To those who are following my diary, I apologize for last night’s no show. But I have an excellent excuse: my grandson is out on leave and I went to see him. It was a long trip, but in the end, sitting around an excellent Italian restaurant in Beersheba with him and his wife, and his Mom – my daughter – and my granddaughter, it felt like the world had been reborn, or gone back to where it was on October 6. For a little while, anyway. I can’t tell you how good it was to give him that hug and just to look at him. He looks fine. He says he is fine, and that they are doing important work.

So, the hostages. Let’s not kid ourselves, this was no “deal” and no “negotiation”: it is inhumane criminal extortion from terrorist kidnappers who have killed most of the innocent civilians they ran off with to brutalize and sexually assault.

We had options: bomb them until they beg to let all our people go. But Jews have a real weakness when it comes to preserving life. It comes from the Jewish religion which teaches that it is not only permissible but praiseworthy to break every law in the Torah (except for three) to save a life. Those three unbreakable laws are murder, rape, and worshipping idols.

All this is an incredibly painful experience for us in Israel. As much as we want our children back, the idea that out of the 350 kidnapped, we are now down to only 50 and a maybe little more, in exchange for releasing Palestinians from our jails and a five day ceasefire. On the surface it sounds even-handed: our children for their “children”.

But while our children were grabbed from their beds in pajamas, Palestinian “children” in Israeli jails include Nafouz Hamad who at fourteen stabbed the Mom next door in front of her 5 small children in Sheik Jarrah in Jerusalem. That she didn’t succeed in killing her, was not for lack of intention and effort. Nafouz, now 16, was sentenced to 12 years. The victim, Moriya Cohen, said she was “absolutely shocked and bitterly disappointed” that this terrorist is being freed so soon. Although Palestinians set to be released didn’t succeed in their murderous plans, they certainly didn’t wind up in Israeli jails because they drank cookies and milk, like the Jewish children being released.

It’s an ugly world where this kind of thing is countenanced by international organizations and heads of state, including Joe Biden. Yes, we want our hostages back. All of them. Hamas claims it has only 50 but is going to “look” for the rest of them if the cease fire continues.

The reality of that, if there is any truth at all to it, is that the people taken hostage have been murdered, the way soldier Marciano was murdered in cold blood in Shifa “hospital”, that terrorist command center, the way 64 year-old Judith Weiss was murdered (Hamas claimed that she “died” in captivity.) And the five day long ceasefire, in which Israel accepted as a condition not to operate surveillance planes over Gaza, seems an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do during an existential war for survival. But what is most amazing in this entire scenario is that with one exception (Ben Gvir) everyone in the government and military agreed unanimously to go ahead. Such is the commitment and the hunger to save lives.

Hamas, on the other hand, hardly ever mention the thousands and thousands of Gazans who have been killed and injured because of the ugly war Hamas started on October 7, except to say that they are all “holy martyrs and certainly gone to Allah”. Apparently, death is the best thing that can happen to these Muslim true believers. I wonder if Hamas billionaire Haniya, whose first grandson was killed in Gaza yesterday, is celebrating in his five-star suite?

You know, I’d be pushed towards more extreme statements, if it wasn’t for all those Israeli Arabs that have spoken up against this Hamas understanding of Islam. I was really surprised to hear that an Israeli Arab volunteers for Zaka, the group who has taken it upon themselves to remove and sanctify dead bodies from terror attacks. This person stated categorically that the Koran forbids the murder of women, children, and the handicapped and aged. Could have fooled me.

I’ve been giving some thought to the pro-Palestinian protestors. So many videos show them up as totally ignorant. They can’t tell you which river and sea they are talking about. They think Israel started the war on October 7. They believe Israel bombed the concert goers. They think Gaza is a concentration camp, though Gaza was turned over to the Palestinians in 2004 who made it what it is. Pretty hopeless, but no gas chambers. I even remember seeing villas, and boardwalks, and luxury car dealerships in this “concentration camp”.

All that is gone now of course. Rubble. Sand. Still, not a concentration camp, just a beach.  Where, I asked myself, is this coming from? And I came to the conclusion that all these people posting this nonsense are getting their education from people as ignorant as themselves who post on the internet. It’s a vicious cycle. And like the Nazi’s spiffy uniforms and insignia, young people can apparently be lead down almost any dark path if the ”influencer” washing their brains wears designer duds, and has had enough plastic surgery. Or is a famous actor or super thin model. One lie after the next is uploaded, at a rate impossible to keep up with.

The decline of mankind and the destruction of Western values and civilization is being led by young people who have no respect for real education and research: who look at their phones for easy answers during their school classes. Perhaps because they are being taught by imbeciles whose degrees have been issued by colleges which are themselves run by uneducated fanatics with agendas. So is it any wonder our population is so dumbed down they can’t figure out who’s lying and who’s telling the truth, even when it stares them in the face?

We live in a very, very dangerous world where slogans people don’t even understand have replaced reason. People can now do pretty much whatever they want: draw swastikas, assault old ladies, bully children, destroy property, opening proclaim their desire for genocide of the Jewish people. And all this because the politicians and the few remaining police want to be popular.

I’m truly happy to be unpopular.

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