As Israel marks its 77th Independence Day and President Donald Trump completes his first 100 days in office, my heart is somewhere else entirely: in the darkness of Gaza, where my son Bar remains in captivity — frail, frightened, and forgotten by far too many.
Bar Kupershtein is 23 years old. He was abducted by Hamas terrorists at 9:15 a.m. on October 7, 2023, from the Nova Music Festival. Just three hours earlier, at 6:30 a.m., Bar called to check in on his grandmother as sirens sounded across Israel. He assured her that he was ok and would soon be returning home. He never made it. Instead of running, Bar stayed and helped others flee the area. He provided medical aid to the wounded, organized the evacuation of thousands, and — despite opportunities to run for his life — chose to remain behind to save lives. Survivors have testified to his heroism.
<div id="attachment_913445" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-913445" class="size-large wp-image-913445" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-1024x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Kupershtein family. Bar Kupershtein." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-10-42-AM-2184-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Kupershtein family.</div>
That decision, one rooted in bravery and selflessness, led to his capture.
This is who Bar is: a caregiver, a leader, a young man of tremendous character.
I myself was seriously injured in 2019 while volunteering as a medic, on my way to resuscitate a 4-year-old girl. A terrible car accident left me disabled and struggling to speak. This is where Bar really stepped up. He moved in with his grandparents to make space for my caregiver and began working at the festival to help support our family, including his four siblings. He became the pillar of our family.
Now, that pillar is crumbling in an underground tunnel beneath Gaza.
In a recently released video by Hamas, used as psychological propaganda, Bar appears gaunt, drastically thinner, his eyes hollow, and his body weak. He did not speak, we did not hear his voice. He looks like a different person — one shaped not by time, but by torment.
Our entire family is struggling to maintain hope. I am learning to speak again so I can be Bar’s voice, calling out from the silence of the tunnels. My father, Bar’s grandfather, is a Holocaust survivor — he has suffered two strokes since Bar’s abduction. My mother is battling bowel cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. The pain has seeped into every corner of our home and yet nothing is as severe as painful as longing for Bar’s release.
<div id="attachment_913447" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-913447" class="size-large wp-image-913447" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-1024x576.jpg" alt="Credit: Kupershtein family. Tal Kupershtein speaks at a rally on behalf of his son, Bar." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/MixCollage-29-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-9910-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Kupershtein family.</div>
President Trump, your first 100 days have shown boldness and decisiveness on many fronts. You have demonstrated strength and urgency during this period. I implore you now to bring that same resolve to this urgent humanitarian crisis. The United States has long prided itself as a beacon of moral leadership. You have the power to rally the international community. You have the influence to pressure Hamas. You have the ability to make a deal happen. Please use it.
Now I ask you — beg you — to apply that same determination to the ongoing hostage crisis. Use your influence to rally international partners. Press every available lever. Show the world that America stands for life, for freedom, and for human dignity.
To the global community: do not let these hostages fade from view. Their suffering continues every day as negotiations stall and the world grows quieter. Bar and the 58 others held in Gaza are not just numbers — they are our children, our parents, our friends, and loved ones.
If your child were held underground in darkness, I’m sure you would not stop short of anything to bring them home. So I will never stop! The world must never stop until they all come home!
My son is still alive. But we are running out of time. Let these 100 days be remembered not just for politics, but for courage — for choosing life over fear, action over delay, hope over silence. And please help me hug my son again!
I promise, when Bar finally returns — when I see him again — I will summon every bone in my broken, wheelchair-bound body to rise. I will teach myself to walk again, if only to take one step closer to my son. To hold him. To remind him that he was never alone.
Bring my Bar home.
* * *
Tal Kupershtein is the father of Bar Kupershtein who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023.

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-HOSTAGES

Bring My Son Home: A Father’s Plea To President Trump And The World

Bring My Son Home: A Father's Plea To President Trump And The World

Gaza

Hamas

Hostages

Israel

Nova festival

October 7

Opinion

President Trump

In a reversal from the Biden administration’s policy, the Trump administration&#8217;s Department of Justice has stripped the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) — which has been accused of working with Hamas during the October 7, 2023, massacre of more than 1200 people in Israel — of immunity from prosecution. That decision will enable the billion-dollar lawsuit filed by the October 7 victims&#8217; families to move forward.
In a  letter from the United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres regarding the case Estate of Tamar Kedem Siman Tov et al. v. UNRWA, the text stated:
<blockquote>
The complaint in this case recounts atrocious crimes committed by Hamas on October 7. And its factual allegations, taken as true, detail how the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (&#8220;UNRWA&#8221;) played a significant role in those heinous offenses. Previously, the Government expressed the view that certain immunities shielded UNRWA from having to answer those allegations in American courts. The Government has since reevaluated that position, and now concludes UNRWA is not immune from this litigation. Nor are the bulk of other defendants.
</blockquote>
The lawsuit<a href="https://unwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/001-UNRWAComplaint.pdf"> states</a>:
<blockquote>The atrocities committed by Hamas in the October 7 Attack were not only acts of terror, genocide, and crimes against humanity, they were torts in violation of the law of nations. Because, as detailed below, the Defendants’ actions aiding and abetting those torts in violation of the law of nations, including but not limited to their funding of Hamas, occurred in significant part in the State of New York and in this federal judicial district, this Court has subject matter jurisdiction and venue over Plaintiffs’ claims against these Defendants. Many of the Plaintiffs separately have claims against Defendants for aiding and abetting Hamas’ violations of the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (“TVPA”), which requires no such New York nexus.</blockquote>
“The US administration&#8217;s determination that UNRWA lacks diplomatic immunity could substantially facilitate Israel&#8217;s efforts to end the agency&#8217;s operations within Israeli territory,” Israel Hayom <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/04/25/trumps-doj-strips-unrwa-of-immunity/">pointed out</a>. “The lawsuit presents evidence alleging UNRWA orchestrated a $1 billion money laundering operation that funded Hamas, while simultaneously reducing humanitarian aid to Gaza residents and playing a critical role in the October 7 attack.”
Documents shared with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/world/middleeast/hamas-unrwa-schools.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> last December impelled the media outlet to admit that senior staff at UNRWA schools doubled as members of Hamas’ military wing.
As shown by the detailed records kept by the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, which were seized by Israel, at least 24 people employed by the anti-Israel UNRWA in their schools were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. “A majority were top administrators at the schools — principals or deputy principals — and the rest were school counselors and teachers, the documents say,” The Times reported. “Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades.”
“The Constitution does not grant immunity to foreign sovereigns or organizations. Instead, such immunity &#8216;is a matter of grace and comity on the part of the United States,’” the letter continued. “The interactions among two treaties, one statute, and one proposed convention govern whether UNRWA is entitled to such grace here. First, the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 (‘IOIA’) creates the ‘default rules’ for the immunity enjoyed by international organizations in the United States. Although apparently aimed at many of the same entities that now comprise the United Nations (‘UN’) system, id., the JOIA applies to any ‘public organization in which the United States participates pursuant to any treaty or under the authority of any Act of Congress &#8230; and which shall have been designated by the President through appropriate Executive order as being entitled to enjoy the privileges, exemptions, and immunities provided in this subchapter.’&#8221;
“In other words, Congress controls in the first instance whether the United States participates in such ‘public organizations’ and it empowered the President to decide whether to extend immunity to these organizations including ‘at any time to revoke the designation’ entitling the organizations to immunity,” the letter explains.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Trump DOJ has reversed the Biden admin&#39;s position and made it clear that UNRWA and its employees are not entitled to immunity for their atrocious terroristic conduct. 
File this under the category of &quot;things that should not have to be said but thank God someone said them.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/iRVSFZdV4v">pic.twitter.com/iRVSFZdV4v</a>
&mdash; Mark Goldfeder (@MarkGoldfeder) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkGoldfeder/status/1915591397521969386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
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UNRWA – Palestine – Photo Illustration

