Uncategorized

The Miracles and the Mess!!

Stories are being shared about hostages released on October 13 that are both astounding and deeply moving. The suffering they endured has fortified the Jewish identity of some and reinforced their desire to be observant Jews.  In the strength they have exhibited and the paths they are taking, we find miracles and inspiration.

~~~~~~~~~~

When he was in captivity, Matan Angrest asked a terrorist who was guarding him for a siddur (prayer  book) and was brought one by a senior Hamas official.  Matan prayed, there in captivity, three times a day.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416278

Two days after returning to Israel, he met Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir at Ichilov Hospital, where he was recovering.  He told Zamir that he wished to rejoin the army. “Zamir smiled and suggested he return to a training role. ‘No,’ Angrest replied. ‘I want to return to operational duty,’ according to the IDF.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkuqthy0ge

Zamir then awarded him a new black beret.

~~~~~~~~~~

That same evening, Matan, as weak as he was, attended the funeral of Capt. Daniel Perez, the tank commander under whom he had served, and delivered a eulogy. 

Giovanna Dell’Orto/ AP

“’It’s the least I can do for Daniel and the team that fought with me,’ said Angrest, 22, his voice strong despite his pallor and evident weakness. “’I’m sure that they are still guarding me from heaven.’” 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/released-hostage-attends-funeral-of-israeli-soldier-whose-body-was-among-those-returned-from-gaza

Angrest and Perez fought in the same unit on October 7 and were both taken by Hamas – Angrest survived, Perez did not.  The body of Sgt. Itay Chen, who served closely with Angrest, is still in Gaza and has not yet been retrieved.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tami Braslavsky, mother of recently released hostage Rom Braslavsky, tells the story of attempts by her son’s captors to get him to convert to Islam. They promised to “compensate” him with food. “They told him that if he read the Quran or fasted during Ramadan, he would receive small gifts and food.” But, relates Tami, he repeatedly said, “I am Jewish, I am strong, I will not break.”

’As soon as he returned, he put on tefillin,’ she said with emotion.”

Observed Rom: “We need to return to being a united people, and people need to start keeping the commandments. People need to understand and know that we are Jews…

“…a person who is Jewish needs to know that they are in a great place, that they are different from someone who is not Jewish. We need to strengthen the Judaism within us, and I hope that the people of Israel will remain alive, strong, and united.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416365

Eran Yardeni/GPO

~~~~~~~~~~

Julie Kupershtein, mother of recently released Bar Kupershtein, described how her son helped other captives:

“Bar helped people. He has golden hands. He fixed the electricity, dug the waste pit, built them a water channel, made a small area in the tunnel where they could sit alone when things were hard.”

 

She also shared the fact that during his captivity her son grew closer to religion.  To her surprise, when he returned he requested tzitzit (a garment with ritual fringes). “I was shocked. He had faith, he was somewhat traditional — but not like this.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkrjzmcpex

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz went to visit Bar, who had served with the Nahal Brigade, to thank him for his bravery in helping others on October 7. Kupershtein gave him a bracelet that said, “Always in the hands of the Creator of the World.”

Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry

Here is the first video put out by Bar since his return:

https://www.tiktok.com/@iltv_israel/video/7561759608247831828

~~~~~~~~~~

We can only feel enormous gratitude that all of the living hostages are now safely home (although all of the deceased are not yet – and more on this below).  To bring them home was a moral obligation.

BUT we must not say that it is enough—that we have achieved our goal and it is time to stop fighting.

For the war we have been fighting, the war for which 918 of our soldiers (two just yesterday) have died, was initiated in response to the massacre of October 7 with two goals declared. One was to take down Hamas and ensure that it can never again be a danger to the people of Israel, and the other to secure the release of all hostages living and dead.

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump’s introduction of a 20-point peace plan has enormously facilitated our ability to secure hostages. All 48 hostages held by Hamas were, according to the plan, to be turned over to Israel on October 13, in return for a ceasefire, a partial pullback of the IDF in Gaza, and release of large numbers of terrorists from our prisons. We have received all of those alive, but of the 28 deceased, we have received, as I write, only 12 (with a 13th possibly coming).  These have been turned over – after an initial four – in a slow trickle.  

