If hostages are being abused, their captors shouldn’t be rewarded

Jonathan S. Tobin

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Crowds of Israelis gather in “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv as three Israeli men—Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy—are released after 491 days of captivity by Hamas in Gaza on Feb. 8, 2025. Photo by Jonathan S. Tobin.

It’s been more than 16 months since Israel was invaded and its citizens, including men, women and children, were subjected to mass murder, torture, rape and kidnapping. But while anyone who visits the Jewish state can readily see that life goes on there, the national trauma continues.

On no day was that made clearer than on Saturday, Feb. 8, when three Israeli men, who have been held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas for 491 days, were released.

Or Levy, 34, Eli Sharabi, 52, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, emerged from captivity in an especially egregious ceremony staged by Hamas. They were forced at gunpoint to make short speeches thanking the terror group that killed their friends and family members, and kept them hostage for 16 months. They were then handed to a complicit International Red Cross that transported them to Israeli forces.

While the world has now seen previous hostage-release “ceremonies”—accompanied by armed and masked Hamas terrorists, in addition to mobs of jeering Palestinians—what made this so hard to watch was the condition of the three men. All of them looked emaciated and gaunt, much like images of Nazi death-camp survivors. Their plight demonstrated that male Israeli prisoners may well have been treated as badly as or even worse than female ones. It also reminded Israelis and Jews around the world who were watching of the direct connection between the Holocaust, and the intentions of Hamas and other Palestinians, toward the Jewish people.

The brazen thuggery on display was shocking. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for most observers, who don’t share the genocidal views of Hamas toward Jews, that the people responsible for this brutal show were “monsters.”

Among Israelis, anger and horror at the latest attempt by Hamas to demonstrate that they are the victors of the war they started on Oct. 7, 2023, seems universal. But the question remains: What should the response of both Israel’s government and the civilized world be to these vile terrorists?

That’s an issue that obsesses Israelis and one Americans cannot ignore. Far from being remote to U.S. interests, the administration of President Donald Trump is quickly realizing that its stand on the future of Hamas is going to be crucial as to whether it can successfully conduct a foreign policy that defends American interests.

The agony of the families

In the view of the approximately 1,000 demonstrators who turned out for the weekly pro-hostage/anti-Netanyahu Saturday-night rally in front of Tel Aviv’s Museum of Art now called “Hostages Square,” the answer was clear. Family members who spoke believe that the only thing to do is to give Hamas whatever it wants in order to obtain the release of all the remaining 76 captives, many of whom may already be dead. Indeed, they blame Netanyahu—as they have since the start of the war—for not immediately giving in to terrorist demands, often speaking as if he was the one who took them captive and that he alone is the reason why they are still in dire straits.

They are not focused on the implications of a hostage negotiation that would lead to Hamas remaining in power in Gaza and able to make good on its vows to perpetrate more Oct. 7-style massacres of Israelis. Nor do they seem to care that Hamas has made it equally clear that it never had any intention of agreeing to a sweeping deal that would see all living hostages and the bodies of those that they have slain exchanged at any price. The terror group is always going to hold back some individuals to retain leverage over Israel.

No one should blame the families for thinking that way, even if their suffering has been hijacked by Netanyahu’s political opponents to bolster efforts to oust him from office. It’s understandable; imagine if it were our loved ones. Most people would trade their country’s best interests—or that of the entire world, for that matter—if it meant a child, spouse, parent or sibling being ransomed. The harrowing images of the newly released hostages only exacerbate their agony.

Yet Trump, who has involved himself in this question by pushing for the current ceasefire/hostage-release deal, and Netanyahu must balance their compassion for the families with the security and best interests of their respective nations.

By essentially endorsing terms that the administration of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, had been seeking to impose on Israel in the negotiations with Hamas, Trump had seemed to put himself on the side of those who were prepared to let Hamas emerge triumphant from the war. Though the deal spoke of Hamas being disarmed and replaced by some other entity that would govern Gaza, any agreement that forces Israel to completely withdraw means that the Strip will remain in the hands of the terrorists.

Hamas’s message

What happened this weekend made it obvious that Hamas has no intention of giving up power. In Arabic and Hebrew, as well as what appeared to be a mangled English translation, the terrorists were proclaiming that they were “the Al-Aqsa flood”—a reference to jihad to capture Jerusalem and all of Israel. It also said that they were “the next day”—a reference to the oft-asked question about who would run Gaza after the war ends. As such, it also stood as a riposte to Trump, whose plan for removing not just Hamas, but the Palestinian population from Gaza, in order for it to be rebuilt seemed to threaten doom for the terrorist group and its dreams of eradicating Israel.