Trump DOJ Strips Hamas-Linked UN Agency Of Immunity For October 7 Massacre

Courts

Department of Justice

Lawsuit

Trump Administration

United Nations

UNRWA

World

A dog abducted by terrorists on October 7 was reunited with its owner, Rachel Dancyg, on Wednesday, after a year and a half of being apart.
Billy, a three-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’ massacre. 
In a viral video, Billy is seen running into the arms of the Dancyg family while Rachel cries. Rachel then hugs Aviad Shapira, the reservist who found the dog.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rachel’s family and friends were murdered on October 7.
Her dog Billy was kidnapped to Gaza.
For a year and a half, Rachel didn’t know if he was alive.
This week, an IDF reservist found him in Rafah.
Today, they were reunited. 💙🇮🇱<a href="https://t.co/xfiKyGNUur">pic.twitter.com/xfiKyGNUur</a>
— Tamar Schwarzbard 🇮🇱 (@TSchwarzbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSchwarzbard/status/1912473008926584836?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
Shapira told Israel’s Channel 12 that the dog ran into his arms while he was in Rafah. Shapira, of the Golani’s 13th Battalion, took care of the dog for four days before returning to Israel, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/dog-abducted-from-murdered-hostages-family-found-by-troops-in-gaza/">The Times of Israel reported</a>.
“She just ran up to me and jumped on me,” Shapira said. “I told myself that she would come with me to Israel. I really fought for her to come with me.”
When Shapira took Billy to an Israeli vet, a microchip was discovered, showing she belonged to Rachel.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-908495" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Image-from-iOS-2-266x576.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Image-from-iOS-2-266x576.jpg 266w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Image-from-iOS-2-139x300.jpg 139w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Image-from-iOS-2.jpg 591w" sizes="(max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px" /></div>
&#8220;Our heartfelt thanks to Aviad, who insisted on bringing Billie back to Israel,” a spokesperson for Kibbutz Nir Oz released in a statement. “Thank you to all the heroic IDF soldiers; you lit up our darkness.”
&#8220;Dogs are part of the family,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;Many of the dogs and animals who lived on the kibbutz were abducted or murdered on October 7th, together with the humans. The great hug that Billie got upon her return from the entire people of Israel teaches how much we all long and need such miracles.&#8221;
Rachel’s son-in-law, Yaron Maor, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/3-year-old-spaniel-abducted-on-oct-7-found-in-gaza-to-be-returned-to-family/">told</a> YNet that the family didn’t believe that Billy survived and purchased another dog of the same breed for the family’s children.
“We are in complete shock and overwhelmed with emotion to see her tomorrow. We didn’t believe she had survived,” he said before reuniting with the dog. “Now the two dogs will live together with us. It’s a miracle from heaven.”
Rachel is the ex-wife of Alex Dancyg, a murdered hostage who was buried in August after his body was recovered by the IDF. Dancyg’s brother, Itzik Elgarat, was also murdered and buried after his body was returned in the latest hostage deal.
Rachel is known for her heroic act of saving her teenage granddaughters on October 7. While sheltering in a safe room that didn’t have a lock, the 72-year-old grandmother successfully held the door shut while terrorists fired bullets at the door.

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Dog Abducted On October 7 Reunited With Owner: ‘It’s A Miracle From Heaven’

