“My son will remain a hostage in Gaza until we decide.” (Forest Rain)

By Forest Rain

Ditza Or makes many secular people uncomfortable.

Her clothing marks her as a religious Jew, which, for some, is unsettling in itself. But it isn’t her appearance that disturbs—it’s her words.

Ditza’s son, Avinatan, is being held hostage in Gaza. To most of the world, he is known as Noa Argamani’s boyfriend—the handsome man who, though bigger than his captors, chose to walk into captivity beside Noa because he hoped to protect her.

Noa’s scream of terror, arms stretched out to Avinatan as she was whisked away on a motorbike, was the moment the world saw them both—and the last time she saw him.

Although she has not received a sign of life, Israeli intelligence assures Ditza that Avinatan is alive. And alone. We’ve all seen the videos of the other hostages, starved down to shadows of themselves—concentration camp skeletons. We can only assume Avinatan’s condition is the same.

Imagine, for one moment, what it’s like to be in Ditza’s shoes. What would you say? What would you do if your child was a hostage in the dungeons of Gaza?

We understand the parents willing to burn the world down, to do anything to bring their son home NOW.

Ditza is not one of those parents. She articulates her anguish matter-of-factly, her outward composure unsettlingly incongruent with the horror she describes. As if that weren’t enough, Ditza speaks with blood-chilling clarity, framing the physical nightmare as a manifestation of our struggle—and failure—on the spiritual plane.

Ditza says things we don’t want to hear. The soul recoils, which, to me, seems to be a sign that she is probably correct.

She points out that, 20 years after Jews were forcibly expelled from Gaza in the Disengagement, her son was forcibly dragged into Gaza—to the terror tunnels beneath. Avinatan has never once appeared on the lists of hostages considered for release. He is alone. Starved. Suffering.

And yet, their family name is Or—“Light.”

Ditza explains that she believes souls choose their journey before birth. Avinatan, she says, agreed to this nightmare being part of the story of his life. He chose to play this role in the story of the Nation of Israel. And that, she says, means he has the strength to endure it.

But why? Why must he suffer so? Why must their family suffer so?

Avinatan’s father, Yaron, rarely speaks publicly about his son. He’s worried sick—literally. His heart is struggling to withstand the agony. For this reason, his twin brother (and my friend), Rabbi Shimon Or—who has also suffered health-related stress issues—usually speaks in his stead. Ditza, no less distraught, focuses on the spiritual and less on the political.

How could any mother find meaning in this horror? It would be easier to stay in bed and remain in the dark, but Ditza says we must understand what is happening before we can make it stop.

She speaks because she wants her son back.

Ditza says, the Nation of Israel is meant to be a Light to the Nations. We have a job to do—an obligation to the world as well as to ourselves.

On October 7th, when Israel was attacked with the most revolting and obvious evil, the world looked to us. They expected us to show them what Light does to Darkness. They expected to see good vanquish evil.

But that isn’t what happened.

Instead, we entered a long, grinding war—feeding the enemy, releasing their fighters, allowing them to grow stronger. In doing so, we blurred the line between good and evil. The world, watching, grows confused. Even in Israel, some are confused. Perhaps what they thought was good is not. Perhaps what they thought was evil is acceptable—even reasonable. Justifiable. As a result, confusion is turning to anger: the Jewish people are failing in our mission.

Ditza says that even those who don’t see or believe in the spiritual realm feel it instinctively. They react—and lash out—without consciously being able to articulate why.

She sees two possible choices.

One is surrender. Make a deal, bring home as many hostages as possible, stop the war, save our soldiers. But she rejects this as an illusion—Hamas will never release them all, and such a deal only ensures another, even worse October 7.

The other choice is victory. To vanquish Hamas, reclaim Gaza, and declare sovereignty. To take responsibility for the land that is ours, because no one else can ensure our safety.

Israel, she says, has chosen neither. We have not fought to truly defeat Hamas. We have endangered our soldiers, left our hostages in hell, and failed to ensure that Israelis can safely return to their homes. We have not chosen sovereignty, still hoping someone else will bear responsibility for our future.

