The Unimaginable Requiem for the Bibas Boys

Over the weekend, the first phase of the temporary 42-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued with the release of three more hostages: American-Israeli Keith Siegal, French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, and Argentinian-Israeli Yarden Bibas. They were exchanged for 183 Palestinian prisoners.

The hostages were innocent civilians; some of the prisoners were hardened killers. Many had committed serious crimes, for which they were serving life sentences.

No one believes incarceration has led to their rehabilitation. They are unlikely to dedicate the remainder of their lives to world peace. Truth be told, I am unaware of a single Palestinian Muslim so humanistically dedicated. Surely there must have been a few somewhere, but they, doubtlessly, were instantly murdered by Hamas.

These terrorists are the characters so many dunces on college campuses have been championing for nearly a year and a half.

Israel has already released over 500 prisoners. Eighteen Israeli hostages are now free, too, but free to do what? Palestinian terrorists have a trade. Israelis specialize in loss.

For the nearly 80 years of its existence, Israel has demonstrated amazing resilience. A suicide bomb goes off in a pizza shop during the Second Intifada. Ambulances and forensic examiners race to the scene. Soon thereafter, once body parts are removed and blood washed away, Israelis resume their lives. The lunch crowd gravitates to a different cuisine.

I fear that the legacy of October 7 will chart a different post-traumatic course. This crime scene will forever have chalk outlines and yellow tape surrounding Israeli hearts.

I fear that the legacy of October 7 will chart a different post-traumatic course. This crime scene will forever have chalk outlines and yellow tape surrounding Israeli hearts.

October 7 is Israel’s longest war. It commenced with a catastrophic breach of state sovereignty. And it has resulted in the most prolonged, by far, of all national tragedies. Does the hardened sabra psyche know no limits? Will it be possible to once again summon the fortitude to normalize their lives as they have so often been compelled to do in the past?

October 7 and its aftermath is an entirely singular species of national trauma, the apex of a national tragedy that is permanently scarring and poignantly unendurable.

Even these hostage-for-prisoner exchanges have resulted in bittersweet moments that mostly only deepen wounds—retraumatizing Israelis, shocking their collective nervous systems over how much has been lost.

Even these hostage-for-prisoner exchanges have resulted in bittersweet moments that mostly only deepen wounds—retraumatizing Israelis, shocking their collective nervous systems over how much has been lost.

Hamas releases hostages like a ragtag high school football team throwing a pep rally for homecoming. The captives are paraded and jostled through streets. They are made to mount viewing stands and forced to wave at cheering Gazans—as if to give thanks for all that hospitality. All the while Hamas showcases semiautomatic assault rifles, not fig leaves. The stage is adorned with a banner reading: “Nazi Zionism will not win.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry claims that 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in this war. Yet Hamas releases hostages with all the pomp and pomposity of an army that is announcing its “glorious victory” to the world.

If Hamas is claiming victory, then this war is far from over, and President Donald Trump should expect to hear that from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they meet in the White House on Tuesday. The second phase of the ceasefire cannot and should not continue because there are far too many terrorists and complicit civilians still alive in Gaza. Palestinians are apparently more pumped-up for battle this week than Kansas City Chiefs fans.

That is an unsustainable sign. President Trump promised that unless all the hostages were released by his inauguration, “All hell will break loose.” Well, the president is fully ensconced in the Oval Office. It is believed that 80 hostages are still being held captive—many of whom are already dead. Two more Americans are among the living and the bodies of four still remain.

Meanwhile, Gazans are celebrating in the streets! Do they resemble a people chastened, chagrined or defeated?

The normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia can wait. Israel has unfinished business to accomplish first—to wipe off those smug looks hiding behind keffiyeh masks in Gaza. President Trump should respect, as Joe Biden didn’t, that Israel knows the hellhole of its region and the duplicity of its fiendish players.

The release of Yarden Bibas this week had the same deflating effect as Julius Caesar’s final words to his friend, Brutus’, betrayal: “the most unkindest cut of all.”

Where is the rest of the Bibas family: Shira, Yarden’s wife, and their little two children, Ariel and Kfir, kidnapped in their mother’s arms on October 7, ages four and nine months, respectively? Israeli officials have expressed “grave concern” about their whereabouts. Hamas self-servingly claims that all three were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Given that Hamas “promised” to release women and children first, and they were not included among the 18 released thus far, our worst fears may be realized.

Upon the father’s release, reports surfaced that Hamas had not only beaten and caged Yarden, but they tortured him with updates about the fate of his family: one day they were alive, the next pronounced murdered, only to be revived with reassurances of their well-being, all over again.

How will such a man find the strength to begin anew, given all that has already been taken away from him?

Meanwhile, Israelis remain haunted, as should all human beings, by the two tiny red-headed boys last pictured in their Batman pajamas. Ironic that until October 7, they slept soundly knowing that God and the Dark Knight watched over them at night. How long were they held captive in dark tunnels, alone and afraid?

Israelis have been anticipating their return for 16 months. They wanted to smother them in kisses and spoil them with hamantaschen, sufganiyot, and ice cream, outfit them with baseball mitts and Kadima paddles when they visit the beaches in Tel Aviv and Haifa. Better still: throw a national birthday party for them, to make up for the ones misspent in Gaza.

With the father alive and the children and mother missing, Israelis are slowly bracing themselves for an unimaginable requiem for those Bibas Boys.

Thane Rosenbaum is a novelist, essayist, law professor and Distinguished University Professor at Touro University, where he directs the Forum on Life, Culture & Society. He is the legal analyst for CBS News Radio. His most recent book is titled “Saving Free Speech … From Itself,” and his forthcoming book is titled, “Beyond Proportionality: Israel’s Just War in Gaza.”