Dogs

On Monday, American victims of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of more than 1200 people in Israel filed a lawsuit against a U.S. billionaire who<a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-845379" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reportedly advised</a> the Trump administration envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, accusing the billionaire of aiding Hamas in the October 7 attack. Boehler was negotiating directly with the terrorist group Hamas in March.
Billionaire Bashar Masri, who lives in Washington D.C., “is portrayed in the lawsuit as a central figure who leveraged his cultivated image as a peace-building entrepreneur to secure funding while covertly supporting Hamas,” attorney Marina Medvin, who represented some of the January 6 defendants, noted, adding, “His alleged background includes participation in the First Intifada and ties to Qatari investors linked to Hamas. His companies PADICO, PRICO, PIEDCO, and Massar International are accused of being under Masri’s control and instrumental in owning, operating, and integrating the properties into Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Interesting new lawsuit filed today in DC by American October 7 victims against Bashar Masri, a US billionaire, accusing him of aiding Hamas in the October 7 attack.
Masri advised Trump admin on Hamas negotiations, specifically advising Adam Boehler, who conducted unprecedented…
&mdash; Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1909244462431125631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“Masri and the companies he controls including Defendants Palestine Development &amp; Investment Company (&#8220;PADICO&#8221;), Palestine Real Estate Investment Company (&#8220;PRICO&#8221;), and Palestinian Industrial Estate Development Company (&#8220;PIEDCO&#8221;) developed and operated prime properties in Gaza for outwardly legitimate purposes. But in reality, they were also used to construct and conceal Hamas&#8217;s attack tunnels, store and launch its rockets at Israel, host Hamas leadership and foot soldiers, train Hamas naval commandos-and even to produce electricity for Hamas&#8217;s attack tunnel infrastructure,&#8221; the lawsuit <a href="https://x.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1909245945616667022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>. “Just prior to the October 7 Attack, Masri even installed an individual closely tied to Hamas as Chairman of PIEDCO.”
“As far back as 2014, Al Mashtal Hotel, adorned with large UN and EU signage on its roof, hosted a significant network of Hamas attack tunnels used to launch rockets into Israel and served as a command center for Hamas&#8217;s leaders during its conflict with Israel that summer,” the lawsuit <a href="https://x.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1909246611936412095">continues</a>. “The IDF eventually struck the launch sites and damaged the hotel. In the following years, Defendants worked closely with Hamas to renovate and refurbish the hotels, including electrical upgrades used to power Hamas&#8217;s tunnel network beneath them, and to restore and enhance the rocket launching sites positioned near the hotels, which Hamas deployed on October 7, 2023, and thereafter. Hamas&#8217;s terrorist tunnel network not only ran under Masri&#8217;s hotels, but the tunnels were accessible directly from guest rooms and other facilities inside the hotels.”
While Boehler was meeting with Hamas, he made <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/meet-adam-boehler-trumps-complacent-confused-and-dangerously-naive-hostage-envoy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statements</a> in which he referenced Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said he could see members of Hamas being “nice guys,” stating:
<blockquote>
I spoke with Ron, and I’m sympathetic. He has someone that he doesn’t know well, making direct contact with Hamas. Maybe I would see them and say, “Look, they don’t have horns growing out of their head. They’re actually guys like us. They’re pretty nice guys.
</blockquote>
Boehler also said he “wanted to say to Hamas, what is the endgame that you want here? Not the dream endgame, but what do you think is realistic at this point?” Asked whether he “realistically” thought “that Hamas would eventually agree to lay down its weapons and not be part of Gaza’s political future,” he immediately replied, “I do believe that.”
Boehler later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hostage-envoy-adam-boehler-50f28c5b58a0e585df526d0b2da13856" target="_blank" rel="noopener">withdrew</a> his nomination for special presidential envoy for hostage affairs but is still involved in hostage negotiations.

TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT

October 7 Victims File Suit Against Arab Billionaire Who Reportedly Advised Trump Hostage Negotiator

Adam Boehler

The following is an excerpt from &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQQ47DR3">The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone Mad</a>,&#8221; by Israel Ellis (Post Hill Press/Wicked Son).
* * *
<h3>A Conversation on Healing and the Battle for Humanity </h3>
October 7 should be a traumatic jolt for anyone who is a lover of life. We must stand united and resolved to make the world a safer place for the future generations that will follow. For if the lovers of life cannot heal the hate, we are truly lost at sea.
I met George, a doctor from Germany, at a healing retreat on Koh Pha Ngan, an island in the south of Thailand. During the first of our many conversations, I described some of the ideas that would later become these chapters, and in answer to his piqued interest, I went on to explain to him the events that took place in Israel on October 7 and the theater of the world since. We got around to the existential question on what it takes to save our world from itself, and both readily agreed in the simplicity that peace comes from love. And to love is to heal. Our conversation turned to philosophy and the infinity of the cosmos. It’s the kind of place that leads you into these thoughts. I brought up the biblical story of Jonah, the unwilling oracle, who warned the people of Nineveh, who repented without question because they came to understand the severity of the warnings and the opportunity to change. I asked George: Where is today’s Jonah to tell the haters wrong from right? To warn us of the consequences of hate?
The next morning George sat beside me and told me had he reflected on the prior evening’s discourse. “I agree,” he said with slow, carefully chosen words. “Both sides need to heal.” He saw my body tense up at the reference to “sides.” The idea of shared moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas is a typical red herring of those that will not fully condemn Hamas and stand for Israel. George gently raised a placating hand and asked me for patience. “Can you for a moment accept that there is a part of Hamas within you?” I caught my breath.
We sat in silence while I pondered this and took effort to examine George through a different lens. He has no connection to Israel; he is not affected by what happened on October 7 except that he is a lover of life and a healer and he is saddened that this event has happened in a world he deems has turned itself upside down. He lives his life in a bubble, not intentionally, but rather because he was born into it; a privileged Western bubble with all the trappings, including the luxury to question his existence and the next steps in his life. He is a good person. He is not committed to any specific ideology, except for his life and those of his patients. He is not a liberal nor does he consider himself a conservative. He will not take up a placard and join a protest. He believes that all people should live together in peace. He stays out of business that is not his to judge, because he knows his opinion will have no effect on the outcome.
It occurred to me that his apathy is part of the challenge the world faces; he places his complete trust in his government to manage the situation. He corrected me when I suggested this, and instead claimed it is humanity itself that he trusts. “Humanity will eventually find their way, they always do,” he said.
But I disagreed. “This is not a stream of water trickling through the path of least resistance,” I said. “To avoid long and painful consequences, we sometimes must act to protect humanity from and for itself.”
The impossibility of the situation Israel finds itself in is a predicament for the free world. To counter the epidemic of Global Jihad will require some sacrifice of liberty, and this can be a slippery slope. And yet, it has already begun. The UK has the most extensive and sophisticated closed-circuit video monitoring system of its kind in the world, complete with facial recognition and AI capabilities. There are few places left in London where you can escape someone watching you. This invasion of privacy is the compromise for security. But this does nothing to weed out the problem of radicalization by its roots. These bandaid solutions will only drive the Jihad further underground into the metaphorical and literal tunnels. The only long-term solution depends on overhauling how the next generation comes to see their world. Confronting the hold that the radicals have institutionalized over young people, dismantling the arenas for hate, and policing the spread of lies and calls to Jihad, is of the most critical importance. Like the cameras in London, it is not pretty to impose law and confront hate.
<div id="attachment_901781" style="width: 383px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-901781" class="wp-image-901781 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-373x576.jpg" alt="Post Hill Press/Wicked Son" width="373" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-373x576.jpg 373w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-194x300.jpg 194w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_-768x1187.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/71mKLbBu7OL._SL1360_.jpg 880w" sizes="(max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px" />Post Hill Press/Wicked Son</div>
I returned to the present with the clang of a spoon against my metal cup. George waited for my answer. Can I accept that there is something of Hamas in all of us? It is a difficult question, because on the face of it it seems a bizarre and hurtful theory by someone who knows little about the situation on the ground. But I have come to respect George, and I knew he was not playing with me. What he asked me is if we are all capable of playing the part of Hamas if we were wearing the shoe on the other foot.
I looked across at George and asked him thoughtfully if he has siblings. “Yes,” he answered, not really sure of where I was going with this. “I have a sister, she is eight years younger than myself.” I asked him if he ever felt jealousy toward her. He assures me that he did. When she first arrived home, the focus of his entire world shifted to her. “Did you ever have evil and violent thoughts about how to deal with that? Did you plan to kill her?” I asked, to his wide-eyed look. Of course, this is extreme, but relevant. “I love my sister to this day,” he stammers. “I would never harm her.” He takes a slow breath in and admits “regardless of how much she may have infuriated me as a young boy.”
In the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, the older brother, is jealous at the acceptance of Abel’s’ sacrifice to God, and in response he kills him. Cain is new to all these powerful emotions, being only the third person to ever live, he has no context for dealing and how to manage these feelings. Leading up to the act, he could not have understood the consequences of his actions, yet as his brother lay unmoving beneath him, he realizes immediately by some intuitive force that he has committed a grave transgression. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he responds to God, when questioned of Abel’s whereabouts, a clear defensive diversion away from the moral consequence of what he has done. There are direct lessons that can be interpreted from this story; the moral wrongness of murder, the accountability, the shame and regret, and the divine justice that follows.
In my own paraphrasing of Genesis 4:11-12, I quote; “Cain, the earth received your brother’s blood from your hand, thereby the ground will give you nothing in return, and you are banished and will walk the earth without home.” This is a very clear and powerful statement that is made, one that neither Jews, Christians, or Muslims will disagree with. A person who commits murder will become a wanderer, a refugee wherever they go. They are Cain, who was deserving of justice, even though no lawbook had ever told him murder was wrong.
What happened on October 7 was a collective sociopathic act that crossed a line from which there can be no return, not just for the Hamas terrorists that came armed with guns and bombs, but for the people of Gaza who supported the invasion and followed in its wake, rampaging through residential areas, pillaging, burning, and committing barbaric acts of rape and live dismemberment. The people of Gaza, everyday citizens, came to set fire to buildings with people still inside. If you poll Gazans today, the majority will support Hamas and celebrate the events of October 7. If you survey the Palestinian people in the lands controlled by the PA, chances are there will be a strong empathy for the Gazans whose immorality brought them to their own destruction. If you poll the Pan Arab world, you will likely find an alarming number of people in support of Hamas. 
The October 7 attacks ignited global outrage, revealing deep-seated hatred and a disturbing lack of empathy. Those who march in support of Israel’s destruction or celebrate Hamas’s violence are morally complicit in these heinous acts. Like Cain, who committed the first murder despite having no explicit prohibition, these supporters cannot claim ignorance as a defense for their actions. And this is the difference between a terrorist, a terrorist sympathizer, and a fundamentally good person. The masked people holding placards celebrating Hamas and chanting for the genocide of Jews, participating in protests and encampments, these are not just the useful idiots of Hamas, these are useful evildoers for Hamas.
* * *
Israel Ellis is <a href="https://israelellis.com/in-the-media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an entrepreneur</a> and the father of an IDF soldier. He is the author of &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQQ47DR3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wake Up Call</a>&#8221; (Post Hill Press/Wicked Son).
This excerpt is published by permission from Post Hill Press/Wicked Son.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TOPSHOT-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT

‘Am I My Brother’s Keeper?’: Cain, Hamas, And The Aftermath Of October 7

'Am I My Brother’s Keeper?': Cain, Hamas, And The Aftermath Of October 7

Anti-Semitism

Bible

Books

Islamic Jihad

Jewish

Native Israeli actress Gal Gadot, famous for playing Wonder Woman among other roles, explained why she left behind her usual reticence in speaking about politics after the October 7, 2023, massacre in which the terrorist group Hamas and Gaza residents slaughtered over 1,220 Israelis: “I could not be silent.”
“There is a challenge for people to speak on social media because there is so much hate going on and so many bots and so many angry people that are looking for a cause,” Gadot told <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/features/gal-gadot-snow-white-wonder-woman-walk-of-fame-1236339602/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Variety</a>.
“Who cares about the celebrity talking about politics?” Gadot, who has served in the Israel Defense Forces, asked rhetorically. “I’m an artist. I want to entertain people. I want to bring hope and be a beacon of light whenever I say anything about the world.”
“But on October 7, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent,” she declared. “I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how the media is not fair many times. So I had to speak up.”
“I’m not a hater,” she continued. “I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz. And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth-generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.”
“I am all about humanity and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages. &#8230; when your compass is clear, your conscience is clean. I know what I’m advocating for, and I know what I wish for the world. I am praying for better days for all. I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”
On Tuesday, as Gadot was honored at a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, the festivities were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/18/gal-gadot-protest-walk-of-fame" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delayed</a> for 15 minutes when pro-Palestinian activists made enough trouble that police were called in.
On March 4, speaking at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual summit, Gadot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRQO48kvonQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews. &#8230; Here’s the thing: However much you tried to avoid it before, even if speaking up wasn’t really your thing, none of us can ignore the explosion of Jew-hatred around the world anymore. &#8230; My name is Gal, and I’m Jewish, and we have had enough of Jew-hatred. On October 7, Jewish women were sexually terrorized, raped, murdered, and kidnapped by Hamas. We were all listening, hoping to hear support from our sisters around the world and too often heard silence. We can’t wait any longer; we can’t hold our breaths and pray or beg from support from people, groups, communities, that don’t want to be there for us. We need to be there for ourselves.”
The day of the October 7 massacre, Gadot wrote on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CyGtKE-tbSI/?img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>:
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At least 250 Israeli have been murdered and dozens of women children and elders held as hostages in Gaza, by Palestinian military group Hamas. Starting early morning more than 3,000 rockets were fire. Hamas is holding hostages, controlling bases and settlements in Israel. There have been more than 1,500 injured and heavy fighting is still ongoing “I hear their voices and they are banging on the door. I am with my two little children.” My heart is aching. Praying for all of those in pain.
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Years after serving in the Israel military, Gadot <a href="https://fashionmagazine.com/flare/celebrity/gal-gadot-wonder-woman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “It was demanding because you give up your freedom for two years, but there is something special in giving back to your community.”

Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Justice League” – Arrivals

‘I Could Not Be Silent’: Gal Gadot On Speaking Out After October 7

Celebrities

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Competing in the judo competition at the European Open in Warsaw, an Israeli judoka defeated his Muslim opponent, who refused to shake his hand. Undaunted, the Israeli then raised his hand in the victory gesture popularized by returned hostage Emily Damari.
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Israeli Judo athlete Yosef Simin won his match. But his MusIim opponent refused to shake his hand. 
So Yosef marked his win with Emily Damari’s victory symbol. 🤟
King.
🎥Israel Hayom <a href="https://t.co/I0MrB7ENaG">pic.twitter.com/I0MrB7ENaG</a>
&mdash; dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) <a href="https://twitter.com/DahliaKurtz/status/1893803011132019093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
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After his Muslim opponent refused to shake his hand, Israeli judoka Joseph Simin makes hostage Emily Damari’s gesture of freedom. 🤟
What a Champ! <a href="https://t.co/TxpuVW7Qp5">pic.twitter.com/TxpuVW7Qp5</a>
&mdash; Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaeldickson/status/1894000155696783575?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Yosef Simin, who won the silver medal, defeated Islam Tsintsalashvili of Georgia in the round of 16. When Tsitsalashvili later refused to shake his hand, Simin responded by raising his hand in the symbol of the hostages, inspired by Damari.
Damari, taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 massacre in which the terrorist group Hamas slaughtered more than 1220 Israeli men, women, and children, spent 471 days held as a hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza before being released in January. She lost the third and fourth fingers on her left hand when Hamas shot her during the kidnapping, thus permitting her to hold up only her thumb, index finger, and little finger to wave after she was freed.
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Thank you to everyone in the UK and around the world who supported the campaign to bring Emily home, and for all your messages here on X. You are amazing and we love you all 🤟
94 hostages still need us🎗️💛 <a href="https://t.co/nuRVj6n8tt">pic.twitter.com/nuRVj6n8tt</a>
&mdash; Mandy Damari 🎗🤟 (@DamariMandy) <a href="https://twitter.com/DamariMandy/status/1881749983143350436?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“Supporters had added bandages to the ‘rock on’ emoji, which uses the same configuration of fingers, to transform Damari’s injury into a symbol of defiance,” The Jewish News <a href="https://www.thejewishnews.com/jewish-telegraphic-agency/released-hostage-emily-damari-s-injured-hand-becomes-an-instant-symbol-of-israeli-defiance/article_4e15cdb6-d9a2-11ef-adbb-b3a0e1ac5475.html#:~:text=Damari's%20injury%20turned%20her%20hand,her%20and%20took%20her%20hostage." target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. “Others adapted Damari’s gesture as well. A drawing of Damari’s hands demonstrating the Jewish priestly blessing circulated online, with words from the biblical benediction: ‘May God bless you and keep you.’ The drawing was attributed to Moshe Shapira, a Jerusalem artist and architect, whose son Aner was killed on Oct. 7 after saving the lives of others.”
In 2017, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam judo tournament, Israeli judoka Shir Rishoni won her match against her Moroccan opponent, Aziza Chakir, but when Rishoni approached Chakir to offer the typical handshake after the match, Chakir reacted with a hilarious display of moral cowardice: she <a href="https://israel365news.com/319449/two-judo-bronze-medals-israel-still-no-flag-sight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ran away.</a>
Israeli judo competitors have been snubbed not only by their opponents, who refuse to acknowledge their victories but also by the International Judo Federation itself, which refused to fly the Israel flag when Israeli athletes won any medal and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-wins-gold-at-abu-dhabi-judo-tourney-which-refuses-to-play-the-anthem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">refused to play</a> the Israeli national anthem when Israeli judo champion Tal Flicker won the gold, prompting him to sing the Israel national anthem while the theme of the International Judo Federation was played.

Mother Of British Hostage Being Held By Hamas Speaks To The Press

Muslim Judoka Refuses To Shake Israeli Opponent’s Hand After Loss. Israeli Has Perfect Response.

Muslim Judoka Refuses To Shake Israeli Opponent's Hand After Loss. Israeli Has Perfect Response.

General

Georgia

Judo

Hamas terrorists claim that their two youngest hostages, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, will be among the four dead they will return to Israel later this week.
Following threats from President Donald Trump — who made it clear that he would stand by and support Israel in taking whatever measures deemed necessary if the remaining hostages were not released in the coming days — Hamas also agreed to release six living hostages on Saturday and another four deceased hostages next week.
The Israeli Prime Minister&#8217;s office confirmed that negotiations in Cairo, Egypt, had resulted in an agreement and shared the details of the upcoming exchange with <a href="https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/18/middleeast/hamas-israel-hostages-to-release-bibas-family-intl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. Israel will also release several Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli officials have not yet confirmed that the Bibas children — just four years old and nine months old, respectively, at the time of their capture — are among the dead, but they did say that the families of the hostages have all been notified of the agreement.
The Bibas children — along with their mother Shiri and father Yarden — were among those kidnapped and taken into Gaza on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists breached the border into Israel and killed more than 1200 people. They tortured, raped, and slaughtered hundreds of Israeli men, women, and children — and then returned to Gaza with dozens more as their hostages.
In November 2023, just weeks after the family was taken hostage, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/11/30/news/hamas-releases-video-of-bibas-family-after-claiming-idf-strike-killed-mom-2-kids/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hamas claimed</a> that the young boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas also claimed that they had offered to return the bodies to Israel Defense Forces at the time, but their offer had been rejected.
Israeli officials could not confirm at the time whether or not claims of their deaths were true.
&#8220;The Hamas terrorist organization presented harsh documentation of Yarden Bibas,&#8221; IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said after the video was released. &#8220;Our hearts are with the entire Bibas family. We will continue to return all our captives. Hamas employs psychological terror against the families of the captives. Its purpose is to exert pressure, to harm our resilience.&#8221;
Yarden Bibas was released from Hamas captivity on February 1, 2025 — one year and four months after he was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Hamas To Return Bodies Of Bibas Babies, The Two Youngest Hostages Killed

