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Home » Three Israeli hostages have returned home

Three Israeli hostages have returned home

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t usually write posts on Sundays unless something momentous happens.

I consider the release of three female hostages momentous. I’ve written a great deal about the politics and strategy involved, and almost certainly I will again. But today I want to focus on the tremendous joy and relief that these three are home. They are with their mothers now and have spoken to other members of their families. I’ve linked to that particular site because it has some videos, although they don’t show all that much:

The cease-fire officially went into effect several hours late Sunday at 11:15 a.m., after delays caused by Hamas failing to deliver the list of the first three hostages scheduled for release. Later, the names Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were confirmed as the first hostages to be freed. These women are among the 33 hostages slated for release during the initial phase of the deal, ending their 471-day captivity by Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement after security forces confirmed the three were transferred to Israeli custody. “The government of Israel embraces the three returning hostages. Their families have been updated that they are now with our forces,” the statement said.

The government reiterated its commitment to bringing back all hostages and missing persons, adding that officials and security agencies will support the women and their families through the process. “Blessed are You, Lord, who frees the captives,” the statement concluded.

There’s also this:

On the other hand:

And then there’s this about another freed hostage: “Smiling Emily Damari reunites with mother, holds up hand with two fingers missing after she was shot on Oct. 7.”

From Mike Huckabee, who will be Trump’s ambassador to Israel:

“Gaza is in a mess…because of Hamas. And Hamas did what they did because of Iran, and they had the funding for it. So, maybe if somebody rebuilds it, it ought to be the Iranians. If they had enough money to build rockets and bombs and missiles, perhaps they have enough money to rebuild the buildings and houses. And instead of building tunnels to hide weaponry in and instead of violating every kind of norm of human behavior, maybe they could spend that money on feeding their people, giving them a place to stay, and medical attention.”

Huckabee concluded, “But that’s the responsibility of the people who messed this up, and that was Hamas, funded by the Iranians. Let us never forget why Gaza is a hellhole right now.”

There are many articles in Israeli papers about the hostages’ return. Here’s one with many more photos. It also mentions that the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014 and held in Gaza since then was recovered in an IDF operation.

And here are some of Israel’s preparations for receiving the hostages and helping them reintegrate into normal life. Israel is uniquely positioned to be able to do that because not only has the country a lot of experience with freed hostages, but half of the population are descendants of survivors of the WWII Holocaust.

Comments

Three Israeli hostages have returned home — 21 Comments

  1. Good news for the hostages and their families but the release of so many terrorists seems crazy. It will be interesting to see what happens when Hamas violates the ceasefire and other parts of the agreement.

  2. I join in the happiness resulting from the release of these few hostages. It is a small ripple of joy in a sea of anger, despair and sadness. But I wonder, how will these released hostages live knowing that they were spared when so many others died? “Survivor’s guilt” is a real thing. Of course it is better to live, I suppose. Unless it is not. I hope that the Israelis do not let their joy over the hostage release distract them from their national existential crisis because if they do, there will be more weeping and crying, but not for joy. Hamas, Hez b’allah, Iran, Turkey, Syria, most of the entire arab moslem world wants nothing more than to destroy Israel. No amount of joyful reunions will prevent that; only victory will do that trick and it remains to be seen if that is a possibility.

  3. Steve (retired/recovering lawyer) :

    I don’t think Israel will make that error of being distracted from their existential crisis. Even a lot of people on the left have been made very aware of it.

    As for survivor guilt, that’s why I mentioned the Holocaust. Holocaust survivors dealt with that. Many of the hostages are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. What’s more, for religious hostages (and not all are religious by any means), Judaism is a religion that emphasizes the good in life. That will help them.

  4. I can’t help but notice none are American. Tomorrow’s the 20th. Will hell be paid?

  7. IrishOtter49, we happen at this moment to be watching “The Wind and the Lion” on TV, my husband’s all-time favorite scene in which US Marines storm the palace and take the Bashaw captive. It’s only a movie, but we could use some spine.

  8. On the hostage releases, I give thanks for the release of these women, and I still fear for the others yet held captive, and for what evil deeds the released terrorists will go on to commit.

  10. I wonder what their calculation is as to how many of the released prisoners they can kill on the battlefield (instead of housing for life in prison) and maybe pick up some intelligence along the way?

  12. Thank God for those who are surviving and coming home. God grant eternal peace to those who won’t get this kind of release or reunion.
    And for the Hamas animals and the braying beasts in the streets of Gaza… You’ll get yours.

