Hamas just reminded us why Jews fight.
Starved, tortured, and still alive — these hostages are not just victims. They are a wake-up call to Jewish courage, unity, and purpose.
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This is a guest essay by Adam Hummel, a lawyer in Toronto.
Hamas has just released images of two Israeli hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavki — Jewish sons, brothers, fellow human beings — who appear emaciated, starving, broken, their bodies bearing the cruelty of their captors.
More than 665 days of torment. More than 665 days of darkness. More than 665 days of diminishing hope.
They are not just hostages; they are symbols of why we fight, living proof of the barbarity of an enemy that seeks our annihilation, who weaponizes suffering to fracture the soul of the Jewish People. Western leaders may think that the Palestinians want a state; they do not! They want an anti-state! They want the destruction of the Jewish state.
This enemy is not guided by politics, nor restrained by humanity. Hamas thrives on cruelty, turning both Jewish and Palestinian lives into pawns in a sick game designed to tear at the fabric of Israel’s existence. They seek to break us, using our compassion as leverage, forcing families to endure endless nightmares, and pushing a society toward despair and internal division.
How tragic, how shameful, that while our brothers languish, we fight amongst ourselves. Divisions within Israeli society, within the Jewish Diaspora, today must seem like a bitter victory to Hamas, a cruel bonus to their campaign of terror. Our internal fractures dishonour the hostages, weakening our collective spirit precisely when unity is needed most.
This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears.
No one is near to comfort me, no one to restore my spirit.
My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.
This Saturday night begins Tisha B’Av, the darkest day on the Jewish calendar, marking, among other things, the destruction of both Holy Temples in Jerusalem. These are losses that still ache in our collective memory and hearts.
Each Tisha B’Av, we mourn what we have lost, we fast, we reflect. We sit on the floor in mourning and read from the Book of Lamentations (Eichah). This year, like last year, the pain is raw, immediate, and embodied in the hollow cheeks and desperate eyes of Evyatar and Rom. This Tisha B’Av must not merely be historical remembrance but an urgent call to action, a catalyst for unity today.
Fasting is a commandment on Tisha B’Av. It is often hard during these long and hot summer days. But, this year it should be effortless: How can we consider food when Evyatar and Rom starve, imprisoned, suffering beyond imagination?
We cannot eat for 25 hours, yet their skin is hanging off their bones. Our hunger on Sunday must sharpen our anger, clarify our resolve, and remind us why we fight. We fight not for land or politics, or for the eradication of another people or state, but for the sanctity of life, for dignity, for the soul of the Jewish nation itself.
Our enemies know well the power of despair and believe our compassion weakens us; that our humanity makes us vulnerable. They misunderstand. Compassion fuels our strength, our righteous anger, our unyielding commitment to bring every hostage home. Our resolve must be unbreakable, our unity unshakable, driven by love for every Jewish life and outrage at every injustice committed against our people.
So let this Tisha B’Av be different. Let it ignite a fire of unity and determination. Let us all fast as one, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters held hostage in Gaza’s dungeons. Thank you, Hamas, for releasing these pictures. For showing us that our brothers are alive, however broken, and reminding us how we must come together, as one, in rescue.
We must remember both Evyatar David and Rom Braslavki, and every other hostage, not only in our prayers but in our actions. They are why we fight. Because every Jewish life matters. Because we refuse to let cruelty triumph. Because our souls, our families, our nation demand it.
As we read Saturday evening, “For these things do I weep, my eyes flow with tears: Far from me is any comforter who might revive my spirit; My children are forlorn, for the foe has prevailed.”1
The 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, both dead and alive, are:
Ariel Cunio (27)
Alon Ohel (23)
Eitan Horn (38)
Avinatan Or (31)
Elkana Bohbot (35)
Evyatar David (24)
Bipin Joshi (24)
Ziv Berman (27)
Gali Berman (27)
David Cunio (34)
Eitan Mor (24)
Maxim Herkin (36)
Omri Miran (47)
Bar Abraham Kupershtein (23)
Guy Gilboa-Dalal (23)
Nimrod Cohen (20)
Matan Zangauker (25)
Tamir Nimrodi (20)
Matan Angrest (22)
Segev Kalfon (27)
Rom Braslavski (21)
Yosef-Haim Ohana (24)
Itay Chen (19)
Eliyahu Margalit (75)
Eitan Levi (52)
Sahar Baruch (24)
Ilan Weiss (56)
Joshua Luito Mollel (21)
Tal Haimi (41)
Arie Zalmanowicz (85)
Ran Gvili (24)
Dror Or (48)
Tamir Adar (38)
Ronen Engel (54)
Inbar Hayman (27)
Guy Iluz (26)
Asaf Hamami (41)
Lior Rudaeff (61)
Muhammad Al-Atarash (39)
Meny Godard (73)
Omer Neutra (21)
Yossi Sharabi (53)
Daniel Oz (19)
Daniel Perez (22)
Uriel Baruch (35)
Sontia Ok’Krasari (30)
Sontisek Rintalk (43)
Amiram Cooper (85)
Idan Shtivi (28)
Hadar Goldin (23)
Eichah 1:16
I can't figure out why Europe is on the side of the Hamas butchers.
Some general themes emerge and I have some observations.
Considering the fact that the vast majority of Diaspora Jews are not Israeli citizens, cannot vote in Israeli elections, and whose opinion means next to nothing to the average Israeli, they seem to spend an inordinate amount of time opining among themselves, usually negatively, about the Israeli government and specifically PM Netanyahu. Why? Nothing they can do will affect any change. If you wish to have a voice, make Aliyah, become an Israeli citizen, and work to vote them out of office. Valuable time would be better spent in our own back yards ensuring that socialist Jew-haters like Mamdani in New York and Fateh in Minneapolis do not get elected to office.
The predicament in which the Gazan civilians find themselves is a direct result of the rape, murder, and massacre of 1,200 Israeli citizens and the taking of 250 hostages on October 7th. May I remind everyone that not one “innocent” Gazan would be dead today if October 7th had not happened. Regardless of how one judges the failures of the government, the IDF, or Shin Bet prior to that day, it is Hamas committed this atrocity. Furthermore, they had the popular support of over 70% of the Gazan and so-called West Bank Palestinian population (see their own Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll of Dec. 2nd, 2023); and, as recently as May, over half still support the decision (see PCPSR poll of May 6th, 2025). In an insult to humanity, today we see the pictures of Israeli hostage Evyatar David looking like a poster child of the 21st century Holocaust. I should feel sorry for the ”innocent” Gazans? I shed no tears, and no, I am not sorry about that.
This leads to my last observation. Why do we keep saying “Bring Them Home!” This implies that Israel alone is responsible for the return of the hostages and totally takes Hamas off the hook. Does the phrase “Let My People Go!” sound familiar? What is so hard to understand about this? Hamas is the enemy. Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, those who support the continuous attempts to eliminate the Jews are the enemy. There is no “peace deal” to be made with these people except release the hostages and unconditionally surrender. They do not wish to live in the same neighborhood as Jews. They only want Jews dead. They are evil incarnate. History records, in far too many examples, that one cannot make accommodations with evil. It seems that humanity is cursed to have to learn this lesson over and over. Unfortunately, it is usually the Jews who pay the price for the education. Those who wish to make peace with Israel can have peace. Those who wish to kill Israelis and Jews will themselves first be killed. It is as simple as that. Am Israel Chai!