A Well-Deserved Victory Lap For The Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

The 20 surviving hostages were released “after 738 agonizing days in captivity,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

With all of our 20 living hostages back home, after 738 agonizing days in captivity... 20 surviving hos tages were released “after 738 agonizing days in captivity,” the Hostages and Missin Families Forum said in a statement.

a ceasefire that maintains the IDF's presence in over half of Gaza,

 and an American President firmly behind Israel and willing to let Israel continue to wipe Hamas out if necessary, 

we should take time to celebrate. That's right, we won!

As Jews, it's hard for us to say that because we've basically forgotten what is feels like to win, after a long history filled with persecution and slaughter.

 Perhaps it's time to change our mood. 

Yes, antisemitism is still as strong as ever,

 the pro-Palestine pro-violence demonstrations will likely continue, 

Hamas has still not returned all of the bodies of the dead hostages

 and hasn't disarmed, 

Palestinian terrorists will continue to attempt to kill Jews, 

and we mourn the loss of so many who gave their lives to bring us to this moment..

BUT, here we stand at the cusp of a new chapter of the Middle East that carries with it the hope for peace, gained from a position of strength. 

Our fiercest enemies -- Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria -- are either destroyed or severely wounded and are no longer existential threats.

 President Trump has, somehow, gotten the Arab and Moslem world to admit that living peacefully with Israel can benefit them much more than trying to destroy her.

 Will they follow through? Who knows...

but I believe that Trump can pull it off! He's come this far, and done so without pressuring Israel. 

Just the opposite: he's given Israel the support to fight and defeat her enemies. 

So as difficult as it might feel, let's take a victory lap. We won. And boy does it feel good to be a winner.  

Now, as part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered peace deal, Hamas has also agreed to return to Israel the remains of more than two dozen hostages who did not survive.

As of October 16, 2025, Hamas has returned the bodies of nine deceased hostages to Israel. The total number of dead hostages to be returned under the recent ceasefire agreement was 28. The remaining 19 bodies are still in Gaza. Hamas statement: The group's military wing stated on October 16 that it had handed over all the remains it could access, claiming that the other bodies are buried under rubble that requires specialized equipment to recover.

• Latest identification: On October 16, the remains of two more hostages, Inbar Hayman and Sgt. Maj. Muhammad al-Atresh, were identified by forensic experts in Israel. Hayman was abducted from the Nova festival, and al-Atresh was killed on October 7, 2023, while serving as a soldier.
  
• Sgt. Maj. Muhammad al-Atresh was a Bedouin tracker in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who was killed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, attack. His body was taken captive into Gaza and was only returned to Israel on October 16, 2025. 
• Military role: He was a tracker in the Gaza Division's Northern Brigade, a position almost exclusively held by Bedouin Israelis. He enlisted in the IDF in 2003.
• Death and abduction: On the morning of October 7, 2023, Al-Atresh was killed in battle against Hamas terrorists in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His body was taken by the terrorists into the Gaza Strip.
• Declaration of death: Due to the circumstances of his disappearance, his death was not officially declared until June 24, 2024, after the IDF obtained new intelligence.
• Family: Originally from the Bedouin community of Sa'wa in southern Israel, he was 39 years old at the time of his death. He is survived by his parents, 22 siblings, two wives, and 13 children.                          
  
  Inbar Hayman was the last female taken.  The forensic investigation found that Hayman was murdered during the October 7, 2023, massacre, and her remains were taken into the Gaza Strip. She was 27 years old at the time and had attended the Nova Music Festival. She was pronounced murdered on December 15, 2023, leaving behind her parents and a brother.

Resource:

israelAM

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-gaza-who-are-20-surviving-hostages-rcna237251

Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense's One Year Anniversary Against Hamas

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

It was just one year ago that Israel had said ENOUGH and after being hit by rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza since 2001, finally went into Gaza  in an offensive land operation to put an end to the shooting with Operation Pillar of Defense that lasted for 8 days.

