For two dark and often hopeless years, Israelis rallied to keep the hostages in the headlines. It worked.

Posted on October 16, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
They Are Home
Matti Friedman
October 13, 2025

…At Saturday night’s rally, though no hostages had actually been released yet, the atmosphere was valedictory. The Israelis who rallied over the past two years under the banner “Bring Them Home,” and whose energies kept the hostages and their families in headlines in Israel and abroad through two dark and often hopeless years, allowed themselves to smile and cheer, waving Israeli and American flags. Trump may have been passed over by the Nobel Peace Prize committee last week, but here they waved signs reading “Trump Is Our Winner.” The two Israeli goals in the Gaza war have been to destroy Hamas as a military force and free the hostages. It became clear early on, however, that achieving both at once would be impossible, and polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of Israelis think the second goal is more important. READ MORE

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Hostage stories: “From that moment on, prayer became an inseparable part of Matan’s daily routine in the dark and dank tunnels. “As part of my routine, I prayed three times a day, morning, afternoon, and night”

Posted on October 15, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZ SHEVA
Account from captivity: ‘I demanded tefillin and prayer book and they gave them to me’
Dvir Amar
October 15, 2025

Two days after he was released from two years of brutal torture in Hamas captivity, 22-year-old IDF tanker Matan Angrest shared a shocking yet inspiring account of his time in the tunnels in Gaza. Angrest, who was abducted during a heroic battle in Nahal Oz on October 7th, 2023, recounted how he kept his spirits up with daily prayers, strong faith, and unwavering hope. “It was clear to me that I’d get out of captivity,” he said, “The place I was in was bombed, but I wasn’t hurt; it was a series of miracles…Angrest, who survived the initial explosion and was the only soldier to exit his tank alive, was abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip. His mother, Anat, shared this week that “Matan underwent very severe torture, “which included severe burns on his right arm and fingers, harm to his vision, and unlivable conditions. READ MORE

YOUTUBE IOWA NEWS Families rejoice after being reunited with loved ones released from Gaza

YOUTUBE CNBC Israeli Hostage Evyatar David Reunites With Family After Forced To Dig His Own Grave

YOUTUBE CBS Israeli hostages reunite with their families after two years in Hamas captivity

YOUTUBE Watch Rachel Goldberg-Polin at the former Hostage Square.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Handcuffed, caged, thrown in a pit: Hostages’ families describe two years of hell ‘The road for recovery is going to be a very long one’: Families of freed captives share harrowing details of their time in Gaza, from starvation to psychological torture

JPOST ‘They demanded he convert to Islam’: Rom Braslavski’s mother says son was alone for two years Psychological abuse inflicted on Israeli hostages included repeated efforts to induce him to fast during Ramadan or read the Quran in return for food and better conditions.

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The Arab states that screamed “genocide” at Israel were simultaneously deepening security ties with the IDF — because they all knew it was a lie

Posted on October 15, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON POST
Arab states expanded cooperation with Israeli military during Gaza war, files show
David Kenner
October 11, 2025

Even as key Arab states condemned the war in the Gaza Strip, they quietly expanded security cooperation with the Israeli military, leaked U.S. documents reveal. Those military ties were thrown into crisis after Israel’s September airstrike in Qatar, but could now play a key role in overseeing the nascent ceasefire in Gaza. Over the past three years, facilitated by the United States, senior military officials from Israel and six Arab countries came together for planning meetings in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL A Coordinated Squeeze Play Forced Hamas to Accept a Deal It Didn’t Want Egypt and Qatar told [Hamas leader] Hayya the deal was his last chance to end the war, according to the officials. They pressed Hamas to understand that holding the hostages was becoming a strategic liability, giving Israel a source of legitimacy to keep fighting. The next day, joined by Turkey, they warned him that if Hamas didn’t approve the plan it would be stripped of all political and diplomatic cover; Qatar and Turkey would no longer host the group’s political leadership, and Egypt would stop pressing for Hamas to have a say in Gaza’s postwar governance, the officials said.

THE TELEGRAPH Charles Lipson: Trump Has Moved the Middle East’s Tectonic Plates– It’s a nightmare for Putin, Xi, and the Mullahs All of them hated Jews and they hated the Jewish state. But that was hardly new. They passed that venomous hatred down to generations of children. It was the heart of their “educational” curriculum. If their hatred is constant, what changed to prompt the attacks on October 7? The answer was the looming prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, partnering with Israel, and isolating both the terrorists and Iran. In the months leading up to the attack, the Saudis had repeatedly hinted that they were about to conclude a deal with Israel. They had already encouraged their smaller allies to join the accords to test the local reaction. So far, so good.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | 1 Comment

Oren: “How did a group of real-estate moguls bring peace to the Middle East?”