Donald Trump

Global Politics

Terrorists

As soon as the first three young female Israeli hostages were finally released from Hamas captivity as part of the latest deal, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was already <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/israel-and-occupied-territories-icrc-helps-facilitate-release-3-hostages-and-90-detainees?utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lauding themselves</a> for their role in the transfer.
The reality, however, is that the Red Cross utterly and unconscionably abandoned the hostages to the dungeons of Gaza — and now to the preying mobs surrounding them during their release.
In almost 500 days of captivity, under the most horrific of conditions, including torture, starvation, and sexual violence, not once has the Red Cross visited a single hostage or provided any proof of life for their families. The relatives of one of the released captives from November 2023, Elma Avraham, 84, who spent four months in the hospital upon her return, heartbreakingly <a href="https://x.com/N12News/status/1729138757540905130?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> how the Red Cross refused to even accept the medicine they tried to give them to deliver to their elderly mother in Gaza.
Simply put, the Red Cross’ role has been relegated to no more than that of a glorified Uber driver, ferrying the hostages from Gaza into the hands of the IDF. But they cannot do even that while providing the hostages with even a shred of dignity. Instead, they have aided Hamas in turning the whole release of the hostages — including terrified young girls — into a propaganda circus, with sickening images of Hamas terrorists standing on top of Red Cross vehicles with guns and cameras, while Red Cross officials now routinely <a href="https://x.com/HenMazzig/status/1885780814165688552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">join Hamas on stage</a> in these obscene ceremonies and parades.
One of the released hostages, Gadi Mozes (80), <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gadi-mozes-tells-family-he-paced-7km-every-day-in-his-2x2-meter-cell/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> how, at one point during his time in captivity, he was held in a truck right under the offices of the Red Cross in Gaza. Mozes was also in “mortal fear” during the release that he and fellow hostage Arbel Yehoud would be lynched by the frenzied mob around them.
Just this week we witnessed with absolute horror the release of three starved, emaciated male hostages, in scenes, as President Trump himself noted, were unmistakably reminiscent of the Holocaust. These scenes only underscore the chilling effects of the Red Cross’s abandonment. Inexcusably, instead of condemning Hamas, one member of the Red Cross was seen happily <a href="https://x.com/Ostrov_A/status/1888151925180272805" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shaking hands</a> with the masked Hamas terrorist on stage, as the three hostages were about to be gruesomely paraded.
<div id="attachment_874327" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-874327" class="size-large wp-image-874327" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197719002-864x576.jpg" alt="Palestinian Hamas fighters escort Israeli hostages before handing them over to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8, 2025, as part of the fifth hostage-prisoner exchange of a fragile ceasefire. The swap comes after US President Donald Trump proposes clearing out the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants and for the United States to take over the Palestinian territory--a plan that sparks global uproar and is rejected by Hamas. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197719002-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197719002-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197719002-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197719002.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</div>
It is also telling that whilst the Red Cross has managed to express <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-02-01/ty-article-live/unrwa-chief-calls-claims-hostages-held-in-facilities-deeply-disturbing-shocking/00000194-bf47-dbd4-a9dc-bf4fc89d0000?liveBlogItemId=1644304712&amp;utm_source=site&amp;utm_medium=button&amp;utm_campaign=live_blog_item#1644304712" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;outrage&#8221;</a> at the way Palestinian prisoners were released from Israel — even though it was fully in accordance with international law, and bearing in mind that unlike the innocent Israeli hostages coming home these were terrorist murderers with blood on their hands being let out of prison — they have refused to condemn Hamas over the obscene spectacles of the hostage releases in Gaza, instead jumping on stage with them for photo-ops. So much for that famous ‘neutrality’ they like to extol so much.
So much for that famous &#8220;neutrality&#8221; the Red Cross likes to extol. And, although the Red Cross likes to <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/debunking-harmful-narratives-about-our-work-israel-and-palestinian-occupied-territories" target="_blank" rel="noopener">note</a> that they have repeatedly (if passively) called for the hostages’ release, or that the macabre displays during the hostage release are outside of their control, that is woefully and pathetically inadequate, as is the excuse that they cannot do anything in the absence of an agreement between Hamas and Israel.
The fact that Hamas does not abide by any norms of international law or human dignity, or that they repeatedly rejected prior hostage release and ceasefire deals, does not absolve the Red Cross of their <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/who-we-are/mandate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mandate</a> under the Geneva Conventions to provide “humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict,” as well as ensuring that the hostages&#8217; release transfers “<a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/israel-and-occupied-territories-icrc-completes-second-phase-release-operations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take place in a way that is both safe and dignified</a>.” Nor is it enough to merely politely ‘call’ for the hostages’ release and then just give up when Hamas says no.
The Red Cross prides itself on being unwaveringly neutral, but when it comes to Israeli and Jewish lives, they are just unwaveringly absent. 
In addition to the hostages kidnapped on October 7, Hamas is also still holding the body of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed and taken captive during the 2014 war with Israel, and two civilians, Avner Mengistu, a 37-year-old Israeli with mental health issues, who has been held hostage by Hamas also since 2014, and Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli, who is seriously ill and has been held hostage since 2015.
Not once has the Red Cross seen any of these men in captivity.
And the entire time former IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was held captive in Gaza for almost 6 years, until finally his release in 2011, the Red Cross never once visited or provided him humanitarian assistance.
The reality is, when it comes to Israeli lives, the Red Cross is just nowhere to be seen. Nor is this the first time that the ICRC has failed Jews: the organization has already acknowledged and <a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-wwii-holocaust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a> for its abject failure to help protect the millions of Jews who were exterminated in the Nazi death camps. They used the same excuse back then that they are using now – they asked the Germans for permission, and were told no, so they just backed off.
Unforgivable.
As it relates to Gaza, not only have they failed to see even a single hostage, they have also ignored the irrefutable evidence right under their noses that Hamas is systematically <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5077022-war-gaza-hospitals-israel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using hospitals</a> and UN sites as terrorist staging grounds.
With a new U.S. Administration in the White House, the Red Cross must be held accountable for their wholesale abrogation of duty.
<div id="attachment_874331" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-874331" class="size-large wp-image-874331" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197718583-864x576.jpg" alt="Hamas fighters stand in formation as Palestinians gather on a street to watch the handover of three Israeli hostages to a Red Cross team in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on February 8, 2025. Hamas militants hand over three Israeli hostages on February 8, as part of the fifth exchange under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with 183 prisoners held by Israel due to be released later in the day. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197718583-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197718583-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197718583-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2197718583.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</div>
On his first day in office, President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed an Executive Order</a> stating that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
The United States is currently the single largest state donor to the Red Cross, contributing about <a href="https://library.icrc.org/library/docs/DOC/icrc-annual-report-2023-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$550 million</a> in 2023. Given the Red Cross’s abandonment of the hostages, including American nationals still being held in hellish terror dungeons, and their effective whitewashing of Hamas’ crimes, not only does ongoing funding of the Red Cross not align with the foreign policy of the President of the United States, it runs entirely and dangerously counter to it.
Accordingly, if President Trump and the U.S. seek to eliminate wasteful spending, including under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, they should cut funding to the Red Cross entirely — at least until they are restructured — and use some of that money instead to help the families of those whom the Red Cross has abandoned.
* * *
Arsen Ostrovsky is a human rights attorney who serves as CEO of The International Legal Forum and is a Senior Fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security. You can follow him on ‘X’ at: <a href="https://x.com/Ostrov_A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@Ostrov_A</a>.
Mark Goldfeder is a law professor and CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center. Follow <a href="https://x.com/MarkGoldfeder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@markgoldfeder</a> on X. 
They both serve as counsel to families of Hamas hostages and victims of October 7.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Three More Israeli Hostages Released As Part Of Ceasefire Deal

