Everyone wants the war in Gaza to end. The reason the war is not over is because about 50 people are still being held hostage by Hamas. Today on Honestly, Coleman Hughes sits down with three hostage families to discuss what they think is the best way to bring their family members home.
The welfare of the group (in this case, Israel) must take prioroty over the welfare of a few individuals (in this care, the hostages). My heart goes out to the hostage families, but this is the most sane way to deal with the insanity of Hamas. If the hostages die, it will be for a very noble cause: the long-term security of Israel.
Wow, are you representing Hamas here? After such a set of interviews with those whose loved ones are at this moment still being held hostage, it's hard to understand such callousness in any other way. 'Holocaust 2.0', indeed! Where exactly do you intend to 'move on' to?
What do you think Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood have been doing for the last twenty years? They have spent over $200 billion on a campaign to infiltrate the West, on college campuses, buying real estate, and investing in companies all around the world. Why? To conquer the West, to bring it down, and to impose Islam and Sharia Law. Look at London, look at France, look at Germany. The far-left Democrats here in the US, like Tlaib and Omar, are not shy in saying this; they say it openly. All this started long before October 7th. Israel's destruction of Gaza is a lesson to any country that wants to try this again. The message is clear: it's better to come to the table and discuss peace than to start another war!
Qatar is the biggest financial supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood (including Hamas) and has been for decades. What they are not is 'Western', they are just good at playing both sides.
My comment is not specific to this article but is very important. PLEASE provide transcripts, full or edited, for all videos of lengths greater than 10 minutes. Many of us are voracious and accomplished readers who do not have the time and/or inclination to watch your podcasts that generally take between 1-2 hours. I really want to learn about these hostage family views, but not enough to plant myself for an hour. Also, I don’t like breaking it up in parts either. Just remember, there are a significant % of folks that don’t love podcasts.
You said, "No opinion [about this war] matters more than those of the families whose loved ones ... are living in Hamas terror tunnels." So, if my loved ones died in a hurricane, would that gift me with a more authoritative opinion on climate change? Victims have no more wisdom than anybody else.
Let me say again, Israel has been & will always be between a rock & a hard place. Nine hundred young Israeli soldiers, a citizen army, have died inorder to free living hostages along with an equal number of cadavers. It's illogical unless your values place life over death & the sanctity of burying the dead is of paramount importance. The Palestinian Beasts understand this & cruelly use this to their advantage. Any other country including the U.S. if attacked on Oct. 7th the way Israel was attacked would have wiped Gaza & Iran off the face of the earth. Here's a bit of history. The allies bombed Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Koln to such devastation that hundreds of thousands of "civilians" were killed. Of course following those raids America provided the survivors with food trucks, air lifts & medical care. It was the humanistic thing to do, right? So what's the difference? It's all about the Jews. Maybe & it's a questionable maybe if the Palestinians can be taught to value life & respect others, then perhaps there would be the opportunity for peace but don't hold your breath.
Yes, it is all about the Jews. Those of us who claim to love God, the truth, or all that is decent. Your choice, have no excuse but to stand with with the people of Israel.
At the end of the interview, Coleman implies that the only reason for ending the war is parents' selfish desire to get their children back, even though his first interviewee made a perfectly cogent argument that it could be an effective strategy to the long term advantage of Israel.
Also, it would be interesting to ask the final Trump-loving interviewee if she supports Trump's proposal to kick out all the Palestinians and turn Gaza into the "Riviera of the Mediterranean". If people are in favor of ethnic cleansing (or whatever you want to call it), let's get them to be open about it.
Coleman Hughes is great, but this particular interview came off as very biased.
Why is it so difficult to talk of ethnic cleansing? After all, the Palestinians and their Arab allies have been talking about it since before Israel's establishment. They even tried to carry it out a few times. It continues today, in the form of 'from the river to the sea', and seems to be part of accepted discourse. Why the double standard?
The 2-state solution is long past its sell-by date, so what else would you propose?
To solve a problem, it's best to involve those who have skin in the game. On the other hand, if the problem is highly personal and emotional, emotional thinking isn't likely to produce the best solution, especially in the long term.
