My Word: Parting shots and freedom

Man plans and God laughs, as the saying goes. Or in this case, God weeps. 

Three years ago, when COVID-19 was ravaging the world and it became clear to everyone how fragile life is, I, like many others, began to reassess my priorities and what was truly important. As I celebrated my 60th birthday in a global lockdown, I decided that, despite my previous vision of my future, I would like to retire at an age young enough to still enjoy my free time. This week, the time has finally arrived. 

After 35 years of very full-time employment at The Jerusalem Post, I am officially leaving. At the small but enjoyable farewell party thrown by colleagues on Sunday, I noted that I’m more the “outgoing” type than “shy and retiring.” And because I still enjoy playing with words and not just working with them, I plan to continue my weekly column and hope the Heavens aren’t snickering. 

My retirement plans included trips around the country. Israel is blessed with so many fascinating and beautiful sites. Metulla calls out to me in the North and I promised myself to join my friend’s culinary tour of Sderot in the South. 

Well, that’s not going to happen – yet. I might switch plans to volunteering to pick fruit and vegetables for farmers who are struggling after the October 7 Hamas mega-atrocity, which devastated the communities of the Negev, while the threat from Hezbollah has driven thousands from their homes on the northern border. 

My ideas for this column have also changed. Naturally, I had planned to include memories of my career and congratulate myself on having such a long run – especially since when I started in November 1988 I was assured that it was a temporary three-month job only in the In Jerusalem local paper. As we all know, plans change – or are changed. 

My positions have ranged from editing In Jerusalem, including during the First Gulf War; 10 particularly meaningful years as a prize-winning environment reporter; five stormy years as a parliamentary reporter during the Oslo years and the Rabin assassination; and the past 21 years having the privilege and pleasure of editing the far-reaching International Jerusalem Post. 

I have covered war and peace – and peace is better

I dine out on stories of an iftar meal with Jordan’s King Hussein in his palace in Amman. I also recall the royal snub of the Danish queen who stood up our group of journalists as we waited at the entrance to the palace. It was during the 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath in Lebanon and the Danish monarch had apparently been advised against meeting the Israeli press, an early sign of the changing mood throughout Europe as the anti-Israel sentiment of the European Union began to prevail. 

There was also a brief meeting with the Dalai Lama, who came to speak in honor of the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel. He gave a dawn speech to a crowd assembled on a rose-tinted mountaintop, close to Eilat. “From here, I can see Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia,” he declared. “Which shows us that borders aren’t important – unless they are between China and Tibet.” 

I have met with many presidents, prime ministers, and other dignitaries over the years. I have a lot I want to say to some political leaders today. There is no way I can ignore current events in Israel and the way that these are being interpreted elsewhere. 

Some 1,200 people were massacred by terrorists who invaded from Gaza on that black Saturday. Terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other organizations mutilated, raped, and murdered people at a rave party, on the beaches, in army bases, in small towns, and quiet agricultural communities. 

Many victims were bound together, slowly dying amid the flames that the terrorists set. By now, the reports of the beheadings and burning of even babies and toddlers are well-known. Hamas, after all, filmed themselves carrying out their satanic deeds. 

The terrorists also abducted some 220 people. The youngest, then-nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, wearing diapers. These are the hostages who were taken to Gaza. Some are being gradually released under an arrangement calling for a pause in Israel’s military operation, a release of Palestinian prisoners, and the supply of aid to Gaza (although the previous billions of dollars in aid and fuel were spent on strengthening the Hamas terror network, the underground tunnel system, and the rockets and weapons.) Last Friday, as the first 13 Israeli hostages were due to be released, the Spanish and Belgian prime ministers – Pedro Sanchez and Alexander De Croo – held an extraordinary press conference at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The two were clearly there to ensure the smooth passage of “humanitarian aid” to the Palestinians rather than the safe return of the Israeli children, mothers, and elderly women who had been brutally snatched from their homes and held hostage for seven weeks. 

I’m not sure what I would say to the two premiers. Sometimes, the pro-Palestinian political and diplomatic forces can leave me temporarily speechless. Or with words that cannot be printed in a family newspaper – even on the last day of work. It is also hard to find a fitting diplomatic response to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who – reacting on X (formally Twitter) to the return of nine-year-old Irish Israeli Emily Hand – wrote: “An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned.” 

Well, excuse me if I don’t join in with the chorus of “Amazing Grace.” Or “Kumbaya.” 

As Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen pointed out: “Emily Hand was not ‘lost,’ she was kidnapped by a terror organization worse than ISIS that murdered her stepmother.” 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is another serial offender when it comes to blind support of the Palestinians – led by terrorist regimes in both Gaza and the West Bank. Ignoring the hundreds of thousands of Israelis made homeless by the threats of Hamas and Hezbollah, Borrell told the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean that met in Barcelona on Monday: “The region could not survive another Nakba [“Catastrophe,” the Arabic term used to describe the displacement in the 1948 war], and the repercussions would be much worse than anything we have seen.”  

Here on Planet Earth, those of us who live between the River and the Sea, have a few things to point out to Borrell – not that he’s likely to listen. The “settlements,” what anywhere else would be called “communities,” are actually the brave frontlines in Judea and Samaria, a buffer zone with terrorists whose declared goal is the elimination of the entire state. The “settlements” don’t endanger Israel, any more than the communities on the Gaza border threatened Israel and the region. 

Unless Hamas and Islamic Jihad are defeated, their Iranian sponsor will put the whole world at risk. Already, Iran has been employing its Houthi proxies to attack shipping. 

Of course I feel sorry for the innocent Gazans; they are also victims of Hamas. But the crowds who swarmed across the border on October 7 to plunder, kill, and kidnap demonstrate that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are backed by murderous hordes. Similarly, those who turn out to jeer the hostages as they are being released to Israel are not innocent. Neither are those Gazans who handed Ron Krivoi over to the Hamas authorities after he managed to escape captivity. 

In return for the Israelis, and the foreign workers also snatched by Hamas, Israel agreed to release terrorists – starting with those who had planned attacks but failed. 

Public broadcaster KAN reported that one such Palestinian prisoner was refusing to be released from Israeli jail, since it would affect the economic benefits his family enjoys under the pay-for-slay program. 

The Hebrew equivalent of the phrase “Safe and sound,” is “Bari veshalem,” healthy and whole. The Israelis being brought out from captivity in Gaza are neither. They all suffer from physical and psychological harm. Most lost friends and relatives during the terrorist assault on their homes on October 7. And most have loved ones still in Hamas’s evil hands. None of us will be free until we are free of the Hamas jihadist threat. liat@jpost.com