Foreign Ministry seeks dialogue with three ‘right-wing’ European parties

AMICHAI STEIN, WALLA!

The parties are the National Rally (France), the Sweden Democrats, and Vox (Spain).

Gideon Sa’ar, Foreign Affairs Minister, March 28, 2024. / (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

The Foreign Ministry will engage in dialogue with the three main far-right parties in France, Sweden, and Spain, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.

The three parties are France’s National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, the Sweden Democrats, and the Spanish Vox party.

The decision was made following a series of ministerial discussions, during which it was determined that these parties do not have antisemitic or anti-Israel elements. However, Israel will still refrain from engaging with parties tainted by antisemitism, such as the Austrian Freedom Party.

Discussions began in recent weeks between Foreign Ministry officials and representatives from these parties, marking a 180-degree shift in policy. Israel has consistently avoided engaging with far-right parties due to allegations of and ties to antisemitism.

However, given the rise of these parties in recent years, the Foreign Ministry began deliberations on the matter last year under then-minister Israel Katz. Sa’ar now finalized the decision.

Marine Le Pen, member of parliament and leader of French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party, delivers a speech during a debate on migration at the National Assembly in Paris, France, October 7, 2019. (credit: BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS)

Classified by Israel as antisemitic

The National Rally had been officially classified by Israel as antisemitic, partly due its former leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was widely considered antisemitic and infamously referred to gas chambers as a “mere detail of history.”

The rise of the party has elicited mixed reactions from French Jews. Some have migrated more to the center-left parties as a result, while others insist that the current French political climate is unique and requires a different response.

“There are those who argue that the current party leader is different,” said Tzvi Amar, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in southern France. “She [Le Pen] and other party leaders support Israel, condemn Hamas, and even assist the Jewish community.”

Amar emphasized though that the issue remains controversial.

While the main Jewish organization in France, the CRIF, still does not invite the party to its events, there is a recognition among some French Jews that today’s National Rally openly presents itself as a friend of Israel.

“The community is not unified on this matter,” Amar explained. “There are differing opinions, and some still believe that they are far-right extremists and that Israel should not engage with them.”

Jonathan-Simon Sellem, a French-Israeli journalist, writer, and politician, said the National Rally has significantly evolved in its stance on Israel.

“Since October 7, the party’s support for Israel has been remarkable,” he said. “Its representatives in the National Assembly have consistently stood by Israel, condemned Hamas and Hezbollah, and called for the unconditional release of the hostages. Some lawmakers even wore the yellow pin advocating for the hostages’ release.”

He added that the French community in Israel is generally pleased with this development – not because they necessarily vote for the party – but because they understand what is happening in France.

“Labeling the party or its leaders as ‘persona non grata’ is no longer tenable under these circumstances. Even the renowned Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld has stated that the party is no longer antisemitic – and is far more sympathetic toward Jews than the French far Left.

“Of course, one does not need to agree with everything they seek to implement, but their major role in French politics, along with their strong support for Israel and their firm denunciation of Hamas, compels us to make this initial contact,” he said.

Bibas Family Thanks Israel for ‘Warm Embrace’ in ‘Moment of Crisis’

i24 News and Algemeiner Staff

Ariel and Kfir Bibas. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum

The Bibas family thanked Israelis for their ongoing support on Sunday, following their receiving the bodies of Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri last week.

“During these painful and difficult days, there are no words to describe the level of gratitude that we feel towards all of you,” the family said in a statement. “The warm embrace, the love and the strength that you have sent us from all over Israel and the world strength us and accompany us during these moments of crisis.”

The bodies of four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir were returned to Israel on Thursday, along with 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz. Another body, purportedly belonging to Shiri, was also returned, although forensic tests identified her as an unknown Gazan woman.

Her body was transferred over the weekend, ahead of the release of six living Israeli hostages.

“We sense the open hearts, the enormous embrace, your pain alongside our pain – which we don’t take for granted,” the statement said.

The funerals will be held on Wednesday, with the family requesting it remain a small ceremony “only be for members of the family and close friends.”

