At a sensitive time when antisemitism is soaring following the barbarity of October 7, Obama included Palestinians in his Passover message.
Category: Hostage
Obama botches meaning of Passover, doesn’t mention hostages, and calls for empathy for Palestinians
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/obama-botches-meaning-of-passover-doesnt-mention-hostages-and-calls-for-empathy-for-palestinians; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
Did Barack Obama include Jews in his Ramadan messages? In them, does he mention the Israelis murdered by Palestinians and then rewarded by the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program?
In his Passover message, Obama also omitted mention of the horror Israel endured on October 7, and of its hostages, as well as the Jewish state’s struggle for survival. To top it off, Obama entirely botched the meaning of Passover.
In contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday, in a perfect Passover reflection message:
Why is this night different, citizens of Israel?
On this night, 133 of our dear brothers and sisters are not around the Seder table, and they are still held hostage by Hamas in hellish conditions. (Israel Government Press Office)
Netanyahu also referenced “the rabbinic dictum that ‘in every generation, they rise to destroy us’” and stated “that the absence of the hostages over the upcoming holiday ‘only strengthens our determination to bring them back.’”
By undermining the greatest horror that Jews have collectively experienced since the Holocaust and the existential threat that Israel faces, Obama reveals his true sentiments regarding Jews. The obscene moral equivalence in his call for “empathy for those suffering in ‘Israel and Gaza,’” and “for solidarity with people of all religions” on the distinctly Jewish holiday of Passover is also revealing.
“Obama’s Passover Message Adds Palestinians Into the Story; Omits Hostages,” by Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart, April 22, 2024:
Former President Barack Obama used a Passover message on Monday to work Palestinians into the Jewish holiday, calling for empathy for those suffering in “Israel and Gaza,” and for solidarity with “people of all religions.”
Obama’s equivocation obscured the fact that Palestinian terrorists continue to hold 133 Israeli hostages.
He failed, in fact, to mention the hostages, instead saying that people should “remember everyone who is unable to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones.” He also failed to mention the ongoing wave of antisemitism on college campuses and in Democrat-run cities, saying that “people of all religions … deserve to feel safe and secure” wherever they are…..
At the Knesset, Former Hostages Tell of Endless Sexual Abuse “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words.”
SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/at-the-knesset-former-hostages-tell-of-endless-sexual-abuse; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
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In the Knesset, former hostages who had been released in the November exchange of imprisoned terrorists for Israeli civilians held captive told them what it was like for them in Gaza. The focus of the Knesset hearing was on the sexual abuse and rape of female captives. The world, in danger of forgetting about the hostages, as all eyes are on Israel’s putative misdeeds in Gaza, needs to be constantly reminded of what is happening to those still held captive. More on their testimony can be found here: “‘Raped Daily’: Former Israeli Hostages Recount Sexual Abuse by Hamas Terrorists as Families Plead for Action,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, April 7, 2024:
In an emotional hearing at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, former hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza recounted harrowing tales of sexual harassment and abuse, as families of those still held captive pleaded for the Israeli government to do more to secure their release.
“As hard as it is to say, every girl there goes through sexual harassment one way or another,” said Mia Regev, who was freed in November after 50 days in captivity. Fighting back tears, she urged lawmakers to take action, saying, “Your job is to bring them back home.”
Sharon Aloni-Cunio, also released in November, said “the fear is endless” for female captives. “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words,” she told the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women’s Status and Gender Equality. “The terrorist is the sole arbiter of your fate.”
She added: “The feeling of helplessness is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Each moment feels never-ending and every movement of the terrorists causes stomach cramping because who knows what might happen.”
Mothers and sisters of the remaining hostages stood with their loved ones outside the committee room, some of them wearing clothes that appeared to be stained with blood. Liri Albag’s mother, Shira, said at the start of the hearing, “She’s in hell. Does anyone understand what it means to be in hell?”
“Our daughters experience daily suffering there. They are harmed in body and soul. My Liri was, and still is — I don’t know because I have no information about her — a slave in the homes of Gazans,” she said.
“All the decision-makers — you need to understand that every day you witness the rape that happens in Gaza,” she continued. “These girls are raped daily and everyone ignores them. You close your eyes. I hear Liri every day screaming for help: ‘Mom, save me already.’ Liri’s soul is crushed, and I cannot speak about what has happened to her body.”
Yaffa Ohad, the aunt of Noa Argamani, attended the hearing instead of Argamani’s mother, who is dying of cancer. Ohad fainted during the hearing and required medical attention. Before she fainted, Ohad said since the testimony of Amit Soussana, the first hostage to go public with her testimony of sexual torture during her captivity, had “wiped the family out. The thoughts will not leave us alone.”…
Do you think that the international media will cover these harrowing stories of how the female hostages held by Hamas are being subject to nonstop sexual abuse? Outside of Israel itself, those hostages are being forgotten. The media’s bandwidth only has room, it seems,for Israel’s “genocidal” attacks in Gaza, its “indiscriminate bombing,” its “unforgivable killing of humanitarian aid workers.” Continue to remind yourself, and remind others whenever you can, of what those hostages every day continue to endure.
The Never-Ending Torment of the Survivors~Glazov Gang: Missing Israeli Hostages; The True Horror of What Hamas Did
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/the-never-ending-torment-of-the-survivors; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
On October 7, 3,000 Hamas operatives, accompanied by some Gazans who did not belong to the terror group but wanted to take part in the murderous fun, smashed into Israel in cars, on motorbikes, and on paragliders. They proceeded to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder 1,200 people. Of that number, 364 were murdered in the field where the Nova Music Festival had been held the previous night; the rest of the victims were murdered in 22 kibbutzim. The torment for those who survived has not ended. It seems that an unusually high number have killed themselves, but the estimates vary widely. More on this continuing horror upon horror can be found here: “About 50 Survivors of Nova Music Festival Committed Suicide, Survivor Tells Israeli Lawmakers,” Algemeiner, April 16, 2024:
Following the Hamas-led massacre at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, about fifty survivors have committed suicide, revealed Guy Ben Shimon.
I need to inject a note of caution here. The Jerusalem Post reported here that the Israeli Health Ministry said on April 16 that it does not know how many survivors of the Nova Music Festival have taken their own lives:
A statement released by the ministry on Tuesday read, “The data on the number of suicides and the number of hospitalizations among survivors of the Nova festival – are not known to the Health Ministry and the mental health system and are incorrect.”
The head of the mental health division at the Health Ministry, Dr. Gilad Bodenheimer, noted that “the rumors about the number of suicides and the number of hospitalizations among survivors of the Nova festival are not true.”
