Terror Unleashed: The Dangerous Cost of Hostage Freedom (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

The night before the first three women hostages were released, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the nation. Attempting to placate a nation appalled at the prospect of another terrorist release, the prime minister made a promise [emphasis added]. “We have established that terrorists who have killed will not be released to Judea and Samaria; they will be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and we also decided in the cabinet on a very significant reinforcement of our forces in Judea and Samaria to protect our citizens,” said Bibi.

Because we have been lied to before, we didn’t really believe this declaration. But it didn’t much matter. The only difference between a terrorist who has killed and one who hasn’t, is that in the first instance, the victims died, and in the second, they lived. That is why the distinction isn’t much comfort to the 5,700 or so Jewish residents of Beit El. Of the first 200 terrorists released in this deal, 114 of them were sent to Ramallah, adjacent to Beit El.

One woman in my town of Efrat heard that a further 22 terrorists “who have not killed” were released to Hebron, quite close to us. I asked how she knows this, since everything about the mass terrorist release has been cloaked in mystery. It turns out her son’s friend is serving there. He said he would have been safer in Gaza.  

In truth, there is a general air of despondency here. Many assume that what we hear about the terrorist release is not true, or at least not the whole truth, because so little information filters down to the common man that it makes us suspicious. Others are more pragmatic. “I'm not sure it's a ‘lie’ as much as politics and hands tied and deals behind the scenes,” says Chani Ugowitz of Efrat.

Be that as it may, the lack of information has created an air of distrust. Victim families directly affected by the release have yet to be contacted by the government. Those of us who live in close proximity to locations where terrorists will now roam free, have not been briefed.

 “This is a crazy complicated situation. I am so against this "deal"/ blackmail but know so many people that are going with it because they feel we had no choice. We tried the other way and it didn't work. I don't know. Makes me mad, scared, and sad,” says Ugowitz.

“It’s incredibly painful,” said another Efrat friend, Rachel Schwartz, “Statistically, half of those will do another terror attack. 170 out of 200 hundred that were released had life sentences. Varda, it is so incredibly painful. I can’t stand it.”

I had heard the same figure regarding terrorist recidivism. But it seems this figure has been updated. Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Morris Hirsch formerly of the Military Prosecutor’s Office, writes that [emphasis added], “[As] part of the cabinet discussion going into approving the deal, the head of the Shin Bet noted that 82% of those released in the Shalit deal returned to terrorism.”

In the frightening Hebrew-language article, Without you knowing: This is how Israeli terrorists will be released back to the country, Hirsch shares a further, little known but profoundly disturbing fact, “The list of terrorists who will be released as part of the deal includes no less than 73 terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship or residency. This means they will be released back to the country.”

“Of that list, 21 terrorists are serving life sentences – that is, murderers. Of these, eight terrorists are to be released to Israel (within the 1949 armistice lines), while the rest are to be deported, although at this stage it is not clear where,” writes Hirsch. “Five of the eight are affiliated with Hamas and the rest with Fatah. All eight were arrested between 2001 and 2003, during the terror attacks initiated by the PA, starting in September 2000.”

All in all, of the 73 Israeli terrorists to be released from prison, 45 will be released into Israel, writes Hirsch, “while the remaining 28 terrorists will be deported abroad, either temporarily (3 terrorists) or permanently (25 terrorists).”

We may not know nearly enough about the terms of this deal but one thing seems certain, exactly none of the terrorists slated for release will be deported to America. President Trump wants Americans to feel safe. He doesn’t want any more innocents killed, people like Jocelyn Nungary and Riley Laken. So Mr. Trump is having these criminal elements deported. He doesn’t want them in his country.

“And there they are deporting murderers and criminals,” said Chani Ugowitz of the new administration, “while forcing us to take them to our streets with our children.

“I've gotten very harsh in my views since the war and I don't like it but I don't like how the other side has pushed me to think in an "us or them" mentality. There is no partner on the other side of the negotiation table so it becomes blackmail on their end and force on ours.”

Then too, what does it say about Israel that we’re freeing murderers into the wind? Whatever it was that was held over Bibi’s head to agree to this deal, it’s hard to hear that it was worth letting these murderers roam loose. Why would anyone even ask us to do so? 

“How depressing that monsters like these are the price of getting innocent Israelis freed from the Hamas underworld,” remarked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old terror victim Malki Roth, murdered in a pizzeria. “and that there's no one so monstrous that Israel would keep him or her in prison if the blackmail demands were perceived as warranting an even more painful surrender.”

