We all know where we were Saturday when we found out about the hostage rescue (not release). I woke up briefly at 6am and happened to check Facebook, and saw one post just with ‘Hostages Rescued by IDF, en route to a hospital.’ No link, no pics, nothing. I quickly checked my trusted sources on Jewish Instagram, saw nothing and thus believed this was a cruel propaganda prank the Jew-haters are playing. After all, we had just been inundated with awful news, steadily, the last several weeks about hostages being found, but all had been murdered.
The news out of Israel lately has been also filled with experts saying that perhaps fewer than 30 hostages are left alive, if that.
Within minutes of all those thoughts going through my head, I refreshed the IG account of Arise4Israel (one of my favorite reliable accounts for up to the minute updates on Israel), and there it was, the rescue helicopter and the names of the rescued: Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, and Andrey Kolzov. Between 6am – 9am EST, it was a flurry of excited texts with fellow Zionists, heart fluttering from overjoyed excitement, and a litany of questions – where were they found? How badly are they injured? I also had read that Noa’s Mom had already died of brain cancer, but quickly was assured, she had not and that Noa would get to see her Mom. Ecstatic relief! This was followed by devastation finding out that Almog’s father’s had been found passed away when the IDF entered his apt to tell him the good news. Hours before Almog was able to come home. Noa’s boyfriend, who was kidnapped at the same time as Noa, is still in Gaza, somewhere.
So many friends of mine were crying from happiness. I was too excited to cry. But then, we all heard the news of the fallen hero of heroes, Arnon Zmora, the Chief Inspector of the elite Yamam (Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Unit within the Border Police) who at 36 years old, led a coordinated daring hostage rescue mission that included the IDF, Yamam, and Shin Bet. A father of two young boys, he gave his life to save four diamonds, as was the code-word for the hostages being rescued. Reading the Facebook posts of his now widow, Michal, his best guy friend, and his sister-in-law, had me in tears. For those who know me in real life, I do not cry easily. The last time I was in tears was the entire month of October, post-genocide. The operation was renamed in his honor. As all great Jewish warriors, from the time of the Bar Kokhba revolts, Arnon led from the front. Not all cultures do that with their military, but our people have utmost courage and strength.
This was a daring rescue, by all standards, middle of the day, Israeli time, in two separate locations, in a densely populated area. The vehicle carrying the 3 men who were held hostage, broke down while attempting to leave for the rescue helicopter, and in the middle of intense firepower, the special forces were able to transport everyone to another vehicle. Aside from the great news of the hostage rescue, was that in the rescue operation, there were many Arab-occupier casualties. That should be celebrated. No one in Gaza is innocent except our hostages who remain, and the four-legged animals in Gaza.
It was no shock that the three men were held hostage by an Al-Jazeera journalist, his wife, children, and his doctor father. Noa has since shared that she was moved around to various apartments throughout Gaza, all were civilian residents.
No surprise. Over 1,000 civilians murdered Israelis on October, mixing in with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Palestinian Authority terrorist group. 7th. We need to stop saying ‘Hamas’ for everything terrorist-related, unless meaning that all Gazans are Hamas, which is true. But, there is NO distinction between civilians AND Hamas. It is infuriating hearing slogan Zionists like Noa Tishby and Lizzy Savetsky pretend that there are ‘innocent civilians’ in Gaza. It is antisemitic and simply not true. Just like no one in Gaza is a ‘Palestinian’ – that was a colonizer term for Jews who lived IN Israel from 136 AD – 1948. We have all seen the scenes of the cheering women and children in Gaza on Oct. 7th when our people were dragged through the streets – many of whom were already murdered. In addition, a great number of the women and children killed by the IDF in Gaza in this war, are combatants. There is a picture of an ‘innocent child’ killed by the IDF in this past weekend’s rescue mission: he is strapped with 5 machine guns and is an older teen. This is what happens when a society applauds children playing ‘Stab a Jew’ – you get 12 years old sitting in Israeli prisons.
News is now coming out that the Israeli doctor who examined all 4 of the rescued hostages, shared that there are signs of physical and mental abuse for all four. And, despite ‘looking’ well, that all 4 show signs of malnutrition (and not for lack of food in Gaza; Honest Reporting recently shared that there is enough food in Gaza for each Arab occupier to consume over 3,000 calories per day), and beatings.