He further stated that based on an examination “conducted with the Nova Community Association, as well as with other parties that take part in the treatment of the Nova survivors, it emerged that such data is unknown.”
It is uncertain, then, if there have been fifty, thirty, or twenty suicides among the survivors of the murders at the Nova Music Festival field. But I will report on what two of those survivors testified to the Knesset. Again, from Algemeiner:
Ben Shimon, a survivor of the massacre, spoke on Tuesday at a parliamentary hearing for a State Audit Commission on the treatment of the survivors of Oct. 7.
“Few people know, but there have been almost 50 suicides among the Nova survivors. This number, which was true two months ago, may have increased since,” Ben Shimon said, emphasizing that many of his friends who escaped the massacre could not recover from what they had experienced.
“There are many survivors who had to be forcibly hospitalized due to their psychological state. My friends are not getting out of bed, neither am I,” he described their condition since the Oct. 7 attack.
“I am practically unable to do anything. I had to get a dog to help me survive in my daily life. "The goal for all of us is to return to work and function normally, but we cannot do it without adequate help,” Ben Shimon added.
The parliamentary hearing focused on alleged failures of the state bodies towards the survivors of Oct. 7. There were complaints about the difficulties, notably bureaucracy, that the survivors faced in getting their post-traumatic stress disorder recognized, as well as in receiving the needed care.
“Why should I constantly prove what I experienced? "Why am I forced to go back to the details of what I experienced for them to believe me?” Naama Eitan, another survivor of the music festival, asked during the hearing.
Should they report again and again on what they witnessed? The rapes, the gory mutilations, the murders of their friends, their own terrifying struggles to escape that left them, in the days and months following, half-crazed with despair and survivor’s guilt?
“I participated in a study that monitored my pulse and other parameters and revealed how bad my health is. I sleep on average two hours a night. Each morning at seven o’clock, I relive the moments when I was hidden in the bushes with terrorists passing by me. I can no longer move on my own, I need to be constantly accompanied,” she described….
It's the trauma of terror that won’t subside, won’t let Naama Eitan, and so many others, sleep more than a few hours a night. They keep rerunning the same ghastly scenes in their mind’s eye. Why should we have expected them to be able to slough it off? Instead of joy at having survived, many of those survivors suffer now from Survivor’s Guilt — why was he, or she, murdered, and not me?
The world expects the Israelis to “get over it.” Too many of us are insufficiently sympathetic. Too many do not realize that the torment from the Hamas attack did not end on October 8. It continues, and for some it has been too much to bear; there is no conceivable solace, and those who are unable to deal with it, take to their beds with severe depression, or in some cases, do away with themselves. These last are the people who survived the massacres, but cannot survive the memory of the massacres. And for those who remain alive, the mental torment will continue long after Hamas has been dismantled. We do not know how many have killed themselves. Ben Shimon testified that there were about fifty, but the Ministry of Health says the number of such “survivor suicides” is still unknown.
Try to imagine what life must be like for those survivors, not only those who saw the rapes and murders at the Nova Music Festival, but those who witnessed the even more horrifying events that took place at the kibbutzim. They saw, from their tremulous concealments, babies and small children burned to death, women whose breasts were sliced off and then used by Hamas men to play catch, men with their genitalia cut off and their eyes gouged out, while they were still alive, and only then were they put to death. These were their relatives, their friends, their spouses and siblings. The horrors of what they saw, and the guilt of having been spared, have proven too much for some.
Whether there have been fifty suicides, or ten, any number above one, should make us exclaim “As many as that?” Or should we say instead, as few as that?
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Glazov Gang: Missing Israeli Hostages – The True Horror of What Hamas Did
This new Glazov Gang episode features Jeff Crouere, author of America’s Last Chance.
Jamie, Anni and Jeff discuss Glazov Gang: Missing Israeli Hostages – The True Horror of What Hamas Did, reflecting on Moral clarity on the good and evil in a spiritual war.
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Biden Demands Israel Stop Attacking Hamas Even If It Doesn’t Release the Hostages
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/biden-demands-israel-stop-attacking-hamas-even-if-it-doesnt-release-the-hostages; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
A total betrayal.
The grim farce of negotiating with Islamic terrorists always plays out the same way.
The terrorists keep attacking while playing the victim, make escalating demands and once you start negotiating with them, the negotiations never produce peace and don’t even reliably ensure the release of hostages.
The Biden administration initially rejected the Islamist/Leftist demands for a ‘ceasefire’ during which Hamas would be free to attack Israel. Then came around to proposing to them in exchange for the release of the hostages. And now adopting the Leftist/Islamist position is just demanding a unilateral Israeli ceasefire without the release of the hostages.
Spanish-language television network Univision aired an hour-long, pre-recorded interview on Tuesday in which U.S. President Joe Biden criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S. president appeared to state a previously unarticulated public position in an interview with the channel’s Enrique Acevedo.
“So I what I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” Biden said.
No mention of Hamas here, but then again it has never abided by a ceasefire anyway.
Israel is expected to stop attacking Hamas.
Hamas is not expected to either stop attacking Israel or release the hostages.
So Biden is dropping the pretense that this is about the hostages or about anything other than the supreme victimhood of the Islamic genociders of Gaza.
The Biden administration has demanded more and more concessions from Israel to Hamas. Even as Hamas keeps rejecting the U.S. proposals as not being good enough.
Much like under Kerry, where the State Department negotiated with the terrorists and then demanded that Israel meet the demands of the terrorists, the Biden admin is doing the same thing, except with Hamas.
Hamas has informed mediators that it rejects the latest U.S. proposal for a renewed hostages-for-ceasefire deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing sources as saying that the terrorist organization intends to put forward a roadmap for a permanent end to the war.
The U.S. offer would have seen Jerusalem release 900 terrorist prisoners, including murderers, in exchange for 40 hostages, along with a partial IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the unrestricted return of Palestinians to the northern part of the coastal enclave.
The plan proposes that Hamas release more hostages at a later stage following the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.
Speaking at a women’s event in Jordan late last month, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal declared that the organization’s leadership is “waging a negotiating battle no less fierce” than the military conflict with the IDF, according to a readout of his remarks posted to Telegram by Hamas.
“Inshallah [‘God willing’], we will defeat them in the field and in the negotiating battle,” said Mashaal, adding that the group is also fighting “intense battles” in the media and on the political battlefield.
The terrorists never win the wars, but when the White House is in charge, they win all the negotiations.
Hamas has no reason not to keep turning down deals since those are its only hopes of survival and victory. Thank you Biden.
