This week we’ve decided to highlight the difference between how both President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have put aside ego and narrow political interests to prioritize and save lives, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu prioritizes personal ego and political gain at the expense of his own citizens. Regardless of whether you prefer Biden or Trump, both deserve credit. We are all aware of Donald Trump’s ego and Biden’s current desire to leave a positive legacy, but both have chosen to work together, putting aside personal egos and political differences, and agreeing to share credit to push a hostage deal over the finish line before Trump takes office.

The fact that Trump's representative, Steve Witkoff, is present alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the negotiations is both unusual and important. Witkoff’s presence ensures that promises (and threats) made by the current administration represent promises of both administrations. Prioritizing substance over ego also sends a strong signal to Bibi, his political allies, Hamas, Iran, Turkey, Qatar and all other countries in the region where Hamas leaders are welcome or may seek safe haven.  

On the Israeli side, soldiers are risking their lives every day to try and find save their fellow citizens held in captivity; and all, but a small minority made up primarily of political hacks and messianic nut-jobs, are doing whatever they can to keep the hostage issue front and center. But Bibi and the members of his democratically elected coalition are doing all they can to shift the blame for their failure and to stay in power until they succeed.

In the meantime, the coalition is raiding the Israeli treasury to provide jobs to friends and supporters; increasing the national debt over and above the needs of war and reconstruction; systematically dismantling every competing source of power regardless of the consequences; and doing everything in their power to fragment the population into competing groups.

These are serious accusations that we are making, but we are not the only the only ones who see this. We hear it daily in the streets from people on all sides of the political divide - Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Israelis and Druze-Israelis. We hear it from people who are totally secular, religious Jews (the so-called knitted-kippot/yarmulkes), and even ultra-orthodox Haredi.

This week we focus on the video with signs of life from Liri Albag, 19, one of the 100 hostages being held in Gaza that Hamas released over the weekend. We then summarize the additional events of the past week like the possible end of UNRWA operations, the latest corruption scandal in Israel, the continued spread of antisemitism worldwide, and an organized attempt to terrorize young Israelis who served in the IDF traveling overseas that could easily spread to young Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The video shows Liri, 19, in what appears to be some kind of military uniform, her eyes gaunt and haunted, and her mental state apparent.

“This is not the Liri we know” her parents said about the video of their daughter, and said her “difficult mental state is evident” as it appears in the three-and-a-half-minute video, where she appeals to government to work on hostage deal “as if your children were there”.

The timing of the three-and-a-half-minute-long video is not accidental; the video was not dated, although Liri stated in it that she has been held for over 450 days, which indicates that the video that it was filmed recently.

Albag, a surveillance soldier, was stationed at the Nahal Oz military base close to the Gaza border when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured into Israel from the Palestinian enclave. Fifteen surveillance soldiers were killed in the onslaught, and Albag was abducted to Gaza along with six others.

There doesn’t appear to be any movement in the negotiations to free hostages being held by Hamas - now 450 days! So this week we focus on a new report presented to the United Nations documenting the conditions of those that were being held, released, and subsequently treated in Israel. We have a call to action that is simple - but might take you out of your comfort zone.

Engineer with a specialty in chemistry and a background in robotics. Olah Hadasha moving to Yokneam in January.