Ada Sagi is an Israeli woman who was kidnapped on October 7 from her home in the Nir Oz kibbutz, and held for 53 days before being released in the November hostage-for-prisoner swap. All her adult life she had been a peace activist, a woman of the left who believed that Israel and the Palestinians could live in peace with each other. Not any longer. More on her new, more sober view can be found here: “Former hostage Ada Sagi to BBC: I understand Hamas doesn’t want peace,” Jerusalem Post, June 19, 2024:
Peace activist and former hostage Ada Sagi, 75, told the BBC that since being held hostage in Gaza, she has lost hope that peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible.
Ada Sagi, 75, is a mother of three and the daughter of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Ada learned Arabic in order to make friends with her neighbors close to Kibbutz Nir Oz and began teaching Arabic to fellow residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz in an effort to better communicate with their Palestinian neighbors.
Her son Noam said that he last heard from his mother at 9:20 a.m. on October 7, when his mother called to say she could hear voices speaking in Arabic outside her home, after which she entered the safe room. She was then abducted to Gaza.
In her first interview since her release, Sagi told Emma Barnett on Radio 4’s Today program that she was held in an apartment by paid guards, that Hamas kept her in a hospital just before her release, and that she now believes the world hates Jews.
Surely Ada Sagi should be forgiven for concluding that “the world hates Jews.” Looking at how so much of the world — the UN General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice — has been so quick to condemn Israel for its attempt to defend itself against those who would destroy it, seeing the sinister protests on campuses and on city streets in dozens of cities, with mobs screaming their wish that “From the river to the sea/Palestine shall be free,” which is a demand for the disappearance of the Jewish state and its replacement by a 23rd Arab one, or those other sinister slogans, such as “Another Intifada,” which is an allusion to the Second Intifada in which 1000 Israelis were murdered, or simply “Kill Jews,” while accusing Israel of “genocide” in such chants as “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide: We charge you with genocide.” No wonder that Ada Sagi now believes — understandably though I allow myself to believe mistakenly — that “the world hates Jews.”
“I don’t believe in peace, I don’t, sorry,” Sagi told BBC. “I understand Hamas doesn’t want it,” she added.
She said she is well aware of the remaining 120 hostages in Gaza and urged the government to agree to a new ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas, the BBC reported.
Captive in a home with children
Sagi revealed that when she was first taken into Gaza, she and some other hostages were hidden in a family home with children but were taken to an apartment in Khan Yunis the next day because it was too “dangerous.”
The person who held her in their apartment in Gaza was a nurse, she told the BBC, and his wife and children had been sent to stay with his wife’s parents, Sagi recalled.
Sagi shared that she overheard students being paid 70 NIS to watch over them. “It’s a lot of money in Gaza because they have no work. And if you have work other than with Hamas, it’s no more than 20 NIS for a day,” she said….
When she was first taken as a hostage to Gaza, Sagi along with other, was hidden in a “family home with children.” The members of this hostage-holding family are what the world wants you to believe were “innocent civilians.” And once she had been moved, her guards were not members of Hamas, but students, being paid well to prevent the hostages from escaping. Again these are the people whom so many choose to believe are “innocent civilians.” If they prevent hostages from escaping — a job that they did not have to take, but chose to fulfill because of the high wages they would receive — can they be called “innocent civilians”? Aren’t they aiders and abetters of Hamas?
When she arrived in Khan Yunis, Sagi recalled that they were taken to a hospital, she believes was Nasser Hospital, and were told, “You are staying here.”
From other testimony of released hostages, 10 hostages in total were placed in Nasser Hospital, one of whom remains in captivity, according to the BBC.
The hospital’s director, Dr. Atef al-Hoot, denied these claims that there were any hostages held in Nasser Hospital, according to the BBC.
“People say that they are not involved. They’re involved… and getting money for each of us,” Sagi said….
Now whom shall we believe? Ada Sagi, who was taken, along with nine other hostages, to a place that she thinks was Nasser Hospital, or Dr. Atef al-Hoot, the head of the hospital, who denies that hostages were ever held there? Who should we believe, Dr. Atef al_Hoot, or the IDF, whose soldiers captured 200 Hamas terrorists who were in Nasser Hospital, along with stores of ammunition? Who has a record of telling the truth, and who a record of lying?