It was recalled by both Hamas and other affiliated terrorists in Gaza and in Israel.  Cities like Sderot and Ashkelon were favorite sites hit in Israel.  Where Sderot is very close to the border, Ashkelon is a large major city to the north of Gaza along the sea where a large hospital is that serves both Arab Gazans and Israelis inside a large perimeter.  The strikes have caused the hospital to go to the basement levels in order to take care of their patients.  What seems to be an insane goal to me, the Arabs keep aiming for the city that provides them life when they themselves are injured.

Saturday afternoon during Shabbat, southern Israel was greeted by 3 rockets shot at them from Gaza.  They landed in an open field in Gaza!  The platform they were shot from must have been further back to not make it over the border into Sderot or some other Israeli site.

That was the climax of a week of rockets that were fired.  Last week one rocket again fell short of the border of Ashkelon from Gaza. First the warning siren blared.   The population were driven to take cover in bomb shelters.  The rocket fell just a little way from the border but landed on the Gazan side.

Last Tuesday, a Palestinian Arab managed to get into Israel from Gaza and was caught by the Israeli security forces.  He didn't come over as an immigrant wanting a better life, though.  He had grenades in his pockets.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented that there have been only 35 incidents of rocket fire since then, so this showed a 98% drop of rocket fire since last year's operation.

Will Kerry be successful in bringing about peace between the Palestinians and Israel?  He's dealing with Abbas from Fatah right now.  They have no connection with Gaza, the section that Israel left, lock, stock and barrel in the name of peace that has turned into a launching pad of rockets, mortars and missiles against them.

Hamas's charter shows no sign of ever making peace.   The charter is a 30 page document and as long as it remains their guiding dogma for Hamas or the Palestinian people in mass, the dream of peace remains impossible.  Land is elemental in this problem.  It is religion that is guiding the Palestinian Arabs.  From the Hamas Covenant, we read that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."  (said by The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory.)  The name "Hamas" means  strength and bravery according to Al-Mua'jam al-Wasit: c1.  They write, "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.  It needs all sincere efforts."

That religion is the driving force, from article 6 in their charter, says, "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees.  The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.  Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

I have asked several Muslims about this section often quoted by Westerners who have studied the Koran and it has been explained to me in a very confusing way that either it's not there or its meaning is different and must be studied from another one of Islam's writings.  I get the feeling that it is not interpreted correctly but is often used by less educated Muslims to be the banner for their land fight against Jews in the Middle East.  However, when Muslims of little education read it, it is a very blatant statement and sounds like a dictum to be very aggressive against Jews and to do them harm.

Therefore I see in article 13  that there is no solution in Palestinian thinking  about the  Palestinian question  of a 2 state solution except through Jihad.  Initiative, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.  Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences  are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Article 32 threatens Muslims that today Jews are taking Palestine and tomorrow it will be one country or another and that the Zionist plan is limitless.  They warn that the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates, and then want to take more land.

I find this laughable because our problem is keeping Israel with a majority of Jews to keep it a Jewish state.  The last thing we need is again to live among the world as we have been, a minority without any rights of our own as has already happened in the past.  It is the Muslims who have been expansionists, forcing everyone to convert to Islam and taking their land and holy sites.  So what they really are fearing is that Jews will suddenly act like they have with the same kinds of goals.  Once they realize we are not about to ape their behaviors, perhaps they will accept us.  Hamas must be educated with some of these more enlightening and realistic ideas to solve this world problem.

 Has John Kerry, Secretary of State of the USA, found out if Hamas has changed its charter yet?  How about Fatah?  Why should Israel make peace with one who is under the spell of the other and will cooperate with fighting against Israel?  Shouldn't that twosome be worked on by the USA first before even thinking of creating another state?  Could they be thinking that this will give Fatah power over Hamas?

Resource:  http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-fire-three-rockets-at-israel/
Excerpts from the Hamas Charter, produced by StandWithUs.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/police-find-third-body-on-ashkelon-beach/