WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Virtual Voyage: Beyond the Headlines - An Inside Look at the War in Israel

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum joins Abigail to provide an update on the war in Israel, especially with the recent development of the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Fleur also discusses the hostage situation, with an important caveat: this is not a prisoner exchange. There is no equivalence between Palestinian prisoners who have been imprisoned for crimes of terrorism and innocent Israeli civilians.Don’t miss this episode with crucial information about the war in Israel and what its future may look like.Follow Fleur on X here.

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the virtual voyage on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. I'm Abigail Snyder. As the war in Israel, initiated by the terrorist group Hamas, continues, I want to turn to another aspect of this war that has been a central issue in recent days, the roughly 240 hostages that Hamas took with them into Gaza when they barbarically attacked Israel on October 7th. Within the last week, you may have seen that there has been a lot of people. been a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, allowing some of the Israeli hostages to return

home. But for every one Jew returned home, Israel has had to release three Palestinian prisoners who have been imprisoned due to their terror-related offenses, including attempted murder, shooting at people, placing a bomb, and stone-throwing. This situation is dynamic, and I know it can be hard to keep up with developments, especially as different media outlets with different agendas share different versions of what is actually happening. To help us in our endeavor to know the reality of the situation there in Israel with regard to the hostages and the temporary ceasefire, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Flore Hassan Nahum, has graciously agreed to join us on today's episode. Flore, thank you for joining us here on the virtual voyage.

Thank you so much, Abigail. Thanks for having me. October 7th was a horrific day when Hamas committed atrocities, against Israeli citizens after breaking through Israel's border. Would you please summarize who Hamas is, why they started this war, and what their end goal is? Well, Hamas essentially is a terrorist organization made up of the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is a Islamic fundamentalist ideology,

which ultimately believes that anybody who isn't Muslim and even their type of Muslim is an infidel that needs to be killed. And they have this dream, dream that they can basically Islamize the entire world and make the whole world into a massive caliphate, which is ruled by Sharia law. Sharia law is a very kind of ancient law that essentially gives no rights to women, very few rights to children, a very kind of cruel violent patriarchy.

And that really is their end goal. And of course, they don't accept any type of Jews living in this country. They want Jews and Rhein. They want to ethnically cleanse Jews from the territory. And they also, and they have ethnically cleansed Christians from Gaza over the last 20 years. The population, and not just Hamas, I mean, the Palestinian Authority in general, we take a city like Bethlehem, which is predominantly Christian, 20 years ago before the Palestinians ruled Bethlehem.

There were 80% Arabs today. There's 12% Arabs. And so the ethnically cleansing of religions, which are Aunt Islam is very much part of the ideology of Hamas. They are brutally in an election and then coup took over the Gaza Strip. Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005. In 2007, they brutally took over. I mean, it was an election, but then they brutally killed all their political opponents. And they've been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2006, 2007. And under them, the unemployment has grown, poverty has grown. If you're a Hamas person, you're doing okay. If you're not a Hamas person,

you're living in squalor and poverty. So essentially, they just take care of their own people. They abandon everybody else. And they've been constantly throwing rockets at a sovereign territory of Israel since 2006, 2007. One of the atrocities committed by Hamas is that they took hostages from Israel with them back into Gaza. These people were just peacefully in their homes or at a music festival. going about their lives. Who specifically was taken back into Gaza, how many hostages were taken, and why were they taken? Well, the massacre of October 7th was the most brutal episode we've ever had in Israeli modern history. The atrocities were unimaginable. Decapitation of babies, putting babies in ovens, raping women, cutting off their breasts as they were raping them,

killing children in front of their parents, killing parents in front of their children. And then on top of that, taking with them 240 innocent civilians, including partygoers and including, you know, families, entire families. The Hamas have a very lethal terror subterranean basis, to bigger than the New York subway, just to give you some context. And they've hidden a lot of the people there. And after Israel, going on the offense, you know, which is essentially a war, to prevent this from ever happened again. It's a defensive war, of course. They were begging for a ceasefire and were willing to hand over innocent civilians in order to get the ceasefire. And so thankfully, we've managed to get out about 60, 70 people and we continue. I believe in keeping a ceasefire

as long as they're releasing innocent civilians every day. Where have these hostages been held? And what are the conditions they've had to endure? What is the level of care they've received as they've been in Hamas captivity. It's been really brutal. There are stories of kids being made to watch the movies of the atrocities, which, by the way, they filmed themselves. You know, there's a lot of massacre denial going on. And what people don't understand is that most of these savages had go-pros on them and they were recording it themselves. So the evidence is coming from them. I mean, I don't really understand what they were hoping to achieve because they must have known that Israel was going to react. They must have known that Israel was going to, you know, try and destroy their infrastructure.