The sheer joy, the roller coaster of sadness regarding Arnon, another feeling arose – anger. It’s been 8 months. Countless hostages have been murdered in captivity (41 to be precise), others are still hopefully alive but are anguishing in captivity. If only Netanyahu had listened to Galant, and fully sieged Gaza on Oct. 8th, most of the hostages would have already been back, with many more alive. Galant’s goal was to starve out the rats in Gaza, no I have no regret calling subhumans as they should be called. Humans do not do what was done to our people on Oct. 7th. Instead, after merely a few days of a full siege, Netanyahu capitulated to the antisemitic liberals in the West. There is no reason for there to be any hostages left in Gaza currently; this is on the weak leadership in Israel.
This recent rescue mission has given Zionists a glimmer of hope – how many more are there left alive in Gaza? Hoping far more than previously thought. Though all rescue missions moving forward will be even more difficult as Hamas has given direction to kill all hostages upon first signs of a rescue; Israeli officials now also share that it was probably easier to have hidden hostages in apartments than in tunnels, but this may now change.
Throughout this war, we have heard ‘refugee camp’ often – Jabalia ‘refugee camp’ from a previous operation and most recently, from this past weekend’s rescue, Nuseirat ‘refugee camp.’ Only one major issue…
No such thing as ‘refugee camps’ in Gaza before this war – something I see often lied about in the liberal media and posted by ignorant Jewish slogan ‘influencers.’
Those were intentionally poor areas (but with actual buildings) that the Saudis and Qataris with coordination of the mostly Egyptian Arab occupiers in Jewish Gaza, kept to fool gullible Jew haters. In reality, Gaza was built up beautifully by Saudi Arabia and Qatar- poured billions in gorgeous universities, mosques, houses, apt buildings, hotels, promenades, etc
The Arab occupied parts of Judea & Samaria also does the same Jew hating trickery for the Jew-hating Westerners who are gullible.
The only people who lived in tents in the area before this war were mostly Mizrahi Jews in Israel (Gaza is part of Israel too), who lived in tent cities for many years called Ma’abarot- there was a housing crisis in the 1950s and 60s due to the influx of Mizrahi Jews coming in after being expelled by Arab nations- in lands where Jews had a presence far longer than any Arab occupier across North Africa.
The slogan, ‘Bring them Home Now’ is the most idiotic among the array of slogans (Free Gaza from Hamas is another strong contender as Hamas literally comes from within the population), as if Israel and the IDF are not working on getting back our hostages. We clearly see that hostages are being either retrieved or rescued in all conditions, as much as possible with the ’handcuffs’ still on the IDF, thanks to Bibi not willing to actually siege Gaza fully.
The actual signs should read, ‘Reclaim Gaza fully’ – because if we truly never want to see another Oct. 7th, reclaiming our land fully (eventually the 2/3rds of Arab occupier/terrorist PA-run Judea & Samaria too), and eliminating or forcefully removing the murderous occupier population is the only policy that will actually prevent more Jewish genocides.
**New Podcast Alert**
Jews Need New Leadership with Brandon Weaver; Passionate Zionist & Political Observer | Season III: Episode 5
Brandon and I get into the weeds of why both American Jewish leadership has failed Jews in America and in Israel, and why Israeli leadership needs a complete overhaul. Gantz stepping down is great, but only the first step. The sorry excuse for leadership has jerked Israel down a path of capitulation to the needs of the antisemitic West, has fueled the ease of terrorism against Jews in the Jewish homeland, and even during this war, this across the board Jewish leadership is not truly understanding the broad scope of enemies; no, it is not just Hamas that needs to be eliminated.
This episode is not for the sensitive, not for those who need everything sugar-coated, but for those who truly want to understand what went wrong and how to actually fix the grave mistakes so that another Jewish genocide will never occur.
Audio only: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2026815/15161455
Video: https://youtu.be/VlKnjXmufzY?si=owsyWDmsXBkEx2rO
*TBTN Programming Note*: I am available for speaking engagements, related to Zionism education, and what helped me transform from being anti-Israel to a proud Zionist. To date, I have spoken to Jewish groups based in Massachusetts, Ohio, and NY. If interested in booking an event, please contact me at: laureen@tbtnisrael.com