Hamas claims that the remainder are buried under rubble and cannot be located.  While this may be true of some, Israel has intelligence indicating that many more could be located and has shared this intelligence with countries acting as mediators in the US-initiated Gaza ceasefire deal. According to Channel 12 news, Israel gave precise coordinates of locations where it believes hostages are buried to Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-shared-intel-on-location-of-hostages-bodies-with-mediators-official-says/

~~~~~~~~~~

We see that Hamas, in accordance with its routine practice, is stalling, playing games, acting duplicitously. But part of the problem here is that Trump’s plan does not lay out penalties for or consider the consequences of this behavior.  And so, confusion ensues.

As Hamas has not completed the first stage of the plan, there should be no movement to the second stage. And yet there is movement in that direction, pushed by the Trump administration.  Because all contingencies have not been accounted for in the plan, delaying the second stage, in which a consortium of Arab nations would begin to manage affairs in Gaza, Hamas has latitude to take over.

~~~~~~~~~~

“The US and Middle Eastern mediating countries are working to put together a committee of Palestinian technocrats responsible for the postwar management of Gaza, while the pullback of Israeli forces from deep inside the enclave has allowed Hamas to reassert its control in the Strip…

“Each wants a say in the list of Palestinian technocrats who will serve on a transitional committee responsible for administering day-to-day affairs in Gaza.

“The Palestinian committee will be overseen by a Board of Peace headed by US President Donald Trump, whose other members have also yet to be finalized…

“Assembling both lists [members of the committee of technocrats and the Board of Peace] is a very difficult task, as approval is required from many governments in the region…each seeking to advance a slightly different agenda in postwar Gaza.”

Exceedingly unsettling is the fact that: “Kushner and Witkoff — who are leading the search committee for those two panels — also have personal financial ties to several of those Gulf countries being called on to invest in Gaza’s reconstruction.”  Most notably, Qatar.

Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum

But that is perhaps no more unsettling than this: “Mediators also need the support of the Palestinian Authority, which aims to be linked to the new transitional Palestinian government.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/slowed-establishment-of-postwar-gaza-government-fuels-hamas-revival-diplomats-warn/

~~~~~~~~~~

Consider this, and it is possible to understand why I refer to “the mess” in the title of this post. And I have hardly finished yet.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Qataris are already bringing in heavy equipment presumably for debris clearance, but Dr. Ariel Admoni, a Qatar expert, is among those who warn that specialized equipment will be transferred “to Hamas so it can rehabilitate its terror apparatus.” 

https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/10/16/qatar-equipment-enters-gaza-sparks-hamas-reconstruction-fears/

~~~~~~~~~~

“Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are worried about the major role given to Qatar in President Donald Trump’s plan for Middle East reconstruction. A senior Saudi official told Israel Hayom that ‘excessive Qatari involvement will lead to the plan’s collapse.’

“Over the past month, several key moderate Gulf states—Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain—have found themselves sidelined. While they support Trump’s initiative to end the war, they are unhappy with the major concessions made to Qatar, still their regional rival and a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that undermines Arab regimes. They are also uneasy about Washington’s expanding defense agreements with Doha.”

https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/10/12/saudi-warning-qatar-will-bring-hamas-back/

~~~~~~~~~~

A Turkish relief agency that has entered Gaza to aid with debris removal and humanitarian work is a proscribed terror group in Israel with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-870964

~~~~~~~~~~

In the areas where Israel has pulled back in accordance with Trump’s plan, Hamas has been taking control with a vengeance.  They have gone after clans that have opposed them, most significantly the powerful Doghmush clan in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. At least 52 people have been killed.

“According to videos coming out of the Strip, Hamas entered the families’ territory using ambulances as cover.

“’It’s a massacre,’ one clan member’s daughter said. ‘They’re dragging people away, children are screaming and dying, they’re burning our houses.’

