There were days, days that almost of all of us remember, when photos like these were ubiquitous. On hostage posters on the news, on the internet. Everywhere.
Then the living hostages returned home. The signs disappeared, but a few of the returning hostages offered a window into the horrors that they had endured. Some, Eli Sharabi hardly the only one among them, became very public figures. They traveled the world giving speeches, or wrote (often bestselling) books, or gave extensive interviews.
And then, gradually, most of them edged away from the spotlight.
Yarden Bibas, the husband of Shiri, z’l, and father of Ariel and Kfir, z’l, realized upon leaving captivity that his family had become, quite literally, the poster family of the movement to free the hostages. But his world had been shattered, and though people knew more about his kids than about many of the others who were lost, he did not speak. He did not write. He did not travel. He took, and is taking, time to heal.
Now, Yarden Bibas has broken that silence. Channel 13 in Israel recently posted a long interview with Bibas, his first with the Israeli press, on the heels of a podcast in which he was also interviewed.
So now that Channel 13 has released the interview along with English subtitles and put it on YouTube, giving everyone access, we’re posting it here, because it wouldn’t be hard for people to miss it.
I think you’ll agree after you watch it: it’s something that we all need to see.