Tens of thousands of Israelis who were living near the border with Gaza have been displaced since October 8, and are now living elsewhere in the country. They will only be able to return to their homes, or what is left of them, once Hamas has been thoroughly dismantled, and its inventory of rockets destroyed.
Before October 7, like many members of the kibbutzim that were attacked on that day, Ada Sagi was a leftist and a peace activist. She believed that Israelis and Palestinians could come to a modus vivendi, could live side-by-side in peace. Other Israelis murdered that day had similar peacemaking hopes; some served as volunteers who picked up Gazan children and delivered them to be treated in Israeli hospitals.
But for Ada Sagi, the atrocities Hamas inflicted on October 7, and the treatment she and other hostages received from Hamas and at the hands of her “civilian” guards inside Gaza, have led her to reconsider all of her previous assumptions. Like the defenders of mass Muslim immigration in the countries of Western Europe, who have been mugged by reality, and reluctantly realized that the large-scale presence of Muslims in their countries has created a situation for the indigenous non-Muslims that is far more unpleasant, expensive, and physically dangerous than would be the case without that large-scale presence, Ada Sagi has had the scales fall from her eyes. She no longer believes in the possibility of a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians, or in a “two-state solution.” What is possible is something else — the absence of war, which will be the result not of peace treaties, but of Israel’s deterrent power. Since October 7, a great many other Israelis who believed in “peace” have come to the same somber, and sober, conclusion as Ada Sagi. The outside world needs to stop prating endlessly about a “two-state solution” and listen up.
nicholas tesdorf says
Hallelujah!, she’s seen the Light!
Mike says
Now will the other Jews from around the world listen
I say NO
The Jews thinking If I’m nice you, You won’t eat me
just like the gator
Rarely says
Just lump all Jews together Mike. They all think alike. Pretty bigoted of you.
anne ritchie says
great news from one but others will see it too. i remind those who hate, remember in 1948, the nations of egypt etc. who surround israel told the arabs in israel,”leave israel until we kill all the jews”, they failed, did egypt etc. tell the arabs to go back to israel? NO.
Emilie Green says
Churchill framed it this way, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
Muslims keep telling us what Islam is all about. No one in the West is listening.
Maybe this lady will now give some attention.
Keys says
Exactly, Emilie Green!
“…she has lost hope that peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible.”
Ada Sagi still needs to take the next step, namely, realizing that peace between Israelis and Muslims is not possible.
Then, she needs to take the “elepant in the room” step, finally realizing that peace between Islam (Muslims) and the non-Muslim world (Dar al Harb) is not ever possible.
Goofy says
What do you expect from people whose entire “spiritual” foundation concerns humiliation, rape and killing of Jews!
People who believe in the Islamic eschatology that in the last days the trees and the rocks will call out to the Muslim fighters, There is a Jew hiding behind me come and kill him!”.
What do you expect
According to the Qur’an Hamas did nothing wrong on 7 October, and they still do nothing wrong keeping Israelis in enslavement, abusing them and murdering them.
Where is ICC?
How can it be legally acceptable to read and preach that book which commands its readers to commit the worst atrocities against people because they are not Muslims?
James Lincoln says
I’m certainly glad that Ada Sagi has been returned to Israel, but she should have taken the time to understand the underlying tenets of islam.
Peace between the so-called “Palestinians” and the Israelis goes against the putrid religion of islam.
Troybeam says
Her belief that they could live in peace together was shattered all to hell in a matter of minutes.
40 rounds says
Well, a belated “duh” to you.
angelo barbato says
All too late these people see the light. One simply cannot assume that Palestinians wand their own state. Their state would be from the river to the sea. Every single Jew to be killed.
