KINSELLA: Doctor held hostage by Hamas says Iran's vision is 'global Islamic state'
· Toronto Sun
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
A psychological Oct. 7.
Visit grenadier.co.za for more information.
That’s what some Israelis and Jews are calling this week. U.S. President Donald Trump’s “deal” with Iran isn’t as bad as some of us predicted — it’s worse.
Iran gets billions. It gets to keep its weapons-grade uranium, and control of the Strait of Hormuz. It gets to keep making ballistic missiles, and it gets to keep the fascist Islamist dictatorship that subjugates Iran’s people.
And, in particular, it gets to keep its armies. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza.
Israelis have watched, in shock, as U.S. Vice President JD Vance — the one notionally charged with selling the deal — has attacked Israel. He has accused Israel of genocide: “You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” He has dismissed Israeli concerns: “Wake up and smell the reality of the situation.” He has mocked what he calls the Israeli “freakout.” He has even said Iran is entitled to missiles and armies: “You can’t tell [them] they’re not allowed to have any self-defence.”
Part of that Iranian “self-defence” is Hamas. So, this week, I turned to Dr. Shoshan Haran, who was held hostage by Hamas. Iran’s Palestinian army.
Israeli doctor recounts Hamas attack
She tells her story: “October 7 was a holiday. I had a lot of guests with me, my daughter, and my grandkids, when the alarm started. Usually it takes 10 minutes. But then we received WhatsApp messages warning that terrorists had invaded our kibbutz.”
Iran’s Gazan army — the one Vance seemingly thinks Iran is entitled to have — couldn’t get into the safe room. So they got a bulldozer and smashed open a wall. They said they’d throw in grenades if Haran and her family didn’t surrender. They surrendered.
She would never see her husband or her son-in-law — or her sister or her sister’s husband — again. They were all killed by Iran’s Hamas army.
Haran and her daughter and two of her grandchildren — ages three and eight — were jammed into a car and taken to Gaza. They were paraded through the streets and the Palestinians were jubilant.
Haran and her family were handed over to another Iranian-sponsored unit and taken to an apartment. There were toys already there. She shakes her head, saying she then understood that it had been all planned: “It meant they were planning to kidnap babies and toddlers and children.”
She and her daughter Adi and the kids were held for nearly two months in different places by Iran’s Gazan army. “We were there 50 days,” she says. “We were kept in high-level Hamas private homes. They would transfer us from place to place, usually at night, and they would dress women in a hijab, so it looked like a normal Gazan family.” No one in Gaza tried to help them.
They were kept in the last place the longest — 43 days. It was the large apartment of a doctor. “A medical doctor,” she says, “and a very well-off family. The apartment had carpets and chandeliers and a very fancy library. It was a luxurious house.”
The men who kept them prisoner would dissemble and clean their weapons once a week. They’d do so in front of Haran’s grandchildren. “They observed us all the time,” she says. “We understood that we needed to create an inner world for the kids, so we told the kids that our captors are our guards. That they’d keep us safe.”
Hostages not fed much
They weren’t fed much. The women would feed the kids first, then eat whatever scraps were left over. “I told my daughter that our mission is to survive every day,” she says. And they did. Barefoot, wearing the pyjamas they’d been wearing on Oct. 7. One day, representatives of Iran’s Palestinian army demanded to know the children’s shoe sizes. She knew that meant release was imminent.
The terrorists dressed up for the occasion, wearing army uniforms and green headbands proclaiming that there is only one God — not the Jewish or Christian one. It was a big propaganda show. They were handed over to the Red Cross.
In rapid succession, there were hospitals, and meetings with politicians, and reunions with family. That is when she learned that Hamas — Iran’s proxy army, the one Vance thinks Iran is “allowed” to have — had murdered her husband and son-in-law and sister and sister’s husband. And 100 other people in the small village where she lived, too — where she had helped take Palestinians to medical appointments. Where she had been part of a peace group.
“We were seeking coexistence with our neighbours,” she says now. “We were naive, because they want to destroy us. We thought that if we supported them, if we show them that we are human beings, then they will want to live in coexistence.” She pauses. “But during my talks with my captors, they told me their mission is to destroy Israel is the first step. But then they’d have a global jihad. It’s not only about Israel, you see. I think it’s very important for people to understand Israel is just the first step. But their vision is a global Islamic state.”
That’s what Iran wants, too. That’s their vision of the future.
And, this week, Vance and the president he works for?
They basically said they’re OK with that.