I recently had the chance to speak with Kobi Samerano, the father of 21-year-old Yonatan Samerano, who was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, by an employee of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and held in Gaza for 627 days. His body was found by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and returned to Israel.
Kobi Samerano permitted me to share his story with the world. His words are not mine to keep; they are for all Jews to hear.
During our exchange, he told me something that will haunt me forever: “Burying my son was a relief. Because not knowing, not having a grave, not having an answer was worse.”
That sentence shattered whatever illusions I still had about “Never Again.”
I grew up believing “Never Again” was a promise not just to Jews but to humanity, and that genocide and terror would never again be tolerated. I believed the world had learned from the Holocaust, evolved morally and built systems to stop evil before it could take root.
But since Oct. 7, I’ve come to the painful conclusion that “Never Again” has no power. It’s a slogan we chant. A phrase etched in stone. It is no longer a truth we live by.
That day will go down as the worst, most brutal day, when more than 1,200 beautiful people, most of them innocent Jews, were slaughtered in their homeland. Women were raped and mutilated. Children burned alive. Families executed in front of one another, and some 250 people were kidnapped, including Holocaust survivors and an infant. And what did the “civilized world” do? It watched, it moved on, or, worse, it blamed the victims and condemned Israel.
Yonatan was vibrant, creative and full of life. He was kidnapped by a UNRWA social worker—a man paid by the international community, including the United States. For nearly two years, his family lived in agony, not knowing his fate. UNRWA wasn’t just complicit; it was actively involved. Yet no one at the United Nations has taken responsibility. There have been no resignations, no apologies, no accountability.
Instead, world leaders call for a “ceasefire” as if Hamas were a legitimate peace partner. But a ceasefire now is not peace; it’s surrender. It is a reward for terror that guarantees more atrocities and abandons future innocent civilians to the same fate as Yonatan.
Samerano’s position is one the world needs to hear, especially now. Even though his son was murdered, he believes that Israel must never trade terrorists for hostages. Negotiating with terrorists does not save lives in the long run; it endangers more of them. Every prisoner swap plants the seeds for the next mass kidnapping.
And he’s right. No country in the world would tolerate a terror group that rapes, murders and kidnaps its citizens. Why is Israel expected to?
You cannot wage war while funding your enemy. Yet billions in aid have flowed into Gaza, diverted by Hamas into rockets, tunnels and terror. Hamas survives not because it is strong but because the Jewish people’s restraint keeps it alive.
Samerano shared a story about Yonatan that should guide us all. When Yonatan was 9, playing with friends on a Tel Aviv balcony, he suddenly said, “Let’s go to Eilat.” His friends laughed. It was 380 kilometers away. But Yonatan smiled and said, “What’s wrong with you? It’s just one bus line.”
That became his motto. And now it should be one for all Jewish people.
Bringing the hostages home? One bus line.
Eliminating Hamas? One bus line.
Standing for truth, morality and Jewish life? One bus line.
The question is, will we get on the bus?
If we fail now, if we let this moment pass, then “Never Again” was never real. It was just a lie we told ourselves to sleep at night. I’m not willing to live with that. Peace will come through strength, not appeasement.
May Yonatan’s memory be a blessing, and much more than that, may it be a wake-up call to every Jew in America. Let us unite now before it’s too late.
