When We Bring Them Home
As I write this, the first group of hostages has returned home after 471 days in captivity. Emily, Doron, and Romi are in Israel and with their families. They are not whole, but they are back. The Israeli public waited anxiously for their return. There was no jubilation. The global Jewish population also waited with bated breath for their return. Hamas delayed the release of names and thus the “ceasefire”. Then Hamas paraded through the streets of Gaza in victory. The difference in the images from the two groups was stark. Israel waiting in quiet pain for the return of less than 10% of our innocent people, and Gazans celebrating as they received the return of 90 terrorists in exchange, who will undoubtedly return to their roles in the terror machine.
I found it fascinating to see those celebrating in the streets of Gaza. To my uneducated eyes, they did not look malnourished. It did not seem like there were only old men left to celebrate. There were young men in Hamas uniforms with their guns held high with pride. There were children smiling and holding flags eating sweets. There were women walking the streets hand in hand with their husbands. There were obvious signs of desecration of buildings, but the people didn’t seem exhausted from 15 months of war. Rather they seemed elated and still intent on torturing the Israeli hostages as they were being taken to the International Red Cross for the exchange.
How does the Western world manage these images? How do they rationalize the pain on one side and the exhilaration on the other side? How do they continue to force Israel to negotiate with terrorists? Hamas continues to claim that it is Israel breaking the deal, not themselves. Why does the West continue to accept the lies of Hamas?
Let’s face the facts… Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and average Gazan civilians invaded Israel on October 7, 2023 with the intent to murder, rape and kidnap as many Jews as possible. Their intent and direct goal was to murder Jews. That is genocide. One minute they claim they didn’t do it, and the next minute they say they will do it again and again. Liars.
Now we have this ceasefire, which President Biden has stated was the same framework from May of 2024. Secretary of State Blinken said that the only reason the deal wasn’t signed earlier was because of Hamas. Blinken stated that whenever there was a perceived “daylight” between the US and Israel, Hamas pulled back. So, you must ask the question, if the US understood this why did they ever allow “daylight” to show? In order to be evenhanded, Blinken stated the Netanyahu made it difficult. Would Blinken had acquiesced to terrorists if the attack had occurred on American soil? You would think not, except for the fact that so many anti-Israel protests continue to occur each day in the US calling for a global intifada and continuation of the resistance. It happened in NYC on January 18th, the day before the ceasefire was supposed to go into effect.
Now Hamas has crawled out of their terror tunnels, and it doesn’t look like there are less of them than before this war. They seem to multiply like ants. They seem to maintain control despite the IDF successfully capturing various areas of Gaza and demolishing their infrastructure. What this means is that their infrastructure has significant depth and what has been accomplished is only the tip of the iceberg.
This first phase of the ceasefire is supposed to last six weeks. That’s 42 days. Just for the first 33 hostages. There are at least 30+ more hostages that we believe are alive. They need to come home too. The Western world must not put the onus on Israel. Israel was the country invaded and attacked. What happened in Gaza was completely due to the actions of Hamas and the other terror groups operating in Gaza. They are responsible. How hungry are they if they have sweets available to give out in victory? How hungry are they if they are able to run around exuberantly with energy? If they were truly starving, they wouldn’t have that energy. They wouldn’t be so excited. It would be muted.
When the Jews were rescued from the Holocaust, they were weak, starving, emaciated, sick and impoverished. They were cheering the liberators, but you could see their terrible state of health. You could see they have been suffering. They barely looked human.
I didn’t see that in today’s video from Gaza. I saw demolished buildings, but enthusiastic humans. They way they were following the Red Cross trucks and threatening the women as they left, was exactly the same as they reacted over a year ago when the first hostages were released in November of 2023. Nothing has changed.
I thought the World learned that appeasement doesn’t work with terrorists, or fascists, or hate groups. Did World War II teach us nothing? Don’t dare compare Israelis to Nazis! Only compare Hamas to Nazis, that is the only true image that should be shared. Hamas’ goal is to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews. It’s not the other way around. Stop repeating their lies.
This ceasefire will only be a “hudna” for them. A pause to regroup and rebuild. Israel will need to be ready. With the thousands of terrorists Israel is being forced to release for our innocent hostages, Israel must be prepared for more terror. The West must realize that these factions are alive and well and living in New York, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney. They are here and our governments are doing nothing to stop the hate and the violence.
We Jews are only 0.2% of the world population, but we are an obsession of the anti-west hate culture. This war amplified the global hate. The number of those killed in Gaza has been falsely reported and the percentages of fighters vs. civilians is incorrectly stated every single day in the news. The only pictures on mainstream media are of Gaza destruction, not of Israeli destruction. Why doesn’t mainstream media talk about the Houthis sending missiles toward Israel multiple time a week? Where is that reported?
In our muted joy for the return of our hostages, we must remain steadfast in speaking up for our own humanity. We Jews are the conscience of the world, and the world doesn’t like having a conscience.
I didn’t sleep all night waiting for the return. I’m not even directly related to any of the hostages. I have family and close friends in Israel, and I pray for them every day. This affects every Jew around the world. Regardless of the atrocious deal, and the inequity of having to return 30 terrorists for each innocent person abducted on October 7th, we value life, so we need to bring them home. Let’s all continue to pray for the safety of the rest of the hostages. They must all come home too. We still have very difficult days ahead of us. But we must remember, “Am Yisrael Chai”!