In the Media

Daily Telegraph/ The Advertiser – 4 February 2025

Like the entire nation of Israel, along with millions of Jews around the world, I sat transfixed on Thursday night, watching the images of another batch of hostages being released from the terror tunnels of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

It’s impossible not to be moved by a myriad of emotions as we watched young women and an old man go from the dark abyss of evil, hatred and despair into the euphoria of lightness, good and the loving embrace of their family and friends.

This physical journey of just a few kilometres from captivity to freedom has been a far longer emotional journey that has taken us from despair to anger, from fear to hope, from desperation to determination, all the time accompanied by an emotional toll that will linger for far longer than any limited ceasefire deal.

Like a nightmarish scene from a dystopian movie, 20-year-old Agam Berger was paraded by her tormentors in front of banners proclaiming that Israel had been defeated and that Zionism was Nazism. She was displayed as a grotesque spectacle in a twisted theatre of suffering instructed to smile and to wave for the cameras, even receiving a certificate and a “goodie” bag as if she has been on summer camp, rather than someone that was violently kidnapped and assaulted in her pyjamas by Hamas terrorists on October 7,2023.

Later in the day 28-year-old Arbel Yehoud was made to walk through a throng of a jeering hostile crowd of Gazans, “protected” only by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists – the same terrorists who, along with Hamas, had murdered and tortured and raped so many others, including her friends. The fear on Arbel’s face was palpable, as we all hoped and prayed desperately, she would make it to the Red Cross vehicle waiting to take her to safety and freedom.

Meanwhile, 80-year-old Gadi Mozes was forced to undergo the same ordeal, making his way through the gauntlet of a baying aggressive mob, with hatred in their eyes. To watch an elderly figure, one of such stature and dignity and respect surrounded by those who espouse the exact opposite is heartbreaking.

Along with the three Israelis hostages released were five Thai nationals who were also brutally abducted during the October 7 attack. Both Thai and Israeli officials are continuing to coordinate along with international authorities to ensure their swift return home to their loved ones.

Saturday saw the release of three more innocent Israeli hostages including Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two little children remain in Hamas captivity, their fate agonisingly unknown.

We continue to be told by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong that the long-suffering, innocent Gazan people must not be made to pay the price for the crimes of Hamas. And while it’s true that many Gazans are caught in the crossfire of a war Hamas started and they did not choose, the scenes surrounding the hostages’ release – where some mobs expressed twisted joy and filmed the terror of the hostages like a carnival attraction – can’t help but suggest much more widespread complicity than leaders like Wong allow.

It should also be remembered that in the last elections held in the Palestinian Authority in 2006, including Gaza, Hamas received the largest number of votes of any party.

Standing in stark contrast to the mobs of Gaza was the dignity of the hostages and their families, whose entire lives were thrown into a nightmarish see-saw of despair and hope, waiting desperately for any news of their loved ones.

This is the malicious and cruel nature of Israel’s enemies who exploit the desperation of Israeli families, playing psychological terror games designed to torment them up to their very final moments.

The hostages and their families are heroes with a strength that is incalculable. They have been subjected to a cruelty that few can ever imagine, because the human mind struggles to comprehend it. Seeing them return, united with their families and friends surrounded by love, is a joy and relief that can melt the coldest of hearts.

However, we can’t lose sight that this ceasefire deal is not about a hostage swap, but a ransom, because these innocent hostages who were kidnapped are not being swapped for innocent Palestinians, but for huge numbers of cold-blooded terrorists, including mass murderers who will undoubtedly return to terror.

It seems impossible to imagine any society that continues to celebrate killers and murders become the kind of society that will live in peace with its neighbours.

If the international community that continues to push for a two-state resolution, or any solution, fails to recognise this basic reality that Palestinian society, including and especially Gaza, must be deradicalized, then a peaceful future will remain just the pipe dream of naïve romantics.

There’s an ancient Jewish text from the Talmud that says, “whoever saves one life saves the world entire”. Each time a hostage is released, an entire world is saved. Yet the joy at this salvation must be tempered by the harsh reality that in this conflict, many worlds have already been destroyed.

 Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).