00:00We can now bring in Daniel Lifshitz, the grandson of Israeli hostages Yosheved and Oded Lifshitz.
00:07His grandmother was released by Hamas early in the conflict,
00:10but the remains of his grandfather were only returned during a ceasefire earlier this year.
00:16Daniel, thank you so much for joining us on the program today.
00:19I just want to ask, your family has been through so much.
00:23Can you tell us about your grandmother?
00:24Is she back in the near-or kibbutz?
00:30Good evening. Thank you for welcoming me.
00:34No, she hasn't been back.
00:38Still near all, it's not been reconstructed.
00:43Still a long time until the kibbutz members will be able to go there.
00:48This place has been suffered.
00:50The worst massacre is the ground zero of October 7.
00:52Some of the kibbutz members would be back.
00:56Some of them, as you can imagine, don't want to come back after what they suffered there with the children.
01:02And I still don't know what will be my grandma's decision.
01:05She was waiting for my grandfather for so long.
01:08And in the end got her, you know, peace fighter, human rights fighter, husband in a coffin after 503 days.
01:18So we know on our skin what is the terror organization of Hamas, which is worse than ISIS.
01:26Your reaction, Daniel, to the video which Hamas released showing those two Israeli hostages in that condition, emaciated, clearly hungry, been deprived of food.
01:38And your reaction to that, and what would you like the government in Israel to do about it?
01:46I went to my grandma yesterday in the morning, and she was so horrified.
01:51In the start of the 90s, she made an exhibition about the Holocaust.
01:56And she said she hadn't seen photos like that since the exhibition she made in the start of the 90s.
02:03We see my reaction was to be so worried for those families, so worried for Aviatar, so worried for all the hostages that I still know that are held in Gaza.
02:15We feel and we see that there is an intentional starvation, and it's very good that we continue this war against the image of Hamas around the world, because the intention of starved the hostages.
02:31We know that behind the doors of Aviatar David, and the guy is probably with him there, there is a huge space where they hold humanitarian aid.
02:41And we saw that the hand of the Hamas terrorist give the can to Aviatar David.
02:49We saw a very healthy, even overweight hand.
02:53And, you know, today in Gaza, we feel that the way you can divide the people of Gaza and the hostages from the Hamas ones is that you see by their weight.
03:02So you would like the war to continue, because just earlier we had hundreds of former Israeli security officials who are calling on the U.S. President Donald Trump to exert pressure on Netanyahu to end the war.
03:19They're saying that this is no longer a just war.
03:22So I think both things are very important.
03:26What I can tell you, you know, is the proofs that we got in the last few weeks that Hamas withdrew from the negotiation table because of the starvation campaign.
03:41So we have to make sure that all the international media power is going over Hamas.
03:48We see Hamas is not only starving the hostages, Hamas for a long time starved the people of Gaza and kidnapped both the hostages and the people of Gaza.
03:58From the other side, of course, there has to be a pressure overcoming from whatever is necessary to make sure that there is a full scale hostage deal that includes all the 50 hostages and the end of the war.
04:12That beside that, of course, there will be a continuation of flooding Gaza with humanitarian aid.
04:18But most important now is as well, as much as fast as possible to make sure that the Red Cross or there are videos showing that Vyatar David is getting the food and all the other hostages because they will not survive.
04:33We know we heard from the doctors that they will not survive many more days.
04:38Daniel, I want to jump in there because when you say the end of the war, you mean the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza?
04:45The end of the war, we all know that it has to be, you know, four things has to happen.
04:50We have to, first of all, release all the hostages unconditionally.
04:55The second thing will be a permanent ceasefire.
04:59Humanitarian aid goes into Gaza and Hamas has to demilitarize.
05:02All of those things, if those things happen, of course, it's the end of the world.
05:08Gaza, the IDF will withdraw completely from Gaza, I believe.
05:12And, of course, there has to be a solution for who will go and take place in Gaza because we're all getting the proof.
05:20Hamas is the worst people on planet Earth.
05:23They are a terror organization worse than ISIS.
05:26Hamas is not ISIS.