Hamas Claims That Israeli Hostages Left Captivity ‘Happy and Laughing’
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/hamas-claims-that-israeli-hostages-left-captivity-happy-and-laughing; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
We all know that Hamas threatened the Israelis hostages that it was just about to release last November to put on happy faces, and wish their former captors “Shalom” for the cameras, and those who could manage it did as they were told. They had been warned that if they did not collaborate, it would go hard with the hostages still being held captive, whom they were leaving behind. But when they arrived home, the released hostages proceeded to describe the horrific conditions in which they had been held. They spoke of living on one piece of pita bread each day, or being occasionally given rotten meat. Many of them lived in the tunnels, enduring the cold and the darkness. None had received a visit from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). And finally, after many months, some of them finally spoke publicly of the sexual abuse they had endured every day, including rapes, and revealed that all of the female hostages were still being similarly abused.
Christine Douglass-Williams wrote about this here, and more on this sexual abuse, and Hamas’ blanket denial, can be found here: “Outrageous lie: Israeli hostages in Gaza “left happy and laughing” – they received “generous treatment” – PA TV interview,” by Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, April 4, 2024:
Recently, an Israeli woman aged 40 who was held hostage by Hamas revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her captor. And she is not the only one. Other hostages have also testified about sexual abuse, torture and beatings while being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
As more testimonies from Israeli hostages who were freed last November after almost two months in Hamas captivity are being published, the war of narratives has become urgent.
The meager rations, the beatings, the confinement in dark and cold tunnels, were the common lot of the hostages. Several dozen hostages have also been murdered while in Hamas’ captivity over the past six months.
The Palestinian and Arab narrative is entirely fictitious and is intended to humanize Hamas and deny its atrocities. One example is this outrageous claim made to official PA TV by a lecturer at Cairo University that the Israeli hostages received “generous treatment” and left captivity “happy and laughing”:
Head of Radio and TV Department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communications Ashraf Jalal: “The generous treatment Palestine gave the Israeli prisoners (i.e., kidnapped women and children) caused an enormous positive response, because after [the Israelis] lied and said that [Hamas] is abusing them, the [Israeli] people left [Gaza] happy and laughing… What is required is that we redirect the media spotlight to this issue.”
[Official PA TV, From Cairo, Feb. 12, 2024]
The brazen lie follows those made by senior PA officials, which have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch. In November 2023, Minister Qadura Fares, who is the director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, said that Israel “made up this story and said: They [the Palestinians] raped, killed, and burned” [Official PA TV, Nov. 20, 2023]. In December 2023, PLO Executive Committee member and PLF Secretary-General Wasel Abu Yusuf said: “Since October 7, there has been a Zionist version that [Israel] has attempted to spread worldwide out of tendentious propaganda, [claiming] that there was murder of children, rape of women, crimes, and the like” [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 3, 2023].
But we have testimony about the murdered children, the rapes, the mutilation of bodies of Israeli survivors who witnessed or overheard these events from their hiding places. We also have videos of these atrocities that were taken at the time by those who committed them, so proud were they of how they had terrorized, tortured, raped, and killed the hated Israelis. And, of course, we have the 1,200 corpses of those who were burned to death, or stabbed or shot, with the females having had their breasts sliced off, and genitalia cut off men, as well as their eyes gouged out.
It’s not the charges of murder and kidnapping that Hamas feels the need to deny, but the charge of “sexual abuse” — meaning “rape.” That is seen as beyond the pale. Pass out candies and celebrate the murders of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, but remain silent about the mass rapes which Muslim men are not supposed to engage in. “We have our standards,” they imply, and rape is not allowed. It’s absurd of course: there were endless rapes on October 7, and then more sexual abuse, including rapes, of female hostages by their Hamas captors in Gaza that continue right up to the present day. So please understand the threats that made some of those hostages — only a few could manage it — appear to be “happy and laughing” for the whirring cameras as they left Gaza, freed in the November hostage-for-prisoner exchange. And months later, concentrate on the full horror of what the remaining hostages — starved, beaten, held in cold, dark tunnels, with sexual abuse and rape a daily occurrence – must still endure.
Oct. 7: Hamas ‘cut off organs and took them to Gaza in order to trade with them in future hostage negotiations’
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/oct-7-hamas-cut-off-organs-and-took-them-to-gaza-in-order-to-trade-with-them-in-future-hostage-negotiations; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
These are the people to whom the U.S. and U.K. are pressuring Israel to surrender.
“‘They cut off organs’: Interrogator reveals Hamas terrorists’ Oct. 7 atrocities,” by Shlomi Heller, Jerusalem Post, April 4, 2024:
“We interrogated hate-filled terrorists who were trading body parts of those murdered on October 7. They took a knife and murdered everyone in their wake. "They cut off organs and took them to Gaza in order to trade with them in future hostage negotiations,” said “R,” a company commander in the Lahav 433 Unit and Superintendent Yaron Binyamin, in a conversation with Israeli Police spokesperson, Commander Eli Levy.
In a special interview for the “Police News” program, Superintendent Binyamin spoke about the investigations of Nukhba terrorists who committed brutal crimes on October 7, which included murder, massacre, rape, abuse of corpses, and the kidnapping of soldiers and civilians while setting fire to occupants’ houses.
“I say to those who deny the crimes committed by Nukhba terrorists that at the end of six months of investigation, there is no doubt at all about the number of horrible crimes they committed on October 7. Today, we understand this through the testimony of the terrorists who themselves carried out the terrible massacre,” said Binyamin….
At the Knesset, Former Hostages Tell of Endless Sexual Abuse
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/at-the-knesset-former-hostages-tell-of-endless-sexual-abuse; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
In the Knesset, former hostages who had been released in the November exchange of imprisoned terrorists for Israeli civilians held captive said what it was like for them in Gaza. The focus of the Knesset hearing was on the sexual abuse and rape of female captives. The world, in danger of forgetting about the hostages, as all eyes are on Israel’s putative misdeeds in Gaza, needs to be constantly reminded of what is happening to those still held captive. More on their testimony can be found here: “‘Raped Daily’: Former Israeli Hostages Recount Sexual Abuse by Hamas Terrorists as Families Plead for Action,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, April 7, 2024:
In an emotional hearing at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, former hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza recounted harrowing tales of sexual harassment and abuse, as families of those still held captive pleaded for the Israeli government to do more to secure their release.
“As hard as it is to say, every girl there goes through sexual harassment one way or another,” said Mia Regev, who was freed in November after 50 days in captivity. Fighting back tears, she urged lawmakers to take action, saying, “Your job is to bring them back home.”
Sharon Aloni-Cunio, also released in November, said “the fear is endless” for female captives. “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words,” she told the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women’s Status and Gender Equality. “The terrorist is the sole arbiter of your fate.”
