The press conference held on Tuesday by released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz caused outrage among many Israelis, especially considering the fact that she described the terrorists’ behavior as “nice,” a fact that is already being used by the terror organization as propaganda.
Many journalists slammed the fact that that conference was even held, at a time when her husband Oded is still being held captive, describing it as a “public diplomacy disaster.” Yisrael Hayom called the press conference a “propaganda win for Hamas.”
Walla editor Dovid Wertheim said; “Again, amateurism. And this time, extremely harmful and worth its weight in gold for Hamas. Who organized this press conference? Who invited the reporters? This was a terrible mistake…the captive’s husband is still in captivity. Maybe there was something riding on it [what she said at the interview]?”
When asked what she meant by the gesture of shaking a Hamas gunman’s hand, freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, says ‘because they treated us very nicely’.
“They seemed really prepared and had concealed it for a long time,” she added.
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Walla reporter Yaki Adamker said: “Lifshitz’s statements should not have been broadcast live. They should have recorded it and edited it. We are at war and in war, it’s forbidden to echo messages that the Nazi enemy could only dream of disseminating.”
Ynet reporter Ron Boker said: “Captives’ statements cannot be held live. Don’t hold press conferences. Released recorded statements only. They were held captive by a murderous terror organization. Where is the IDF spokesperson? What is this insane public diplomacy disaster? Crazy!”
It should be noted that the Ra’anans, the two US hostages who were released last week, were banned from holding interviews by the FBI.
Ichilov spokesperson Avi Shushan responded to the criticism by stating:Â “No government or security agency briefed me or gave me procedures regarding media conduct with the hostages.”
“All the media outlets were at the hospital from five o’clock in the morning and asked to interview the hostages and their families. We had to forcibly remove photographers and reporters from the ward. At the same time, the family has already started giving interviews in Ichilov to channels like CNN, for example, without coordinating with us.”
Following the uproar, an unnamed Israeli diplomatic source sent a message to the press, stating: “Just as the Nazis held engineered and staged tours for the Red Cross in a ‘clean’ concentration camp in order to deceive the world and present themselves as humane – so too Hamas, while it slaughters babies, rapes women and shoots children, tries to present itself as humane by releasing a handful of hostages that it supposedly took care of.”
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16 Responses
They probably blackmailed her that if she badmouths them… her husband is still in Gaza….
Best case scenario it’s Stockholm Syndrome.
As each day goes by, the initial universal support for EY is melting away before our eyes and “sympathy” for the plight of “innocent Palestinians” in Gaza is growing exponentially. There are too many retired generals, diplomats, etc. rushing to the cameras and ostensibly speaking on behalf of EY and the IDF while no one in the PM’s office seems to have any control over messaging. It was mindless and potentially threatening to the remaining hostages to allow a freed hostage to conduct a “news conference” with obvious Stockholm Syndrome manifestations. Each day, the ground incursion is “imminent’. It seems like the 24 hours cable news networks are driving the outcome.
The ground invasion will happen when no one is ready. The World will be caught off guard.
This is sad and horrific. This is like the video going around of the hostage girl talking how she’s being treated well. Who knows how many terrorists were standing behind the camera on top of her, telling her to say it at gunpoint.
This is on purpose, EY wants to chicken out on the ground invasion and this is an attempt to temper the rage.
STUPIDITY COME ON!!!!!!
Simple, chanifa works (maybe not always but you don’t need to kick the bucket).
She is just trying to make it look like whatever it is she wants, SO THAT MORE PEOPLE CAN GET RELEASED LIKE THIS.
Being clever IS better than being right…
The American press covered the same event, and said the former hostages were complaining about being abused. The Israelis need to take a deep breath, and realize that not everything is going wrong.
Two things to consider here.
One is very obvious, that as long as her Husband is still there, one cannot take anything she says for face value.
However, the second thing to consider here is the report I read about this woman, that she was known to be an extreme leftist, who used to go out of her way to help Palestinians cross the border into Israel to get medical care.
So it makes sense that when the Chamas heard her speak.. they probably DID treat her nice for being on their side.. and for all you know, she may have been released because of that too..
Lifshitz is a leftist liberal whose husband took so-called “Palestinians” from the border to the hospital. Her father campaigned for “Palestinian rights”. These people are sick…that’s why Jews are bullied- because we have people within idolizing our enemies. There was a huge group of “Jews” protesting in Washington for a ceasefire due to the “poor Palestinian civilian casualties”….
So-called Jews and real Jews who are leftists are weakening us and have weakened us throughout history .
Please
The lady is 85 years old
Who cares if they gave them 5* hotels to stay in
Remember they are kidnapped
STOLEN humans
In halocho mitzvah habo may avayro is not a mitzvah
Gadolhadorah:
You mean the Zionist State of Israel, not EY.
This is so silly. Even if the savages fed her delicacies, they still savagely abducted her in the first place.
Israelis are stupid?? What did they expect?! Her husband is still a hostage, or ?? They shldve seen this coming! U dont need to be a rocket scientist to get this.
Hirsch, the family liaison chosen by the government, was advised not to take the released to Ichilov, close to the media hub, and more accessible, but to Beer Sheva, down south, but he ignored that, knowing this would be the result.
I have no words
It’s a very immature world view to think that if they committed hideous crimes during the capture they must continue to torture their captives lest they risk losing their hard-earned infamy.
It’s actually fairly common for kidnappers to act normally once they are in full control, depending on the motive for kidnapping.
Also, keep in mind that keeping someone alive and deciding not to murder them, means feeding them and giving an elderly person access to a doctor. That’s what it takes to stay alive. This is not benevolence. It’s called keeping them alive which is the intention of taking hostages.
Another point is that it is actually very burdensome to retain the hostile approach long-term.
And finally, people are complex. Yes, the biggest monsters were nice to someone. This shouldn’t be surprising or seen as a contradiction. Anyone who is surprised by this is working with a coloring book mindset.