The Horrors Take their Toll
The events of the past few days seem worse than before
A World without Empathy for anything Israeli
The images of the half starved Israeli hostages which are filling our social media and the news reports about the way they were treated by Hamas before they were released are hard to get out of our mind today. We have seen similar spectacles with the earlier hostage releases, but something seems worse in the past few days.
Perhaps it was the interview we caught on CTV news on Thursday night. They were interviewing the nightmarish Francesca Albanese, “UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”, about Donald Trump’s idea of relocating the people of Gaza, and she took the opportunity to talk about the freed Israeli hostages. Here is what she said: “The Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons were also starved, and they showed obvious signs of torture. And then on the other hand the Israeli hostages wrote letters of appreciation to their captors. So it’s a weird juxtaposition.” The CTV host let this absurd statement go unchallenged and thanked her for appearing. I left the following comment on the YouTube post linked above.
The breathtaking dishonesty of Ms. Albanese reaches new depths. Does she really think the starving Israelis wrote thank you letters to their captors of their own free will? How stupid does she think we are?
I have watched Israelis hold their breath and I've watched news anchors in tears at the state of the hostages released over the weekend. To suggest that Israel doesn't care about the hostages is a disgusting lie, which she breezily tosses off, with no pushback from the CTV interviewer, who also lets unsupported claims that Israel has committed genocide pass without comment.
Canadian Jews are discovering that our mass media doesn't care about Jews who are murdered, raped and tortured, starved, and paraded around as props by Hamas for the amusement of their fans in the west. Hamas are the worst people in the world, and our news media are platforming apologists for them and gaslighting the Jews of Canada by giving oxygen to this disgusting liar and Jew hater. Shame on CTV news.
Image: UN Special rapporteur Francesca Albanese —-Source: Stop Antisemitism
More than the sadistic cruelty revealed by Hamas, the efforts by our mass media to downplay it, leave us feeling both angry and discouraged. The lies being propagated by Ms Albanese are all the more infuriating when we see the video shared this morning by Daniel Gordis, showing Israeli broadcasters in tears as they interview the mother of a man who died saving the life of one of the returned hostages, while they watch scenes of his reunion with his family.
Much of the English language media seems committed to ensuring that no story is reported in a way that engenders sympathy for Israelis, however deserved. UPI published a report which quoted EURO-MED, an NGO. The report called Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails “emaciated”, and claimed that prisoners were tortured. The report links to an image which it claims is that of a starved and tortured Palestinian prisoner. The article saves its only mention of the terrible condition of the Israeli hostages for its final sentence, with the phrase “some also frail and abused”. This seems to have been the report that Albanese relied on for her talking points. Linking to the Euro Med web site we find a long series of reports accusing Israel of all manner of human rights violations, and calling for sanctions, but not a word about war crimes or human rights violations by Hamas.
As the profound indifference of the world to the savagery inflicted on Israelis continually sinks in, we find ourselves shifting to a more defensive posture. We are getting used to the idea that the world supports those who want to destroy us. We understand that institutions we thought would protect us will not. In response we strengthen our own defenses, both emotional and material. Security at our synagogue is a concern like never before.
Thoughts on the Trump Plan
The reason CTV saw fit to broadcast the diatribe by Francesca Albanese, was ostensibly an invitation to comment on Donald Trump’s proposal to move the people of Gaza to a “beautiful peace of land” somewhere in the Arab world. This would apparently allow the US to take control of Gaza and rebuild it into a seaside paradise.
The reaction to this idea from the Arab world has been angry and highly critical. Trump’s surrogates at first tried to back pedal on the idea, but Trump has continued to insist that it is something that will happen. With the President due to meet the King of Jordan, one of the destinations he has proposed for relocating Gazans, the world awaits the outcome of their discussions with a mixture of bemusement and alarm.
While some Israelis are welcoming Trump’s relocation plan as an attempt to bring new ideas to bear on a problem where all previous attempts at a solution have ended in disaster, others are skeptical or outraged, calling the idea illegal and counterproductive. Some have expressed concern that the idea may derail the ceasefire in Gaza, but the release of three Israelis and 183 Palestinians proceeded as planned yesterday, and today, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor on schedule.
In a grave incident following the Israeli withdrawal, a crowd of Palestinians approached the border fence near Nahal Oz, and Israelis fired at them, reportedly killing three.
For those who are denouncing the Trump plan, the obvious retort is to ask them for a better idea. So far, there is no vision for future governance of Gaza in which Palestinians rebuild and Hamas is no longer in control. Throughout the current ceasefire we have been treated to heavy handed demonstrations of Hamas power wherever Israel has withdrawn. They have staged humiliating hostage handover ceremonies, featuring signing of documents with the ICRC, and the parading of the hostages in front of hostile crowds. These ceremonies feature large numbers of masked gunmen. Hamas has also reportedly murdered Gazans accused of “collaboration” with the IDF during the war.
The phase II negotiations are under way and they have the seemingly impossible task of securing an agreement for a “permanent” end to the fighting as demanded by Hamas, while also arranging the replacement of Hamas with a new Gaza regime acceptable to Israel. Throughout the war, different ideas have been floated for a postwar regime, as well as some kind of peacekeeping force that would take over from Israel. This force would have to ensure both the reconstruction of Gaza and an end to the threat of terrorism. None of these ideas has seemed to gain any traction. Those who are horrified by Trump’s idea would be wise to try to come up with a better alternative.
Not all of the media coverage of the atrocious behavior revealed by the release of Israel’s hostages was as callous as the examples cited in this article, but a broad swathe of the public is being exposed to biased material designed to promote hatred and revulsion toward Israel, and sympathy for the terrorists who have tormented Israelis for decades. We will continue to call attention to media misconduct whenever we encounter it. The continued viability of Jewish life in Canada is at stake in our view.
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The Palestinian prisoners are convicted criminals at risk of reoffending. That risk of reoffending is the most painful part. Sinwar was a released prisoner from a previous deal. Israel has worsened the conditions for security prisoners, but these conditions meet international laws (as opposed to greatly exceeding the required minimum in the past). The hostages, in contrast, are all innocent people who have been severely abused. This includes the ones who, for lack of better terminology, "look good." Emotional trauma and sexual trauma can be invisible.
I agree with all your comments...