She added: “The feeling of helplessness is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Each moment feels never-ending and every movement of the terrorists causes stomach cramping because who knows what might happen.”
Mothers and sisters of the remaining hostages stood with their loved ones outside the committee room, some of them wearing clothes that appeared to be stained with blood. Liri Albag’s mother, Shira, said at the start of the hearing, “She’s in hell. Does anyone understand what it means to be in hell?”
“Our daughters experience daily suffering there. They are harmed in body and soul. My Liri was, and still is — I don’t know because I have no information about her — a slave in the homes of Gazans,” she said.
“All the decision-makers — you need to understand that every day you witness the rape that happens in Gaza,” she continued. “These girls are raped daily and everyone ignores them. You close your eyes. I hear Liri every day screaming for help: ‘Mom, save me already.’ Liri’s soul is crushed, and I cannot speak about what has happened to her body.”
Yaffa Ohad, the aunt of Noa Argamani, attended the hearing instead of Argamani’s mother, who is dying of cancer. Ohad fainted during the hearing and required medical attention. Before she fainted, Ohad said since the testimony of Amit Soussana, the first hostage to go public with her testimony of sexual torture during her captivity, had “wiped the family out. The thoughts will not leave us alone.”…
Do you think that the international media will cover these harrowing stories of how the female hostages held by Hamas are being subject to nonstop sexual abuse? Outside of Israel itself, those hostages are being forgotten. The media’s bandwidth only has room, it seems,for Israel’s “genocidal” attacks in Gaza, its “indiscriminate bombing,” its “unforgivable killing of humanitarian aid workers.” Continue to remind yourself, and remind others whenever you can, of what those hostages every day continue to endure.
Hamas Issues Counter-Proposal Hostage And Ceasefire Deal, Netanyahu Says Deal Is ‘Absurd’
Hamas Issues Counter-Proposal Hostage and Ceasefire Deal, Netanyahu Says Deal Is 'Absurd'
OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:00 PM – Friday, March 15, 2024
In continuing negotiations over a temporary truce and hostage agreement in its conflict with Israel, Hamas has presented a formal counter-proposal, raising hopes for the first time in weeks that more Israelis kidnapped on October 7th may be freed and that hostilities may end.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the terror group was making “ridiculous demands” during a meeting with the families of roughly 20 captives on Thursday night, raising doubts about whether the negotiations would move forward.
“For the first time, we can envision embracing them again,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group created to lobby for the captives. “Please grant us this right.”
Following weeks of contentious negotiations during which both Israeli and Hamas leaders voiced pessimism about finding common ground, a counter-proposal was made.
The conditions that Hamas has set forth call for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails, including 100 who have been found guilty of murder or multiple murders, in exchange for the release of innocent hostages, which include women, children, the elderly, and the sick.
According to the proposal, Israel would have to agree to a long-term ceasefire, evacuate Gaza, and free all of the Palestinian security prisoners it is holding in order to free the remaining male hostages, whom Hamas views as “freedom fighters,” regardless of whether they were taken while serving in the armed forces.
At a meeting of his war cabinet on Friday, Netanyahu rejected the parameters, calling them “still absurd.” In addition, he declared that the Israeli army will keep getting ready for an impending invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that has become a haven for about 1.5 million Palestinians. However, according to Israeli officials, many of whom are Hamas leaders and members.
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Biden Will Send 1,000 Troops to Bring Aid to Gazans, 0 to Retrieve Hostages
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/biden-will-send-1000-troops-to-bring-aid-to-gazans-0-to-retrieve-hostages; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
There are people on social media who spend their time claiming that American soldiers will fight and die for Israel.
Anyone who knows anything about the Biden administration also recognizes that for the joke that it is.
There are 6 Americans still held hostage in Gaza. After the Oct 7 attack, the administration was asked if it would send in a rescue force to get any of the Americans who were held hostage out then. The answer was no.
But Biden is finally sending in the troops. Not to save the hostages from Hamas, but to build a nice pier to supply aid to Hamas supporters in Gaza.
A floating pier and causeway that will be used to deliver critical humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza is expected to take at least a month or possibly as long as two for the US military to build and become fully operational, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Patrick Ryder said on Friday.
Ryder also said construction of the pier and causeway will likely require as many as 1,000 US military personnel to be completed.
Are any of those personnel going to be in danger?
The official word from the administration is that there will be no ‘boots on the ground’, just in the water. That’s borderline meaningless. And it’s not just Hamas there. The Houthis and Hezbollah have taken to lobbying rockets around, and the presence of a sizable contingent of vulnerable U.S. personnel will draw them like flies.
Two months is a whole lot of time in which to plan and execute an attack.
Biden has sent 0 troops to rescue the hostages from Hamas, but he’s sending 1,000 into a war zone to provide aid to Hamas supporters.
He’s also refused to use the military to secure our border by ending the flow of migrant invaders across it.
But once again, Biden has found a way to use the military to aid our enemies. He won’t use the military to protect America, but he’ll use it to send aid to Hamas.
Pakistan: Muslims torture Christians and force them to recite the Islamic profession of faith
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/pakistan-muslims-torture-christians-and-force-them-to-recite-the-islamic-profession-of-faith; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
The Qur’an says “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.
“Christians Tortured, Forced to Recite Islamic Creed in Pakistan,” Morning Star News, February 1, 2024:
LAHORE, Pakistan (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – An Islamist cleric presided over the forced conversion of two Christians into Sialkot District, Pakistan, after they were tortured into reciting the Islamic conversion creed, sources said.
Azam Masih, 28, and his brother, Nadeem Masih, were abducted, beaten with iron rods and pressured to convert to Islam on Jan. 22 in the Kotli Loharan area, said Adil Ghauri, chairman of the Masihi Baidari Tehreek or Movement for Christian Awakening.
Azam Masih was working at his tailoring shop in the Kharota Syedan market when Naseem Shah and accomplices held him at gunpoint and forcibly took him to the house of another suspect, Sunny Shah, Ghauri said.
“The assailants accused Azam of patronizing ‘wrongdoings’ in the area and started beating him with iron rods,” Ghauri told the Christian Daily International-Morning Star News, adding that the suspects later abducted his younger brother, brought him to the house and subjected him to the same torture. “The accused then forced the two Christians to recite the Kalima [proclamation of Islamic conversion] if they wanted to save their lives, threatening to kill them if they refused. The tortured brothers had no choice but to surrender to this demand.”