It's frustrating that neither Hughes nor his interviewees (at least the last two) express any regard for the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians. Judging from this conversation, only Israeli lives matter. I know there are many caveats to be made about Hamas and human shields, etc. But you could at least make an effort to recognize that the sanctity of life applies to Palestinian civilians too. Please interview Andrew Sullivan on this topic.
Crocodile tears and hypocrisy. When did we hear you mourn for the millions of Arabs killed and being killed to this very moment by other Arabs? But, Jews are news. If it involves the Jews, reality and history are irrelevant. Like the Arabs say, " Itbakh al Yahud!" . " Murder the Jews". Ever heard of it?
Iran used children to detonate mines ahead of the soldiers' advance. Gazan mothers extoll martyrdom for their children. West Bank families were paid by the PA for their suicidal teenagers' bombings slaughtering Jews.
Moreover, only Hamas is responsible - and eager- for civilian deaths. It is how they planned their war. They started a war against a sovereign country , riding on the lives of their willing, enthusiastic civilians and their children. Sinwar said he expected 100,000 civilian casualties.
When your small understanding and bias against the Jews begins to comprehend the nature of pure evil and of your blind prejudice dressed as very selective compassion, you will become a bit more intelligent.
Crocodile tears and hypocrisy. When did we hear you mourn for the millions of Arabs killed and being killed to this very moment by other Arabs? But, Jews are news. If it involves the Jews, reality and history are irrelevant. Like the Arabs say, " Itbakh al Yahud!" . " Murder the Jews". Ever heard of it?
Iran used children to detonate mines ahead of the soldiers' advance. Gazan mothers extoll martyrdom for their children. West Bank families were paid by the PA for their suicidal teenagers' bombings slaughtering Jews.
Moreover, only Hamas is responsible - and eager- for civilian deaths. It is how they planned their war. They started a war against a sovereign country , riding on the lives of their willing, enthusiastic civilians and their children. Sinwar said he expected 100,000 civilian casualties.
When your small understanding and bias against the Jews begins to comprehend the nature of pure evil and of your blind prejudice dressed as very selective conpassion, you will become a bit more intelligent.
I think if you had a child taken hostage in a tunnel for over 600 days, you would be more focused on that than anything else. It's interesting to see how people always ask that of the Israelis, but no one ever asks the Palestinians what they think of the poor Israelis who were butchered, the ones who lost two out of three kids, or the kids who now have no parents. Let's remember who started this war and who is using which kids as collateral damage. War is a terrible thing; it's the worst thing on earth, which is why it's best not to start one.
But there would be no “death and suffering of Palestinian civilians “ if their elected rulers had not carried out Oct. 7. And I have not heard a peep of condemnation for their Hamas atrocities since. And despite huge monetary rewards offered for information about the hostages, not one “innocent Palestinian civilian “ has come forward….not one!
Did we express “regard for the death and suffering “ of the German civilians on WW2, or the Japanese? Or Koreans in that war, or Vietnamese in That war?
How many Palestinians emotionally support the beasts? How many NON- Hamas Palestinians actually participated in Oct. 7th in that they raped, burned children alive- well you get the picture? If there was a Palestinian State on the West Bank & they held open & free elections today, would Hamas win? Would you wish that your neighbors were Palestinian Hamas supporting Beasts? Would you consider that Hamas may just be the Palestinian military wing! It's 1945 & how much compassion should Russians, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Norwegians have for das Deutsche Nazi Volk? I would think, not much. Do you believe that China & Korea had much compassion for the Japanese? In short there's Disney Land & then there's reality.
"People" break into your home & rape your wife, daughter & mother. Would you call them lovers? They decapitate your son & father. Would you call them humanists? They place your infant child or grandchild in a microwave. Would you call them chefs, pedagogical? Here's some thoughts. I'd call them demons, savages, ogres, brutes, monsters, swine, fiends, wicked, monstrosities, barbarians & my favorite untermenschen! Some might consider them simply supporters of Hamas! Progroms are what Beasts excel at & yes they are Beasts!
According to the Koran (in 3 places), Jews are the 'sons of pigs and apes'. For Muslims, the Koran is the direct word of Allah, and they take religion far more seriously than we do in the West. If you want to do away with dehumanization, how about starting there?