Posted on October 14, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

CLARITY
How Three Businessmen Negotiated for Peace
Michael Oren
Oct 16, 2025

…But Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner—all adept at developing urban properties and golf resorts—seem to have succeeded where generations of aspiring peacemakers failed. How? The answer is precisely that the Trump team is not a group of Middle East experts operating under the misconception that no Arab state would make peace with Israel before the creation of a Palestinian state. Neither Trump nor his envoys subscribed to the mainstream nostrum that Israel’s response to the terrorists trying to destroy it should be to cower under anti-missile batteries…They never accepted the myth that the way to end the war was to cut off arms supplies and military aid to Israel, isolate it internationally, and expose it to charges of war crimes and genocide.READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Trump receives hero’s welcome as hostages return to Israel President Donald Trump gave a victory speech in the Knesset as the final 20 living hostages returned to Israel from Gaza on Monday, in accordance with the first phase of his plan to end the war. Israeli television stations showed a live screen, with Air Force One landing at Ben Gurion Airport on one side, and IDF vehicles carrying freed hostages… Trump was given a hero’s welcome in the Knesset, where he was met with an honor guard and current and former lawmakers gave him a lengthy standing ovation.  “The hostages are back – it feels so good to say it!” Trump said. 

YOUTUBE President Trump Addresses Israel’s Knesset Moments After Hostages Released From Gaza

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“Crowds dancing in streets expose famine hoax as terrorist leaders view ceasefire only as tactical pause”

Posted on October 14, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON TIMES
Gaza celebrates while Hamas prepares for next war
Clifford May
October 14, 2025

Gazans are celebrating. For the past few days, large crowds of healthy, energetic men, women, and children have been cheering, dancing in the streets, and chanting “Allahu Akbar!” – all recorded on their fully charged cell phones. These scenes make clear that there’s no Israeli-engineered famine in Gaza, much less a genocide. Of course, the propagandists behind these hoaxes will continue to slander Israelis. They’ll say: “Who are you going to believe – us or your lying eyes?” Their defamation campaign is intended to justify and, indeed, incite a Holocaust in the Middle East on par with the Holocaust carried out in Europe less than a century ago. READ MORE

FREE PRESS Eli Lake: The Hostages Return Home and the Lies Fall Apart Since last week’s ceasefire, Hamas’s al-Saham unit has gone house to house and dragged alleged collaborators into the street for public executions. Michael Nahum, the chief operating officer of the Center for Peace Communications, which has worked to elevate the voices of Gazans marginalized by Hamas repression, told The Free Press on Monday that he estimates at least 30 to 40 Gazans have been killed in the last 24 hours by these armed bands.

YOUTUBE Inside Gaza: The World’s Most Dangerous Battlefield: John Spencer War Expert Reveals The Shocking Truth In this episode of The Winston Marshall Show, I sit down with Colonel John Spencer, one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare, to break down the brutal realities of the Israel–Hamas war. Spencer explains how the October 7 invasion was more than a terror attack – it was a coordinated military operation, backed by Iran and linked to Hezbollah. 

FREE BEACON They Murdered Innocent Jews. Now They’re out of Israeli Prison With Millions of Dollars From the Palestinian Authority in Their Pockets. PA president Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly promised to end the authority’s pay-to-slay program, but has failed to do so

ISRAEL HAYOM Blood-soaked hands: These are the notorious killers Israel will release
One central Hamas operative designated for release is Imad Qawasmeh (52), who has been serving 16 life sentences since 2004 for involvement in a suicide bombing that killed 16 Israelis. According to the Prisoners Organization Media Office, he is one of the “leaders” of the terrorists in prison. 

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“How a ceasefire snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, ensuring the terror group survives to fight another day”

Posted on October 14, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
The Ghost of Gaza: How Hamas Survived
Gregg Roman
October 10, 2025

…The fundamental error underlying this agreement is treating Phase One and Phase Two as sequential components of a unified plan when they are incompatible frameworks forced into artificial sequencing. Phase One assumes Hamas can be a reliable partner in hostage release and governance transition. Phase Two assumes Hamas can be coerced into disarmament and permanent political marginalization. These assumptions cannot simultaneously be true. Either Hamas retains sufficient power and legitimacy to function as a governing authority capable of releasing hostages—in which case it will never agree to complete disarmament—or it has been sufficiently defeated that it lacks capacity for governance, in which case Phase One’s mechanisms become unworkable. Israel has chosen the worst of both approaches: granting Hamas legitimacy through negotiation while lacking the leverage to compel compliance with the agreement’s stated objectives. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Trump Gaza plan on verge of collapse, warns Saudi Arabia and UAE Arab and American sources have confirmed that the Sunni axis, which also includes Bahrain, has warned the White House that the Trump Gaza plan is in danger of falling apart. “As long as Hamas retains its weapons, we will not continue with the process,” the message states. Communications sent to Washington argue that the leniency shown by mediators has allowed the terrorist organization to evade its obligations.