The suspects also recorded a video statement from the two brothers in which they were forced to say that they were converting to Islam of their own free will, Ghauri said. He added that the assailants also snatched mobile phones and other belongings from the two brothers before releasing them.
The rights activist said the brothers and their impoverished Christian family chose to keep silent about the ordeal, as the suspects had warned them against contacting police.
“We came to know about this incident on Jan. 24 and immediately contacted the family,” Ghauri said. “After much persuasion, we were able to convince the family to file a First Information Report [FIR] with the police, as keeping silent would have only encouraged the perpetrators to target more Christians living in the village.”
More than 300 Christian families are settled there, he added.
Kotli Loharan police arrested a Muslim cleric alleged to have conducted the conversion and registered charges against the suspects of kidnapping, punishable by death or life imprisonment; theft with intention to cause injury or death, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; threatening death or grievous injury, punishable by up to seven years in prison; causing injury to extort a confession, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and acts committed by several persons in furtherance of common intention.
The suspects, Naseem Shah and Sunny Shah, have criminal backgrounds and have been involved in inciting hatred against Christians, Ghauri said.
“This is not the first time Christians have been targeted in that area,” Ghauri said. “In fact, after the Aug. 16, 2023 attacks in Jaranwala, at least two-three attempts were made to stir religious tension by throwing torn pages of the Quran near Christian homes. Had the police and district administration taken timely action against the perpetrators of those incidents, this incident could have been prevented.”…
Bipartisan Lawmakers Meet With Families Of Israeli Hostages
Hamas top dog says there’s ‘no chance’ it will release Israeli hostages after Netanyahu rejects ‘peace’ deal
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/hamas-top-dog-says-theres-no-chance-it-will-release-israeli-hostages-after-netanyahu-rejects-peace-deal#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
The deal would have left Hamas intact and able to wage jihad against Israel another day. The international Left, avid to destroy Israel, will continue to push for this.
“Hamas says there is ‘no chance’ for release of hostages after Netanyahu rejects deal,” by Yaron Steinbuch, New York Post, January 22, 2024:
The approximately 130 Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas will never be freed, a militant leader said after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected the terror group’s conditions to end the war.
“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists,” Netanyahu stated in a video address.
“And leaving Hamas intact. I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,” he added.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, countered by saying Netanyahu’s refusal to end the military offensive in the territory “means there is no chance for the return of the [Israeli] captives” who were abducted in the group’s Oct. 7 terror attack.
Under a deal brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt in late November, more than 100 of the estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Netanyahu has faced increasing pressure to secure the release the 136 hostages who remain in Gaza.
Relatives of the hostages demanded action during a protest outside his residence late Sunday.
“We need the government to now fix the problem that they have created and get these hostages home immediately,” said Jon Polin, father of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, according to Reuters….
Hamas forced Israeli hostage to recite Islamic prayer
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/01/hamas-forced-israeli-hostage-to-recite-islamic-prayer#; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
“There is no compulsion in religion” (Qur’an 2:256), but that statement is all too often honored in the breach. Agam Goldstein-Almog was perfectly free to choose to die rather than to recite the Islamic prayers.
“Freed hostage recounts torture of women in Gaza’s terror tunnels – Washington Post,” Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2024:
As soon as Agam Goldstein-Almog (17) was abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7 in Gaza, she was forced to put on a headscarf and a long dress, commanded to look at the ground, was forced to recite Islamic prayer, and her abductors gave her a name from the Quran, Salsabil, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
In an interview with international media, Agam described the horror she experienced for nearly two months as a hostage inside Gaza while speaking from a kibbutz in central Israel that has largely become a temporary refuge for displaced Israeli civilians.
In the interview, Agam addressed the female hostages still in Gaza. She asked, “Have you eaten enough today? Are you together, or have they separated you? Has he harmed you again? Has he asked you, again, if you’re married, if he could set you up with someone from Gaza? Has he entered your shower again, stripped the pajamas that he gave you, touched the would [sic] from the bullet that he shot, that really hurt you? But his control hurt more.”
Agam was taken to the Hamas tunnels underneath Gaza, to apartments and a school that was also a rocket launching site. Her captors allowed her to shower five times in the 51 days she was in Gaza, the Washington Post reported.
Some hostages had been kept alone in small rooms with their captors. They told Agam and her mother that they had been sexually assaulted “with great difficulty and tears.”…
House Members & Hostage Families Hold Candlelight Vigil
Deal reached to bring medicine to hostages
A shipment of medication is on its way to Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas. The shipmen from France and Qatar arrived in the Palestinian territory early Wednesday morning.
Elise Stefanik echos Trump’s comments calling Jan. 6 rioters in prison ‘hostages’
As Biden Vacations in the Caribbean, a Second American Hostage Is Confirmed Dead
Judi is survived by four children and seven grandchildren. She dedicated her career to teaching English, specializing in working with children facing special needs, attention, and concentration issues. Additionally, she provided support to children dealing with anxiety and depression resulting from the constant threat of rockets from Gaza. Judi’s husband, Gadi Haggai, 73, also an Israeli-American, was confirmed last week to have died soon after being taken hostage by Hamas.
"Jill and I are devastated to learn that American Judith Weinstein is also believed to have been killed by Hamas on October 7,” a statement the White House released Thursday and attributed to Joe Biden reads. "This tragic development cuts deep, coming on the heels of last week’s news that Judith’s beloved husband, Gad Haggai, is believed to have been killed by Hamas. We are holding Judith and Gad’s four children, seven grandchildren, and other loved ones close to our hearts. I will never forget what their daughter, and the family members of other Americans held hostage in Gaza, have shared with me. They have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal. And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home."
“Today, we are praying for their four children, seven grandchildren, and other loved ones and are grieving this tragic news with them,” Biden continued. “And I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home.”
Hamas is believed to have approximately 129 hostages in Gaza, with 118 identified as Israeli citizens or dual citizens. Tragically, 23 of them are believed to have lost their lives in captivity, according to The Wall Street Journal. A previous short-term truce between Hamas and Israel facilitated the release of over 100 hostages. However, this truce concluded prematurely when Hamas violated the terms of the agreement.
Last month, Biden desperately sought credit for the four-day ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas and the hostages that Hamas released as part of the deal.
"Beginning this morning, under a deal reached by extensive U.S. diplomacy, including numerous calls I’ve made from the Oval Office to leaders across the region, fighting in Gaza will halt for four days,” Biden declared. "This deal also is structured to allow a pause to continue for more than 50 hostages to be released. That’s our goal."
"From the moment Hamas kidnapped these people, I, along with my team, have worked around the clock to secure their release,” he added later.
