Reflections on the amazing story of Roni Krivoi

There are a few thoughts that arise for me when I see Roni Krivoi and hear a brief account of how he escaped from the clutches of Hamas only to be returned to them four days later.

Freed: Roni Krivoi

Roni was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival. He is the first adult male to be freed and it was done at the request of Putin. Roni holds both Israeli and Russian citizenships. pic.twitter.com/TpGl4DF76M

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 26, 2023

1. Roni Krivoi ecaped because the building in which he was being held collapsed as a result of Israeli bombardment in the area. It does not sound like the building was directly hit, but it collapsed nonetheless. He could just as easily have been killed under the rubble. This makes me wonder how many other hostages have been killed or seriously maimed from our bombing. If there are any, they will likely remain on the list of the “missing” forever. This does not mean that I am against the bombing. I am not.
2. Roni managed to survive totally alone for four days, looking for a way to get to the border and out of the war zone. I guess he did not see or hear our soldiers because trying to reach them would have been much easier and certain than trying to find one’s way out of Gaza without a map. In any case, by that time, I doubt the streets would have been identifiable on a map. The fact that he survived for four days, without food and water — perhaps — and without losing his mind — it appears — points to the resilience of the human spirit. Is this an example of a unique Israeli resilience? I don’t know.
3. He was found by ordinary Gazan civilians and given over to Hamas. What does this mean? Does it mean that there are no innocent Gazan civilians and that everyone there is either a terrorist or a terrorist-supporter (like this man, for example)? This incident does not allow us to come to that conclusion, as tempting as it is to add this to the list of reasons not to believe that there are any “innocent” Gazan civilians. On the other hand, however, for those who found him to have been able to protect him and bring him to safety would have required certain conditions:
   1. That they, themselves, were not members of Hamas.
   2. That they wanted to.
   3. That they were willing to risk their own safety in order to ensure Roni’s.
   4. That there were only one or two individuals who found Roni because a larger group precludes anyone acting independently and doing something risky and against Hamas.
   5. That those who found Roni believe in the value of an individual human life over the value of the collectivist ideology of the culture in which they live.
   6. That there are, among the Gazan civilian population, those who would act like the courageous “righteous gentiles” in Europe during WW2 if presented with the situation in which such behaviour would be relevant. This last point is something I have wondered about regarding the Arab citizens of Israel were it to appear that neighbouring Arab armies were about to vanquish Israel — would any of my Arab friends in this country hide me? Of course, I have to wonder if I would hide my Arab friends if there was an evil inquisition here against the Arabs and Jews would be killed for sheltering them. I know what I would like to think that I would do.
4. Roni was easily identified because of his light coloured skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. Had he donned a kaffiyeh, would that still have been true? After all, look at the photo of Ahed Tamimi (Shirley Temper) in the post embedded below. He would have had to speak fluent Arabic to fool anyone he came across, but we know that Jews are not just white and Arabs are not just brown. So it may have worked for him.

בין האסירות המחבלות הצפויות להשתחרר, גם עאהד תמימי, מהכפר נבי צאלח.
התפרסמה כאשר תקפה חייל מול המצלמות והפכה לאייקון פלסטיני ולבובת ארגוני “זכויות אדם”. pic.twitter.com/FmRW9VwJVx

— Baruch Yedid, ברוך ידיד, باروخ يديد (@BaruchYedid) November 28, 2023

Are there other thoughts that arise for you regarding the amazing story of Roni Krivoi? And please, don’t just tell me that it proves that there are no innocent Gazan civilians. I am still struggling with that, but this particular incident does not prove anything.

Feature Image courtesy of the family.