And it is this indecision, Ditza says, that is killing us.

Matter-of-factly, she concludes: “My son will remain a hostage in Gaza until we decide.”

 

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Staging Sympathy, Delivering Nothing: The Red Cross and Israel’s Hostages (Judean Rose)

On August 12, four mothers—Galia David, Merav Gilboa Dalal, Viki Cohen, and Sylvia Cunio—traveled to Geneva to beg the Red Cross to do something, anything, for their children, held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023. I saw the story in Ynet and hoped it might offer a reason for hope—something in short supply these days.

I should have known better. It’s Ynet. There was nothing worth seeing in this story, nothing new—only an anonymous Israeli source claiming the Red Cross hasn’t been cruel or insensitive to the hostages. “An Israeli source familiar with the Red Cross’s work told Ynet that Red Cross officials ‘weren't empathetic enough toward the hostage families mainly because they are Swiss and follow protocols, not because they are anti-Israel.’” In other words, they’re just Swiss—wedded to their protocol, not to saving Jewish lives.

The article suggested that things would be different this time. But instead of coming away feeling better, I felt sick at the thought of the false hope that been fed to these mothers who have been suffering so, so hard, for so long—that something would actually be done this time, that the Red Cross would do its job for once, and do something, anything for our hostages.

A mother’s tears are powerful, but perhaps not powerful enough to sway the “Swiss.”

Oh sure, the mothers came away with hope. They think something has changed. Why should it be different now? It was the awful images we all saw, now burned into our very souls, of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, looking like Muselmänner*, like the photos of Jews in Auschwitz, skeletal, skin and bones. Evyatar has lost 41% of his body weight.

In the propaganda video Hamas released, Evyatar is digging his own grave. Rom Braslavski, meanwhile, can no longer stand.

It is hard to believe the agonizing desperation their mothers feel can worsen. But those images of their sons moved them to speak from the rawest place a mother can speak, showing ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric photos of their sons’ faces with hollows where flesh should be. They pleaded for medicine, for food, for a chance to keep them alive until they can be freed. They thought, “Surely these photos will move the Red Cross,” move Spoljaric, who, after all, is a mother herself.

Spoljaric did all the right things—the expected things. She took their hands, leaned forward, and promised to do “everything in her power.” Her expression seemed to hold the right mix of sympathy and resolve, or at least the mothers thought so. They believed they had touched her heart.

But they hadn’t. What they had touched was a performance—one Spoljaric has given before and is almost certain to give again. She said the Red Cross will try to help, but it should be obvious by now that they won’t.

It’s been more than a year and a half since I wrote about the International Committee of the Red Cross and its refusal to do anything at all for the Israeli hostages. Why? They despise Jews. During the Holocaust, the Red Cross knew about the gas chambers and did nothing. They hid behind a label of “neutrality” when they were anything but.

 

PM Netanyahu Meets with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric, 14.12.2023 © Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom, GPO

What has changed from December 2023—when I last wrote about this—to now, August 2025, when four mothers, evoking the four matriarchs of the Jewish people, went to beg for their children’s lives, for a bit of food and some medical attention for their sons? Mirjana Spoljaric has a son and a daughter. You might think that would make a difference—that she would empathize with the hostage mothers.

But that would be an illusion. The Red Cross holds no empathy for Jews. This is just a cruel new act the Red Cross has added to its repertoire: dangling hope in front of mothers in unimaginable pain, then walking away and doing nothing. Because we know that’s what will happen.

If you want to understand the Red Cross’s true capacity for evil and inaction, remember 84-year-old Alma Avraham. She was released in November 2023 in critical condition: a pulse of 40, a body temperature of 28°C (82.4°F), unconscious and with multiple injuries. Her family had begged the Red Cross—twice—to deliver her life-sustaining medications. Twice, they refused.

Alma spent five months in the hospital fighting for her life. An 84-year-old woman. And the Red Cross looked away and did nothing.

