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Why did Hamas take Israeli hostages two years ago? · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Tuesday, October the 7th, 2025, and this is Dinnison Forum's daily article podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrator, voicing today's daily article, authored by Cultural Theologian Dr. Jim Dinnison.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Negotiations began in Egypt yesterday to finalize a deal based on President Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: The talks are expected to last a few days, with a focus on a proposed hostage for prisoner Swap.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: The negotiations began on the eve of one of the most tragic and adversaries in Jewish history.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hamas' surprise attack on October 7, 2023 is considered the deadliest and most brutal terrorist assault in Israel's history.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hamas is celebrating today's anniversary as a glorious day in a message calling the invading terrorist heroes.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last we forget, these quote-unquote heroes killed 1,195 people including 815 civilians.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Evidence and autopsies later revealed widespread sexual violence with dozens of Israeli women raped sexually abused or mutilated.
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: In addition, the terrorists took 251 hostages.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what we know about them.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: 146 have been freed or rescued while 83 have been confirmed killed.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: 37 were under the age of 18, 8 were 81 years of age or older.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: 51 were women, some of whom were starved, intimidated, and threatened by armed men.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: 13 women and two men whose survive captivity said they experienced or witnessed sexual violence while held in Gaza.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: About 20 living hostages remain captive in desperate conditions, according to Israeli officials, and about 25 more are believed to have died, but their bodies have not been returned.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why did Hamas take them two years ago?
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: The answers are not only relevant to peace in the Middle East, but a window into human nature.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to the British Policy Institute Chatham House, Hamas took hostages on October 7,
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: One, to be used as human shields in the face of Israel's counterattack.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Two, as an insurance policy and bargaining chip as the conflict evolved.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Three, to create media opportunities for Hamas and an ability to control the narrative.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Four, to draw other countries into the conflict given the multi-national nature of the hostage group, inflicting harm not just on Israel, but on some of its closest allies.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: and five to generate terror, shaking the foundation of life for many Israelis.
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hostage-taking by Israel's enemies is nothing new.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Palestinian terrorists have taken Israeli hostages numerous times, in some cases, a few Israelis were swapped for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The calculus behind the taking of Jewish hostages is worth contemplating on this tragic anniversary.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Quran describes in chapter 5 verse 60, chapter 2 verse 65, and chapter 7 verse 166, the Jewish people as, quote, apes and swine.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hamas further claims that Jewish people were behind World War I and World War II, among other global conflicts and revolutions.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: The terrorists are in fact convinced that the Jewish people are from the Latin,
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: the enemy of humankind itself.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Such dehumanization of others is always the first step to their mistreatment.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: The ancient Romans saw themselves as a superior civilization and believed conquering and assimilating other people into their empire was best for those they subjugated.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many European explorers characterized the indigenous people they encountered in the new world as an inferior race and culture, paving the way for the theft of their tribal lands.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many who supported the enslavement of Africans similarly considered them intellectually and morally inferior to whites, convincing themselves that Africans were better off as their slaves.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Charles Darwin's on the origin of species, he famously observed that in nature, there are typically more offspring produced than can survive, creating a competition for limited resources in which the fittest tend to prevail.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to adopt his bias against religion or larger biological theory to recognize this principle as a basic fact of human psychology and culture.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our will to power, the fallen drive to be our own God from Genesis 3 vs 5, operates a zero-sum equation for me to win?
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: You must lose.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: If a mosque can blame Israelis for all the Palestinians' problems, they can justify unleashing their basis, sinful instincts to oppress their oppressors and advance their people and cause.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: This calculus is by no means limited to terrorists
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, every crime against another person is a version of such denigration and commodification.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: We see this across the biological spectrum, from aborting unwanted babies to euthanizing the infirm and elderly.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, Mother Teresa warned.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want."
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, If I see you as my equal, created in God's images, I am, and equally loved by our father, it will be difficult for me to lie to you, steal from you, and otherwise harm you.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But my fall in nature wants to denigrate and commodify you,
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have known ministers who said, perhaps only half ingest, that they love pastoring churches, it was dealing with the church members that was the problem.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even now, I am tempted to write this article to impress you, rather than to serve you.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I noted yesterday, you and I are typically persuaded by ideas that appealed to our self-interest, so let's close with a biblical argument for sacrificial service that does
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our all-knowing, all-loving father, has a plan for our lives that is better than ours, according to Jeremiah 29 verse 11 and Romans 12 verse 2.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: From Ephesians 518 and Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, we learn that when we submit to His Spirit each day, he will lead us onto this path and empower us to walk it faithfully.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: One consequence or fruit of the Spirit's operation in our lives, according to Galatians 5 verse 22 and John 13 verses 34 and 35 is love.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: The selfless desire to serve others at our personal expense.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: From Matthew 25 verse 40, we know that when we serve those who cannot serve us, we serve Jesus himself.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: and serving Jesus is the key to significance in this life established by Colossians 3 vs. 23 and 24, and the joy of your master in eternity found in Matthew 25 vs. 21 and 23.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: To paraphrase my youth minister's question, if you were put on trial for being submitted to the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?