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Penny S. Tee
May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.

Such a Deal? FREE HOSTAGES! REBUILD HAMAS—WHAT?

PEACE with Penny

~Shabbat Shalom~
Nearly 16 months
19 Hostages Released

Welcome home!

Amen.

Flanked by her parents, freed hostage Daniella Gilboa reacts after seeing her relatives in Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on January 25, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Negotiations with TERRORISTS
Are uncertain & torturous—surprised?
As HAMAS and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Get their final PHASE I sadistic pleasures…
Inside Depraved Memento Gift Bags:
Hostage pictures in captivity,
Hostage Release Certificates & GAZA Map,
Hostages on stage, Hostages on Parade…

FEAR FACING weaponized HAMAS, PIJ &
CROWDS OF 1000s IMPEDING THEIR RELEASE

Arbel Yehoud (center) is handed over by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Jan. 30, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Will the 79 Hostages remaining come home?
May the Memories of the Hostages MURDERED
Be a blessing

PHASE I TRADE: 33 HOSTAGES; ~2K PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
PAY FOR SLAY (THE MORE JEWS KILLED, THE HIGHER THE P/A SALARY PAID TO TERRORIST).
P/A REWARD FOR THESE MURDERERS, BOMBERS, & STABBERS KILLING JEWS THUS FAR: $141,072,800
Releasing 316 new Palestinian TERRORIST MILLIONAIRES!
Bandages ripped off victims’ relatives’ festering wounds.
THIS IS NOT A HORROR MOVIE, BUT REALITY JANUARY 2025!

Note: I can’t ignore the horrific fires, extreme weather, the terrible plane/helicopter crash, and now again, a plane spiraling down toward the ground. At this point, we don’t have any idea why these horrific aerial events have happened. Only time will tell.

Thanks to the Responders.

May all those impacted find Peace in your mind, heart & soul. Blessings to you.

May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.

This truly is The Deal from Hell! I’ll just be talking about the Hostage/Prisoner exchange in this blog. Yes, I realize there are many parts to the agreement like humanitarian aid and withdrawals from land providing buffer zones, but we’ll save that for another day. The Hostage/Prisoner exchange alone is enough to scare Israelis (no matter whether they choose to acknowledge that fact or not) sicken the Jewish diaspora, and thrill HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Gazans.

U.S. President Joe Biden submitted this exact proposal on May 31, 2024, yet it took all this time to start putting actions to the words. Of course, there is a plethora of reasons why agreement was a struggle, some of which I’ll discuss here. I’m sure there are enough reasons for the delay to fill a book and I’m certain someone will write a tome about it, if they haven’t already.

And of course, we’ve all heard President-elect Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Hamas, saying that if the hostages weren’t released before his inauguration on January 20, 2025, “all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone.”

I don’t doubt there was some more private arm twisting with Netanyahu, as well. It had the desired effect, and with the theme of Jaws metaphorically playing in the background, no matter who takes credit, we’re here now.

In just Phase I of the Hostage and prisoner release, 33 Hostages and almost 2,000 prisoners are to be released. 737 are security prisoners, many of whom have been serving life sentences for murder and terror attacks, including members of Fatah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Talk about Israel being between a rock and a hard place…On the one hand, the humane thing is to get the hostages released as soon as possible, Israelis demand it, Hostage families implore it, and the international community agrees.

The cost? Just for the prisoner exchange as reported in The Times of Israel:
Prisoner Exchange:

• The nine ill and wounded from the list of 33 will be released in exchange for the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences. All living women, children and older people held by the terror group should be freed. Somewhere in the negotiations, the deceased among the 33 were intermingled in Phase I. At least they can receive a respectful burial now, and their relatives will be able to stop asking themselves at least some of the relentless, unanswerable questions.

• Israel will release 1,000 Gazan detainees from October 8, 2023, that were not involved on October 7, 2023.

• The elderly (men over 50) from the list of 33 will be released in exchange for an exchange key of 1:3 life sentences + 1:27 other sentences.

• Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — will be released according to an exchange key of 1:30, as well as 47 Shalit prisoners.

• Some Palestinian prisoners will be released abroad or in Gaza based on lists agreed upon between both sides.

Many prisoners will be released with multiple life sentences! So now that these elite terrorists have served years with not much to do except hone their skills during discussions with fellow prisoners, HAMAS is thrilled to have a cadre of commanders to replace the ones Israel eliminated.