Unfortunately, Biden’s efforts have done little to achieve any more progress, and Biden has faced criticism for the release of so few American hostages. The first American who was released as part of that ceasefire agreement, 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, turned out to be the great-niece of Liz Hirsh Naftali, a big-time Democratic donor, Biden campaign donor, and a Biden appointee who also bought one of Hunter Biden’s pieces of “art.”
Related: The Released American Hostage's Curious Ties to the Bidens
It feels like Biden’s interest in securing the release of more hostages has waned since getting the great-niece of a donor freed. And now, Biden is off on yet another vacation even as hostages remain in Hamas custody.
Israel-Hamas war: Israeli Govt. on hostage operations, murdered bodies held captive
The Israeli Government provided an update on the 129 hostages being held captive by Hamas. Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy says Hamas is holding the bodies of hostages that have been murdered. The government says Hezbollah has launched an anti-tank missile from inside Lebanon at the Greek Orthodox Church, injuring a civilian.
A Tight Embrace
REPUBLISHED, SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/12/a-tight-embrace
So much sorrow and anguish. The sorrow for those fiendishly murdered on October 7, when Hamas killers came down like wolves on the fold, on the helpless innocent kibbutzim, and beheaded babies, burned children alive, gang-raped, tortured, and murdered young girls, the women whose breasts were sliced off, the men whose genitalia were cut off and eyes gouged out. The children murdered in front of their parents, the parents in front of their children. The killers’ laughter as they shot women in their vulvas, cut open a pregnant woman’s stomach to murder her baby before killing her, the hilarity of kicking a head, like a soccer ball, in the yard, the filming one another as they raped or mutilated or murdered. What fun! The Hamas operative who called his mother to excitedly tell her: “Mom, I killed ten Jews! I killed ten Jews with my own hands.”
Then there is the anguish of the families of the hostages. Of the original 245 believed to have been taken, how many has Hamas killed? The Israelis have recovered the bodies of eight hostages, and believe that twenty other hostages have been murdered by Hamas. Is it your child or children, your mother or your father or your sister or your brother, who is still alive, or has been killed? You may find out about your relatives next week, or you may not find out for months to come, depending on negotiations over another hostage-for-prisoner swap that may, or may not, take place. Now you have a new worry — fear that soldiers in the IDF itself might misidentify your relative held hostage as a member of Hamas. Three Israelis have already been killed from such a mistake. You have no idea what it would take — say, the killing of Yahya Sinwar — to prompt Hamas to summarily execute hostages. Will it be your relative, or someone else’s, or two dozen at once, who will receive a bullet in the back of the neck?
Two sisters, Dafna and Ella Elyakim, who were taken on October 7, were finally released in the hostage-for-prisoner swap and were met by their mother. I was particularly touched by the very tight embrace, the hug between the three of them, signifying “we must never be separated again.” More on their reunion can be found here: “This mother was reunited with her daughters after campaigning for their release on X,” Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2023:
Maayan Zin – an Israeli mother whose two daughters Dafna Elyakim, 15, and Ella Elyakim, 8, were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and brought into Gaza as hostages – had been rallying on their behalf on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), demanding their release from Hamas captivity.
Her nightmare came to an end on Sunday after Israel secured their release, among the 17 people released by Hamas on the third day of the war’s “pause” in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners.
The family’s emotional reaction was captured on video and shared by Zin on social media.
You can see Maayan, Dafna, and Ella embracing in a video here.
And you can see all three — the mother and her two just-freed daughters — even more tightly entwined, in the photograph posted here.
That’s what cut me to the quick. That’s what I wanted you to see.
Deceitful Red Cross Lectures Parents of Israeli Hostage
The Red Cross has had a difficult time over the last decade or so as questions concerning its accounting procedures have lingered. Now, it is under scrutiny again over its handling of certain aspects of the Israel and Hamas conflict.
Ron and Simona are the parents of Doron Steinbrecher. Doron was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, under terrifying circumstances. On that day, Ron and Simona saw terrorists on their way to the area where Doron lived. Their daughter called them, but the call was suddenly dropped. Her last voicemail to her parents was saying, "they caught me, they caught me, they caught me."
Yesterday it was reported by the Jerusalem Post that Doron needs medication that, until her kidnapping, she took on a daily basis. Earlier in the week, Her parents were invited to a meeting with the Red Cross, which they believed would finally transfer her medication. Instead, they were lectured by representatives there and were told “think about the Palestinian side, It’s hard for the Palestinians, they’re being bombed.”
Simona was shocked by the callousness of the response saying “we left there as we entered, without new information, without something new, and with disappointment.”
This isn’t the first incident of poor treatment by the Red Cross in these circumstances. Elma Avraham is an 84-year-old woman who was freed during the ceasefire. Her family told Israeli media that the Red Cross had refused to bring Avraham the medication she needed during her captivity. Avraham was reportedly rushed to the hospital in critical condition immediately after she was released but, fortunately, she has improved since then. However, after Avraham was airlifted to the hospital, a relative said that he had tried to hand a Red Cross medic her medication to give her, but that he refused to accept it, saying it was against their protocols.
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, who treated Avraham after her release, described a similar situation in The Jerusalem Post.
"We were in meetings with the Red Cross and asked them to make every effort to bring the medications to her, because some hostages are just dying. From a medical and nursing standpoint, what we witnessed is unlawful neglect."
The Red Cross and Red Crescent are part of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC has been criticized in the past for not practicing the neutrality that it professes.
Approximately three weeks after the attack, 1,200 lawyers across the world signed a letter written by the Israeli human rights group Shurat HaDin, condemning the Red Cross for not doing enough to help the hostages. The attorneys accused the organization of repeating the mistakes of indifference and inaction that it admitted to having made during the Holocaust.
Allegations of bias against the ICRC go back decades. The Republican Policy Committee of the US Senate issued a report in the early 2000's accusing the ICRC of engaging in activism, in violation of its stated founding core principles of impartiality and neutrality.
It even went as far as alleging that the ICRC attempts to "reinterpret and expand international law so as to afford terrorists and insurgents the same rights and privileges as military personnel of States Party to the Geneva Conventions," and "lobby for arms control issues that are not within the organization's mandate."
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the organization gathered $500 million in donations. To date, it is still one of the most successful campaigns in history. Six years later, in 2016, following a nearly year-long investigation by Senator Chuck Grassley’s office, the report to the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees found that the charity spent $125 million, or a full 25 percent of the donations it received for earthquake relief and recovery efforts, on fundraising and management, a contingency fund, and "program costs," even though the organization repeatedly has stated that nine out of every ten dollars it receives in donations are spent on programs.