After Hamas invaded Israel, a large number of "citizens" joined the attack and raped and pillaged southern Israel.
Hamas only wears uniforms for photo-ops. When they fight, they wear civilian clothing and hide amongst the women and children. This is, of course, a violation of the Geneva Convention. It is often impossible, though, to determine who is Hamas and who is not.
This is why it is difficult for Israel to kill only active soldiers. Though they do more than any other country's military has ever done in history to try.
What Palestine did on October 7... yes, "beasts" is far too kind a description. And the notion that "citizens" don't support it is hard to agree with. They are indoctrinated from birth to hate the Jews more than love life.
They have been transformed into beasts by their elected leaders and indoctrinators. They have been dehumanized, but not by people who support a Jewish right to exist.
This war would have ended a long time ago if Hamas sent the hostages back to Israel. Now, Hamas will never rule Gaza again and people will stop crying “famine” and “genocide” because Hamas won’t be able to take all of the humanitarian aid and use innocent Gazans as human shields.
I am skeptical this will work. If you can determine who is "innocent Gazan" and who is Hamas or fully supports Hamas in a population of more than a million within an area about the size of Philadelphia, it could work.
But that's not the reality of the situation. Hamas thrives because it hides so well and because the population is thoroughly indoctrinated. The only way to take Gaza is to conquer it. Which is exactly what Hamas wants, because they know the media will be outraged.
This war has been going on for 77 years. Iran and its proxies will never choose peace. Their concept of "cease-fire" is waiting until they can rearm and build new tunnels to hide in.
I'll have to go listen to the discussion. But, IMHO, I would assume the Israeli government has weighed the decision to never allow this to happen again vs. getting the hostage back at all costs or somewhere in the middle.
Transcript, please.
The welfare of the group (in this case, Israel) must take prioroty over the welfare of a few individuals (in this care, the hostages). My heart goes out to the hostage families, but this is the most sane way to deal with the insanity of Hamas. If the hostages die, it will be for a very noble cause: the long-term security of Israel.
The hostages are dead. We Jews need to move on to avoid Holocaust 2.0. Israel's utter destruction of Gaza has done us no favors.
Wow, are you representing Hamas here? After such a set of interviews with those whose loved ones are at this moment still being held hostage, it's hard to understand such callousness in any other way. 'Holocaust 2.0', indeed! Where exactly do you intend to 'move on' to?
What do you think Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood have been doing for the last twenty years? They have spent over $200 billion on a campaign to infiltrate the West, on college campuses, buying real estate, and investing in companies all around the world. Why? To conquer the West, to bring it down, and to impose Islam and Sharia Law. Look at London, look at France, look at Germany. The far-left Democrats here in the US, like Tlaib and Omar, are not shy in saying this; they say it openly. All this started long before October 7th. Israel's destruction of Gaza is a lesson to any country that wants to try this again. The message is clear: it's better to come to the table and discuss peace than to start another war!
To be honest Qatar is 'Western' de-Islamized culture that wants Israel and all capitalists in grand union in next 10 years.
Qatar is the biggest financial supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood (including Hamas) and has been for decades. What they are not is 'Western', they are just good at playing both sides.
My comment is not specific to this article but is very important. PLEASE provide transcripts, full or edited, for all videos of lengths greater than 10 minutes. Many of us are voracious and accomplished readers who do not have the time and/or inclination to watch your podcasts that generally take between 1-2 hours. I really want to learn about these hostage family views, but not enough to plant myself for an hour. Also, I don’t like breaking it up in parts either. Just remember, there are a significant % of folks that don’t love podcasts.
Say it again! Please provide transcripts. Please .
What he said. 👆🏽
You said, "No opinion [about this war] matters more than those of the families whose loved ones ... are living in Hamas terror tunnels." So, if my loved ones died in a hurricane, would that gift me with a more authoritative opinion on climate change? Victims have no more wisdom than anybody else.
Hurricanes took place long before your "climate change" was invented.
In any event, you're talking about "victimhood," a cool college major but a vapid text next to the moral validity of Coleman Hughes.
Thank you, Bari and Coleman and everyone else at the FP for not forgetting about the hostages.