  13. @ Kate > “IrishOtter49, we happen at this moment to be watching “The Wind and the Lion” on TV,”

    I’ve gotta admit that is my favorite Sean Connery film, as the heroic rascally Berber chief Raisuli.

    However, the script takes BIG liberties with the actual story: Perdicaris was a man, not a woman; no children were kidnapped; and the tribal chief, Raisuni, was an outright scoundrel, not a romantic visionary. In fact, he had a habit of kidnapping people to get what he wanted, because it worked.
    (His name was misspelled as Raisuly by the American Consul General when notifying Roosevelt of the raid. I think the change was a good one, cinematically speaking.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdicaris_affair

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_and_the_Lion

    I am glad that they kept the line from John Hay, the American Secretary of State, who issued a statement to the Republican National Convention in June 1904 that “This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuni (Raisuli) dead.”
    Although IIRC Teddy gets to say it in the film.

    Another interesting tidbit: director Milius originally wanted the leading characters to be much older, preferring Katherine Hepburn for the female Perdicaris (and the kids her grandchildren), but had to make them younger to get the film financed.

    “Her husband has died years ago, she’s a stern, rich old woman, and she has a last romantic fling with this stern, rich old Berber, the Sultan of the mountains, who can’t really do all the things he used to do but pulls it together one more time to save her from the Blue People. A very heroic character. And of course the children would look at such a character as being even greater than Sean Connery – this old man would be the greatest old thing they’d ever seen, and they’d have great admiration for their grandmother for standing up to him, the way old people can snipe at each other and love each other because they have the common bond of age. That was the purest form the movie ever had. Roosevelt was a very young, visceral presence, a vibrant man who represented a new world, who understood Raisuli’s world very well but was forced to change it”.
    …
    “No one wanted to make a movie about Arabs and Teddy Roosevelt. So we had to make concessions: a more romantic male, a beautiful woman, much more box office that way.”

    I think I would have liked his original plan better.

    There always seemed to me to be something a bit “off” in the obviously-young woman’s behavior and reactions; that may be because the script was written with that older woman still in mind.
    Connery’s character could be interpreted as an old man just as easily as a young one.

    Other than that, the movie’s great!

  14. @ Mike Plaiss > “I can’t help but notice none are American. Tomorrow’s the 20th. Will hell be paid?”

    I guess we’ll find out soon.

  15. Mike Plaiss; AesopFan:

    I don’t think Trump said the American hostages had to come back by his inauguration, nor did he say all the hostages. Maybe he should have.

    I believe that the Americans are listed as part of the 33 total who are going to be released, however. Not certain of that, though. It’s not even clear that they are alive.

  16. I suspect that Hamas chose to release those that appeared most healthy as the initial three. I hope I’m wrong, but would not be surprised to see some emaciated ones later.

  17. I’m delighted that my post (yesterday at 7:16 PM) stirred up happy memories of one of the greatest scene/sequences in cinematic history.

    It is an episode nearly matched in its greatness by the one in “God is My Copilot” when the Flying Tigers attack the Japanese in Hong Kong for the first time in the war, and the American and European internees in the camp below realize “there are stars on their wings! Those are American boys!”

    Anyone else remember that scene?

    Chills. I still get them just thinking about it.

  18. I remember that anecdote from an American Heritage collection, back when that magazine was worth something, Bergen was a rising star back then, the raid on the German outpost was an odd twist, the commentary about the movie, reminds it was counter to the ethos in 1975, when American power was deemed verboten,

  21. I do remember that IrishOtter49, but I’m a movie buff and watch quite a lot. I’m a sucker for those kinds of scenes. They can make an entire movie worth watching. Three scenes come immediately to mind along the patriotic front.

    Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) about the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. A group of beleaguered, battle-weary Israelis, are gathered around a radio at a time when it was far from certain which way this whole thing was going to go. It is the announcement that U.S. has recognized the state of Israel – the first to do so. Wonderful reminder of American greatness, exceptionalism, and importance in the world.

    1776 – the Ben Franklin speech about having spawned a new people here. I was terribly disappointed to learn it is fictionalized. It is so perfect.

    Jojo Rabit (2019) – a movie so quirky no one knew how to take it, which I don’t think helped its popularity. Primarily a comedy, but at the end, the Jewish girl who has been hiding in a small room behind a wall for years walks out the front door of the house not even knowing who has won the war. She emerges on the front step to see American G.I.s racing their jeeps through the streets with a big American flag waving behind. High on the list of movies-almost-impossible-not-to-cry-at-the-end.

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