An article about the release published by The New York Times seemed to insist that, despite all of Israel’s efforts to wipe them out during the war, the ceremony was a declaration to the world that Hamas had won.

Hamas could draw comfort from the liberal outlet’s conclusion, as it could from much of the coverage in the international media covering the hostage release. Story after story seemed to analogize the plight of the Israeli captives with that of the 550 Palestinian terrorists who have been released in the last month as part of the deal, many of whom were serving life sentences for the murder of Israelis, many of them civilians. These murderers were given a hero’s welcome in Ramallah, the headquarters of the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority, which has rewarded them via its “pay-for-slay” program, with generous salaries and pensions as a reward for their criminal acts.

A nation with PTSD

Whatever their opinions about how to move forward on Hamas—and despite their heroism and resilience during the course of the war—Israelis are exhibiting all the classic signs of post-traumatic stress disorder as this agonizing drama continues to unfold.

As any visitor to the country can see, people go about their ordinary day-to-day tasks as if there were no war going on, with commerce and the arts thriving. But they’ve seen their fellow citizens subjected to barbarous atrocities on Oct. 7, the reserves mobilized and hundreds of soldiers (whose lives are as precious as that of the hostages) killed battling Hamas and Hezbollah, with thousands more wounded. They’ve been terrorized by the thousands of rocket and missile attacks on their homes by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran.

They are also aware that much of the world has regarded their suffering and danger with little or no sympathy, with most concern focused on the condition of the Palestinians who applauded the Oct. 7 bloodthirsty murder of 1,200 people, as well as support both Hamas and its goals. They know that their efforts to defend themselves against Hamas have been libelously described as “genocide” by an international anti-Zionist movement of people who believe that one Jewish state on the planet is simply one too many.

That’s a lot to process. It’s also mixed in with the Jewish state’s volatile domestic politics. Those arguments hinge more on opinions about Netanyahu than the across-the-board policy consensus that rejects the creation of a Palestinian state. Still, that is the solution preferred by the international community, even though the Palestinians have made it clear that they don’t want one if it means peace alongside Israel.

An American dilemma

But while Israelis struggle with the impossible decision between trying to save the lives of the hostages and ensuring that Hamas can’t go on murdering, raping and kidnapping Jews, this is also an American problem.

Trump wants to bring peace to the region, and above all, guarantee that Iran and its terrorist network that started the Oct. 7 war cannot possess the ability to threaten a vital part of the globe. He is no expert on the Middle East, which has enabled him to throw off misguided preconceptions about the need to weaken Israel to appease Islamists who will never accept peace. The 2020 Abraham Accords, which achieved normalization between Israel and four Arab and Muslim nations, was an accomplishment made possible by his rejection of the conventional wisdom peddled by the foreign-policy establishment.

Now, however, Trump faces a choice that he probably would rather avoid.

It is one thing to take credit for a ceasefire/hostage-release deal that enabled him to play the peacemaker and gave him some good imagery in time for his second inauguration last month. But Hamas’s brutality and its determination to hold onto both power in Gaza, coupled with its war goals of Israel’s destruction and Jewish genocide, has forced him into a difficult decision.

He can insist on the continuation of the ceasefire and allow the negotiations with Hamas about the second and third phases of the deal to drag on. That will not bring peace or the release of all the hostages while also making Israel’s emotional suffering worse.

It’s what former Vice President Kamala Harris would be doing if she had won the presidential election last November rather than Trump. The Biden-Harris priority was to end the war at all costs, even if that meant granting a victory to Hamas, which would have elevated it to a position of dominance among Palestinians as well as threaten moderate Arab regimes in the region as much as its sponsor in Tehran.

Or Trump can do as he appeared to intimate this past week in his meetings with Netanyahu—stating that Israel had the backing of the United States to do whatever is necessary to finally eradicate Hamas and ensure that it will never again hold power in Gaza.

He correctly perceives it to be his job to guard America’s interests “first.” But unlike many of his critics on the left, Trump appears instinctively to realize that the only way to do that is to back Israel against Islamists who hate the United States and the West as much as they do the Jewish state.

Hamas continues to show the world exactly what it stands for. If the appearance of the last three released hostages dredges up memories of those Jews liberated 80 years ago from concentration camps, which the world just marked on Jan. 27 as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is no accident or misunderstanding. Their monstrous behavior and desire for another Holocaust is no secret. And the proper response to such behavior is not appeasement but resolute resistance. That was as true eight decades ago as it is today.

We should all pray for the safety of the remaining hostages and hope that they will be saved. I understand why some Israelis are so horrified by the imagery of the Hamas propaganda that they worry more about the hostages than whether actions undertaken by Netanyahu or Trump to help them will lead to more terrorism, death and bloodshed for both sides.