Where are they being kept? Well, this morning there was evidence that this boy was saying that he'd been made to watch these movies of the atrocities with a gun point. And every time they cried, he threatened to kill them. another boy being hit by a crowd on his way somewhere. God knows what they're doing to the women. They were kept sleeping on plastic chairs, not fed properly. The elderly people were not giving their medication. One of the elderly women that came back, thank God,

was on the verge of death. They've managed to stabilize her now because she didn't have a medication. And the Red Cross refused to pass on her medication. It's another story that is less known how they've been so. completely useless in this whole thing. You have stories of parents being separated from their children just awful and most of all being kept underground for weeks and weeks and so the little girl Emily Hand that came out a couple of days ago cannot talk at a normal volume because she's scared because they kept telling

her she had to she had to be quiet so she's completely traumatized and talking in a whisper to her father. won't talk in her normal voice. So, I mean, the stories are just atrocious, terrible, and heartbreaking. Turning now to the ceasefire that just took place as we continue here on the virtual voyage on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, Fleur, explain what happened with this ceasefire and how do Israelis generally feel about this hostage exchange, which is far from equivalence since three Palestinians imprisoned for terror-related crimes have been released for every one is really well it's always the way you know we value life in a different way and they this is the conditions unfortunately this is the way it's always been I mean in the

past we've had we've released a thousand two hundred prisoners for one and so in that sense you know it's got it's gotten better the worst thing is that people try making an equivalence between the prisoners have been held all of them all of them charged with attempted murder or convicted of attempted murder and the innocent civilians including women children men young people that's the difference so there's really no equivalence at all in the exchange it's not a hostage exchange and it's not a prison exchange on one side you have innocent hostages on the other side you have prisons committed attempted murder and unfortunately you know they that they

value life of their own people much less than then we value the lives of their people and this is where we've gotten to How many hostages has Hamas released so far? And how were these hostages, these first 60 to 70 that you mentioned, how were they chosen to be the first released among the around 240 hostages that Hamas took captive into Gaza? Well, that's a great question. Every day is like we live this sick Schindler's list. They give the list in the morning.

We don't know if the list, you know, we don't know anything. And the parents are only told last minute. so that they don't get their hopes up. So that's how we're doing. I'm sure you, Fleur, have seen the videos of the hostages coming home, and maybe some of our listeners have too. Are any of the hostages' stories, especially striking? Or is there anything invisibly seeing these Jews come home that is memorable

and reflects the Jewish spirit and courage? Well, you should see how they've been received by so many people. or their communities that they come from. I mean, the love that been shown, the care by the medical stuff, the sensitivity. They only had women meeting the hostages. They gave them special noise-canceling headphones for the helicopter rides so they wouldn't be traumatized. We're the only country in the world that had to develop protocol for what to say to hostages

that are small children because it doesn't exist anywhere in the world. That tells you everything. What about the hostages who have not been released yet in this first week of the temporary ceasefire? Is there a plan to get the rest of the hostages home? Do you foresee the ceasefire continuing to be extended or potentially future ceasefires that could allow for these hostages to all return home? Of course, we all want to see all of the hostages home. One of the hostages is my friend's son, Hirsch Goldberg, Poland, who's in fact an American citizen as well. And we want to see all of them home.

And I'm in favor of extending the ceasefire. It means bringing them all home. They're all innocent lives who've been let down by the security forces of the country and for this to have happened in the first place. So I'm in favor of finding a creative way of either rescuing them or doing a ceasefire so that they can all come home. If anybody, I think anybody who had a family member in there would be saying the same thing.

and the family members have in fact been doing a great job in ensuring that this is kept high in the agenda of the government in terms of the aims of the war. Are there any concerns that Israel will not go back to its objective of destroying Hamas after the ceasefire is over? If we continue to extend the ceasefire, is that a potential problem? Well, I don't think there's a question of us are dismantling the Hamas in sense of, I don't think anybody in this country will accept to go back to their normal lives. knowing that Hamas is still there ruling the Gaza Strip on what they already did.

So I think that's already understood that that can't happen. But the question is how we're going to get rid of them? Is it going to be, you know, are they going to leave willingly? I doubt it. Are the leaders going to beg for their lives in exchange for, you know, leaving the strip? That's possible, but I don't know. I think the Arab world, the moderate Arab world could actually have a very interesting role to play in what post-Khamas Gaza looks like.

Turning to this temporary ceasefire's effect on the Israel defense forces, has the IDF been able to take advantage of this pause? Has it helped IDF soldiers potentially rest and replenish supplies? Does the ceasefire provide any benefit to the Israel defense forces? Well, that's a good question. Some people say that it does. It allows us to kind of plan the next stage. And other people say that, in fact, it kind of stopped the momentum and puts us in a more difficult position when we have to go and root these terrorists out to the south. of Gaza. So I'd like to clarify your position on the temporary ceasefire. Considering what this war

will look like after the temporary ceasefire is over, Israel is likely to be criticized, unfairly, I should add, if and when it goes back to its objective of destroying Hamas and dismantling Hamas. Should Israel negotiate a complete and utter ceasefire with Hamas as the world is calling for? The only ceasefire that we could do final ceasefires is if Hamas, if the Hamas leadership leave the strip and they dismantle themselves. And I don't think that's going to happen. So no, even the American government is not calling for us to have a permanent ceasefire. They understand. I think everybody understands that we need to get rid of Khamas and no country could live with such an existential threat on their borders. I don't think anybody doubts that this is what needs to be done.

Flore, thank you for joining us here on the virtual voyage to discuss the current war in Israel and especially the status of this temporary ceasefire and the hostages. Absolutely. And I think you're doing it. a wonderful job in getting the truth out. You know, somehow in America and in student campuses, truth has become something which is relative and it isn't. Truth is not relative. Evil is not relative.

Good is not relative. And people should just take a stance. People who kidnap babies are bad. People who decapitate babies or put them in an oven are bad. There's no excuse for terrorism. There's never an excuse for terrorism. So thank you so much for your voice, Abigail. Thanks for joining us today on the Virtual Voyage on Radio Free Hills

101.7 FM. I hope this episode has made you more aware about the current war in Israel, and I hope you will join me in praying for Israel and the Jewish people, and especially the brave members of the Israel Defense Forces and the hostages trapped in Gaza.