A Hostage Apart

There is an unending supply of bad news to fill columns like this every week. But today, instead of being discouraged, let’s be inspired. For once, let’s look past the villains and the fools and the knaves, so we can take a moment to salute a genuine hero.

Consider the story of a remarkable young British-Israeli woman, Emily Damari, who was one of the initial three hostages released by Hamas after 471 days in unimaginably brutal captivity. We still worry about how many of the remaining hostages will survive to see their families and loved ones. We still rejoice at the other brave young women who have made it home alive. But Emily’s courage and selflessness stand apart and above.

Emily was awakened early in the morning last Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists invaded Kfar Aza, a small kibbutz in southern Israel not far from the Gaza border. She was among the hostages abducted, as were her neighbors Keith and Aviva Siegel, the parents of one of her close friends. Aviva was released several weeks later, but Keith, 65 years old and in poor health, remained behind. A video released by Hamas last April was the last evidence of him alive.

News accounts report that when Emily was informed of her release, she asked her captors if her friend’s father could be freed instead. She had been shot in the initial attacks, two of her fingers were amputated under barbaric conditions during her ordeal, and she had not seen her own parents in more than 15 months. Yet she was willing to delay her own freedom so that her neighbor could be reunited with his family and receive necessary medical treatment more quickly.

Her noble offer was refused, and Keith Siegel remains in captivity. But her request does tell his family that he is still alive, a precious piece of information that can help sustain them until he is hopefully released in the near future. For the vast majority of us who cannot imagine suffering through even one day of such a brutal ordeal, it is simply impossible to comprehend the bravery required for this extraordinary woman to volunteer to remain imprisoned. It is small wonder that her Hamas jailers denied her request. Such valor must have been mystifying to them.

Since regaining her freedom, Emily has established herself as a motivational figure throughout Israel. Having lost her ring and middle fingers as a result of injuries suffered when she was abducted, her remaining fingers now resemble the iconic “rock on” emoji familiar to music fans everywhere and have become a symbol of defiance and motivation for the entire nation. This young woman has provided a remarkable gift, not just to Israel and to Jews worldwide, but to everyone who cherishes freedom and cheers the resilience and courage of those who stand up and fight back in the face of evil.

Next week, we can return to the other pressing issues of the day. I will write about the increasingly rickety ceasefire, or maybe the handful of arch-conservatives in the House who have the potential to cause as much trouble for the new president’s Israel agenda as the similarly-sized Squad of progressives did for the last one. We may instead discuss the Senate vote on imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials, which threatens to deepen the divide within the Democratic Party over the Middle East, or possibly the damage that Trump’s out-of-the-blue suggestion about relocating Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan could do to his hopes of expanding the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia.

There is always, and will always be, more than enough news to cause anger, worry, fear or frustration. Starting next week, I promise we will return to all of these vexing topics – and more.

But for just one week, perhaps we can enjoy a story that can make us all happy, even if just for the briefest of moments. Thank you, Emily, for reminding us why we are fighting and for what we are praying.

Dan Schnur is the U.S. Politics Editor for the Jewish Journal. He teaches courses in politics, communications, and leadership at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine. He hosts the monthly webinar “The Dan Schnur Political Report” for the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall. Follow Dan’s work at www.danschnurpolitics.com.