Meantime, outside of Israel, Jews are giving Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff multiple ovations (!) for forcing Israel into accepting Biden’s May horrific deal. Yet he managed to get not a single American hostage released. 

What then, was the point?

I wonder if President Trump is aware that among the terrorists released or slated for release in this deal, are many who were convicted of murdering Americans. JD Vance begged us Israeli Americans to vote for Trump, and we did. Now we wonder at the betrayal of American Israeli victims of terror whose murderers we were leaned on to release.

Why was Israel pressed into this deal now, when we were ahead of the game, when we were winning, when we were no longer between a rock and a hard place because it was no longer Joe Biden threatening us, slow-walking arms, and supplying the enemy with cash dollars? Trump had won and could now push Hamas into releasing the captives with just a few threatening words. Why then force Israel to release murderers from Israeli jails into the wild? 

Will we ever know why we were compelled by Trump to sign a bad deal months after it had been rejected? Or why not one American hostage has yet been released since this ceasefire was implemented. As of this writing, Keith Siegel is not to be released in this latest batch of hostages, and we know he is fast fading. Emily Damari was so worried about Siegel that she offered to switch places and let him go first. Hamas refused.

Keith Siegel, an dual American citizen held captive in Gaza

So we watch as no Americans are released, but the murderers of Americans like Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who were blown up in the Hillel Café on the night before what would have been Nava’s wedding are going free in this “deal.” 

Dr. David Applebaum, Nava Applebaum, murdered at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem

Member of the cell that killed them, released or about to be.

The same is true of the murderer of American citizen Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan, who were on their way to spend Shabbat with their family when their murderer stoned their car with boulders.

Asher and Yonatan Palmer, murdered when their car was stoned while driving to family for Shabbat

 

On the list of terrorists demanded by Hamas

Ditto the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, an American killed by a child terrorist in 2016 while shopping at a supermarket.

Out or about to be out and free as birds.

It was that last name that grabbed at my throat, as I finished scanning a new list of the terrorists to be released, this time in English, from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). It was just before Shabbat, and I had to shut down my computer, but I remembered that one. I never could get Tuvia Yanai Weissman out of my mind, because of the photo that circulated of him with his young wife and infant son. He had such a beautiful baby face, and his wife’s face was so full of joy and light. How awful to lose her young husband with whom she was clearly smitten. I mentioned Tuvia at the Shabbat table, and my youngest son told me that Weissman’s wife is his friend’s sister.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a dual American citizen, murdered in a supermarket.

Every Israeli has multiple connections to multiple terror victims. Connections upon connections upon connections. That’s the way it is.

Ari Fuld, dual American citizen, murdered while talking to his wife on the phone

I wonder: does President Trump feel a connection to the American victims whose murderers are now being set free in this deal we were compelled by his man Witkoff, to sign?

Why don’t we hear President Trump threatening Hamas if they don’t release Keith Siegel, now? 

Why don’t we hear Witkoff saying to Hamas, “No. You can’t have the terrorists who killed American citizens. You can’t have the murderers of Americans Marla Bennett and Ben Blustein, exchange students killed in the Hebrew University Cafeteria,” or “No. You can’t have the terrorist who killed American citizen Ari Fuld while he was standing outside a supermarket talking on the phone with his wife,” or “No. You can’t have the murderers of David and Nava Applebaum, or the murderers of Asher and Yonatan Palmer. You can’t have the murderers of Tuvia Yanai Weissman.”

Ben Blustein, American exchange student

Marla Bennett, American exchange student, who along with Ben was murdered in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus

Instead, we hear none of this. We hear people say things like, “What if it were your family members being held in Gaza?” as if those of us who feel as I do, that this “deal” is a horrible, unjust, and dangerous thing, are heartless.

But two things can be true at once. We are joyous at the release of each hostage, and sick at the release of murderers of loved ones we tracked down, caught, and jailed. Where is the justice for the victims? 

How do you think their families feel?

And how would you feel if you lived in Beit El, and 114 murderers had just been released next door to your home?

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Jack Lew, Court Jew (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

The Jpost Jack Lew interview had me at the title, “'Two-states is a defeat for Hamas,' US envoy Lew says, touting Saudi deal.” Had me fuming, that is, at Lew’s attempt to pull the wool over our eyes. “Court Jew,” I thought. “Jino,” I muttered (though naturally Lew self-defines as orthodox).

