ever occur. Hamas cannot be trusted. I am hopeful that phase 1 will happen. I pray for the Bibas family to be released in phase 1. They are all on the list. As the father of two sons, approximately the same age difference as Ariel and Kfir Bibas, I relate to them personally. I had the family pictures on chairs during our Passover Seder and kept them there for a few months afterwards.
The Bibas FamilyShiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas being kidnapped by Hamas
Getting the 33 hostages returned alive is critical. Hopefully we can get all of the hostages that are alive returned and the bodies of those murdered returned as well. It’s critical to who we are. We also must learn from our past mistakes. Israel maintaining veto power of the terrorists who will be traded for them is required. Some simply cannot be released. Ensuring that Hamas does not rearm and rebuild is essential and I hope the agreement provides the ability for Israel to strike when needed to avoid future terrorist attacks. It is essential that the same mistakes are not made again. This is a challenging deal as it must get the hostages home while doing everything possible to ensure we don’t have future hostages taken and a repeat of October 7th.
Nobody knows in what condition the hostages will return. We know many are in critical condition. After more than a year in captivity, we know there will be emotional damage and challenges. We don’t know what torture they had to endure. We have seen the publicity that Noa Argamani and Mia Schem received and some of the public criticism. We cannot allow this to happen to the hostages when they are returned. They will be fragile. They need our protection. We need to ensure that there is nobody saying how humanely they were treated, that they don’t look starved, that nothing bad happened to them. We need to protect them and silence those that will work to traumatize them once again. We need to support their families and friends as they welcome back their loved ones who are likely not the same people they were on October 6th.
We can celebrate the return of the hostages and be grateful they are home. We can be grateful that Israelis are now able to return to their homes in the north and the south, 15 months after being evacuated. We can also be wary and afraid of the cost of this deal. We need to understand who we are dealing with and not minimize their hatred and willingness to do inhuman things. The video below, of a mother in Gaza promising that October 7 will happen again every year is a perfect example. This is what Israel faces. This deal creates the opportunity for those who hate, for those who don’t value human life, and for those who will do anything to murder Jews, to rebuild and take action. Israel must ensure that doesn’t happen. Never again no longer just refers to the Shoah. It also refers to October 7th. It refers to believing that Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian regime are trustworthy. What we know is that we can’t trust them and we cannot forget that.
A mother in Gaza promising October 7 will happen again every year. This is the challenge for Israel
Ambassador Michael Oren wrote a brilliant article about this hostage deal. It is the cost of Israel’s failures. We must admit that in order to learn from the catastrophic errors that cost the lives of 1200 people on October 7th and more than 250 people being taken hostage. Part of the cost of this deal is learn from our mistakes and ensure that Never Again truly begins now. Just like Israel has done whatever it takes to get the hostages back, she must do whatever it takes to ensure it never happens again.
For those who hoped for a good deal, it was never possible. You make a good deal when both sides have a common goal. The Israelis want to survive. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran want Israel to be eliminated. There is no common ground. Israel won’t ever say it’s ok to murder half the population and the terrorists will never say murdering half the Israelis is enough. Pay attention to the words of Warren Buffet and learn from them when dealing with terrorists.
Lets prepare to celebrate the return of the hostages. Focus on the good that they will finally be home. We know that the repercussions from this deal will be large and will have to be accounted for. But not now. Now it’s about our brothers and sisters returning from captivity. Being released from bondage.
The media around the world is mostly rotten. We have seen just how bad it is over the past 14 months with lies being told over and over again. The media promoting the lie of Israeli genocide. The lie of Israel starving the people of Gaza. The lies that ‘Jews deserved this’ and the lie that this is only about Israel, not about Jew hatred.
I get so fed up with the media lies that I mostly tune out the main stream media. No matter what station you watch or what newspaper you read, they are not giving you news and facts, they are giving you the narrative that they want to tell. From the word choices they use to the videos they choose to show, it’s a reminder than the news divisions are based in the entertainment division and it’s about getting views to sell more ads, not about telling the truth.
Today I want to write about and show truth. It’s not easy to find and it takes work on a daily basis to learn and understand what is really happening rather than the lies that are so easily told to us and that many believe. You can use these with your friends who don’t understand or who believe the lies because that’s all they hear.
We have known for a long time that they use actora in Gaza to simulate deaths and injuries. The same person has died multiple times in multiple locations. Dolls are used to simulate babies. Footage from Assad’s genocide in Syria (over 500,000 murdered) are shown to be in Gaza a decade later.
The acting isn’t very good and they don’t even try to make the actors look different when they die multiple times. The dolls are often easy to see. The footage they use from Syria is easily proved to be from there or was footage shown a decade ago. Here is another egregious one. This actor pretends to be a “victim” but accidentally uses the wrong foot while limping with a supposed broken foot. It’s only after he is hit in the head by the man ‘helping’ him that he switches the foot he is walking on from the broken one to the other one. The media lying isn’t even good, yet so many believe it. Jew hatred is real.
With the revolt in Syria and the fall of the Assad government, there is now a push to claim that Israel is trying to colonize Syria. The rebels, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), are headed by a leader with long ties to Al Qaeda, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. al-Jolani has ties and connections to Isis as well. This is not a group you want to just assume the role of Assad. Israel took action. They destroyed the Syrian navy. They destroyed the Syrian air force. They destroyed the Syrian chemical weapons. They destroyed the Syrian rockets and launchers. They took control of the border with Syria to keep the people of Israel safe.