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“While many Holocaust films focus on the atrocities committed by the Nazis, “Among Neighbors” shifts the lens to the Polish people and what occurred after the war”

Posted on October 11, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
‘Among Neighbors’: A Dark Secret Hidden in History
Ayala Or-El
October 15, 2025

“Among Neighbors,’” Yoav Potash’s new documentary, tells the story of the small Polish town of Gniewoszów and a dark secret the Polish government has been trying to conceal. The film centers on two people who lived in the town during World War II: Yaacov Goldstein, a Holocaust survivor, and Pelagia Radecka, a Polish woman…This is a lesser-known chapter of history — when some Polish civilians took part in violent acts against Jewish survivors returning home. One of the most well-documented examples is the Kielce pogrom of July 1946, in which 42 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by townspeople, police officers, and soldiers after false rumors spread that Jews had kidnapped a Christian child. READ MORE

View the trailer “Among Neighbors”

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On October 7, Roei Shalev and his girlfriend Mapal Adam hid under a truck and played dead for hours until Palestinian jihadists shot Mapal at close range.

Posted on October 11, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

I24NEWS
‘All is dead inside’: Nova massacre survivor who saw girlfriend murdered in front of him dies by suicide
October 11, 2025

Roei Shalev, who survived the October 7 massacre but saw his girlfriend murdered in front of him, died by suicide on Friday, three days after the second anniversary of the tragedy. “Please don’t be angry with me, please. No one will ever understand me, and that’s okay because you cannot understand,” he wrote in a message posted to social media, before driving off to a remote location and setting his car on fire. “I just want this suffering to end. I’m alive, but all is dead inside.” On October 7 Shalev and his girlfriend Mapal Adam were at the Nova rave, the site of that day’s worst carnage. READ MORE

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“Gaza became the first true information war: where what happened online and in the “hearts and minds” of global publics was truly as important as what transpired on the ground, if not more so”

Posted on October 10, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

FORBES
Lessons Learned From The Gaza War
Ilan Berman
October 14, 2025

…While Israel unquestionably dominated the military battlefield, Hamas masterfully controlled the larger narrative surrounding the conflict. The Islamist group, in the words of one expert, successfully managed to “delete itself” from coverage of – and discourse about – the war, despite its role in precipitating it through a campaign of atrocities on Oct. 7, 2023. It did so through an extensive, and extremely effective, campaign of information manipulation – one that was spearheaded by the group’s chief propagandist and spokesman, Abu Obeida, until his elimination in late August. Its extent, revealed not long ago in a report on Israel’s Galei Tzahal radio and subsequently covered widely in the Israeli press, was formidable, encompassing some 1,500 dedicated operatives, “propaganda command centers” embedded with every Hamas brigade and division, extensive messaging for every Hamas combat protocol, and even a “psychological warfare plan” directed at shaping the decision-making of Israeli officials.  READ MORE

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“Faced with rising antisemitism and a radical would-be mayor, New York’s Jewish artists confront a once unthinkable question: Is it time to flee?”

Posted on October 10, 2025 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Mamdani Exodus
Yoni Weinberg
October 13, 2025

… That weekend’s [WhatsApp] debate splintered the group in a way I’d never seen before. The topic: Is New York still good for the Jews, or is it time to flee? Several admitted they no longer felt safe. Some had already left town; others were making plans. They spoke of losing jobs, being disinvited from friends’ birthdays, and even being assaulted at a party for wearing a Jewish star necklace. To them, New York had already “fallen.”…As I observed the back-and-forth, I couldn’t shake one thought: Were these the same conversations our grandparents and great-grandparents had in Europe during the pogroms or in 1930s Germany as fascism rose? Those who left Berlin before the Nazis took power must have seemed alarmist to their friends and family, who looked around at a progressive city where Jews were prominent in film, theater, music, science, and business, much as they are in New York City today. READ MORE

JTA Meet the 83-year-old Jewish activist who stars in Zohran Mamdani’s campaign ads How did Petchesky come to be a loyal volunteer for Mamdani, a half-century her junior? As with many of Mamdani’s earliest Jewish supporters, the answer lies in opposition to Israel. Petchesky is a longtime critic of the country, since she first visited as a teenager in 1959. Active for the last decade in Jewish Voice for Peace the anti-Zionist organization [which describes Israel as an apartheid state and charges them with genocide in Gaza], she first met Mamdani in May 2023.

NEW YORK POST Zohran Mamdani refuses to ask Hamas to disarm, stands by Netanyahu arrest pledge Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday repeatedly refused to say that Hamas should lay down its weapons — as he stood by his promise to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to New York City.

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