That being said, the Bibas family said it appreciated the support, and wished to make room for well-wishers by publishing the route of the funeral procession. Eulogies will be broadcast, with details forthcoming.

“We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts – for the love, for the embrace, for the tears that we have all shed,” the statement said. “We don’t have sufficient words to express our appreciation for all that you have given us at this time.”

“Please respect our choice to say our goodbyes during these final moments in the way that is right for us. The knowledge that you are with us, that your hearts are beating alongside ours, strengthens us with every breath.”

Worse than the terrorists who killed the Bibas family are the Westerners who defend them

Giulio Meotti

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Israeli policemen salute the coffins / Police spokesperson

The Hamas attack on October 7 produced thousands of horrifying images. The bodies of young and old Israelis killed, tortured and raped. Their mutilated and lifeless bodies carried through the streets of Gaza.

But the image of a terrified young mother, Shiri Bibas, kidnapped by terrorists, with her two young children, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir, wrapped around her in a quilt, is the symbol of the threat that is Hamas and radical Islam, but also of the cowardice of the political and cultural leaders of the so-called enlightened West.

The coffins containing the dead hostages and handed over to Hamas were locked by the terrorists who did not hand over the right keys to open them. Before opening the coffins, Israel checked for booby traps.

The scenes from Gaza look like a horror movie, but it’s all real: the Red Cross, the fake “journalists” filming, the crowds of Gazan “civilians” with their children celebrating… They had a party with the dead Jews in front of them. Two dead Jewish children and their mother. And tens of millions of Westerners also participated remotely.

A mob of anti-Semites stole a nine-month-old baby from his home. They filmed his kidnapping, so proud were they to have taken this infant. They posted the footage online so other Jew-haters, from Gaza and the West, could drool.

They have annihilated three generations of the same Bibas family (grandparents, mother and children) and millions defend them as the cause that must surpass all others.

For much of the world, the Bibas children were just “Zionist propaganda,” not human beings brutalized for the sole crime of being Jewish. They called these crimes “liberation”.

Kfir and Ariel Bibas became a symbol. Their case is the war against the Jews reduced to its most minute essence.

Even in Nazi Germany there were Germans who saved Jews, but no Gazan has saved a single hostage. Nor reported the whereabouts of a hostage despite the reward Israel offered. Many not only took part in the kidnapping and murder, but just as many took to the streets today as on October 7 to celebrate the return of Jewish children in coffins.

The little Bibas brothers were kidnapped not only by terrorists in uniforms and balaclavas, but also by ordinary people from Gaza, the famous “civilians” who went to watch the show of Islamic terrorists.

Videos show Palestinian children chasing Red Cross vehicles carrying the bodies of murdered Israeli children. There is a malignant disease in such a society.

But in the West it is no better.

-Poster of four-year-old Ariel Bibas with his face obscured by paint and a caricature of Hitler are at Harvard University.

-Posters of the Bibas brothers were also vandalized in Toronto’s Cedarvale Park.

-On one poster of Kfir Bibas they wrote: “The head is still on”.

The Westerners who attacked the posters of Kfir and Ariel – and the other hostages – were pledging their allegiance to Hamas.

-Bibas posters were vandalized in London too.

-Also in London, an advertising company removed the billboards showing the Bibas and other hostages after protests and threats.

Meanwhile, Western leaders have said almost nothing about the Bibas family. “Maybe you forgot about little Kfir Bibas,” fumed Israel’s ambassador to the UN last month. “We haven’t.”

Dede Bandaid and Nitzan Mintz, the artist couple who launched the campaign with the faces of Israelis kidnapped by terrorists to Gaza, said the phrase that has often come to mind for the past sixteen months:

“If this were a campaign for missing dogs or cats, no one would dare tear down their photos”.

Ariel Bibas loved Batman. But when it came to Jewish children kidnapped and killed in Gaza, the West turned out to be the Joker.

Sometimes I feel like ​​going to Rome, putting up two posters next to each other, one of the Bibas children and the other about a missing dog. And seeing which one they tear down.