Yup. Lew’s message came through loud and clear, a script to which he, Lew, would stick without deviation:

👉🏻Two states for two peoples is a defeat for Hamas because it allows for a Jewish state to exist. And since Hamas wants Israel gone, two states would not serve its purpose.

No matter that the missive is a study in illogic, no matter how skewed, this is the message that Lew needs us to hear and absorb. That only two states can solve this problem, that two states for two people are the only way to beat Hamas—because fighting won’t do it, sez Lew.

He could say this lie once, Lew, and it would be enough for the masses. But he will say it here many times, to ensure the memo leaks into public discourse and soaks into our little public brains.

Happily, the interviewer of Lew, Tovah Lazaroff, doesn’t make the reader wait long for the first phase of the indoctrination to begin. The talking points we are meant to parrot are already there in the second paragraph:

“I don’t think Hamas wants two states,” Lew said. “The only time they indicate they want two states is when they’re trying to put a little bit of a patina of legitimacy around their real strategy, which is the elimination of the State of Israel.”

Missing here is the fact that the two-state solution is a win for no one. Not for Hamas of course, but also not for Israel, Gaza, or the people who live under the thumb of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (clever name, that). No. Not one of the regional actors who would be a party to the two-state solution, actually want it. And that’s a fact, Jack.

Just as Hamas wants that “little bit” of legitimacy around its real strategy of exterminating the Jews, so too the people of Gaza, who continue to support Hamas, and the people who live under Abbas (who also support Hamas). They say they want a two-state solution because that’s how they get a foot in the door that is Jewish territory. It’s what they do. Then once they have a state on Jewish land, they carve away at the rest of Israel until whoops! Israel is gone. (Won’t happen.)

Then again, Israel also doesn’t want a two-state solution. Why on earth would we give this enemy any part of our (holy, indigenous) soil? What other nation would have this “solution” imposed on them? Must France cede Paris to Morocco? Must Canada cede Toronto to the United States of America?

I think not!

No. Only Israel, tiny Israel, is required to give up its land, holy to its Jewish inhabitants since before Mohammed was born—holy to the Jews whose presence the Holy Land was never lacking even when it meant they were forced to live hidden out of sight, in caves.

(photo: Judean Rose, with AI)

Aside from being compelled to “give up” land that will, by right, continue to belong to the Jewish people for all subsequent generations, the TSS asks us to legitimize the barbarians already installed alongside us, and embedded among us in our hills. It would be a gift to the evildoers—a gift that would leave Israelis far less safe than they were on October 7.

That’s all it is, the two-state solution. Not a defeat, a gift. A gift to Hamas, a gift to the PA, and a gift to all the people who voted them in. Two states mean more land for the Islamic caliphate—and Jewish land, at that—a seeming win for Islam over Judaism. (Won’t happen.)

Lew can flap his gums all he likes as the court Jew that he apparently is, but no one with a semblance of a brain will believe him. Not that it matters to the echo chamber. Chambers don’t have brains.

(photo: more Judean Rose AI experimentation.) 

Still, the echo chamber is soaking it all in as Lew continues to argue that the opposite of the truth is the truth, that the TSS is a defeat only for Hamas; that red is green; and big, old Brussels sprouts don’t smell when boiled at length:

[Netanyahu] has balked at talk of Palestinian statehood particularly in the aftermath of October 7. Both he and his government believe Palestinian statehood rewards terrorism and legitimizes that brutal style of attack in which people were raped, dismembered, and burned alive.

Lew said he believed that the opposite is true, particularly if Palestinian statehood is achieved through the framework of a larger Saudi deal, which would place Israel within a regional alliance against Iran.

“I think it’s a defeat for Hamas to talk about a two-state solution, which is why I think even out of the pain of October 7, there is a way to have this conversation, but it takes leadership,” Lew said.

Well, Jack Lew, Court Jew, maybe the echo chamber is fooled by your rhetoric, but thinking people are not. A rape victim, out of the pain of rape, will not give up half her bedroom to her rapist. The family of executed Jewish hostages, out of the pain, will not welcome an Arab state on their doorstep. And they don’t have to. None of us have to—no matter how many resolutions are issued by the talking heads at the antisemitic UN. And no matter how much Jack Lew insults Israel's duly elected leadership.

