Let me start with an interview I didn’t give. On Saturday night, when I turned on my phone following a 25-hour break from news and social media – the Orthodox Jewish Shabbat experience that keeps me sane – there was a lot to catch up on.
The release of six hostages from Hamas captivity and the return of Shiri Bibas’s body was primary among the news items. Then I turned my attention to my missed WhatsApp messages and saw that BBC Arabic had asked me to give a live interview on Sunday on… Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral.
I didn’t immediately reply. At first, I was speechless. Then I was angry, and it’s never good to fire off a WhatsApp message in anger. I decided to sleep on it before responding. I had nightmares.
On Sunday morning, I replied with more than due respect that I would not be participating in the media glorification of the late Hezbollah leader.
I told the network that I would be focusing this week on the funerals of Shiri Bibas and her boys Ariel and Kfir – especially following the cruel switch of Shiri’s body for that of an anonymous Palestinian woman last Thursday – and the funeral of 83-year-old peace activist Oded Lifshitz, also kidnapped from his home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and murdered in captivity.
“Nasrallah will be remembered for multiple terrorist atrocities, including kidnappings, bombings, and murder around the globe,” I wrote. “The Hezbollah rocket that killed 12 Druze children playing football is among the atrocities that shouldn’t be forgotten while Nasrallah is being buried.”
Two blue checks showed that my message was read, but I’m not sure that anyone “got the message” in the deeper sense. The BBC Arabic production team remained silent. They were obviously not looking for someone who would speak out on air about the horrors committed by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist terrorist organizations.
The October 7 mega-atrocity – when Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Gazan civilians invaded Israel in a frenzy of rape, mutilation, arson, kidnapping, and murder– left Israel with 1,200 dead and 251 abducted.
It also left few illusions about the nature of the neighbors too close to Israel’s southern border for comfort. Ditto Hezbollah’s massive rocket bombardments and threats to invade the Galilee.
And yet, just when you think our enemies can’t get any lower, they find a way to outdo themselves. The handover ritual with the four coffins last week was an example: the coffin that was meant to hold Shiri’s remains had her picture and the description “Taken prisoner on October 7.”
“Prisoner”!? She was a 32-year-old mother grabbed from home with her nine-month-old baby and four-year-old son. Video footage shows the terror on her face; sweet Ariel, sucking on a pacifier, looks perplexed. Perhaps he is trying to make sense of the sight of homes on fire and the bodies of neighbors on the ground. Perhaps he saw the much-loved family dog, Tonto, being shot. Shiri’s parents were also murdered in their home.
Ariel’s beloved Batman didn’t come to save him. No one did. His father did his best to protect his family, but he too was dragged into captivity in Gaza, bleeding from the head wounds inflicted on him.
This brave and noble man, Yarden Bibas, was released in exchange for terrorists earlier this month. On Wednesday, his beautiful wife and two gorgeous, giggly sons were buried in Israel. The ceremony was private, but the whole country mourned.
Five-year-old Yoav Avital, Ariel Bibas’s best friend, has been waiting for his playmate to return to kindergarten. When his mother had to explain that Ariel would not be coming back, Yoav declared: “My heart hurts… I can’t stop thinking about him.”
Millions of us know what he means. If your heart doesn’t hurt when you think about Ariel, Kfir, and all the children murdered by terrorists, you have misplaced it.
But back to last week’s Hamas rituals: Young Palestinian children were brought on the stage to congratulate the terrorists and jeer at the dead Jews. Joyous music played in the background and there was a banner depicting a vampire-like Benjamin Netanyahu and the claim that Israeli rockets had killed Lifschitz and the Bibases.
The autopsy report showed otherwise. Terrorists had murdered the innocent, red-headed boys and their mother with their bare hands. The bodies were smashed afterward to try to cover the cause of death and feed the Palestinian narrative. (And there are many who have bought this lie.)
On Saturday, six live hostages were released in another bizarre and humiliating ceremony. Omer Shem-Tov was forced to kiss his captor on the forehead.
Two of the released men had been held for more than 10 years – Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed. Both had suffered from psychiatric problems before they crossed into Gaza and were taken into captivity. The International Red Cross Committee did nothing for a decade.
No visits. No pressure to release them.
When al-Sayed was spared the on-stage ceremony, some said it was because he was a Bedouin and Hamas respected his Muslim faith. His father had a different view. Blasting Hamas and asking the Arab world why it had remained silent, Shaaban al-Sayed said his son had returned an empty shell, unable to communicate in any language, and that is why he hadn’t been paraded on stage.
But there was more. Another gut-wrenching twist. On Saturday evening, in another Hamas abomination, the terrorist organization published footage of two Israeli hostages – Eviatar David and Guy Gilboa Dalal – being driven past the hostage release and begging also to be set free, only to be returned to a terror tunnel.
Both men looked thin and pale with dark rings under their eyes. The International Red Cross, which was present to participate in the “release ceremony,” did nothing. It’s good at not seeing captive Israelis.
There’s cruelty and evil and there’s Hamas. The stories of the survivors who returned from captivity are tales from hell – deliberate starvation, deprivation, and abuse; months shackled together in dark terror tunnels.
Yet some insist on a moral equivalence. Journalist Matthew Kalman this week noted that the BBC’s Jon Donnison had tweeted: “The propaganda efforts by both Hamas and Israel over the hostage releases are pretty nauseating.” Donnison later deleted the post “as it wasn’t appropriate” and apologized “if it offended anyone. That wasn’t my intention.”
So, what was the intention of this reporter, who early in the war spread the blood libel that Israel had bombed Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital? (The rocket was later determined to have been fired by Islamic Jihad terrorists targeting Israel but had fallen short.) The slanted reporting not only encourages the terrorists, it also contributes to the global rise in antisemitism.
Last week, the BBC dropped a documentary (after it had been viewed by millions) purporting to depict everyday life in Gaza through the eyes of children.
An investigation showed that the 13-year-old narrator of Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, was the son of a senior Hamas official. More propaganda – possibly at the expense of the British taxpayer. More incitement that inflames war and terror everywhere.
Terrorism continues to thrive
TERRORISM CONTINUES to thrive. On Thursday night, three buses blew up in the greater Tel Aviv area and bombs were discovered and defused on two more.
They apparently had been meant to detonate simultaneously on packed buses at 9 a.m. on Friday, instead of exploding on empty buses at 9 p.m. on Thursday.
But, as The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon pointed out, “the country can’t depend on miracles. Israel cannot simply wipe its brow now, sigh in relief of a bullet dodged, and move on. This was an attack intended to cause massive casualties, and it must be treated as such.”
This means stepping up the fight against terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria and against the arch-supporter of global terrorism: Iran.
The massive turnout for the funeral of Nasrallah and his replacement – both eliminated by Israel last year – shows the Hezbollah leader is dead but his terrorist spirit lives on. The Post’s Seth J. Frantzman noted that delegations from Iran, Iraq, Houthi-controlled Yemen, Turkey, and other countries participated in the funeral. More than paying final respects, it was a terrorist show of strength.
Israel sent its own delegation: IAF fighter jets flew over Beirut during the funeral. They carried the message that Israel’s enemies should beware. We cannot afford to forgive and forget.
It’s not what BBC Arabic wants to hear – but the message came across loud and clear.