I changed my mind about the Israeli hostages.
“This Passover Eve is one of the most fateful in the history of the State of Israel.”
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Since the Hamas-led massacres in Israel on October 7th, I steadfastly felt that it was Israel’s duty to, first and foremost, restore security to all nine million people in Israel.
I still feel this way, but oftentimes it suits us to update our beliefs when new or more information and circumstances become available.
As such, I now believe that it is Israel’s duty, first and foremost, to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. Especially as we are about to celebrate Passover, the eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the Israelites’ emancipation from slavery in ancient Egypt.
According to the Talmud (a record of rabbinic teachings), 80 percent of the Israelites (the Jews) never even left Egypt. They were so steeped in Egyptian culture that they were unwilling to join the Exodus. As such, they were lost to the Jewish nation forever.
In other words, 20 percent of the Jews effectively sacrificed 80 percent of them — and in hindsight, that appears to have been the right decision.
So too must we look at the remaining 130 or so Israeli hostages. While they are next to nothing in numbers, they could be any one of our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends and colleagues. It is our duty to the Jewish People to send the message, if it is not too late, that we prioritize saving Jews over killing terrorists. For there is always more time to kill terrorists.
And killing more terrorists — as well as their aiders and abetters (i.e. Iran and Qatar) — Israel will do. Indeed, since World War II, Israel has probably assassinated more people than any other country in the West, according to Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman (who authored a book on the topic).1
This means that the Israel Defense Forces must add or bolster units whose sole job it is to take out terrorists, destroy their infrastructure, and punish their collaborators. And it must be a nationwide task, in memory of October 7th, that the Jewish state will never allow something like this to happen again.
Hence, every Israeli must be drafted to the IDF, most notably the ultra-Orthodox. Yeah, I know, ultra-Orthodox Israelis pray all day, every day, for Israel. But the reality is: All those prayers for Israel did not prevent the Hamas-led massacres of October 7th.
Israel’s most veteran war correspondent, Ron Ben-Yishai, who has supported Israel’s war against Hamas from day one, just published his analysis of where the war in Gaza stands right now.
“This Passover Eve is one of the most fateful in the history of the State of Israel,” he wrote. “It is in the midst of an existential multi-arena war, but is stuck and faltering in a dead end on each of its six important fronts,” adding that:
“We are stuck, and if the paralysis continues, we will lose. The attempts to free the hostages have not borne fruit, the entry to Rafah is not advancing, there is no substitute for Hamas in Gaza, the end of the fighting is not within sight, or the normalization with Saudi Arabia. All the issues are connected; they relate to relations with Washington, D.C. and concessions on the Palestinian front. But Netanyahu is insisting on a diplomatic one-way street.”2
The fact is that these issues that Ben-Yishai identifies might “quietly” be the “goals of the war effort,” according to Middle East security analyst Seth Frantzman.3
“The public was told ‘there won’t be Hamas’ but in fact quietly the goal was to leave Hamas in control but weaken its capabilities,” he added. “The public was told that military pressure will free hostages. This didn’t happen after December 1st and in fact military pressure was reduced to near zero. There was no urgency to free hostages, even when survivors came back in the first deal and said they met female hostages in tunnels who were being assaulted. There was oddly less urgency to save them.”
“It’s sad and it’s odd,” wrote Frantzman, “but this is the reality. Quietly from the very beginning the policy was to leave Hamas in Gaza and not act with urgency to free hostages. And so in the end Hamas will remain, hostages won’t likely come home (and quietly the narrative is now spun that many have not survived, when we all know they were mostly alive in the first month).”
“Most countries don’t let their soldiers and civilians be kidnapped by the hundreds and held a mile from the border by a terrorist-cartel group,” he added. “Most countries don’t leave women soldiers to be kidnapped and abandoned them close to the border and withdraw their forces and shrug. It’s sad but this how Israel changed from the era of 1967 and Entebbe to the era of letting Hamas control everything and abandoning people in the hands of Hamas. It’s a stain that can never be erased.”
Thus, getting the remaining hostages out of Gaza seems like a noble victory, at least for now.
And just because the war against Hamas might end without Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s now-clichéd and mostly empty words of “total victory,” this does not mean that the war against Hezbollah and ultimately Iran also ends. From my vantage point, that war has barely begun.