05:27It's worse than ISIS.
05:28It's as the Nazis, and we have to make sure someone that will not be, you know, any kind of a group or a government that will be preoccupied for terror or a haven for Hamas.
05:41Those things have to be clear there.
05:43Benjamin Netanyahu is going to direct the Israeli army on how to go ahead and bring the hostages home.
05:51This has been one of the stated goals in Israel's war, defeat Hamas and bring the hostages home.
06:00Are you surprised that you're hearing this from Israel's prime minister?
06:03That should have been the top priority, one would have thought.
06:08What do you mean?
06:09Please repeat the question.
06:11Israel's prime minister is saying he's going to direct the army this week on how to achieve the objectives of bringing the Israeli hostages who are left in Gaza home.
06:20Of course, pressure is mounting on Netanyahu to do more to secure the release of hostages.
06:26But up until now, this has been a stated war goal for Israel.
06:30Are you surprised that you're hearing this from the prime minister?
06:36I don't know what are the true intentions there.
06:39I know that bringing back all the hostages is only by the negotiation on the table.
06:44And I know one thing.
06:46I know that now the ones that are not agreeing to negotiate is the terror organization of Hamas.
06:53They are terrorizing the world, terrorizing Gaza.
06:56So for the moment, you know, there are some moments probably the necessary has to be full scale on the Israeli government.
07:03But now we have to make a full scale pressure over Hamas to come back to the negotiation table to make sure they close the deal.
07:13And that is something as well we've been hearing from Ambassador Witkoff.
07:18And we hear now from all the European leaders that they say Hamas has to disarm, leave Gaza, free the Palestinians.
07:27And I think that the demand is that Hamas will demilitarize, release all the hostages, and then there will not be any more problem of Gaza.
07:38Gaza can be, there will be a start for the reconstruction of Gaza or anything else.
07:43But for now, we don't have this time.
07:45I mean, we have to choose which side we choose to make sure Eviatal and Guy and Rome are coming back home together with all the other 47 hostages.
07:57Daniel, would you like to see a Palestinian state down the line once this war comes to an end, once the hostages are home?
08:03Is that the ultimate goal, you think?
08:08Look, I tell you, my grandparents were huge peace activists.
08:13They try, you know, although my grandfather, he fought in four different wars because he believed Israel has the right to defense itself.
08:20We are, you know, small country that is surrounded by enemies and we have to do everything for that.
08:26And yes, he fought for the right of the Palestinians as well.
08:30Though my grandmother, she's not any more certain about the future of the solution with the Palestinians because she didn't see any Palestinian going out on October 8th and condemning Hamas and calling for the release of those people who all their life fought for the right of the Palestinians.
08:51And she also said that inside the tunnels that how he killed peace, this guy literally killed peace.
09:00And now we have to work back to to find the path for that.
09:04But it has to be with education and many more things.
09:08But for that, we will deal later.
09:11I think the statement of the Palestinian state also made by President Macron, which I asked him in a press conference that you can show the press conference and his answer, who will govern Gaza?
09:25And then he said that his idea for the Palestinian state was because he doesn't see any more that a hostage release and a ceasefire can come together.
09:36But you have to understand, we see now Hamas saying they will not go to the table if there will not be a declaration of Palestinian state for all the countries.
09:48So these things you have to clear first to go to the path for maybe a future Palestinian state.
09:56You have to release all the hostages, ease the pain and have a permanent ceasefire.
10:01Fresh humanitarian aid goes into Gaza and Hamas demilitarize.
10:06Hamas cannot be there.
10:07It's a terror organization who kidnapped Gaza, kidnapped peace, kidnapped the hostages.
10:12They starve intentionally, the hostages, things we never saw in even the terror organization of ISIS who was executing out people.
10:21We see that only on the time of the Nazis.
10:23So we have to make sure that all those things are coming before the future possibility of a Palestinian state, which in the end will be good for everyone.
10:35Daniel Lifshitz, thank you so much for joining us on the program today.
10:38Daniel Lifshitz, thank you very much and hopefully we'll see it end soon.
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