NPR/ProPublica also found that nonprofit organizations working on the ground in Haiti that received funds from the Red Cross spent as much as 11 percent of those funds on internal overhead costs. As a result of a "complex, yet inaccurate" accounting system, the report notes, the Red Cross doesn't know how much it spent on each project in Haiti.
Accompanied by nearly three hundred pages of supporting documents, the report also found that top Red Cross officials stonewalled Congressional investigators and released incomplete information about the organization's activities in the impoverished country. They have insisted, for example, that $70 million spent on "program expenses" included funds to oversee and evaluate its Haiti projects, yet Grassley's office found that the charity "is unable to provide any financial evidence that oversight activities in fact occurred."
There are many terms that can be used to describe the Red Cross. Unfortunately, "caring," "compassionate," and "trustworthy" aren’t any of them. The real shame here is that so many people will continue to be fooled by the front they present, while behind the scenes the exact opposite is true.
In 2021, the American Red Cross (ARC) raised $3.1 billion with most revenue ($2.1 billion) coming from the sale of biomedical services (i.e., blood and plasma collected through donations and sold), with the remaining revenue obtained primarily through contributions, gifts, and grants totaling $1 billion, including $170 million from the government.
Expenses totaled $2.8 billion, with the largest expense reported to be compensation (salaries, pension, benefits, and payroll taxes). 17,918 employees received $1.353 billion, or an average compensation of $76,000. The 15 most highly compensated employees were reported to be:
- $781,120: Clifford Holtz, Chief Operating Officer
- $751,789: Chis Hrouda, President, Biomedical Services
- $723,696: Shaun Gilmore, Chief Transformation Officer
- $640,483: Gail McGovern, President and CEO
- $629,954: Brian Rhoa, CFO
- $535,518: Paul Sullivan, SVP, Donor Services
- $491,333: Phyllis Harris, General Counsel
- $488,883: Melissa Hurst, Chief HR Officer
- $468,179: Don Herring, Chief Development Officer
- $451,121: Jack McMaster, President, Training Services
- $444,692: Peter Giamalva, SVP, Biomedical Sales and Marketing
- $409,434: Pampee Young, Chief Medical Officer
- $408,920: Ronnie Strickland, CIO
- $407,120: Harvey Johnson, President, Humanitarian Services
- $326,631: Jennifer Hawkins, Corp Secretary and Chief of Staff
So, as you can see, no one is hurting at the Red Cross, except those that are hoping for some care, compassion and legitimate help.
Hamas’ Child Hostages
The ancient horrors have returned.
SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-child-hostages/;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
For at least two generations, Israelis have felt secure in the knowledge that the horrors of the Holocaust were behind them. Safe behind border walls and protected by a powerful military, Jews in Israel would never again have to watch as children were murdered in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children.
October 7 changed all that – dramatically.
The Hamas-led killing spree of that day brought Hitler’s willing executions through the gates of Israel. Suddenly, nowhere was safe anymore.
I have spent the past week in Israel, researching a film on Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers with filmmaker Ricky Schroder and his producer, Julie Trammel.
From the very moment I arrived, the presence of the missing – Israelis ripped from their homes by Hamas terrorists – was everywhere. The broad stairs leading down to immigration at Ben Gurion airport were marked with the faces of the missing – on both sides of the hall. On some of the hundred-plus steps, the poster had been taken down to indicate hostages who had been released after more than fifty days of captivity.
By the time I left five days later, the gaps were bigger, as more returnees came home. But more than 136 remained by the time Hamas broke the temporary truce on December 1.
On Ditzengoff Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Tel Aviv, human-sized white teddy bears were strapped to every park bench, their bodies spattered with dirt and blood. Attached to each was a poster of one of the missing.
In Jerusalem, office buildings were lit up with the Israeli flag and holographic projections of the missing, rotating every few seconds.
During that week, we began to learn more about the horrors the hostages had undergone during their Hamas captivity.
Israel’s first lady, Michal Hertzog, revealed that young women had been so brutally raped that their pelvic bones were broken.
Boys and young men were branded – not with a number, as in the Nazi camps – but marked indelibly with hot motorcycle exhaust pipes, so they would be recognizable in case they managed to escape, as some did.
Children were given food and water intermittently and threatened with weapons if they dared to open their mouths. “When I first saw them returning in the helicopters they looked like shadows, not children,” said Dr. Efrat Harlev, CEO of the Schneider Children’s Center where many of the child returnees are being treated for trauma. “They would ask us if they could open the window, or open the drawer, or take a shower,” still fearful of their Hamas captors.
Most children lost ten to fifteen percent of their body weight. Dr. Harlev told the story of two sisters, 15 and 8 years old. “The older one decided how much to eat so she could save food for her younger sister. Sometimes she would not eat for days.”
Even in the hospital, many children picked at their food, telling doctors they had to save it for later. “The last time I read about that happening was eighty years ago, before Jews had a state,” Dr Harlev said on Monday.
One twelve-year old boy, strapped to the back of a motorbike by his captors, was welcomed by a crowd in Gaza and beaten with clubs, sticks, fists, and bats. Another twelve-year old, Eitan Yahalomi, was kept alone in a closed room for sixteen days and beaten regularly by his captors.
Moved to a second location, Eitan and other children were forced by Hamas to watch videos of the atrocities they committed on October 7, according to former Knesset member Dov Lipman. All were told that no one was looking for them, that there was no Israel, no place for them to return. “Hamas was psychologically harassing them on a daily basis,” Dr. Harlev said.
It is well-documented that Hamas used United Nations schools as arms depots and training centers. But they also called on United Nations employees to guard and house hostages, including a Gaza teacher.
Those UN schools, operated by UNWRA, have indoctrinated generations of Palestinians to hate Jews and vow Israel’s destruction. If nothing else, the U.S. and the European Union should take control of UNWRA, fire the Hamas teachers and reform the curriculum, to ensure it returns to its core mission of educating children to live in peace with their neighbors.
We will learn more about the horrors these hostages endured in the days and weeks to come. So far, no military-age men have been released. No one really knows if they are even alive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation the day after the truce and the hostage-swaps expired with these moving words:
“Citizens of Israel,” he began. “’Whoever saves one life, it is as if he has saved the entire world.’ Last week, we rescued many worlds. We returned 110 souls to Israel. We freed 86 Israeli citizens – children, women, young people, mothers and grandmothers, as well as dozens of foreign nationals. The entire nation and many around the world held their breath as they followed each release.