The Red Cross says it “can’t” visit hostages because Hamas will not allow it. But this is not true. It’s not that the Red Cross can’t help the hostages, but that they choose not to. The Red Cross operates in Gaza with Hamas’s blessing. It runs hospitals. It delivers supplies. Hamas gives them no trouble at all. Red Cross personnel have complete freedom of movement under Hamas—except when it comes to saving Jews.

No. The inaction of the Red Cross is not about Swiss neutrality and a need to follow protocol. In fact, the Red Cross is not at all neutral when it comes to Israel and Hamas. It is aligned with Hamas. It respects Hamas for October 7, for the slaughter, for the terror, for the rape of Jewish women and the beheading of Jewish children. It allies itself with Hamas because Hamas has done openly what the Red Cross has always endorsed without saying the quiet part out loud—hurt Jews, mutilate Jews, rape and humiliate them, starve Jews, strip them of all dignity and life.

It’s always been the same Red Cross—the same body that during the Holocaust refused to speak out about the camps, even as Jews were being gassed, starved, and burned by the millions. Back then, the Red Cross played by Nazi rules to keep its privileges because it didn’t care what was done to the Jews—didn’t like Jews. Today, the Red Cross plays by Hamas’ rules for the same reason—and with the same satisfaction.

Remember the Steinbrechers, begging for their daughter Doron’s daily pills, only to be scolded: “Think about the Palestinian side”? The Red Cross is not a powerless observer. It is a willing accomplice—and has been for generations.

This is the same organization that knew about Auschwitz in 1942 but said nothing, claiming it couldn’t jeopardize access to Allied POWs. Roger Du Pasquier, head of the ICRC’s Information Department, even lied about being “ill-informed.” And now, in 2025, the ICRC’s silence on Jewish suffering is once again dressed up as pragmatic restraint.

When lawsuits from hostage families and groups like Shurat HaDin accuse the Red Cross of abandoning Jews, they aren’t exaggerating—they are documenting a pattern. Seventy-six years later, the Red Cross still finds ways to look away from Jewish suffering while keeping its credentials spotless.

And now here we are, with two living skeletons starring in Hamas propaganda videos, their suffering public and undeniable. The Red Cross says they are “appalled” and “reiterate our call for access.” Appalled? Appalled is what you feel when a waiter forgets your coffee order. They’re not appalled. They’re complicit.

From 1930 to 2006, the Red Cross refused to recognize Israel’s Magen David Adom because of “territorialism”—a diplomatic fig leaf meaning no Jewish symbols allowed. The Muslim crescent? Accepted without hesitation. The Iranian red lion and sun? Not a problem. But a Jewish star? Not a chance.

Even now, abroad, Israel must hide its emblem inside the hollow “Red Crystal,” because the Star of David is still not recognized as a protected symbol. A small piece of metal and cloth tells the whole story: to the Red Cross, Jewish identity is something to be concealed, diluted, and finally, erased.

Don’t be fooled. The Red Cross did not meet with the mothers out of empathy or a desire to save lives. They granted a meeting only because the images of those skeletal Muselmänner had leaked out before the public eye. Some show of sympathy had to be made, or it wouldn’t have looked right.

So Spoljaric staged an audience, then sent the hostage mothers packing with the thinnest thread of hope—an illusion of momentum. Did the mothers really think that after seeing those hollowed-out faces someone would care, someone would cry, someone would save their sons?

If so, that’s not what they got.

And now, visit accomplished, the Red Cross can return to business as usual—the business of aiding and abetting the enemies of Israel.

It’s their favorite thing to do.

* Ironically meaning “Muslim men,” but that’s a column for another day.

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The Lie on the Front Page: What the New York Times Chose to Show—and Hide (Judean Rose)

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

It wasn’t a mistake when The New York Times ran a front-page photo of a skeletal 18-month-old Gazan boy and claimed he was suffering from starvation. It was a deliberate editorial choice — a lie that fit the preferred narrative: Israel is genocidal.

Even Fox News missed the point. Their headline—“NY Times' erroneous cover photo… joins series of media blunders”—called it an error, a media blunder. But this was no “oops.” It was propaganda. And the proof is in the cropping.