Let me say again, Israel has been & will always be between a rock & a hard place. Nine hundred young Israeli soldiers, a citizen army, have died inorder to free living hostages along with an equal number of cadavers. It's illogical unless your values place life over death & the sanctity of burying the dead is of paramount importance. The Palestinian Beasts understand this & cruelly use this to their advantage. Any other country including the U.S. if attacked on Oct. 7th the way Israel was attacked would have wiped Gaza & Iran off the face of the earth. Here's a bit of history. The allies bombed Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Koln to such devastation that hundreds of thousands of "civilians" were killed. Of course following those raids America provided the survivors with food trucks, air lifts & medical care. It was the humanistic thing to do, right? So what's the difference? It's all about the Jews. Maybe & it's a questionable maybe if the Palestinians can be taught to value life & respect others, then perhaps there would be the opportunity for peace but don't hold your breath.
Yes, it is all about the Jews. Those of us who claim to love God, the truth, or all that is decent. Your choice, have no excuse but to stand with with the people of Israel.
At the end of the interview, Coleman implies that the only reason for ending the war is parents' selfish desire to get their children back, even though his first interviewee made a perfectly cogent argument that it could be an effective strategy to the long term advantage of Israel.
Also, it would be interesting to ask the final Trump-loving interviewee if she supports Trump's proposal to kick out all the Palestinians and turn Gaza into the "Riviera of the Mediterranean". If people are in favor of ethnic cleansing (or whatever you want to call it), let's get them to be open about it.
Coleman Hughes is great, but this particular interview came off as very biased.
Why is it so difficult to talk of ethnic cleansing? After all, the Palestinians and their Arab allies have been talking about it since before Israel's establishment. They even tried to carry it out a few times. It continues today, in the form of 'from the river to the sea', and seems to be part of accepted discourse. Why the double standard?
The 2-state solution is long past its sell-by date, so what else would you propose?
"Biased," you say? Shouldn't we all hope to be just half as biased in this case?
To solve a problem, it's best to involve those who have skin in the game. On the other hand, if the problem is highly personal and emotional, emotional thinking isn't likely to produce the best solution, especially in the long term.
The topic of terror --- as in October 7 --- is personal and emotional. As it should be.
So very true!
It's frustrating that neither Hughes nor his interviewees (at least the last two) express any regard for the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians. Judging from this conversation, only Israeli lives matter. I know there are many caveats to be made about Hamas and human shields, etc. But you could at least make an effort to recognize that the sanctity of life applies to Palestinian civilians too. Please interview Andrew Sullivan on this topic.
It seems clear from this comment and another you have made, you are not to be taken seriously, i.e. as an honest person.
Replying to Eric Runquist
Crocodile tears and hypocrisy. When did we hear you mourn for the millions of Arabs killed and being killed to this very moment by other Arabs? But, Jews are news. If it involves the Jews, reality and history are irrelevant. Like the Arabs say, " Itbakh al Yahud!" . " Murder the Jews". Ever heard of it?
Iran used children to detonate mines ahead of the soldiers' advance. Gazan mothers extoll martyrdom for their children. West Bank families were paid by the PA for their suicidal teenagers' bombings slaughtering Jews.
Moreover, only Hamas is responsible - and eager- for civilian deaths. It is how they planned their war. They started a war against a sovereign country , riding on the lives of their willing, enthusiastic civilians and their children. Sinwar said he expected 100,000 civilian casualties.
When your small understanding and bias against the Jews begins to comprehend the nature of pure evil and of your blind prejudice dressed as very selective compassion, you will become a bit more intelligent.
Crocodile tears and hypocrisy. When did we hear you mourn for the millions of Arabs killed and being killed to this very moment by other Arabs? But, Jews are news. If it involves the Jews, reality and history are irrelevant. Like the Arabs say, " Itbakh al Yahud!" . " Murder the Jews". Ever heard of it?
Iran used children to detonate mines ahead of the soldiers' advance. Gazan mothers extoll martyrdom for their children. West Bank families were paid by the PA for their suicidal teenagers' bombings slaughtering Jews.
Moreover, only Hamas is responsible - and eager- for civilian deaths. It is how they planned their war. They started a war against a sovereign country , riding on the lives of their willing, enthusiastic civilians and their children. Sinwar said he expected 100,000 civilian casualties.