“In parallel with the clashes, Hamas has been carrying out a series of orchestrated public executions. In a recent widely circulated video coming out of the Gaza Strip, eight men can be seen kneeling on the ground, blindfolded, surrounded by an enormous crowd shouting and chanting: ‘Allahu Akbar.

“The video goes on to show several masked Hamas gunmen executing the prisoners at point-blank range using their rifles.

According to reports, these public executions have been happening across the Strip, with hundreds of victims so far…” (Emphasis added)

Lt. Col. (res) Maurice Hirsch, of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, says that “Hamas’s
willingness to resort to extreme violence gives it an advantage.” “Whoever is most violent will win.”

https://www.jns.org/who-are-the-gaza-clans-opposing-hamas/

From this we can expect peace?

What it is important to note here is that the same groups that have screamed about Israeli genocide in Gaza, are silent now about what Hamas is doing.

~~~~~~~~~~

When the killing first began, Trump appeared unperturbed, saying, ““They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs. And they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members. And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK.”

https://www.1lurer.am/en/2025/10/17/Trump-threatens-to-%E2%80%98kill%E2%80%99-Hamas-over-Gaza-gang-clashes/1399330

But then Trump reversed himself, saying “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.” That’s loose talk, because the Americans are still saying there will be no US troops in Gaza.

And then he qualified, by suggesting that Israel, which he did not name, would do it: “It’s not going to be us. We won’t have to. There are people very close, very nearby that will go in and they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.” Israel is the only one who can do it.  But under American auspices? What?  Trump anticipates telling us when we can do battle with Hamas and when we cannot?  I will return to this.

~~~~~~~~~~

For there is also the matter of Hamas refusal to disarm, which is required according to Trump’s plan.  When Trump first announced that Hamas would surrender its arms, I was surprised, first because I know that this is something Hamas would be exceedingly unlikely to do, and then because nothing about disarmament had been included in the Hamas statement accepting the first stage that called for release of hostages. What is more, the ceasefire agreement signed by Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and mediators in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 9 did not address the disarmament of Hamas. 

But last week Trump declared that Hamas said they would surrender their arms:

“I spoke to Hamas, and I said, ‘You’re going to disarm, right?’ ‘Yes, sir. We’re going to disarm.’ — That’s what they told me. They will disarm or we will disarm them.” 

But then, once again, he qualified, saying this message was passed along to his “people,” apparently referring to Witkoff and Kushner, who met last Wednesday in Sharm el-Sheikh with Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/trump-say-hamas-assured-his-people-that-it-will-disarm-and-if-they-dont-disarm-we-will-disarm-them-perhaps-violently/

What transpired between them we will never know.  But again Trump talked tough (because talk is cheap). 

“We have told them we want disarm (sic), and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently, but they will disarm. Do you understand me? … They will disarm.”

Again, we must ask how he plans to do this. Senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal has said that he could not commit to the terrorist group disarming. 

What he did say is that Hamas was ready for a ceasefire of up to five years.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-hamas-official-terror-group-cant-commit-to-disarm-is-open-to-3-5-year-truce/

But this very slick suggestion of a ceasefire is exceedingly dangerous. I will return to this subject to examine it in greater detail, but express concern here that this might appeal to Trump.  Under no circumstances, I believe, would Israel accept such a deal.

~~~~~~~~~~

President Donald Trump did something quite magnificent for which he merits our heartfelt gratitude: He made it possible for us to receive all live hostages and hopefully most if not all of the dead hostages in due course. In his first term he fashioned the Abraham Accords and now hopes to expand upon this – something that is enormously positive for Israel, as well.

Trump seeks to be hailed as a man of peace: to be seen as the man who brought lasting peace to the Middle East. But, lacking an understanding of Jihadist mentality, and seeking to avoid war, he risks promoting “deals” that will bring nothing good for Israel or the Middle East.  He does not take the long view.

Trump is in over his head, and his key advisors have Qatari ties.

~~~~~~~~~~  

Please, pray for all of Am Yisrael, with special prayers for the rehabilitation of the returned hostages, return of all deceased hostages, and our final victory over Hamas.

©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.

Leave a Comment