Let me just start with other images the media chose not to use. Photographs of Mohammed with his 3-year-old brother Joud. Both mother and brother are healthy and fed.

Any honest journalist should have immediately questioned – and reported - what we were actually seeing. 3/13 pic.twitter.com/FaUsVFsqb2

— David Collier (@mishtal) July 27, 2025

 

The boy’s healthy brother was edited out of the image. The Times didn’t disclose the child’s medical history until days later, after pressure from Israeli officials. Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq has cerebral palsy, hypoxemia, and a severe genetic disorder. He requires specialized nutrition and therapy—not a ceasefire.

Unlike his brother standing by his side, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq suffers from cerebral palsy.

But BBC, CNN, Daily Express, and The New York Times spread a misleading story using a picture of a sick, disabled child to promote a narrative of mass starvation in Gaza —… pic.twitter.com/UzP5PhNSvU

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) July 29, 2025

 

The Times eventually tacked on a note that the child had “pre-existing health problems,” but the damage was done. The image had gone viral, a global symbol of “Israeli starvation.” The Times knew what it was doing. That’s why it buried the correction in the digital story and posted it from a PR account with under 90,000 followers—not their main feed with over 55 million.

We have appended an Editors' Note to a story about Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a child in Gaza who was diagnosed with severe malnutrition. After publication, The Times learned that he also had pre-existing health problems. Read more below. pic.twitter.com/KGxP3b3Q2B

— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) July 29, 2025

 

And when real starvation did appear—this time in the form of emaciated Israeli hostages like Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski—the Times’ front page was silent. No photos. No headlines. Just a weak, secondary article headlined, “Hundreds Protest in Tel Aviv After Hostage Videos Surface From Gaza.”

Nothing about Evyatar digging his own grave. No image of Rom weeping, his ribs protruding. Nothing of the horror that millions of Israelis felt—not just a “handful” of Tel Aviv protesters.

As Yaakov Ort, a former NYT staffer, put it: “If the Times had a Jerusalem bureau that reported the thoughts, communications and actions of the vast majority of Israelis… they would have told readers that the reaction… is not fear or protest. It is horror, rage, and resolve.”

The excuse? Mohammed’s condition had worsened due to war. But as Israeli pediatrician Dr. Michal Feldon said, “I’ve been a pediatrician for 20 years and we never see kids looking like this, even very chronically ill children. When we do, we suspect abuse.” Prof. Dan Turner added, “Even patients with background diseases should not be malnourished like that.” In Gaza, it’s not just illness—it’s lack of access, lack of formula, and yes, Hamas theft of humanitarian aid.

This wasn’t bad journalism. It was anti-Jewish narrative warfare—the blood libel of our time, illustrated by a carefully framed photo and a willfully ignored truth.

Because in today’s media: a carefully staged image used to falsely accuse Israel of starvation is front-page news — but the real starvation, suffering, and desperation of Israeli hostages doesn’t make it in at all.

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Stiff-Necked and Unbroken: Hostages Seek God in Gaza (Judean Rose)

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

We’ve all heard of people spurning God when tragedy strikes. They say things like, “God didn’t help me when I needed help. Therefore he doesn’t exist,” or, “If there were a God, He wouldn’t have made the Holocaust,” or, “If there is a God, He’s not a loving God but a cruel God and I refuse to worship him.”

But the Israeli Jews taken captive on October 7 experienced no such crisis of faith. They turned to, rather than away from God, embracing Jewish law as best they could. The hostages understood that their persecution was due to the fact that they were Jews. So they doubled down. Because the Jews are a stiff-necked people.

It doesn’t matter where you start out as a Jew. When push comes to shove, we know what to do. Many of the hostages were disconnected from religion prior to being kidnapped. Keith Siegel, for example.

Growing up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Siegel attended a Conservative synagogue with his family. But after 40 years on a secular kibbutz, Keith had pretty much forgotten any of the prayers he’d learned as a child. This is not to say that Siegel had turned away from God. He probably just hadn’t thought much about religion or God during those years.