And yet, the prime minister must think of the safety of the rest of Israel and those who might suffer if he gives in to pressure. And Trump, too, must ponder what a triumphant Hamas and Iran will mean for America in the coming years as Islamist terror escalates and spreads. Regardless of our fears or attitudes toward either leader, that is not a world in which any of us should wish to live. 

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate). Follow him: @jonathans_tobin.

Director of ‘Emilia Pérez’ and Star Zoe Saldana Respond to Karla Sofia Gascon’s Hateful Comments About Hitler, Islam

Shiryn Ghermezian

Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramirez, Selena Gomez, Jacques Audiard, Karla Sofia Gascon, and Zoe Saldana, winners of the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy award for “Emilia Perez,” pose at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, Jan. 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The director of the Oscar-nominated film “Emilia Perez” and its supporting actress Zoe Saldana have both publicly spoken out about the scandal involving the film’s lead star Karla Sofia Gascon and her past comments on X/Twitter, which include praise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In Spanish-language tweets from 2019 that resurfaced on Saturday, Gascon seemingly defended Nazi leader Adolf Hitler for his hatred of Jews. “I don’t understand so much about the world war against Hitler, he simply had his opinion about Jews,” she wrote in one post. She said in another tweet that year: “Hitler believed that his people were divine and belonged to a superior race. They all wiped him out, now the swastika can’t even reproduce itself. The church, Islam, etc. have caused millions more deaths throughout the history of humanity and they are still there. It makes you think.”

In Spanish-language separate tweets that resurfaced on Jan. 30, mostly from 2020 and 2021 but also as far back as 2016, Gascón heavily criticized Islam, suggesting that it should be banned and that the religion “violates human rights.” She attacked Muslim attire, language and culture in her native country of Spain. In 2016, she tweeted, “Islam is becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity that urgently needs to be cured.” In separate tweets she called African-Amercian man George Floyd a “drug addict and a hustler” after he was killed by a police officer in 2020 and inspired protests around the US.

“Emilia Perez,” a Spanish-language musical and crime drama about a transgender gangster, received 13 Oscar nominations this year – more than any other film. It includes Saldana’s first Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actress, and a nod for director/co-writer Jacques Audiard. The film set a new record for the most Oscar nominations earned by a non-English film and marks the first time an openly trans actor, Gascón, has been nominated for an Oscar.

Audiard told Deadline this week on Wednesday that Gascon’s past comments on X are “inexcusable.”

“It’s very hard for me to think back to the work I did with Karla Sofía,” he said. “The trust we shared, the exceptional atmosphere that we had on the set that was indeed based on trust. And when you have that kind of relationship and suddenly you read something that that person has said, things that are absolutely hateful and worthy of being hated, of course that relationship is affected. It’s as if you fall into a hole. Because what Karla Sofía said is inexcusable.” Audiard added that he has not spoken to Garcon since the controversy erupted last week, “and I don’t want to.”

“I’m not getting in touch with her because right now she needs space to reflect and take accountability for her actions,” he explained. “She’s really playing the victim. She’s talking about herself as a victim, which is surprising. It’s as if she thought that words don’t hurt.”

Garcon apologized for her past social media activity in a statement on Jan. 30 via Netflix, where her “Emilia Perez” is streaming. “As someone in a marginalized community, I know this suffering all too well and I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain,” she said. “All my life I have fought for a better world. I believe light will always triumph over darkness.” Gascón has since deactivated her X account.

Later, in a lengthy Instagram post, she apologized again but also defended herself, saying in Spanish that her posts were taken out of context. She insisted that she’s “not racist” and that she was not given the option to explain the “real intention” behind her comments on X. “I have always fought for a more just society and for a world of freedom, of peace and of love. I will never support wars, religious extremism or oppression of races and peoples,” she wrote.

In an interview with Variety published this week on Wednesday, Saldana expressed sadness and disappointment about the situation.

“I’m sad. Time and time again, that’s the word because that is the sentiment that has been living in my chest since everything happened,” she said. “I’m also disappointed. I can’t speak for other people’s actions. All I can attest to is my experience, and never in a million years did I ever believe that we would be here.”

Nie jestem Żydem, ale dzień 7 października 2023 roku zmienił moje życie

Pete Malicki
Tłumaczenie: Andrzej Koraszewski

To, jak świat zareagował na masakrę 7 października, skłoniło mnie do zainteresowania się Izraelem, wojną i szerszym regionem.

