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Hamas’s Grotesque Parading of Hostage Bodies Shows True Face of Their Vile Ideology
A drone view shows Palestinians and terrorists gathering around Red Cross vehicles on the day Hamas hands over the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
This week, the world witnessed one of the most macabre displays of cruelty in recent history, adding insult to injury to the horrors we all saw on Oct. 7, 2023. In the heart of Gaza, Hamas staged a grotesque ceremony, parading the bodies of four murdered Israeli hostages — 32-year-old loving mother Shiri Bibas and her two gorgeous children, Ariel (4) and Kfir (9 months), along with 83-year-old peace activist Oded Lifshitz — before the cameras, flanked by masked terrorists brandishing assault rifles alongside cheering Gazans.
To be clear, this was not about returning remains to grieving families. It was a calculated, sadistic performance deliberately designed to inflict maximum pain and suffering on those who had spent over 500 days praying for the safe return of their loved ones. It was barbarism incarnate, a pageant of death, an orgy of evil, orchestrated by men who claim to represent God but whose actions reveal them as the ultimate desecrators of His name.
There was no tactical necessity for this display. The hostages were already dead. Hamas could have simply handed their remains to the Red Cross quietly, as any group with even a shred of human decency would have done.
Instead, they turned the return of these four innocent victims into a piece of monstrous theater, ensuring that every Israeli, every Jew, and, frankly, every person with even a shred of humanity felt a knife twist in the open wound of their anguish. The intention was clear: to deepen the grief, to prolong the suffering, and to display their utter contempt for human life.
Contrast this with the core principles of Judaism, the foundation of all monotheistic faiths — including Islam. The Torah teaches that human dignity (kavod habriyot) is paramount.
As the medieval commentator Rashi famously notes at the beginning of Parshat Mishpatim, the Torah’s placement of civil and social justice laws immediately after the Revelation at Sinai highlights that ethical treatment of fellow human beings is not secondary to divine worship — it is its very manifestation. How we treat others is a direct reflection of our relationship with God.
In Jewish tradition, even the remains of one’s enemies must be treated with dignity. The Torah commands (Deut. 21:23) that those executed for capital crimes must be buried immediately and respectfully — “For he that is hanged is a curse unto God.”
Rashi, citing the Talmud (Sanhedrin 46b), explains that every human being is created in the image of God (tzelem Elokim), and leaving a body hanging is a desecration of God’s dignity. The analogy is that of a king whose twin is publicly hanged — onlookers might mistakenly assume it reflects upon the king himself.
And if the Torah demands respect even for the worst criminals, how much more so for innocent civilians, for women, for children?
But Hamas, and by extension radical Islam, operates on an entirely different value system. To them, human life is expendable — both the lives of their enemies and their own. They strap suicide vests to teenagers, use hospitals as shields, and celebrate mass murder as divine service. Their god is not the Merciful One; it is a bloodthirsty idol that revels in human misery.
And yet, they dare present themselves as a religious movement. How can an organization that parades corpses and blasts triumphant music over coffins claim to be a messenger of God?
How can a movement that holds hostages for political leverage, tortures them, and then defiles their bodies speak in the language of faith?
This is not religion. It is a grotesque mockery of faith, an abomination in the eyes of any true believer.
Then there is Qatar, the supposed ‘mediator’ between Hamas and Israel, but in reality, the host of Hamas’s leadership and the financier of their operations. Qatar would have the world believe it is an “honest broker,” a neutral party seeking peace.
But what honest broker would facilitate such a monstrous display? What mediator with even a shred of integrity would stand by while the bodies of slaughtered children were exploited for propaganda? Where is their outrage?
Even the United Nations, an institution notoriously biased against Israel, was appalled by this latest act of barbarity. UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the handover, calling the display of bodies “abhorrent and cruel” and declaring that it blatantly violated international law.
“Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” he said in a statement.
The truth is that Qatar is not a mediator. It is an enabler. It is the financial and political patron of Hamas, providing them safe haven in Doha’s luxury hotels while their foot soldiers in Gaza carry out atrocities.
If Qatar had any real interest in peace, it would not be shielding Hamas leadership – it would be expelling them. If Qatar had any concern for human life, it would be pressuring Hamas to release hostages alive rather than supporting their murder and the humiliation of their corpses.
Qatar’s duplicity must be exposed, and real consequences must follow when this war is finally over. Their assets in the West should be frozen. Their privileged status as a US non-NATO ally must be revoked. And the US military base in Doha should be relocated to a Gulf state that genuinely seeks to consign radical Islam to the dustbin of history.
If the world truly wishes to rid the region of radical Islam, Qatar must be forced to choose a side: civilization or barbarism. There is a sickness in our world, and it has many enablers. Hamas is the disease, but its financiers, apologists, and media cheerleaders are the vectors.
And in the face of this evil, there can be no moral equivocating. There is no ‘both sides’ when one side parades the corpses of murdered babies as trophies. There is no ‘cycle of violence’ when one side revels in death while the other seeks to protect life.
The return of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz should have been an occasion for solemnity and mourning. Instead, Hamas turned it into a grotesque spectacle, a final act of cruelty inflicted upon those they had already murdered.
The world must take note. This is what radical Islam represents. This is the true face of Hamas, and the many in Gaza who love them and support their vile ideology.
And those who stand by, those who refuse to call out this evil, those who continue to treat Hamas as anything other than the monstrous death cult that it is — they are also complicit.
Editor’s note: The Israeli military said on Friday that one of the bodies released by Hamas that was supposed to be Shiri Bibas did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza. Bibas’s status is currently unknown.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
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