It was a unique “V for victory” sign. Released hostage Emily Damari held up her bandaged hand, missing two fingers, and yelled: “I survived!”
Damari, 28, who has dual British-Israeli nationality, was released from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Sunday along with Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31. Both Damari and Steinbrecher were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023, while Gonen, also wounded, was captured as she tried to flee the Supernova music festival massacre.
During the Hamas and Islamic Jihad invasion and mega-atrocity, some 1,200 people were murdered, many raped, tortured, and burned to death, and 250 were kidnapped.
It was impossible not to be moved by the smiles and tears of joy (and relief) of the three young women as they were reunited with their families after 471 days in captivity.
They finally came home at the start of the first stage of a fragile deal. A deal with the devil. In return for the return of the hostages, Israel is releasing hundreds of terrorists held in Israeli prisons and withdrawing from Gaza (for now).
As I write these lines, there are still 94 captives in Gaza. The identities and condition of the four hostages scheduled to be released on Saturday are not yet known. This is part of Hamas’s psychological warfare. Having shot off Damari’s fingers, Hamas is poking them in the face of the country and world.
The return of the three brave women was carefully staged by their Hamas captors. Well-armed, well-fed terrorists in their black uniforms with Islamist green bandannas thronged around the vehicle carrying the three, creating a barrier against the crowds of Gazan men who tried to get to the Israeli women. These are “innocent civilians,” Gaza-style.
The sight of masked, armed terrorists on the roof of a Red Cross vehicle carrying the women should make the world do a double-take. But Israel has very low expectations of the International Red Cross Committee, which for 15 months has failed to visit the hostages; did not deliver them necessary medication; and didn’t even draw up a list of who is alive and who is dead – Israelis and other citizens of other countries, including Thailand, Nepal, and Tanzania.
The Red Cross during the release this week and a release last year has served as a glorified taxi driver. Hamas appears to be terrorizing the organization and taking it over, the way it did with UNRWA and other international bodies.
In another cynical manipulation, Hamas presented the three women with “gift bags,” which reportedly contained a “release certificate,” a map of Gaza, and photos taken during their captivity in Gaza. Next, they’ll be asking for TripAdvisor recommendations of the accommodations: comparative ratings of the private apartments and terror tunnels where hostages were held.
Hamas is PR savvy and millions worldwide desperately want to believe it is some kind of legitimate freedom fighter movement instead of an organization of jihadist murderers, kidnappers, and rapists.
ANYBODY WITH A heart and a moral conscience wants to see the hostages freed. But it comes at a price and it’s a heavy one.
Hillel Fuld, whose brother Ari Fuld was stabbed to death in 2018, posted on Facebook on Saturday night: “Anyone have advice for someone whose brother was murdered by a terrorist who was supposed to sit in prison for the rest of his life and is now getting out and will walk freely?
“Is there a user guide somewhere on how to navigate this?
“Not sure there’s a word for this emotion. Not sure any human is meant to feel what our family feels right now.”
After the return of the three young women, Hillel posted: “I will tell you one thing. Tonight, all of those disagreements, all of the division, it all melted away like it was never there.
“Watching news anchors, religious or secular, left wing or right wing, all crying together and saying the blessing over freeing prisoners, that reminded me what we are about.
“We all prayed for this day. We all cried for these hostages. And today, we all celebrated their arrival back home.
“Too often we focus on the division, but in reality, we are family and tonight, as those poor girls crossed over the border from Gaza to Israel, in that moment, I was reminded who we are and why we will win this.
“When the Jewish people are united like we were today, nobody can mess with us. Nobody!”
Elsewhere, however, he noted that his brother Ari would not have supported the deal.
Other friends and acquaintances faced the same struggle, waiting to hear whether the killers of their children, siblings, and parents would go free, rewarding Hamas for murder and hostage-taking.
Micah Avni expressed his sentiments in an opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post. Avni’s father, Richard Lakin, died of his wounds after being shot and stabbed by a Hamas terrorist in an attack on a Jerusalem bus in October 2015. Lakin, a 76-year-old grandfather, was a peace-loving veteran of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and an active advocate of coexistence.
“As an Israeli, I believe in the sanctity of life,” Avni wrote. “If releasing the terrorist who murdered my father could save even one hostage from the horrors of Gaza’s dungeons, I would support it. I am confident my father would feel the same.”
But he ended his op-ed with a call for the death penalty for terrorists, to end the decades-old cycle of releasing terrorists who return to their murderous ways.
The fact that Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7 mega-atrocity, was released in the 2011 Gilad Schalit deal cannot be ignored.
It wasn’t only the relatives of terror victims who struggled with the deal. Families of soldiers killed in this war and other operations also tried to find meaning in the loss of their loved ones when terrorists are released. And it’s hard to miss the frustration of soldiers who risk their lives night after night to arrest terrorists knowing they might soon be freed. This is especially pertinent as an anti-terror operation in the West Bank town of Jenin was launched this week.
In a poignant reminder of the price, a few hours before the hostage release on Sunday, the IDF announced that it had managed to retrieve the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier killed and abducted during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. And on Sunday night, 31-year-old reservist Eviatar Ben-Yehuda was killed during an anti-terror operation in Samaria.
The mass release of terrorists rewards terrorism rather than reducing it.
Law professor Alan Dershowitz summed up the situation for the Gatestone Institute: “The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a ‘deal.’ It was an extortion… The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime…
“When a terrorist group ‘negotiates’ with a democracy, it always has the upper hand. The terrorists are not constrained by morality, law, or truth… The democracy, on the other hand, must comply with the rules of law and must listen to the pleas of the hostage families.”
Dershowitz called to put “the blame for ALL the deaths in Gaza where it belongs: on Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support murderous terrorists.”
Hebrew word of the year
THIS WEEK, in honor of Hebrew Language Day, the Hebrew Language Academy published its Word of the Year. The choice, determined by public vote, clearly reflected the national mood.
In the top spot with a massive lead was “hatufim,”(hostages), with 45% of the votes; “gvura” (bravery or heroism), came in second place with 11%; while the dreaded phrase “hutar lepirsum” (it has been cleared for publication) – the prelude to the announcement of the death of a soldier – took third place with 10%.
“This year, marked by the hardest and longest war in our history, was also a year when we often felt at a loss for words,” the academy said.
“Yet, throughout the year, certain words stood out, reflecting our reality: the pain, sorrow, and anger on the one hand, and the pride, transcendence, and gratitude toward those who sacrificed their lives on the other. The words chosen for the top spots represent this entirety.”
In other words, the image of Damari celebrating life and freedom created the perfect contrast to her masked Hamas captors idealizing terrorism and global jihad.