Every time we hear of another hostage in Gaza that the IDF rescued, it feels like a piece of our soul begins to heal.
On Tuesday, the IDF announced the rescue of Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a Bedouin-Israeli father of eleven who was kidnapped on Oct. 7 while working as a guard in Kibbutz Magen, near the Gaza border. Alkadi was found alone in a tunnel in southern Gaza, having endured weeks of isolation, confined to total darkness, and forced to witness a fellow hostage die beside him.
Watching the videos of Alkadi's family rushing to greet him in the hospital, seeing him reunited with his brother and his children – one of whom was just two months old when he was kidnapped – was profoundly moving.
After his rescue, Alkadi told the media, "Suddenly, I hear someone outside the door speaking in Hebrew. I didn't believe it, I didn't believe it. Thank you so much. This is thanks to our army; they do sacred work, they risked their lives."
His words cut through the noise, especially at a time when the Jewish state is being gaslighted by pro-Hamas activists and wrongly labeled a "colonial" or "ethno-nationalist" project. For too many years, we've had to combat the apartheid libel, where the pro-Palestinian movement has hijacked the racist and discriminatory system that existed in South Africa to create false parallels with the plight of Palestinians today. The anti-Israel/pro-Hamas movement knows only how to exploit the struggles of others, doing absolutely nothing actually to advance the lives of the Palestinian people.
On Oct. 7, a Muslim man was kidnapped by radical Islamists in the name of "resistance." He was held hostage by those same Islamists for 326 days until Jewish soldiers risked everything to rescue him. Then, those Jewish soldiers brought him to a hospital, where a religious Jewish doctor treated him. This is the essence of Israeli society. While life in Israel is far from perfect, and minorities face challenges like anywhere else, Israel, at its core, cares about all its people.
Watching Alkadi return home felt like a piece of our collective soul was mended. His kidnapping broke our hearts, not because he was Jewish, but because he was one of us. Now, mere hours after his rescue, Alkadi reminds the world that there are still more hostages in Gaza who must be saved. Here, a rescued hostage is immediately showing concern for other hostages because, under Hamas captivity, your religion does not matter.
On Oct. 7, both Arabs and Jews were victims of Hamas's brutality. Both have suffered tremendously under Islamic fundamentalism. Our society is not perfect, and both Arab-Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza have legitimate grievances that must be addressed. But when you gaslight an entire country, you also harm the minorities who live there. By whitewashing what Hamas did on Oct. 7 to people of all faiths and backgrounds, you are normalizing the actions of terrorists and making violence, instead of peace and diplomacy, a viable option.
There are still 108 hostages in Gaza, including two Arab Israelis. We will bring all of them back home.
