Hillel Fuld, Israel’s tech and marketing guru, has been on a mission to spread truth online since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. He has helped raise the morale of his nearly 168,000 followers on Twitter. He was elated to see hostages return but was disgusted that among the terrorists who were freed was the man who killed his brother Ari .
On Sept. 16, 2018, Ari Fuld was stabbed by Khalil Jabarin, a 17-year-old Palestinian in a shopping mall at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank. Before he collapsed and died, Fuld shot at the terrorist, preventing him from killing a woman who was selling food. This was captured in a dramatic video that impacted Jews worldwide.
“I’m not going to pretend there isn’t pain and frustration but as a human being it doesn’t help me to be angry or help my cause at all,” Fuld told The Journal by phone from Israel. “When we look at this at a wider angle, in a way, Ari is saving these hostages, even after his death. There is the beautiful aspect of the deal that some families are getting their loves ones back and the terrible aspect of the deal is that we have to release terrorists. So, the deal is beautiful and terrible at the same time.”
Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari,28 and Doron Steinbrecher, 31 were released on Jan. 19 after 471 days of captivity; Naama Levy, 20, Daniela Gilboa, 20, Karina Ariev, 20 and Lili Albag, 19 were released on Jan. 25 . A total of 33 hostages are to be released over the 42-day ceasefire. Authorities are uncertain how many of the remaining hostages are still alive. Of the approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners Israel agreed to release are convicted murderers who were never supposed to come out of jail alive. Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks was one of more than 1,000 prisoners released from Israeli jail for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on Oct. 18, 2011.
Why doesn’t Israel have the death penalty for terrorists convicted of capital crimes to de-incentivize hostage-taking?
“You would think that would already be in the law, but unfortunately, that is not the case,” Fuld said. “I don’t know that Israel would ever do that, but it should be obvious.”
Fuld said that what was shown was Israel’s tremendous unity in the happiness that the three hostages came home safely, as many thought they might not see a single hostage come home safely.
“There wasn’t a person in Israel who wasn’t thanking God or thinking that we united as one,” he said. “We were unified watching those hostages come home. We would love to be unified without our enemies bringing destruction onto us but it’s not unique to this generation of Jews. We find that we are divided until we are united by our enemies.”
“There wasn’t a person in Israel who wasn’t thanking God or thinking that we united as one. We were unified watching those hostages come home. We would love to be unified without our enemies bringing destruction onto us but it’s not unique to this generation of Jews. We find that we are divided until we are united by our enemies.”
Fuld said from a nonemotional and strategic standpoint, releasing murderers doesn’t make sense, but Israeli citizens need to know that their government would do anything in its power to free them.
In November 2023, 95 hostages were freed as part of a deal. In a daring mission, Noa Argamani and three male hostages were freed by the IDF. American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages were murdered by Hamas, reportedly when it was clear Israeli soldiers were nearby.
Fuld said while aspects of the deal are extremely problematic, he thinks President Trump must have promised help against Iran and or making sure Hamas would not continue to be in power.
“I think there is something under the surface,” he said. “I would be shocked if Prime Minister Netanyahu didn’t agree because there were incentives or maybe threats, but I think it was incentives.”
Fuld noted the similarities to Parashat Va’era and the current tenuous situation. In that Torah portion, Moses demands from Pharoah “Let My People Go.” After the first five plagues, Exodus 9:7 tells us that God hardened Pharoah’s heart.
“After blood and frogs and all of the destruction, you would think Pharoah would say, ‘Get the hell out of there,’” Fuld said. “But it says God hardened his heart. There is no way to explain this insanity we are seeing know other than God is hardening their hearts.”
He said that Israel obviously wants all the hostages back but doubts that was on the table and knows that the coming days could be volatile as family members of hostages are waiting to see if their loves ones are alive or not, and family members of those not released hope there is still a chance their relatives can come home. He said he and relatives of those murdered by terrorists who will be free as part of the deal feel the hurt.
Fuld said people should be prepared for Israel to be scapegoated no matter what happens. Many in “mainstream America” will say “enough already” and want a ceasefire, without thinking about security concerns.
Charges that Israel was committing genocide were always absurd but now, even more so, he said.
“That accusation in it of itself never made sense,” Fuld said. “But now, Hamas is declaring victory. So, which is it? You can’t have both. The forces are so unbalanced, and Israel is such a great power, but the truth is Israel put its soldiers in danger on the ground and we lost many in the effort to target only Hamas. It would be the first time in history a country in sending in trucks of aid to people that they want to commit genocide on. It’s ridiculous.”
Fuld has appeared as a guest on major networks and is a sought-after speaker around the global for tech companies and Jewish institutions. He founded the online community “The Inner Hillz” a few months ago.
He has faith in God though we cannot know why he does what he does. He added that when the enemies of Israel and Jews smell weakness, that is when they attack the hardest.
“The greatest challenge going forward is to bring unity to this society which is so greatly divided. We need to do some open-heart surgery, not just put Band-Aids on Band-Aids on Band-Aids. We need to heal our society. If you actually sit with a pen and paper and go over fundamental values, you will find ultra left, ultra-right, super religious and super secular, share 90% of their values. As a society, what is amplified is that we focus on what we don’t have in common and that shouldn’t be the case.
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