But held captive in a Gaza tunnel, Keith Siegel began saying the Shema, an affirmation of faith: “Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Siegel knew that what had happened to him, had happened to him because he was a Jew. It shifted something inside of him, something that called out to him in the haze of the endless starvation and torture, and the constant dread of death. Keith Siegel reached out to the one God he’d almost forgotten, and pledged allegiance. “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.”

With plenty of time alone with his thoughts, Siegel reviewed his slim knowledge of Judaism. He knew the blessing for bread. It was really the only blessing he remembered. So he began saying the Hamotzi blessing at meals.  “We had a pita bread for every meal, that was the first thing I would eat after I said the bracha (blessing),” said Keith.

One day, Keith caught a glimpse of an Israeli TV show after his captors happened to switch the set on. The program was about something like good places to eat in Tel Aviv. Siegel heard one participant make the "borei minei mezonot," blessing said over baked goods and pasta before taking a bite. Keith decided that from then on, he too would make this blessing, whenever he ate anything other than pita bread.

Someone else might have thought that wrong. That you cannot say the mezonot blessing over, for example, a grape or a date. But with his mezonot, Keith Siegel was connecting to God with the only resources God gave him. “I thought it was appropriate,” he said. “But it was the only [blessing] I knew.”

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It was what Keith Siegel had. These were the tools of his survival: the shema, the hamotzi blessing, and now, the mezonot blessing. These things comforted and strengthened him. They were his pathway to God.

When Keith Siegel was finally freed after 484 days in captivity, his family recognized that something remarkable had happened, that cleaving to God was what had kept him alive. His daughter Shir spoke about it.

 “Dad searched for his Jewish identity while in captivity, and he found it in small prayers. He started saying blessings over food, like ‘Borei Minei Mezonot,’ which he had never said before, and ‘Shema Yisrael,’ which he had never recited in his life.

"He said that amidst all that hell, he wanted to remember that he was Jewish, that there was meaning to his people and to the place from which he came, and that strengthened him greatly.”

Ah, there it is right there, that backbone Jews get when between a rock and a hard place, life and death, the Inquisition and the Holocaust or a tunnel in Gaza. It only stiffens our resolve and our necks, which is why they never succeed in getting rid of us.

“After he returned,” continued Shir. “I asked him what he wanted us to do for our first Shabbat meal together. I imagined he’d want some dish he loves or a good challah. He replied, ‘You know what I want most of all? A kippah and a Kiddush cup.’”

“Who is like Your people, Israel?” (Samuel 7:23)

Keith Siegel is not the only freed hostage who turned to, instead of away from God. There are many such stories. And we will have plenty of time to tell them.

In fact it will be a delight to take our time in telling the stories, knowing that the enemy will have it rubbed in their faces for years to come. This is what happens when you try to kill the Jews.

It isn’t possible. You can’t do it. Because we’re a stiff-necked people, who, in intolerable situations will always seek to reclaim that spark in the soul that the Arab enemy so desperately wants to extinguish.

But never will.

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We must thank two readers for bringing my attention to sources that state that it is acceptable to say the mezonot prayer on everything except water or water and salt, b'dieved (a posteriori).

A reader shares the following, "According to the Chayei Adam (58:3) and implied by the Gemara in several places (Brachos 12a, Brachos 35, somewhere in Nedarim that escapes me for the moment), 'Borei Minei Mezonos' on everything but water and salt is acceptable bdi'eved."

Yehudah Posnick comments that Rabbi Aaron Hamaoui of  of the Sephardic Community of Greater Boston said that bdi'eved, the mezonot blessing covers all foods, except for water, because the word "mezonot," suggests that the item to be ingested is satiating, and water doesn't sate. (See his comment below for the full thread.)

My take: Keith Siegel did his best and his best was the right thing to do. Disclaimer: I am not a rabbi. 

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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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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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A Price of Pain: Hostages Returned, Terrorists Released (Judean Rose)

“The nightmare is over.”

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

Last Sunday, the entire nation of Israel was riveted to their screens, hoping for a glimpse of Emily, Romi, and Doron. At the same time, at least where I live, in Efrat, the joy and relief were tempered with the knowledge that the cost is higher than any of us can stomach: the release of 1700 terrorists. Among those terrorists to be released is Khalil Ali Jabarin who fatally stabbed and killed Efrat resident Ari Fuld, a husband and father of four, in 2018.

