GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 131

We Were Lied To

Turnabout Is Fair Play

In a move no one expected, but still isn’t surprising, the families of Israeli hostages is bringing war crimes charges against Hamas to the Hague as we read in an article from i24news.tv:

Returned hostages and relatives of October 7 abductees took off Wednesday morning for the Netherlands, where a formal complaint against Hamas leadership will be filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Representatives from the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, as well as a legal team, will be at The Hague to submit the complaint compiled into a thousand pages detailing the evidence of genocide, kidnapping, sexual violence, torture and more crimes committed by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7.

Once there, the team will hold a speak to reporters:

Once at The Hague, a press conference will be held by head of the legal team Dr. Shelly Aviv Yeini. Returned hostages Raz Ben Ami and Itai Regev were also scheduled to speak.

Also speaking would be survivor Gal Gilboa-Dalal, brother of Guy Gilboa-Dalal that’s held captive in Gaza and both of whom were at the Supernova Music Festival; As well as Ofri Bibas, relative of the Bibas family held captive with one-year-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel. In total about 100 relatives would be at The Hague.

One relative said that Hamas isn’t just a problem for Israel:

"My main expectation is that our voice will be heard in the world," the sister of Nadav Goldstein who was murdered with his eldest daughter Yam at their home in Kfar Aza while wife Chen Almog-Goldstein and their remaining three children were kidnapped to Gaza and released in a deal after 51 days, Inbar Goldstein was quoted by Ynet.

"The world needs to understand that Hamas is not only a problem for the State of Israel, that it is an extension of a terrorist organization that is bigger than itself. This will be a problem for the whole world if we do not act now. We have an opportunity to write history and not just watch it,” she added, in hopes that the case will lead to a shift in a conflict that’s spread to attacks from several Iran-backed proxy terror groups.

No Further Talks

Apparently Prime Minister Netanyahu pulled the plug on more negotiations in Cairo, Egypt and did so alone as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out sending an Israeli delegation for further hostage negotiations in Cairo, without consulting the war’s foremost decision-making forum, it was widely reported Wednesday.

As could imagine, the war cabinet wasn’t happy about the PM doing that:

The decision prompted outrage among representatives of hostages’ families, and reportedly angered war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot of the National Unity party, who met Wednesday evening to discuss their response after being kept out of several key decisions recently.

Netanyahu has been vocal about the holdup being the terrorists demands which he calls “delusional.” As could also be expected, the relatives of the hostages still being held had opinions of their own:

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum — representing family members of most of the remaining hostages in Gaza — said it was “stunned” by the decision to “thwart” the ongoing talks, adding that “it appears that some of the members of the cabinet decided to sacrifice the lives of the hostages without admitting it.”

This decision will mark “a death sentence” for the hostages remaining in captivity, it said.

Deradicalizing Gaza Is The Biggest Challenge

In a lot of people’s minds, the Gaza Strip was an impoverished waste land before the war in Israel and the war is just making it worse. However, according to someone who actually saw it gives us a different perspective in an opinion piece from The Jerusalem Post:

I was recently released from reserve duty in Gaza, after serving 100 days in the IDF. Since the world can’t see firsthand the things I saw there, I feel I have to share.

For years, well before October 7th, we’ve heard about how terrible life is for the poor, oppressed Gazans. How anti-Israel activists and media outlets claim the Gaza Strip can be compared to an open-air prison. This became the standard, accepted narrative about life in Gaza, promulgated by Al Jazeera and international human rights groups. But now, having experienced it myself, I can confidently tell you that we were lied to.

If you’re watching this video, the picture I am showing is actually of the Gaza Strip and it hardly looks like an open-air prison. The author of the article goes on to state this:

Gaza has been depicted as a backwards, "densely populated" area that’s been under Israeli "siege" for years. There's no bigger lie than this. Pre-war Gaza was a modern, beautiful, developed city – with large, furnished houses, wide avenues, public areas, a promenade, and parks. It looked much better than any other Arab city “from the river to the sea.” Gaza City reminds me more of Tel Aviv than the awful slums that some people try to make it out to be.

And, of course, Gaza is far from being the "most densely populated area in the world."

If this is how a city looks after two decades of "siege," then I want to be sieged. The houses in Gaza were full of goods and food from across the Middle East, the houses had modern furniture, appliances, and pretty much any up-to-date consumer product and electronics you can imagine.

There are also high-end mansions that could easily have been in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. There was no lack of wealth in Gaza.

More Common “Logic” Refuted

Another lie the author disputes is that the reason Hamas attacked was because they were being denied a better life by Israel. Here is what he replied to that thinking:

I realize now that the optimistic notion that "if only Gazans had the chance for a better life, they would not be fighting Israel," is irrelevant for Gaza. Many of them had everything a normal person in the West strives for, yet Hamas still executed their October 7th massacre.

He did make one very important observation that speaks to how difficult it will be to resettle the Palestinians people back into Gaza and expect them to just peacefully co-exist with Israel:

The most common thing I saw inside the houses was a map of the State of Israel, with the heading "Map of Palestine." There is no mention of the internationally recognized borders of Israel, or any Israeli city or kibbutz. The goal of eradicating the only Jewish State was not hidden or played down, it was everywhere.

Despite the prosperity we saw in Gaza city, it was hiding something you won't see in any Western city. Every neighborhood we visited had staged and ready-to-operate Hamas combat zones – weapons, tunneling, explosives, rocket launch zones, all inside normal family homes, some already built with openings in the walls to enable moving easily between buildings.

Hamas also disguised themselves long before they attacked Israel:

We also saw that Hamas terrorists rarely moved around armed or in uniform. They are terrorists but even they believe the IDF is a moral army. They know IDF soldiers will not shoot them if they walk around as "civilians." They butchered Israeli civilians on October 7, but we came into Gaza looking only for terrorists and they take advantage of it. They prepare their weapons in advance, typically near building entries, and pick them up just before attacking. This is one reason why fighting in Gaza is significantly more complex than other arenas. This is why, when they say civilians die, you'll never know if they were Hamas members attempting to kill soldiers before they died.

This is exactly what I’ve been saying for a long time. And the article makes another point along these lines:

Like any terror group Hamas' strategic weapons are lies and propaganda. That's how they were able to promote their lie about a "siege" in the world's leading media outlets. That's how the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, is able to publish ridiculous, unverified numbers of casualties every day, which are used by the US State Department and other Western governments.

The Gaza I saw was different than the lies we've been fed by Hamas. As they cling to their control of Gaza, we shouldn't fall for the other lies they propagate. Like any other terror group, they must be dismantled.

And as you pray for the peace of Jerusalem, you now have a better idea what Israel is up against and what it has been up against all along. Ridding Gaza of weaponry is the easy part. Changing the hearts and minds of the Palestinians will take much longer.