Remember Yahya Sinwar? He was born in Gaza and later joined HAMAS. In 1989, Sinwar was sent to prison sentenced with four consecutive life sentences for abducting and murdering two Israeli soldiers. In 2011, he was released as part of a huge prisoner swap where over 1,000 prisoners were exchanged for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Hamas June 2006-October 2011.

Sinwar led HAMAS in Gaza since 2017 and took over HAMAS as leader when Ismail Haniyeh was eliminated by the IDF.

Sinwar was not only involved in the May 2021 crisis where HAMAS shot thousands of missiles at Israel, he was said to be the mastermind of October 7, 2024. The IDF eliminated Sinwar on October 16, 2024.

Gaza-based Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar addresses supporters during a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023. (Mohammed ABED / AFP)

For every man aged 50+ during Phase I, 3 prisoners with life sentences will be released and 27 prisoners with other types of crimes.

Who are a couple of these mastermind criminals to be released:

• Zakaria Zubeidi, former commander of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin. He was on Israel’s most-wanted list for several years for killing six people in a 2002 attack.

In 2021 he, five others, and still additional prisoners, built a tunnel below the shower of prison cell 5 in the high security Gilboa prison. The six prisoners managed to use the tunnel to escape. They were recaptured in thirteen days, and five years were added to their sentences.

A female guard was supposed to check that the inmates were in their cells, and she was being blamed for not being diligent in her job. Given the video, that seems accurate. She looks more like she’s casually walking through a mall instead of checking that high-security prisoners are in their cells. Yet, you’ll read later that there is more to this story, and frankly, I am suspicious of why she wasn’t checking more closely. Was she afraid of what the prisoners would do to her if she did? Did the prison Commander order her not to and now she was being made the “fall lady”?

I don’t know, but the stories coming out of Gilboa prison really stink and there’s a sense of male dominance overpowering the women working there that is repulsive and akin to the atmosphere experienced by rape victims.

You can see that Zubeidi was greeted like a hero after he was released in the hostage/prisoner deal on January 30, 2025, as he arrived in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

A crowd greets terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, former head of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, after his release as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as he arrives in Ramallah, in the West Bank, January 30, 2025. (Flash90)

Zubeidi is already urging “resistance… will lead us to freedom,” and you should know by now that resistance when advocated by a terrorist, is a call for violence. After all, he was one of the leaders of the Second Intifada. He also issued a warning to the western world… “Freedom has no price. But the world that has denied me my freedom – particularly Britain, France, and the United States – must return what they have taken from me and my children.”

Well, you didn’t expect thanks for shaving years off my sentence and letting me go free, did you?

I feel horribly for the victims he killed and their families as they watch him enjoy the freedom he took away from their loved ones.

• The prisoner release of Mahmoud Atallah, who was serving a life sentence for murdering a Palestinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel, will be released to Nablus, confused me, because the article I read said he was indicted last September for repeatedly sexually assaulting female guards at Gilboa Prison. Repeatedly? Gilboa Prison, the high security prison again? Is someone smoking something instead of salmon?

Palestinian security prisoner Mahmoud Atallah is accused of sexually assaulting and raping female IDF soldiers and guards at Gilboa Prison, in a scandal that alleges the women were ‘pimped’ out to Palestinian inmates. (Courtesy)

Researching further, the investigation eventually broke open the scandal and several female guards (who were actually IDF soldiers assigned to the prison), accused the commander Bassem Kashkosh and the prison of pimping them out to the Palestinian prisoners to satisfy them sexually.

Recently, the story continued and the female prison guards who were attacked are demanding that Atallah not be released to Nablus and that he be deported. They also objected to the fact that there was no mention that he was on trial as a sex offender and rapist listed with his being a defendant for crimes of murder and state security.

When will society learn to treat women with the respect they deserve? I’m proud of these women for standing up for their rights and having the courage to fight the evil that permeates the Gilboa prison. But what does it say about civilization that we are willing to put these monsters back on the street free to continue victimizing the world? Folks, how’d you like Atallah to move next door to your daughter?

I had to quickly check the year on my computer. Have we not come any further as a civilization than this?

The next step of the proposed Hostage/prisoner release agreement, were conditions established to bring back Avraham “Avera” Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.

Avraham “Avera” Mengistu, who has mental problems, is an Israeli man of Ethiopian descent who after having a fight with his mother, crossed over to Gaza in September 2014, and has been held in Gaza ever since.

Hisham al-Sayed, is schizophrenic, and has loss of hearing, tinnitus, and vertigo. After attempting to study in Cyprus in 2005, and London in 2010, he was diagnosed with “acute psychotic disorder” and in 2013 with schizophrenia. He is said to listen to the auditory hallucinations in his head. He volunteered for the military, but after three months was discharged as “incompatible with service.” He crossed the border into Gaza April 2015 and is being held by HAMAS.