And now, apparently, he will be released from prison, to do it again. It’s what they do. Kill Jews. It’s a proven fact. The recidivism rate is high. Terrorists were released in exchange for Gilad Shalit in 2011. By 2014, half of them had committed further acts of terror. So now we have three amazing women back, but we feel unsafe.

In an address to the nation the night before the hostage release, Netanyahu assured us that no terrorists would be released to Judea and Samaria. “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,” he said.

Yet we see report after report suggesting that the terrorists slated to be released in this “deal” will indeed be released to Judea and Samaria. Efrat, once home to Ari Fuld, is located in Judea. We are in agony at the injustice of his murderer and so many other murderers of Israelis, going free. How do we trade this for that? Three young woman, but Ari’s murderer is set loose to wander free, and perhaps among us. 1,700 terrorists to be released into the wild.

We are winning. Why should we trade anything at all for a ceasefire, let alone release 1,700 murderers for 33 hostages? Why did Trump insist that we accede to Biden’s very bad May ceasefire plan? Does the new president not know that this means the release of terrorists who murdered American citizens, such as, for instance, Ari Fuld and Richard Lakin?

But that’s not the entire story either. It’s not the only reason our feelings are a bewildered mishmash of orphaned puzzle pieces. Israel has been fully mobilized for more than a year. We are in constant fear for soldier husbands, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters. They are gone for months. Wives and mothers are left on their own, some for more than a year. They are terrified. They must be strong for the kids. And how to soothe children when daddy is away and there are sirens.

As a mother of soldiers, I can tell you that it is hell to be a mother of soldiers in wartime. And now our soldier sons wonder why they served. Did they do their jobs bravely and well only to see the release of these monsters? Here, too, there is no justice. Especially for families who lost soldier husbands, sons, brothers, daughters, and sisters.

We are winning the war. Why are we being forced to capitulate, forced into Biden’s very bad “deal” from May, by Trump’s envoy, Witkoff. A man in Qatar’s pocket. Word is, Witkoff not only strong-armed Bibi into agreeing to this terrible deal (at Trump’s behest of course) but forced him to meet on Shabbos telling him that he knows Bibi isn’t orthodox, that he doesn’t wear a yarmulke, so he better damned well meet with him on Shabbos. Rumors. But rumors that rankle.

One woman friend told me that she had never cried so much as she did on Sunday, the day we waited for the hostages to be released. We didn’t know what feeling to land on: the fear, the feeling of being betrayed, that it was all for nothing, yet joy at the prospect of getting those girls, those three precious souls, out of hell.

Now, the newspapers are focused heavily on the hostages. The terrorist release is like a mere whisper in the media compared to the huge story of Emily, Romi, and Doron. They deserve our love and our joy. They deserved their hell to end. But to release terrorists who are almost certainly bound to kill again, is a terrible thing. And we can’t stand it.

I keep thinking back to October when JD Vance called on Americans in Israel to vote for Trump (emphasis added):

Vance stressed the importance of every vote in what is expected to be a close race. "This election could be decided by just a few votes. Do you want Kamala Harris, or do you want Donald Trump? If you want Donald Trump, get out there and make it happen." 

Aryeh Lightstone, Former senior advisor to Ambassador David Friedman, told The Jerusalem Post, "In an election that may be decided by just thousands of votes, the Trump-Vance campaign is convinced that Americans in Israel know better than anybody else, the value of strong leadership, and they are speaking directly to these voters to make sure to show up through these videos."

"They have promised to continue to stand by Israel, and they are asking Americans in Israel to stand by them," Lightstone said.

We did stand by them. We voted for Trump and Vance, and now they are forcing us to release terrorists from our prisons who have American blood on their hands. If this is Trump and Vance standing up for us, no thanks. They could have come up with a different “plan.” It didn’t have to be this one. The cost is much too high.