The IDF now estimates that 86% of Syria’s air defenses have been destroyed, which makes Syrian airspace a now much safer flight route for the entire world. The army says this opens up the opportunity to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, yet another benefit to the entire world. A nuclear Iran is a danger to everybody.
The UN responds as you would expect. UN António Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This is while Syria is the middle of turmoil and there is grave danger to the Israeli people if no action was taken. Of course, Guterres has done everything he can to ensure that Israel is constantly in danger. He then calls for an urgent de-escalation by Israeli forces and a withdrawal from the Golan buffer zone. Once again, Guterres calls for the destruction of Israel. The media refuses to tell the truth.
For more than a decade, the media has lied about Syria. They kept the use of chemical weapons by Assad on his people quiet. They kept the brutality of his prisons a secret. They downplayed every Syrian death while using images from Syria to accuse Israel of killing Palestinians. Now that the Assad regime has falled, the truth is slowly coming out. In the Free Press, they just released an incredible report about Assad’s Sednaya prison. It’s a must read. The video inside the prison is haunting and chilling. Words like death camp and slaughterhouse are used and may be an understatement
The media bears responsibility for the ‘forced disappearance’ of 96,000 people. The media is responsible for the continued horrors that occured in Sednaya prison. The more I read about Assad and the torture and murders that were committed there, the more horrified I am. The angrier I become that the media, and the world, allowed this to happen once again. While this time the Jews weren’t the target, Jew hatred and antisemitism was used to cover up this brutality. How is Assad not wanted by the ICJ? how are those who participated in this brutality and barbarism not being held accountable by the world? The hypocrisy is deafening. Another example of the truth not mattering.
Astoundingly, the Druze leader of al-Suwayda in Syria made a powerful statement: “We refuse to live under rebel rule. We want Israeli rule and to be part of Israel.” This city of 120,000, mostly Druze with a large Greek Orthodox community, are openly stating that they want to be Israeli. The government that the ICJ and even some members of the US Congress call genocidal is a desirable place for minorities to live. A minority group is openly stating that Israel is the best country for them to live in. The truth is once again hidden by the outrageous lies. The people of Syria know. The Druze of Syria understand that they get freedom and human rights by being governed by Israel. The UN, the ICJ, the media, and especially some of our US members of Congress should be ashamed as their lies are outwardly being exposed.
It isn’t enough that the Druze leader of al-Suwayda openly states they want to be governed by Israel. Quite incredibly, we are seeing and hearing the same thing from the Druze villages on the easter Golan Heights. This video is from a Druze community in the southern Syrian village of Hader. The individual speaking calls for their village to be annexed to the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. The response further exposes the lies the UN, the ICJ, the media, and some of our US members of Congress propogate about Israel. “We agree. We agree.” they chant. The speaker goes on to talk about how they want to live with dignity and freedom….. in Israel, as Israelis. How do the liars explain this? They don’t even try. They ignore the truth instead.
The challenge for the Druze people of Syria is that while the southern Syrian village of Hader and the villages referenced in the video are close to the Israei border, the Druze living in Suwayda are in what is called Druze Mountain. It is not contiguous to Israel. The people living between the Eastern Golan and Druze Mountain are Sunni Arabs. Would they want to be a part of Israel? Would Israel want them to be a part of Israel? One thing we do know. If Druze Mountain and the Druze villages on the eastern Golan Heights became part of Israel, then Israel would not only be the Jewish state, it would also be the Druze state. How would Jew haters figure out a way to call Israel an apartheid state when it was the home not just to Jews but to the Druze as well? The facts would be inconvenient but the media doesn’t care about facts or truth. They would find a new way to twist the truth and lie about Israel.
When you want to hear truth from the media, you have to listen closely. You have to search and then hope they don’t lose their jobs for telling the truth. Erin Molan, from Sky News in Australia, has been telling the truth regularly. This past week she was fired for doing so. As she left, she recorded this powerful video. Listen to her words. You won’t hear them on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, BBC, or any other network. You used to hear it on Sky News but you won’t any longer. Listen to her words. Listen to the power of the truth. Imagine if this was the message we got in the United States from our media. Imagine if this was the message from the BBC and throughout Europe.
Thank you Erin for speaking out. Thank you for not shrinking in fear when they fired you for telling the truth. Thank you for making this video and for beginning something new. Perhaps you will lead a revolution that will bring the media back to reporting the truth. To having morals and ethics. To not being entertainment but being news. Watch and listen to this remarkable journalist. You won’t be disappointed.
Finally, we are now at day 434 of the hostage crisis. In 10 days, they will have been kept by these monsters as long as the American hostages were kept by Iran. The difference is the brutality. None of the American hostages taken by Iran were murdered. We know many of the Israeli hostages have been murdered by Hamas. None of the American hostages were sexually abused by Iran. We know many of the Israeli hostages have been sexually abused by Hamas. Look at the image below. 64 hostages are believed to be alive. Look at their faces. 36 are believed to be dead with Hamas keeping control of their bodies. 100 human beings tortured and abused. 434 days. It is unimaginable. It is horrifying. It should be the lead story on the news every single day and night. We should know every single one of their names, faces, and stories. Their families should be our families. Our media shows no compassion Our media shows no moral backbone. They should be ashamed. We should be ashamed. I pray every single day that the hostages are released and come home. I pray every single day for their health and welfare. May they all come home before we reach day 444.
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