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Actor Jason Alexander Speaks on Behalf of 9-Year-Old Hamas Hostage Ahead of World Children’s Day
Jewish actor and famed Seinfeld star Jason Alexander joined celebrities from Israel and around the world in sharing clips on social media of them speaking on behalf of some of the roughly 40 children held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.
In the video that he shared over the weekend on Instagram, Alexander showed viewers a photo of himself at 9 years old before showing a picture of Ohad Munder-Zichri, an Israeli boy who turned 9 last month while in Hamas captivity. Alexander then tried to be the young boy’s voice.
“Hi, I’m Ohad. I’m nine years old,” he said in the video clip. “I’m a football player. I have two best friends but I enjoy getting along with everyone and helping out. I don’t like to brag, but I’m really good at solving Rubik’s cubes. I wait every day to hug my father, and to go back home. Please set me free.”
In the caption for the video, Alexander wrote in part, “On behalf of the kidnapped children, I ask you — set them free, bring all the hostages back home, NOW.”
Munder-Zichri is a fourth-grader from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists along with his mother and grandparents while they were visiting his grandparents’ kibbutz Nir Oz along the border with the Gaza Strip, according to the Associated Press. The young boy’s uncle was killed in the attack.
Other celebrities who participated in the project began their video by showing a photograph of themselves as the same age of the child they spoke on behalf of, before showing an image of the hostage and trying to be their voice. Other participants included Israeli figures such as dancer Anna Aronov; musicians Meli Levi and Ivri Lider; Ukraine-born Israeli actor Mark Ivanir; Fauda co-stars Tomer Capone, Doron Ben David, and Moran Rosenblatt; and fellow actors Sasson Gabai, Odelya Halevi, Alma Zack, Daniel Gal, and Sasson Gabai.
The videos were released ahead of the United Nation’s World Children’s Day on Monday.
The project was reportedly organized by Maayan Arzi-Mlinarski who is the head of Shavot, an organization for girls, and by television personality Sivan Morag. It was made in collaboration with the Hostage Families Forum and a child welfare group.
Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7 and killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while also taking about 240 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Most of the hostages have not returned to their families and one female hostage gave birth last week while in captivity.
Also on behalf of World Children’s Day, Israel’s official X/Twitter account posted images of the roughly 40 babies and children held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“Look at each and every one of their faces. These are the babies, toddlers and children being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” read the caption accompanying the photo. “They should be with their families. Not in a dark room somewhere in Gaza. BRING THEM HOME!”
Look at each and every one of their faces.
These are the babies, toddlers and children being held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
They should be with their families.
Not in a dark room somewhere in Gaza.
BRING THEM HOME!#WorldChildrensDay #ForEveryChild pic.twitter.com/ShA2s1TQP3
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) November 20, 2023
The post Actor Jason Alexander Speaks on Behalf of 9-Year-Old Hamas Hostage Ahead of World Children’s Day first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says Eight Arrested for Suspected Links to Israel’s Mossad Spy Agency
The Mossad recruitment ad. Photo: Screenshot.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday they had arrested eight people suspected of trying to transmit the coordinates of sensitive sites and details about senior military figures to Israel’s Mossad, Iranian state media reported.
They are accused of having provided the information to the Mossad spy agency during Israel’s air war on Iran in June, when it attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and killed top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
A Guards statement alleged that the suspects had received specialized training from Mossad via online platforms. It said they were apprehended in northeastern Iran before carrying out their plans, and that materials for making launchers, bombs, explosives and booby traps had been seized.
State media reported earlier this month that Iranian police had arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the 12-day war with Israel, though they did not say what these people had been suspected of doing.
Security forces conducted a campaign of widespread arrests and also stepped up their street presence during the brief war that ended in a US-brokered ceasefire.
Iran has executed at least eight people in recent months, including nuclear scientist Rouzbeh Vadi, hanged on August 9 for passing information to Israel about another scientist killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Human rights groups say Iran uses espionage charges and fast-tracked executions as tools for broader political repression.
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Body of Idan Shtivi, Murdered on Oct. 7, Retrieved from Gaza in Special IDF Operation
Idan Shtivi. Photo: Courtesy of the family
i24 News – The body of Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old murdered by Palestinian jihadists at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, was recovered in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet in central Gaza, it was cleared for publication on Saturday.
Shtivi’s remains were returned to Israel alongside the body of Ilan Weiss, another hostage killed during the October 7 massacre.
“Idan Shtivi was abducted from the Tel Gama area and brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists after acting to rescue and evacuate others from the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023. He was 28 years old at the time of his death,” read an IDF press release.
“Following an identification process conducted at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, along with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters notified his family.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shviti “was a gifted student of sustainability and governance, and a courageous individual” who acted heroically on October 7, helping others flee.
“He was killed in the process and his body was abducted to Gaza by Hamas. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences to the Shtivi family. So far, 207 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive. We will continue to act tirelessly and decisively to bring back all our hostages—living and deceased.”
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Woman Stabbed at Ottawa Grocery Store in Latest Antisemitic Attack
A social media post by the alleged attacker, Joseph Rooke of Cornwall, Ontario. Photo: Screenshot via i24
i24 News – The stabbing of a Jewish woman at an Ottawa grocery by a man with a long history of antisemitic posts on social media, the latest antisemitic hate crime in Canada, sparked outrage and prompted condemnation from officials including the prime minister.
Both the victim and the attacker are in their 70s. The woman is reportedly in serious condition.
The suspect was identified as Joseph Rooke, who has authored a series of lengthy rambling screeds on social media, ranting against Israel and Jews.
“Judaism is the world’s oldest cult,” he writes in one post, going on to say “over time jews have become insidious in governments, businesses, media conglomerates, and educational institutions in order to do what they do better than anyone else. Jews are the world’s masters of propaganda, gaslighting, demonization, demagoguery, and outright lying. Using their collective wealth they have become masters of reprisal.”
“I am under no obligation whatsoever, legal, moral, or otherwise, to like jews and I do not. If that means I meet the jewish definition of an anti-semite, so be it.”
Canada has seen a steep spike in antisemitic attacks over the past two years, including a recent incident in Montreal where a Hasidic Jew was beaten in front on his children.
After Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the incident, many, including former Israel’s ambassador the US Michael Oren, pointed out that Carney’s rhetoric and policies contribute to the increasing insecurity of Canada’s Jewish community through uncritical embrace of outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that Israel and its supporters were guilty of the worst crimes against humanity.