There is also the issue of the dearth of information regarding the terrorists to be released. The government is obligated to inform the families of terror victims before the terrorists who killed their loved ones are let loose. But the government has not done so. None of the families have been notified. If I am wrong about this, please do let me know. I would feel better to be proved wrong.

Not too many people know about it, and it is light on information, but there's a list of terrorists slated to be released on Israel’s government website. The names of the innocents they murdered are not listed there, of course, but only those of the murderers. It makes it difficult for the public to get a good picture of what this all means, the gravity, and the enormity of releasing these particular prisoners. For how can we know how bad this is without knowing their names and what they did?

Families of terror victims and the press have been sifting through some the information on this list as best they can (once they know a list exists). That's how Ari Fuld’s murderer was discovered there, as was Balal Abu Gaanam who murdered American citizen Richard Lakin.

Balal Abu Gaanam as his entry appears on the list of terrorists slated to be released in exchange for the hostages.

The mastermind of the murder of Rina Shnerb is on the list, Khalida Jarrar.

Khalida Jarrar

Slowly, we are finding out who is there on that list. The horrible people who killed our loved ones. Who would not hesitate to kill once more, a dozen times more. With passion.

Khalil Yusuf Ali Jabarin, murderer of Ari Fuld.

I asked Ari Fuld’s younger brother, Hillel, if anyone in the government had contacted the family regarding the impending release of Khalil Ali Jabarin. How did they find out that Jabarin would be released. Do they even know for sure that he will be released?

Hillel Fuld

Hillel Fuld has not heard anything from the government. Perhaps it's because he's a brother, rather than a wife. “The government didn't contact me. I'm not sure if they contacted Miriam, not that I know of, as far as I know they didn't contact us, but again, I can only speak with certainty about myself. I definitely didn't hear anything from anyone other than that list that was published,” said Fuld.

I asked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old Malki Roth, murdered in the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria bombing by Hamas, if he’d heard of any families of terror victims being notified by the government that the murderers of their loved ones were about to be freed. “I saw an Israeli news report in the past few days which said the families of terror victims were going to be contacted by appropriate Government of Israel people once a decision had been made to free any of the terrorists convicted in the murder of a family member of theirs. That ought to include people like my wife and me. Our 15-year-old daughter Malki, was murdered in an act of Palestinian Arab terror orchestrated by Hamas in 2001,” said Roth.

“Although an entire gang of killers was caught, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned, they were all freed in the 2011 Shalit Deal. The woman who spearheaded the massacre at the Sbarro pizzeria, Ahlam Tamimi, was one of them - perhaps the most famous of the entire Shalit Deal list of freed savages. She returned to her native Jordan the day after Israel let her loose and has gone on to make herself a spectacular career there as a media personality and commentator on issues that speak to the hearts of people who support the murder of Jewish children.

“But there's one exception. One of the terrorists who played a key role in the Sbarro atrocity (and numerous other atrocities) and who did not walk free in 2011 is Abdullah Barghouti. He's the weapons expert who fabricated the massively-explosive guitar case that a human bomb carried on his back and into the pizzeria with the help of the Tamimi woman.

Arnold and Frimet Roth gaze at a photo of their daughter Malki, HY"D

“Barghouti is currently serving a sentence of 67 life terms, the longest ever imposed by an Israeli court and tied to the number of innocent lives wiped out by his bombs.

I don't know if Barghouti has been designated as one of the beneficiaries of the current hostage-freeing deal. But this report says he's on the Hamas list of demands. This doesn't mean he will be released but who knows? If they get their way, meaning if Israel capitulates to the mass-murdering terrorists as it did in the Shalit Deal, this is horrific and indefensible,” says Roth.

As it stands, that particular Barghouti is not on the Israeli government list of terrorists slated for release, though a different terrorist Barghouti family member, Ahmed Barghouti is there. But it is all very unclear. Roth tells me that Abdullah Barghouti, a relative of Tamimi, boasted on Sixty Minutes of his “passion to kill again and again.” I took a look at the interview:

The most notorious of all the prisoners held at the Be'er Sheva Prison is Abdullah Barghouti. It's not easy to get to see him because he's being held in indefinite solitary confinement. He's been convicted of being the mastermind behind Hamas' deadliest suicide bombings, responsible for the deaths of 66 people, including five Americans. How does he feel about this death toll?