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Pete Malicki jest australijskim dramaturgiem, filmowcem i doradcą. Twórca World Monologue Games. Wnuk emigranta z Polski.

Hamas Frees Three Hostages, Israel Begins Releasing Palestinians

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Released hostage Or Levy, Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, February 8, 2025. Photo: Haim Zach/GPO/Handout via REUTERS

Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages whose gaunt appearance shocked Israelis, and Israel began freeing dozens of Palestinians in the latest stage of a ceasefire aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen.

The three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.

“He looked like a skeleton, it was awful to see,” Ohad Ben Ami’s mother-in-law, Michal Cohen, told Channel 13 News as she watched the Hamas-directed handover ceremony, which included the hostages answering questions posed by a masked man as militants armed with automatic rifles stood on each side.

In another show of force by Hamas, which has paraded fighters during previous releases, dozens of its terrorists deployed in central Gaza as it handed hostages over to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The hostages were then driven in ICRC cars to Israeli forces and into Israel, where they had tearful reunions with family members, and flown to hospitals. “We missed you so much,” the mother of Or Levy, Geula, said as she hugged her son.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the sight of the frail hostages was shocking and would be addressed.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog described the release ceremony as cynical and vicious. “This is what a crime against humanity looks like,” he said.

The Hostage Families Forum said the images of the hostages evoked images of survivors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. “We have to get ALL THE HOSTAGES out of hell,” it said.

In exchange for the hostages’ release, Israel was freeing 183 Palestinian prisoners, some convicted of involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, as well as 111 detained in Gaza during the war.

Cheering crowds greeted the buses as they arrived in Gaza, embracing the freed detainees, some of them weeping with joy and tearing prison-issued bracelets off their wrists.

Among those freed in Ramallah, in the West Bank, was Eyad Abu Shkaidem, sentenced to 18 life terms in Israel for masterminding suicide attacks in revenge for Israel’s 2004 assassinations of Hamas leaders.

“Today, I am reborn,” Shkaidem told reporters as the crowd cheered.

The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said six of the 42 released in the West Bank were in poor health and were taken to hospital. Some prisoners complained of ill-treatment. “The occupation humiliated us for over a year,” said Shkaidem.

PAINFUL RETURN

Some hostages face a painful return. Sharabi’s two teenage daughters and his British-born wife were slain in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, where one in 10 residents was killed.

Israel’s Channel 12 said Sharabi had not been told about their deaths and asked where they were when he arrived.

Levy will be reunited with his three-year-old son. His wife was killed in the attack.

Dr Hagar Mizrachi from Israel’s Ichilov Hospital said the hostages exhibited severe weight loss and malnutrition.

Sixteen Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released so far and 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have been freed.

The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, mediated by Washington, Cairo and Doha, has largely held since it took effect on January 19.

Netanyahu sent a delegation for talks in Doha on Saturday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported, citing a political source.

Concern the deal might collapse before all remaining 76 hostages are free has grown since President Donald Trump’s surprise call for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and for the enclave to be handed to the United States and developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Arab states and Palestinian groups have rejected Trump’s proposal, which critics said would amount to ethnic cleansing. Hamas said on Saturday its armed display at the hostage handover showed it could not be excluded from post-war Gaza arrangements.

Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s intervention and his defense minister has ordered the military to make plans to allow Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza to do so.

Under the ceasefire deal, 33 Israeli children, women and sick, wounded and older men are to be released during the first stage in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Negotiations on a second phase began this week aimed at returning the remaining hostages and agreeing on a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in preparation for a final end to the war.

Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages in the October 7, 2023 attack.

Israeli delegation arrives in Doha for ceasefire talks

JNS Staff

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Demonstrators protest calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip outside the southern Israeli city of Sderot, Feb. 8, 2025. Photo by Dor Pazuelo/Flash90.

An Israeli delegation arrived in Doha, Qatar on Saturday night to continue the negotiations on the ceasefire with Hamas. U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff is mediating the latest round of talks.

The working-level team includes Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch and officials from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Mossad and Israel Defense Forces. They were authorized to travel to the Qatari capital for technical discussions following the Gaza-based terrorist group’s release of three hostages and Israel’s release of 183 Palestinian terrorists on Saturday under the first phase of the truce.

The Israeli Security Cabinet will convene on Monday to determine the negotiation team’s mandate, according to Hebrew media reports.

Hirsch expressed anger over the poor physical condition of the three hostages released on Saturday, saying that Israel has raised objections with mediators and will respond accordingly.

Jerusalem is evaluating the possibility of reducing aid shipments into Gaza, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.

According to Israeli estimates, there are 76 hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza, including 73 abducted during the Oct. 7 attacks.