‘Obscene Ceremonies’: Why The Behavior Of The Red Cross In Gaza Is Unconscionable

'Obscene Ceremonies': Why The Behavior Of The Red Cross In Gaza Is Unconscionable

Holocaust

Jews

Middle East

Red Cross

Last summer, I went undercover in the West Bank, sneaking in with a Muslim film crew while hiding my Jewish identity to ask Palestinians the kinds of questions no other journalist had dared to since the war broke out. And that’s the real scandal — because before October 7, I wasn’t exactly a journalist. I was a comedian. The fact that it took a comic to go in there and do their jobs for them is outrageous. The mainstream press, with all its resources, all its foreign correspondents, all its Middle East &#8220;experts,&#8221; refused to ask the most basic questions. Arguably the most viral report of the war — what the Palestinian people actually think — wasn’t broken by a major network. It was broken by me.
If you follow my three-part series, you’ll see that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAYxi4WpYJ4/?igsh=MXVsdXBob2Y3Y2hlMQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I almost died</a> just for asking simple questions. That’s how deeply ingrained the hatred is. That’s how dangerous it is to expose the truth.
My raw, unfiltered interviews — conducted randomly on the streets of Ramallah — exposed the depths of Jew-hatred and propaganda in Palestinian society. But the most chilling encounter came when my Muslim producer arranged a private, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9xWl1ZJshF/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==">one-on-one interview</a> with a man who had been freed from Israeli prison not once, not twice, but four times — an alleged terrorist.
When I released the interview this January, after the first wave of prisoner releases, it went viral for its shocking revelations. In our conversation, Arafat Mudar Mohamed displayed just how deeply the Palestinian people have been indoctrinated. He claimed — with absolute certainty — that Hamas is incapable of killing women and children for &#8220;religious reasons,” that Israel never actually left Gaza in 2005, that no Israel civilians died on October 7, and, perhaps most disturbingly, that the hostages in Hamas captivity were actually enjoying their time there.
To prove this last claim, he pulled up photos from Hamas’s staged propaganda during the 2023 ceasefire — a grotesque spectacle in which hostages were forced to smile as they were paraded before cameras, surrounded by armed terrorists. But we now know that freed hostages have revealed the full extent of this deception: not only were they forced to smile, but they were drugged beforehand to appear happier and more cooperative.
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This moment from the interview is what I believe the world must grasp most urgently. Propaganda doesn’t just work on the privileged Ivy League liberals bending over backward to reinforce their absurdly black-and-white principles of DEI — it is most effective on the Palestinian people themselves. DEI has conditioned the West to see the world in terms of the oppressed versus the oppressors, the weak versus the powerful, the dark-skinned versus the white. And this is precisely where Hamas’s propaganda succeeds.
The narrative they are selling to the world is simple: they are David, the small, brown-skinned, slingshot-wielding underdog, standing against the monstrous Goliath of Israel. But in reality, Israel is David. A tiny Jewish state — just the size of New Jersey — surrounded by 54 Muslim and Arab nations, many of whom openly call for its destruction. The real Goliath is the Islamic world, which seeks to erase the one Jewish country from existence, create a caliphate across the Middle East, North Africa, and ultimately extend its rule across the entire world. This is not just a regional conflict — it is a global mission for domination, and Israel is the only thing standing in its way to go after the rest of The West.
The irony, of course, is that Israel is just as brown-skinned as Gaza. While the media works tirelessly to paint Israelis as &#8220;white colonizers,&#8221; in truth, over half of Israel’s Jewish population are Mizrahim — Jews kicked out of Arab and North African countries who look just like their Palestinian neighbors. Many Israelis are darker-skinned than the very Hamas leaders orchestrating these terror attacks. Yet because it doesn’t fit the pre-packaged DEI narrative, the media ignores this truth entirely.
And while Gaza has suffered a year and a half of destruction as Israel tried to find its hostages and destroy terror tunnels and rockets, Hamas’s propaganda machine is somehow bigger and more sophisticated than ever. The cruder, shaky videos of a year ago have now evolved into Hollywood-style productions with drones, stedicams, and professionally built sets with fancy laminated backdrops. They’re not just spreading disinformation — they’re refining it, making it more convincing, more visually compelling, more impossible to argue against. Instead of using their resources to rebuild Gaza, Hamas is pouring money into selling their war narrative to the world, but even worse to convince the Palestinian people that they are winning a war which they are by all measures losing. All Hamas has left is PR.
And with the latest hostage releases playing out like a scene from “The Hunger Games” — a dystopian horror show in which Jewish captives are thrown to the mobs like meat to a pack of hyenas — it’s clear that this continued indoctrination will only fuel the next generation of so-called “martyrs” in Gaza and the West Bank.
The mainstream media refuses to confront the reality behind these disturbing images: innocent women and elderly men, tortured for months, swarmed by thousands of Palestinians clamoring to spit on them, kick them, and take selfies — while their terrorist captors force them to smile and wave like puppets in a twisted performance. The media also won’t show you the child abuse Hamas broadcasts proudly: Palestinian children, dressed in headbands and military gear, brandishing machine guns and chanting “Death to the Jews.” This is clearly not a genocide, but a continued call for genocide from the Palestinian people against the Jewish people.
And one of the biggest reasons the mainstream media won’t show you this? Because it doesn’t fit their narrative — the lie that Palestinians are simply innocent bystanders to Hamas’s crimes. In reality, after years of indoctrination, much of Palestinian society has become Hamas itself. This is not just a war against a terror group but against an ideology that has consumed an entire generation.
Arafat Mudar Mohamed said it himself in our interview: &#8220;The Palestinian people like Hamas.&#8221;
This is what the media refuses to acknowledge. Since they won’t show you this Nazi-level brainwashing, I will. My interview with this freed Palestinian terrorist offers a chilling look inside the mind of a man who fits the pattern we’ve seen time and time again: every time he was released, he went back to terrorism. And with thousands more just like him now walking free, we can be certain — this cycle of terror is far from over.
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Zach Sage Fox is a comic, writer, and CEO of Fat Camp Films. An NYC based production company that has made movies and shows for Disney, Hulu, and Amazon, as well as pioneered viral video marketing for big brands and non-profits.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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I Went Undercover In The West Bank To Interview A Freed Palestinian Terrorist