And it’s not just the Bibas children.

Posters of two other three-year-old Israeli girls, Emma and Yuli Cunio, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, were vandalized with Hitler moustaches in London.

The two little Bibas brothers and their mother returned to Israel in a coffin. Two small coffins. But for a piece of the hateful and lost West, they were already dead. And even if they won’t actually say it, perhaps still a little ashamed – but not too much – they think that’s how it had to

Meanwhile, from his hospital bed, Pope Francis, who has never had time to say a word for the Bibas children, calls the parish in Gaza every day to find out if they have eaten. Worry not, it’s full of food, even if Hamas steals and resells it, while the war resurfaces on European soil and with it the awareness of the tragedy. From Munich to Villach, this week more children have been killed or injured by someone shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

This betrayal will be our nemesis. And we will pay. Pay we will. In the meantime, may God bless Yarden Bibas and console him for his beautiful family who are no longer with us and may He curse the enemies of civilization.

Hamas Frees Six Hostages in Gaza in Exchange for Palestinian Detainees

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Families and supporters react as they celebrate the release of Omer Wenkert, a hostage who was held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, on the day of the release of six hostages from captivity in Gaza as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gedera, Israel February 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Rami Shlush

Hamas freed six hostages from Gaza on Saturday, the last living Israeli captives slated for release under the first phase of a fragile ceasefire accord, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, all seized from the site of the Nova music festival in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, were handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza, to be transported to Israeli forces.

Dozens of militants stood guard in a crowd that had gathered to watch the handover, as masked Hamas men armed with automatic rifles stood on each side of the three men, who appeared thin and pale, as they were made to wave from the stage.

Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 39, were earlier released in Rafah in southern Gaza.

The Hamas-directed releases, which have included public ceremonies in which captives are taken on stage and some made to speak, have faced mounting criticism, including from the United Nations, which denounced the “parading of hostages.”

Hamas rejected the criticism on Saturday, describing the events as a solemn show of Palestinian unity. It later handed over a sixth hostage, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, to the Red Cross in Gaza City with no public ceremony.

Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza of their own accord around a decade ago. Shoham was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife and two children, who were freed in a brief truce in November 2023.

The six are the last living hostages from a group of 33 due to be freed in the first stage of the three-phase ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect on January 19. Sixty-three more captives, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.

Shem Tov embraced his parents tightly, laughing and crying, “How I dreamt of this,” he said, in a video distributed by the Israeli military.

Shoham smiled, waved and gave a thumbs up to his friends who had gathered outside the hospital where he was taken.

“We’ve been waiting for Tal every day since October 7th,” said Yael Avner, 50, one of Shoham’s friends. “It’s a great relief just to see him there, himself just coming back home.”

Hundreds of Israelis gathered in the rain in what has become known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Some lit candles under photos of the Bibas family, whose bodies were returned this week.

In return for the hostages, Israel is expected to release 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails.

They will include 445 Gazans rounded up by Israeli forces during the war, as well as dozens of convicts serving lengthy or life terms for attacks that killed dozens of Israelis in the Palestinian uprising two decades ago.

SLAIN IN CAPTIVITY

The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists had been threatened by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two young sons and her husband in the Hamas 2023 attack.

However, late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.

“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” her family said in a statement, which said she had been identified by Israel’s Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The Bibas family has been an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel on that day. Her husband Yarden, seized and held separately from his family, was freed on February 1.

The Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel showed both had been killed deliberately by their captors, “in cold blood.”

Israel’s Army Radio, citing the forensic conclusions, said Bibas was likely slain with her children.

Hamas says the Bibas family was killed by an Israeli airstrike. A group called the Mujahideen Brigades said it was holding the family, which was confirmed by the Israeli military.

The ceasefire has brought a pause in the fighting, but prospects of a definitive end to the war remain unclear. Hamas has been at pains to demonstrate that it remains in control in Gaza despite heavy losses in the war.

The terrorist group triggered the conflict by its attack on Israeli communities that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages.