“The boys and girls and young people whom we returned home: Raz, Aviv, Hila, Alma, Noam, Emma, Yuli, Emilia, Avigail, Emily, Gali,Amit, Eitan, Nava. Yahel, Noam, Ohad, Uriah, Yuval, Ofri, Erez, Mia, Noga, Ofir, Dafna, Ela, Tal, Agam, Gal, Or, Yagli, Itay, Maya, Bilal, Aisha, Uri, Natali, Mika, Liam – and many others whom we have released.
“These are not just names but souls of boys and girls that we brought back home, we brought them back to life. We will be with them and look after them. I embrace them on behalf of all of you, citizens of Israel: Welcome to those who have left the horrors, welcome back home.
“The Psalmist writes (142:8): ‘Take my soul out of confinement.’ We have taken them out of confinement, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption.”
These were exactly the right words for the Prime Minister to utter. As someone who has been held hostage, they touched me to my core, because that is exactly what liberation felt like, being dragged out of darkness into the light.
The long war to secure Israel’s borders and eradicate Hamas as an organized force has begun. Many will seek to tie Israel’s hands, but they will not be restrained. Should the Prime Minister or anyone in his cabinet suggest that Israel should enter ceasefire talks – not the temporary pauses of the hostage exchanges, but an actual, lasting ceasefire that allows Hamas to fight another day – they would face a mutiny among the ranks of the IDF.
The ancient horrors – the horrors Israelis thought would never happen again – have returned and the weight of that realization is just beginning to sink in.
When Palestinians gloated before October 7 that they want “to finish what Hitler started,” liberals in the West and in Israel just shrugged their shoulders.
Today, leftists in Israel, at least, know that Hamas means it.
Ken Timmerman is the author of a memoir of Middle East wars, And the Rest is History: Tales of Hostages, Arms Dealers, Dirty Tricks, and Spies. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work on Iran.
US State Department says Hamas won’t release female hostages because they will tell about jihadis’ sex crimes~Rape, Torture, Mutilation, and Murder by Hamas of Both Men and Women
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
This is quite likely. Hamas enjoys vogue right now and the world loves it. But too many horrific rape stories might sour the affection of even the most ardent Leftist.
“US State Department–Hamas won’t release women hostages because they will talk about sex crimes,” by Vered Weiss, World Israel News, December 4, 2023:
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller revealed in a press conference that Hamas won’t free the remaining women because they don’t want them to talk about possible sex crimes in captivity.
With increasing reports about the frequency and severity of sexual crimes, including rape and genital mutilation, perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th, Matthew Miller has posited the hesitancy of releasing female hostages, the main issue that led to the end of the ceasefire and the resumption of fighting, is to prevent them from revealing similar crimes during their confinement.
In a press conference, Miller said, “The fact that they continue to hold women, hostages, the fact that they continue to hold children, hostages, just the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over they’ve been holding hostage, and the reason this pause fell apart, is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller suggests “one of the reasons [Hamas doesn’t] want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage — and the reason this pause fell apart — is they don’t want those women to talk about what happened to them.” pic.twitter.com/GOlM3PHgVR
— The Recount (@therecount) December 4, 2023
“There is very little that I would put beyond Hamas when it comes to its treatment of civilians, and particularly its treatment of women,” he adds.
Last week, 110 elderly women, mothers and their children, and foreign nationals were released by Hamas.
As of last Friday after the ceasefire, 136 hostages remain who are mainly male, but there are still a number of women, including one who was seen in October 7th footage revealing blood on the seat of her sweatpants as she was shoved by terrorists into a van….
________________________________________________________
Rape, Torture, Mutilation, and Murder by Hamas of Both Men and Women
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/12/rape-torture-mutilation-and-murder-by-hamas-of-both-men-and-women;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
More eyewitness accounts have just been released about the sexual assaults, followed by torture and decapitations, of both men and women, carried out by Hamas on October 7. The story can be found here: “Hamas raped men as well as women during October 7 attack: Investigators reveal how sex assault victims were tied up, stripped and mutilated as Israel launches its ‘biggest ever criminal investigation,'” by Summer Goodkind and David Averre, Daily Mail, December 4, 2023:
Israeli investigators probing the fallout of the brutal October 7 attacks have found evidence that men as well as women suffered sexual violence and rape at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad attackers, activists have claimed.
Yael Sherer, a spokeswoman for Israel’s Survivors of Sexual Violence advocacy group, said there was physical evidence as well as eyewitness accounts of sexual violence perpetrated against both sexes amid the attacks.
‘There was sexual violence and rape in these communities in the south of Israel… we have a few living survivors – not a lot – of both genders. It didn’t only happen to women, it happened to men as well,’ she told BBC Radio 4.
‘Aside from finding the bodies of people who were murdered, a lot of the bodies were mutilated… terrorists made sure to disgrace these people and dishonor them,’ she added….
Yoni Saadon, 39, who survived the attack on the Nova music festival by hiding under dead bodies, this weekend gave a harrowing account of the sexual violence he saw perpetrated against women at the campground.
One horrifying image he described was the moment a woman’s decapitated head rolled across the road, after she was beheaded for refusing to be stripped naked….
After an hour, the shift manager peeked out. ‘I saw this beautiful woman with the face of an angel and eight or ten of the fighters beating and raping her.’
The woman was screaming "stop it," he said, and begged the terrorists to kill her to put her out of her misery.
‘When they finished they were laughing and the last one shot her in the head," he said.
The father of four admitted how his mind kept reminding him it could have been one of his daughters, or his sister, who at the last minute bowed out of the festival.
The horror was far from over for Yoni as, hiding in the bushes, he saw two more Hamas fighters catch a woman.
‘She was fighting back, not allowing them to strip her,’ he recalled. ‘They threw her to the ground and one of the terrorists took a shovel and beheaded her and her head rolled along the ground. I see that head too.’…
Haim Outmezgine, commander of a special unit of Zaka, that collects the remains of bodies said: ‘We collected 1,000 bodies in ten days from the festival site and kibbutzim. No one saw more than us.
‘It was clear they were trying to spread as much horror as they could — to kill, to burn alive, to rape … it seemed their mission was to rape as many as possible.’
David Katz, head of the Lahav 443 criminal investigation unit, did not give a precise figure for the number of cases under investigation, but said the inquiry could take 'six to eight months’.
The horror grows and grows. Those who still are unable to appreciate Israel’s determination to eliminate Hamas, and — like the Bidenites — preposterously hector Israel to “use great care to limit civilian casualties,” when that is something the IDF already does, more than any other army in the world, should study carefully these eyewitness accounts of unparalleled barbarity.
Doctor treating freed Hamas hostages describes the unprecedented abuse
Stories emerge of what Israeli hostages endured in captivity
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry discusses the Israel-Hamas war and calls for a permanent cease-fire once the hostage exchanges end