The idea of handing Hamas a victory and allowing them to survive as the governing power in Gaza is unsettling, but Israel can work with regional and international partners to do away with much of their resources and breathing room.
As for Hamas’ leaders, they are all of the utmost targets and will probably need to live in tunnels, incessantly paranoid, for the rest of their lives. That might be worse punishment than assassination and the so-called 72 virgins awaiting them.
In any event, Hamas never offered a permanent ceasefire, nor are they negotiating for one. The “ceasefire” that Hamas is offering and negotiating for is actually one of unspecified duration that will end again whenever Hamas feels like attacking Israel again.
Israel must do the same. This war ought to end if that means securing the release of the remaining hostages, but we (Israelis) have to go back to the kind of the unapologetic vigilance that made the Jewish state’s defense and deterrence what it used to be.
That means rampant assassinations of terrorist organization personnel in countries across the region. No country, Iran included, should be off limits.
Part of this ought to mean putting every Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza on notice: If you have any connection to any terrorist organization, such as but certainly not limited to tunnels underneath their homes or a child who attends a Hamas “summer camp,” you are a target. Don’t want to be a target? Disassociate from the terrorists, leave the Palestinian territories, or pray that we do not harm you.
Somehow much of the “civilized” world is now enthralled with the notion that the lives of civilians kidnapped by an jihadist, annihilationist terror group should be bargained for like a trade deal or climate accord, and that the undertaking is legitimate.
May Israel let it be known to the “civilized” world that the Jewish state is strong enough to be on its own, and we will not tolerate the treatment that Israelis and Jews have received during the last six months.
The world needs Israel just as much as Israel needs the world, and so-called “partners” should be put on notice that Israel can, for example, easily cozy up to the Chinese or the Indians if the Americans and Europeans do not know what’s good for them.
If there is anything we have learned from this war, it is that the U.S. is not as strong as some people like to think, nor is it a great friend to Israel anymore. It is a “convenient” friend that Israel must treat as such.
And don’t even get me started about Europe, which I am not even sure is relevant anymore. Good luck dealing with Putin on your own. Looks like that’s been going real well for the Europeans, doesn’t it?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must go (if that is indeed what the Israeli electorate desires) but so too must Joe Biden, as well as large swaths of the current political leadership in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, Canada, and South Africa.
The world is a more dangerous place today because of the current Western leadership, and while they may have not directly caused this crisis, neither have they demonstrated an ability or the competence to course-correct.
Plus, the Jews are far less safe in these countries not because of Israel, but because these governments refused to protect their own citizens when they were most vulnerable. Shame on them for taking their Jews for granted. Citizens should vote at the ballot box accordingly.
In this vein, Biden’s administration deserves a massive amount of criticism in its disastrous handling of this war — and Biden is not free from criticism just because of his presumable opponent in November’s U.S. presidential election.
In Israel, an election is looming too; we just do not have a date for it yet. Does this make Netanyahu free from criticism? Absolutely not. If you are going to fairly and justifiably criticize the sitting Israeli prime minister, do the same for all Western politicians.
Otherwise, you are holding the Jewish state to a double standard, which is antisemitic.
During this past weekend, rumors circulated that the Biden administration is planning to sanction an IDF unit.
“By the standards Biden is applying to IDF — imposing sanctions based on a few unclear and questionable incidents narrated by far-Left, terror-supporting groups — the U.S. would have to cut funding to the entire U.S. military,” wrote Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at George Mason University.4
Israeli journalist Ofer Haddad put it this way: “One has the feeling that with every pro-Israeli step, the Biden administration has the need to please or compensate for being on the right side against the ultra-radical Left in the Democratic Party. Sanctions against settlers was the beginning of the slippery slope. Imposing sanctions on a combat unit of an ally’s army is already going off the rails.”5
Based on leaks for months, we are all well aware of the virulent anti-Israel sentiment inside the U.S. State Department, which makes these decisions, led by Antony Blinken. Anyone who monitors the BDS movement and anti-Israel activism is also well aware of the groups who pose as “credible sources of information” to advance false or sugarcoated allegations against Israel and the IDF.
A variety of reports reveal quite quickly that groups with ties to designated terrorist organizations, groups that support BDS, and groups that openly oppose the Abraham Accords have put forward allegations against the IDF in an effort to aid radical anti-Israel activists inside the Biden administration in fulfilling their long-awaited dream of imposing sanctions on the IDF or its units.