When your small understanding and bias against the Jews begins to comprehend the nature of pure evil and of your blind prejudice dressed as very selective conpassion, you will become a bit more intelligent.
I think if you had a child taken hostage in a tunnel for over 600 days, you would be more focused on that than anything else. It's interesting to see how people always ask that of the Israelis, but no one ever asks the Palestinians what they think of the poor Israelis who were butchered, the ones who lost two out of three kids, or the kids who now have no parents. Let's remember who started this war and who is using which kids as collateral damage. War is a terrible thing; it's the worst thing on earth, which is why it's best not to start one.
But there would be no “death and suffering of Palestinian civilians “ if their elected rulers had not carried out Oct. 7. And I have not heard a peep of condemnation for their Hamas atrocities since. And despite huge monetary rewards offered for information about the hostages, not one “innocent Palestinian civilian “ has come forward….not one!
Did we express “regard for the death and suffering “ of the German civilians on WW2, or the Japanese? Or Koreans in that war, or Vietnamese in That war?
How many Palestinians emotionally support the beasts? How many NON- Hamas Palestinians actually participated in Oct. 7th in that they raped, burned children alive- well you get the picture? If there was a Palestinian State on the West Bank & they held open & free elections today, would Hamas win? Would you wish that your neighbors were Palestinian Hamas supporting Beasts? Would you consider that Hamas may just be the Palestinian military wing! It's 1945 & how much compassion should Russians, Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Norwegians have for das Deutsche Nazi Volk? I would think, not much. Do you believe that China & Korea had much compassion for the Japanese? In short there's Disney Land & then there's reality.
You are right. It is an insult to true beasts, which rarely kill for pleasure.
"People" break into your home & rape your wife, daughter & mother. Would you call them lovers? They decapitate your son & father. Would you call them humanists? They place your infant child or grandchild in a microwave. Would you call them chefs, pedagogical? Here's some thoughts. I'd call them demons, savages, ogres, brutes, monsters, swine, fiends, wicked, monstrosities, barbarians & my favorite untermenschen! Some might consider them simply supporters of Hamas! Progroms are what Beasts excel at & yes they are Beasts!
The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have dehumanized the Palestinians for decades.
According to the Koran (in 3 places), Jews are the 'sons of pigs and apes'. For Muslims, the Koran is the direct word of Allah, and they take religion far more seriously than we do in the West. If you want to do away with dehumanization, how about starting there?
Not only Jews, but we are first, of course!
After Hamas invaded Israel, a large number of "citizens" joined the attack and raped and pillaged southern Israel.
Hamas only wears uniforms for photo-ops. When they fight, they wear civilian clothing and hide amongst the women and children. This is, of course, a violation of the Geneva Convention. It is often impossible, though, to determine who is Hamas and who is not.
This is why it is difficult for Israel to kill only active soldiers. Though they do more than any other country's military has ever done in history to try.
What Palestine did on October 7... yes, "beasts" is far too kind a description. And the notion that "citizens" don't support it is hard to agree with. They are indoctrinated from birth to hate the Jews more than love life.
They have been transformed into beasts by their elected leaders and indoctrinators. They have been dehumanized, but not by people who support a Jewish right to exist.
This war would have ended a long time ago if Hamas sent the hostages back to Israel. Now, Hamas will never rule Gaza again and people will stop crying “famine” and “genocide” because Hamas won’t be able to take all of the humanitarian aid and use innocent Gazans as human shields.
I am skeptical this will work. If you can determine who is "innocent Gazan" and who is Hamas or fully supports Hamas in a population of more than a million within an area about the size of Philadelphia, it could work.
But that's not the reality of the situation. Hamas thrives because it hides so well and because the population is thoroughly indoctrinated. The only way to take Gaza is to conquer it. Which is exactly what Hamas wants, because they know the media will be outraged.
This war has been going on for 77 years. Iran and its proxies will never choose peace. Their concept of "cease-fire" is waiting until they can rearm and build new tunnels to hide in.
I'll have to go listen to the discussion. But, IMHO, I would assume the Israeli government has weighed the decision to never allow this to happen again vs. getting the hostage back at all costs or somewhere in the middle.