Tomorrow some more Israeli and American hostages will be released by Hamas. One who is thought to be released is a member of the Bibas family, the husband/father, Yarden, but there has been no news about the wife, Shiri, and their two little kids, then 9-month-old Kfir and then 4-year-old Ariel ... see Kidnapping of the Bibas family.
I still remember seeing a video made by the kidnappers of the abduction of Shiri and her children, the look of terror on her face as the monsters closed in around her ...
I think the IDF believes she and her children are probably dead, but hope still lives. What has become of them? Why has Hamas not released them with the other civilian women?
[...] The release of Bibas, whose wife, Shiri, and children, Ariel and Kfir, remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” over their wellbeing, represents a painful moment for the large numbers of Israelis and other supporters around the world who have long campaigned for the Bibas family’s release.
Video of Shiri Bibas holding on to her children as she was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen from the Nir Oz kibbutz became an enduring image of the 7 October 2023 attacks, with her son Kfir just 9 months old when he was abducted ...
Unless we content with very widespread civilian complicity with Hamas—their government—and identification with its cause, it is impossible to rebuild peacefully. https://t.co/CzQfrWngfO
The freeing of the two other Israeli hostages, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, 80, and five Thai nationals, amid a screaming crowd of Gazan civilians.
Right, the "militants". Hamas terrorists (and Palestinian Islamic Jihad?) once again stage a grotesque ceremony in front of screaming and whistling audience of Gazan civilians, parading the hostage, making her wave to the crowd, giving her a "certificate of completion" and a "gift bag". Sick.
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, reads a letter she has sent to the Congressmen/women who will be voting for or against RFK Jr., her cousin. As I had said before of RFK Jr., he is a plague, and she makes that same case.
The four female hostages are safe, handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas, and then delivered to the IDF who brought them back to Israel.
But first, Hamas staged this bizarre scenario ...
The four hostages were led onto a podium in Gaza City amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrounded by dozens of armed Hamas men. They waved and smiled before being led off, entering ICRC vehicles and being transported to Israeli forces. - Reuters
You can see the Hamas terrorists waving their guns. You can also see the crowd of Gazan civilians screaming and jeering at the three young women, etc.
I recall videos of the civilian population doing the same on Oct 7 when living and dead hostages were first paraded through the streets of Gaza by their captors, some Hamas, some civilians.
Meanwhile, Hamas fighters have come out of their holes, wearing their uniforms and brandishing their guns after hiding as civilians during the war ... Hamas Tries to Show It’s Back in Charge of Gaza. I don't see how this war can be over until all of Hamas is finally crushed.
Sunday morning the hostage/ceasefire deal will go into effect, in which 33 Israeli and American hostages will be gradually released by the terrorists ... and it's still not known which of the hostages is alive or dead ... in exchange for at least 1,904 Palestinian criminals, some of them murderers and terrorists, from Israel prisons.
In this wretched time of worries, both personal and political, I find solace in watching old science fiction tv. My latest choice is Babylon 5 ...
an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski .... The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five 22-episode seasons.
The series follows the human military staff and alien diplomats stationed on a space station, Babylon 5, built in the aftermath of several major inter-species wars as a neutral ground for galactic diplomacy and trade. Major plotlines included intra-race intrigue and upheaval, inter-race wars and their aftermaths, and embroilment in a millennial cyclic conflict between ancient races. The human characters, in particular, become pivotal to the resistance against Earth's descent into totalitarianism ...
The characters were great. My favorite person was Commander Sinclair, the first commander of Babylon 5. He reminded me so much of my grandfather. Sadly, the actor, Michael O'Hare, was replaced after the first season because of his battle with mental illness, and Bruce Boxleitner took his place at Babylon 5 as Captain Sheridan. Here's a short scene with Commander Sinclair ...
The show had a five year story arc in which a terrible and immortal enemy returns after 1000 years - the Shadows. They don't have some grand plan for universal domination, they just want to shake things up, keep everyone at each other's throats, promote chaos. Here some human slaves of the Shadows explain the idea to Captain Sheridan ...
The show ended after 5 years, but many more years had passed for the characters. Here is the end of the the last episode, the characters who had survived the war meeting at Babylon 5 one more time before the station is decommissioned and destroyed ...
I hope the ceasefire deal works but I have to admit, I don't see how it can. Here's the deal that President Biden posted ...
- There's no mention of the unfairness of the number and kind of Palestinian priisoners Israel is expected to release in order to swap for hostages. Here's what The Times of Israel says about that ...
The TV report [on Channel 12] added that over 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners will be freed in return for the 33 [hostages], including at least 250 terrorists “with blood on their hands.”
- And there's no mentionof getting rid of Hamas. This agreement appears to leave them unmolested in Gaza after the deal. The Wall Street Journal wrote about the regrouping of Hamas ... Hamas Has Another Sinwar. And He’s Rebuilding. And there's this ...
Even as they came out of their holes last night, they made sure to have their human shield with them. Check out the child on 25 seconds into the video. https://t.co/NXv2ybRfVh
Is it just me? When I see headlines like this, I do feel some compassion for those whose homes and neighborhoods have been lost to fire, but I can't help thinking that those living in the expensive areas, those who are rich and famous, will be ok. They still own their property, probably have insurance, and most likely have more than one home. Not to mention, just money.
At the same time that people in L.A. are being burned out, there are a lot of homeless people in California as well. Homelessness went up 18% in the US last year (and 12% the year before). Those people don't have any property, no insurance, no extra abodes, no money. They have nothing. But the news almost never writes aboit them, excpt as some kind of plague we normal people want to get out of sight. Where is the compassion for them?
Horrible fires in my state. I'm 400 miles away up north, but I've been to L.A. many times, from when I was a kid (Disneyland!) to visiting my sister who lived there to on my honeymoon. The threat of fire in a city is so scary, given the strong winds and dry conditions. Makes you realize that no one is really safe.
"Why there hasn't been a unanimous chorus around the world for Hamas to put down its weapons, to give up the hostages, to surrender - I don't know what the answer is to that." Anthony Blinken 🤔
War is a contest of wills. The world sent Hamas many signals to continue to fight. pic.twitter.com/KqmkjiRxHC
From Blinken interview with The New York Times. Europe and many in the US have chosen to ally themselves with the bloody terrorists of Hamas. Oops - I forgot - we don't call them terrorists anymore, though they raped and tortured and kidnapped and murdered civilians. Now they are "militants". After all, we don't want to sound too pejorative - yesterday's terrorist could be tomorrow's head of state.