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President Donald Trump will watch footage of Hamas’ October 7 attack on civilians before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hy1lpvc001e#autoplay">according to YNet</a>.
U.S. Special Envoy to The Middle East Steve Witkoff reportedly saw the film last week during his visit to Israel and decided the president should see it as well. Officials on Witkoff’s trip said he was shaken and shocked by the film, YNet reported.
While there is a 47-minute film that Israel has shown to select audiences, including journalists, politicians, and influencers, Trump will reportedly watch a shortened 20-30 minute video.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-couldnt-breathe-watch-arabs-react-after-screening-footage-of-hamas-slaughtering-civilians">viewed the full video in December 2023</a> with a delegation of young Arabs meeting with American leaders to advocate for peace under the organization Sharaka, which was founded after the Abraham Accords. 
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“I was shocked — I couldn’t breathe,” Fatema Al Harbi from Bahrain told The Daily Wire. “I cried [through] most of it.”
While much of the footage has circulated online, the compilation does not blur the faces of dead or alive adults, and includes videos that have not been released publicly. The consulate did not allow video cameras or cell phones in the screening room.
“I thought I saw enough on social media,” said Al Harbi, who is also the Sharaka’s Gulf affairs director. “There were more horrific acts and barbaric acts towards civilians — people sleeping in their beds.”
In total, the video shows over 120 bodies, including children. The footage also includes videos of beheadings, houses and people set on fire, unarmed people shot at point-blank range, and more.
Rawan Osman, who has lived in Syria and Lebanon, said the glee that Hamas fighters had in the video while they executed and beheaded people made them worse than ISIS.
“They were so joyful and cheering over dead bodies and they were parading bodies without clothes,” Al Harbi, who is Muslim, said. “That’s not the Islam that I knew my whole life.”
Osman said the hardest part of the video for her was a scene of a father appearing to jump on a grenade to save his children in a bomb shelter.
“I’m a mother and I could relate to the fear, the dread the father and the children were feeling,” she said. “The moment the boys realize that their father has been killed and the way the terrorists react to that, they’re just pushing them around, like move on.”
Trump and Netanyahu enjoy a warmer relationship than the leader of the Jewish state had with the Biden administration. Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of the meeting and outlined the issues to discuss, including defeating Hamas, releasing all hostages, and dealing with Iran and its proxies.
Netanyahu is the first world leader Trump will host at the White House during his second term.

President Trump Welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu To White House

Trump To View Footage Of October 7 Attack Ahead Of Netanyahu Visit

Benjamin Netanyahu

As a possible ceasefire was announced between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, living in Qatar, expressed &#8220;pride&#8221; in the horrific October 7 massacre in which Hamas slaughtered more than 1200 people in Israel and implied his intention to repeat it, the Jewish News Syndicate <a href="https://www.jns.org/hamas-will-expel-israel-at-the-earliest-time-possible/">reported</a>.
Al-Hayya somehow twisted the destruction of Hamas by Israel as a victory, boasting, “Praise be to Allah, who fulfilled His promise, granted victory to His servant, strengthened His forces, and alone defeated the confederates.”
“To the leadership of our movement, both political and military, and the martyrs of all resistance factions and fighters—we exclude none,” he stated. “To them and to our people, we say: Blessed are your trades, our leaders and martyrs. It is indeed a trade with Allah that will never fail. And we will continue along the path of our martyr leaders until victory or martyrdom, Allah willing. Our great people, Arab and Islamic nation, and free people of the world: The &#8216;Al-Aqsa Flood&#8217; battle has marked a significant turning point in the history of our cause and the stages of resistance by our great people.”
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“Its impact will continue, Allah willing, even after the battle ends,” he said. “What occurred on October 7—a miraculous military and security achievement by the elite Qassam Brigades—will remain a source of pride for our people and resistance, passed down through generations.&#8221;
“The courage of our people and fighters has crushed the enemy’s objectives. &#8230; In conclusion: The liberation of Jerusalem remains our compass,” he declared.
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Part 2 of the Hamas genocidal death cult speech:
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Its impact will continue, Allah willing, even after the battle ends. What occurred on October 7—a miraculous military and security achievement by the elite Qassam Brigades—will remain a source of pride for our people and…
&mdash; Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) <a href="https://twitter.com/EFischberger/status/1879645626633183356?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Last night. 
Palestinians put guns in the hands of children and scream “Allahu Akbar”
They do not want peace. 
You really want to give them a state while they are like this?
“Peace will come when they love their children more than they hate us”
 <a href="https://t.co/iPXVf3Txda">pic.twitter.com/iPXVf3Txda</a>
&mdash; Kosher🎗🧡 (@koshercockney) <a href="https://twitter.com/koshercockney/status/1879850039125979415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The ceasefire deal is currently on hold: On Thursday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer <a href="https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-hamas-has-reneged-on-parts-of-agreement/?utm_content=349571277&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;hss_channel=tw-538525553">told reporters</a> that Hamas “added further demands that contradict the agreement with the mediators. &#8230; As of this time, the details of the agreement have not yet been finalized, and the negotiation team is continuing its efforts to reach a solution. The Israeli negotiating team is still in Doha as befits Israel’s willingness to finalize the hostage release agreement.”

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Hamas Leader: October 7 Massacre ‘A Source Of Pride,’ ‘Victory Or Martyrdom’

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