The HAMAS co-founder, Mahmoud al-Zahar says, they are not civilians, but spies. Given their obvious incapacity to understand reality, if al-Zahar wasn’t using this fabricated story for propaganda, he should check himself into a facility for observation immediately.

These two ill men are to be released as 30 additional Palestinian prisoners, as well as 47 “Shalit prisoners” are released for each.

You may ask what are “Shalit prisoners?” I wondered too, and unfortunately, it was what I thought. Shalit prisoners were part of the massive trade to get Galid Shalit returned to Israel in 2011. Besides the 60 additional prisoners to be released in exchange for these two men, an additional 94 will be released for the second time, because after they obtained freedom, they returned to do more illegal activities, which landed them back in prison. This too does not bode well for the expectations of the released prisoners.

The last part of the Hostage/prisoner exchange for Phase I states that some of the prisoners will be released to other countries instead of back to Gaza.

I don’t know about you, but for me that does not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Spreading the poison to more countries either by increasing their populations with jihadist inclinations or enabling them to start a new terrorist club in your local area, seems less than wise, would you agree?

But then again, I can understand the IDF women wanting to ship these violent criminals far away. The fact remains, it’s unsafe for the world to let these monsters out of prison.

How would you feel if you were Israeli reading that 735 terrorists who had been incarcerated with long-term sentences, some with multiple life sentences, were being released with over 1K others, the recidivism rate is high, if not 100%, none of the prisoners have expressed remorse for their actions, and in fact, they are celebrated in Gaza?

The P/A gives them and/or their relatives salaries for their lethal achievements (our tax dollars at work), schools are named after the most egregious, and every few years if they go for another round of criminal actions, if they are caught, the prison has a revolving door regardless of if it’s your child that was raped, murdered, kidnapped, etc.?

I don’t know how you feel about all this, but to me it’s more examples of how I don’t understand where we are as humans. Do you? Let me know what you think.

I need a break, don’t you? Let’s look at some good news… Ofer Calderon, Keith Siegel, and Yarden Bibas have been released today on February 1, 2025. Let’s hope they are well, and they are set free without delays, and not chaos.

Israeli hostages slated to be freed from Gaza on February 1, 2025: (L-R) Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Calderon. (Courtesy)

Keith Siegel (65) a dual American Israeli citizen, has his wife Aviva (62) to return to who was also kidnapped from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, and then freed in November 2023.

Ofer Calderon (54) a dual Portuguese Israeli citizenship was also kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 with two of his four children, Erez and Sahar. Ofer’s ex-wife survived by holding the door to her safe room and so did their son who was in his safe room in another part of the kibbutz. Their daughter was in Tel Aviv at the time—she was lucky.

Unfortunately, other relatives, Grandmother Carmela Dan was at her house down the street with Hadas Calderon’s niece, Noya Dan. Their bodies were found on October 19, 2023. May their memories be a blessing.

Yarden Bibas (35) is an Israeli citizen who was kidnapped separately from his wife and children, who were all taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. You know the adorable red headed shayna punims (pretty faces)? Throughout the months, even though I had heard that HAMAS had said they had died because of an Israeli airstrike, I hoped that HAMAS was just trying to spread more grief, but alas, it doesn’t seem to be the case.

According to the YouTube video I attached above, I’m sad and horrified to say that Yarden’s wife, Shiri, and these two beautiful little ones, did not survive. May their memories be a blessing.

Finally, I hope all the hostages come home and this truce continues. There were so many painful extremes. Perhaps out of devastation and having to start anew, previously unimagined alternatives will be considered.

As they say, if you keep doing the same thing repeatedly and expect a different answer, that’s the definition of…crazy? stupid? Fill in the blank however you’d like. After over seven decades of hate, killing, and hoping the other side will disappear, isn’t it time to take a new approach? Here’s a basic concept, talk to each other. You might not become bosom buddies at first, but don’t you want your kids to be able to play safely in their backyards?

May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.

About the Author
Penny S. Tee is a vodcaster, speaker, author, and educator. She interviews Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, together forging a better future. Why? Read her book, “BLASTED from COMPLACENCY: A Journey from Terror to Transformation in Israel,” which describes her 2014 family vacation in Israel—daily touring sacred places, and cowering in bomb shelters at night. The missiles blew up her comfortable world—today she devotes her life to Peace.
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