Some idiots who really should know better think a two state solution will solve every problem. The Muslims don’t want a two state solution. They want a one state solution which is Islamic From the River To The Sea ñ
drew webb says
Should that ever happen ( not ) they can then sort out those other Muslims who arnt as Islamic as us ( us being other Muslims )
Sammy says
So this is what it took to change the mind of this deluded, bleeding-heart leftist, who prior to October 7th would have considered anyone else saying what she is now saying to be an evil, islamo-phobic racist, etc etc.
It’s people like her who allowed the world to become what it is – so now she’s changed her mind? Big deal. I have NO sympathy for these people.
There have been people telling her this for years. And how did she, and others like her, treat them?
James Lincoln says
At least she didn’t develop Stockholm syndrome, Sammy.
She’s been through hell, we need to cut or just a little bit of slack.
Billy Corr says
Putin picked the appalling Kadyrov clan to run Chechnya as a corrupt one-family despotism.
As a policy, it proved masterly and Chechnya ceased be be a nuisance.
Is it too late for the Israelis to chop the Gaza Strip into, say, four or maybe six cantons and award each canton to a clan of obnoxious petty hoodlums on the strict condition that they emulate the Kadyrov clan in Chechnya?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I’m all for that, but for that, Israel will have to develop Russia like policies & make muslims fear them. Only Russia (w/ Chechens, Tatars, Bashkirs, Dagestanis) and China (w/ Uyghurs and Hui) have managed this miracle: make their own muslims too terrified to speak out, but also not just avoid the ire of the OIC, but in fact, win their support. Countries like Israel, India, et al should learn how it’s done
James Lincoln says
At least she didn’t develop Stockholm syndrome, Sammy.
She’s been through hell, we need to cut her just a little bit of slack.
jus wundrin says
Sometimes the red pills are bitter to swallow.
Ralph says
Ada Sagi would do a great service to spread the doctrine of total war with Hamas and the complicit Palestinians. She obviously is a person of “good heart” but it’s time that she “gave back” to her nation by admitting her errors and leading the call for removal of the Islamist threat. Half measures will prove ineffective. There are no peaceful Islamists. Only vengeful ones. Destroy them all. Then, Israel may experience true peace..
libertyORdeath says
In reality, the shitty part of the world hates conservative patriotic Jews, while the decent people of the world hate TERRORISTS of any sort.
The vitriol coming from the so-called conservative Jew-haters is shocking to me considering the circumstances.
They think they’re being “anti-globalist” by insisting that the globalists in the US and UN violate the sovereignty of the only democracy in the Middle-east. They think they’re opposing the Jewish elites by Siding With leftist Jews like Soros to destroy the Jewish character of Israel and carry out the same Great Replacement that they envision in the West. They think they’re being America First by funding Muslim terrorists and Accusing Israel of war crimes for defending their citizens. They cheer on the anti-White racism and anti-colonialism as long as Jews are the target. They claim to be anti-war but ignore the death and destruction in places like Syria, Yemen, Cyprus, and the mass slaughter of Christians in Africa.
We probably can’t stop leftists, globalists, Muslims, and Communists from supporting terrorism against sovereign nations. But I hope we can convince the others that their support for this type of violence is suicidal.
All of the arguments used against Israel are the same as those used against every Western nation. Jew-haters see Israel as the capital of the globalist NWO. All the evidence points to the opposite conclusion.
JS says
Islam doesn’t just hate Jews and Israel. All other nations in the Middle East have been conquered by these ideological terrorist that can never be tamed. Have we forgotten all the terror attacks around the world – just in the last 20 years? Do I have to name them?
As for liberals, it has been liberals of all other religions that has allowed Islam to continue to murder its way through the ME and now Europe and the U.S. The ONLY way to deal with them is to separate completely from them. That means no emigration to our nations, no access for them to be university educated in our schools, and no work visas, no owning property in the U.S.
Everyone should read MEMRI.org and subscribe. Then look for Sermons of Imans in the West. There you’ll find how mosques throughout the U.S. are threatening America, Jews, Christians and all infidels. HOW MANY WARNINGS MUST WE HAVE? They’re even threatening Biden, yet there have been no Secret Service sent to their mosques. They’re so emboldened that they upload these threats to their YouTube channel.
This message will probably not be posted, so no one can really warn about what’s going on.