Both sides have said they intend to start talks on a second stage, which mediators say aims to agree the return of all remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Israel Marks 500 Days Since Oct. 7 Attack With Fasts, Rallies Amid News of Early Release of Four Hostage Bodies

Debbie Weiss

Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron

Israelis on Monday held rallies, blocked roads, and observed a fast to mark 500 days since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas invaded southern Israel, massacred 1,200 people, and abducted 251 hostages into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.

The grim milestone coincided with reports that the bodies of four deceased hostages would be returned on Thursday, two days earlier than the next expected round of captive releases, slated for Saturday.

Hostage families and supporters gathered in major cities. In Tel Aviv, demonstrators blocked Namir Road, holding banners demanding the immediate return of those still held captive. Others gathered outside the Hostages and Missing Families Forum tent in central Jerusalem before marching to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, where relatives of the hostages pleaded for urgent action. A 500-minute fast, symbolizing the 500 days in captivity, began at 11:40 am and concluded at 8 pm with a rally in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, attended by thousands.

Israelis on Feb. 17, 2025, marking 500 days since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Photo: Paulina Patimer

In a screened video message at the rally, Iair Horn made his first public statement since being released on Saturday after 498 days in Hamas captivity. “We’re out of time. We must return them now,” he said.

Horn broke down in tears as he mentioned his brother Eitan, who remains in captivity and is not pegged for release until the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal. “Bring back my brother and all of the hostages.”

On Thursday, Israel is set to receive the remains of four hostages, with their identities expected to be revealed that morning. Israel’s KAN public broadcaster cited Israeli officials as saying that preparations were underway for their bodies to be identified and processed at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv. The four hostages were believed to have been killed in captivity, though the exact circumstances of their deaths remain unclear.

On Saturday, Hamas will release three living hostages, followed by the return of four more bodies next Thursday, Feb. 27. In exchange for the bodies, Israel will release all women and minors under 19 who were arrested in Gaza since the Oct 7 onslaught.

Between Feb. 22 and March 2, Hamas is also scheduled to free the final three living hostages from the first, six-week phase of the ceasefire deal, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who have been held in Gaza for over a decade.

Hamas is believed to be holding the bodies of at least 36 people, out of a total of 70, including soldiers and civilians killed on Oct. 7 and others who died in captivity.

Freed hostage Ohad Ben Ami, who was released earlier this month appearing severely malnourished, urged mass participation in the demonstrations. “What kept me going was knowing people were fighting for me,” he said.

Levi Ben-Baruch, whose nephew Edan Alexander remains in captivity, recited the words of Jewish fast-day prayers — “Please save us!” — as he joined others in fasting. “We fast for 500 minutes,” he said, “but they have already fasted for 500 days.”

Jimmy Miller, cousin of Shiri Bibas. Photo: Lior Rotstein

At Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities devastated in the Oct. 7 attack, residents held a gathering in memory of those taken hostage from their community and killed in Gaza. Nira Sharabi, whose husband Yossi Sharabi was killed in captivity, said that while the focus remained on bringing home the living, Israel also had an obligation to return the bodies of those who had not survived. “Until they are buried here, we can’t say goodbye,” she said.

Nira’s brother-in-law, Eli Sharabi, who was also released this month, only discovered after his release that his wife and two daughters were murdered in their home on Oct. 7.

Maccabit Mayer, whose relatives Ziv and Gali Berman are among the hostages, said each day felt like an eternity. “Day 500 is just like every other day,” she said. “Except that it’s one day longer.”

“I too want to begin the journey of rehabilitation and healing like all those who have returned from there,” she added.

Shay Dickmann, whose cousin, Carmel Gat, was killed by Hamas terrorists while in captivity, recounted how his grandmother languished during the Holocaust after all her family members had perished, and “waited for the world’s nations to decide when she would be freed.”

“She survived and immigrated to Israel, helping build a country so she would never have to wait again. And today, for 500 days, our people are waiting. We cannot let them wait for the world’s nations to decide if they will survive or be murdered,” Dickmann said.