"I feel bad because the number only 66. This the answer you want to hear it?" Barghouti told Simon.

"I want to hear what you have to say," Simon replied.

"No, this is the answer they want to hear it? Yes, I feel bad, because I want more," Barghouti said.

Barghouti has already killed more Israelis than anyone else. For two years, he sent suicide bombers to places, ordinary places, the names of which no Israeli will ever forget. They include "The Moment Café," the Hebrew University cafeteria [where American citizens Marla Bennet and Ben Blustein were murdered, V.E.] and the Sbarro Pizzeria, where seven children were killed.

Still, Ari Fuld is dead, the hostages are yet alive and suffering immensely, clinging barely to life after more than a year underground. Those who aren't dead, that is. We owe it to those both living and dead to get them out. But in my opinion, not like this. 

Ari Fuld's funeral

I asked Hillel Fuld if he would share his own feelings about the deal. He said, “I feel there are two parallel lines when it comes to this deal. There's the beautiful line and there's the terrible line. These two lines can't coexist on one line like what social media would have you believe, that everything is just black and white. It’s beautiful and beyond beautiful and emotional that those poor hostages get to be reunited with their families and we all experienced that emotional moment a few nights ago.

“It’s also a terrible deal because they're releasing a thousand monsters to the streets and that could not be more terrible so it's both beautiful and terrible at the same time.”

Asked what he thinks of the framework for the ceasefire deal as proposed by Biden in May, now being set in motion, and how it went down now, with Witkoff, Hillel chooses to be positive. “I don’t know the details of what went on behind the scenes. I want to believe that there is more than meets the eye that there was some kind of incentive to get Netanyahu to agree to this deal. I don't have any information but that is something that I tell myself to make myself feel better and I hope that it will become clear in the coming months in terms of what was promised to Netanyahu.”

Freed hostage Emily Damari with her mother, Mandy.

What would you like to see happen now, I asked Hillel.

“What would I like to see happen now? I'd like to see our hostages come back so we can return to the war and obliterate Hamas and achieve our war objectives of eliminating Hamas from this world; removing all threats from Israel's borders; and getting our hostages back."

I appreciate Hillel Fuld’s life-affirming positivity. Unfortunately, I’m more like the people he describes on on social media who can’t see parallel lines. Like everyone in Israel I love, love, love to see the moving photos, stories, and videos of the freed hostages. Still, I am concerned that we are letting down the memories of terror victims, and leaving our people as unsafe as we were on October 6.

Perhaps that's not even the worst of it. It goes to the core of who the Israeli people are as a society. “No self-respecting government can justify to its citizens the restoration of the freedom of a barbarian like Barghouti,” says Arnold Roth. “Allowing him out of his cell would be a monstrous act of moral bankruptcy.”

And yet here we are, giving many killers of Jews a fresh start so we can get a very small number of hostages out of hell. I don't think it had to be that way. We are winning, or at least we were winning. Until the point where we were leaned on by Witkoff to capitulate to the enemy on behalf of President Donald J. Trump.

Now look, I am happy, truly happy, that Trump is doing so many nice things for Israel--I will let others talk about suspending UNRWA and lifting the sanctions imposed on Israeli Americans in Judea and Samaria because of where they live and their religion, and all the other goodies--but this “deal” spits on the memories of American citizens murdered because of their religion. 

I ask you, is this right, Mr. Trump? Is it just in your eyes?

I don’t expect an answer from President Trump, nor, the truth is, from my own government. The Israeli government is not being forthright with the families of the victims whose murderers are soon to be, if not already released.

This has engendered a deep sense of betrayal and despair in many of us Israelis, a feeling of why did we do all this--why did we sacrifice so much? To what purpose? To strengthen the hand of terror? And yet, it fills our hearts to see Emily, Romi, and Doron in the arms of their families once more. Can anyone really put a price on that?

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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