Of course, lest you question the efficacy of the TSS, let it be known to the echo chamber that Lew’s creds are impeccable. He alone knows what’s best for the Jews and the Arabs, because he’s served in three (count 'em) administrations that believed they knew what was best for Jews and Arabs. (They didn’t):

The United States has long believed that two states is the correct resolution to the conflict, Lew said, adding that “this is the third administration I’ve served that’s believe that. So it’s not a new idea.” He clarified that such a state would be a demilitarized one.

Note that last part. The Arabs won’t actually have a state, because Lew won’t let them have an army. In Lew’s Arab dreamland, there will be no terrorists and no army. And of course, by extension, no more weapons to the Jews, either:

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

(photo: yet MORE Judean Rose AI experimentation)

Here, Lew inserts the knife—peace? Never mind what Dr. Edy Cohen calls “the consistent and enduring Palestinian rejection of any and all peace initiatives with Israel, most recently the ‘Deal of the Century,’” It’s all up to the Jews who, at the moment, have closed their minds off to the idea sleeping well at night:

No one expects Israel “to decide on two states next week or next month,” but it has to be open to the conversation, he said.

In other words, Lew wants you to know on behalf of the Biden administration, as the court Jew he is, that the Jews are completely closed up in their own little selfish Jewish mindsets crying, “Ours. All ours!” totally unable to think outside the box; to be creative; to share nicely what they have with “others,” barbarians who swear they will perpetrate endless October 7ths. (Won’t happen.)

“The basic orientation” should be: is this “a win or a loss for Hamas? Is it a win or a loss for Iran?” Lew said.

How kind of Lew to orient us all, in particular the Jews, who after all are oriental. Thanks to Lew’s largesse of spirit, we now understand that the elimination of Hamas depends solely on Israel’s retreat from Gaza. If only Israel will only stop killing the terrorists and talk to them instead—give them land—peace will reign over the entire region:

[To] arrive at a deal, Lew said, there must be a cessation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, particularly given that the war has entered a phase, where success might better be achieved through diplomacy than on the battlefield.

Never mind that there was a ceasefire on October 7, and that it was Hamas who broke it; clearly it is only Israel’s close-mindedness, its unwillingness to compromise that prevents peace, now. That is, if you don’t count the more than 8,000 Jews expelled from Gaza—which apparently, Lew does not.

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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The Partial Ceasefire Deal with the Devil (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

                                                                     --1--

If it were you, my child, husband, brother, sister, mother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, grandchild, friend. If it were you I would fight like hell to set you free, to bring you home and into my arms. Safe.

Then we would deal with the aftermath. The nightmares, the poisoned minds of the children raised to hate themselves and what they came from. The massive, multi-level trauma of it all, from beginning to the something that will never end.

Still, from a distance so far away that I don’t want to see it, I know that procuring your release has broader implications. You are a Hamas bargaining chip, or rather an Iran bargaining chip for use with Joe Biden, along with a cascade of other evil actors across the globe who will use human beings—use you—to get what they want. Hamas randomly keeps you alive—if you are alive—to get concessions; to retrench and regain strength to hurt the Jewish people; to score a victory; to wound Israel and live to kill, maim, and destroy more Jews another day.

                                                                    --2--

Every day since October 7th, we have heard Israeli officials say, all the hostages or no ceasefire. It was  clear from the start—Israel had been quite clear from the start.  Or rather, the objective was clear until it wasn’t, and Israel began to speak of a “partial ceasefire,” when just to speak of this even in a fuzzy sort of way, already put Israel. at a distinct disadvantage. It must be said and taken into account, that while the hostage deal may save the lives of some of the hostages, it will put an untold number of other lives at risk, for example, just now, our dear Israeli soldiers. To breathe life into Hamas is to wreak havoc with the future. This Amalek must be stopped. Hamas must be obliterated, completely.

Ain breira. There is no choice. It's all or nothing. There is no other way. All the hostages or no ceasefire, partial or otherwise. Israel must hold firm, because a deal with Hamas is Obama’s deal, Biden’s deal, a deal with the devil, Iran. For Hamas, this deal translates to Jews ceding victory and paying the jizya, even unto releasing 300 felons back onto the streets of their natural hate-infested society.

We have certainly learned something here: the going rate for a handful of Jews is 300 felons for Hamas to parade as trophies. "How stupid is the Jew?” you might hear from the laughing crowd as they watch the 300 go by, and slap each other on the back. "They turn Gaza into rubble, then cry to us, 'You won!'"

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

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