This is entirely a campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel — and to kneecap its efforts to defend its citizens from annihilation.
Yet the Biden administration risks far more than undermining Israel and emboldening our shared enemies. It will green light attacks by detractors of the U.S. against its own military as well.
All for what? Repenting to a pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party for helping Israel withstand a massive missile attack from Iran? Or worse, knowingly attempting to undermine the IDF while Congress moves emergency assistance (which includes some $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza) to support it?
All of these actions by the Biden administration are obvious attempts to placate the radical progressive wing of the Democratic Party that has been unreasonably critical of Israel’s war against Palestinian and Islamist terror in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
All this talk of a radical wing reminds me of an article from The Times in 1935, which said:
“Herr Hitler’s speech to the special meeting of the Reichstag at Nuremberg may not have fulfilled all the expectations of the Deputies who were so suddenly summoned together. But our Berlin Correspondent considers that for domestic purposes it was a master-stroke of party stage-craft; and the one-hour session provided speeches by the Fuhrer and General Goring and three new laws.”
“Henceforward the Swastika flag, till now the emblem of the National-Socialist movement, is to the official flag of the German Reich. The other two laws impose severe conditions for full German citizenship so as to exclude Jews and forbid marriage between Aryans and Jews, on the engagement of German girls as domestic servants in Jewish houses.”
“For Germany the new ‘ghetto legislation’ will rank in importance equally with Herr Hitler’s references to foreign policy. In the long run it may mean more to Germany than any manifestation of activity in foreign affairs.”
“Nothing like the complete disinheritance and segregation of Jewish citizens now announced has been heard since medieval times. The new laws, while in line with anti-Semitism which has been a large part of the Fuhrer’s inspiration from the beginning are no doubt to be taken as an encouragement to the Radical wing of the party.”
“To increase a provocation which is doing grave injury to German interests abroad is a contradiction more than strange, while it is a further defiance to conceptions of social justice that are still second nature to the greater part of mankind. The best to be said of the new laws is that they may offer German Jewry the process of law in place of arbitrary bullying and local tyranny.”6
Israel is a “grown-up” now, so it could of course respond in kind, such as these wise suggestions from Caroline Glick, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy. They include:
Banning all U.S. embassy personnel from entering Judea and Samaria (the West Bank)
Banning the terror-supporting, Jew-hating Palestinian Authority from using the Israeli banking system
Arresting all Palestinian Authority personnel that incite terrorism and Jew hatred
Attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and oil and gas platforms7
Enough is enough. Let our people go.
Bergman, Ronen. “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations.” Random House, 2018.
“אנחנו תקועים. ואם הקיפאון יימשך – נובס | פרשנות.” Ynet News.
Seth Frantzman on X
Eugene Kontorovich on X
Channel 2 News
“Leading article, The Nuremberg laws, September 17, 1935.” The Times.
Caroline Glick on X
While Israel has made mistakes during this war, one of the largest was listening to its "ally," the US, and not going into Rafah. The Biden administration has tried to sabotage Israel's efforts since early on, and they're still doing it. They are as cowardly as can be when it comes to listening to their Progressives, and pandering to their Dearborn voters. They sing the same song that they have not changed their policy towards their ally, Israel, but, but, but, but. There's always a but and my but is, why haven't Biden and his admin been able to bring back American hostages? Hamas only said a few weeks ago they would negotiate a hostage release but needed six weeks to locate them. (If that is to be believed) They sanction Israeli settlers and now want to sanction a unit of the IDF. How about sanctioning Iran? Of course not. They had lifted those sanctions that had been in place and then rewarded them by releasing their money. They gave Iran a heads up when striking the Houthis, and that was short-lived. They seem to be protecting Iran and their proxies more than Israel, their ally. Say what you will about Trump, but this would not have happened. Rafah should have been completed long ago and the focus on Hezbollah. Biden is proving with his actions that he is not a friend to Israel and those actions are trickling down to the anti-Israel sentiment we are seeing on a daily basis in the US. Along with the money that has been spread around into every sector of our society in the US, and the favors that must be paid back because of it, the snake has now grown many heads. I only hope it will not be allowed to grow any more.
Great essay, Joshua. I agree with the points made by Caroline Glick as well as yours. And Israel should be acting swiftly to restore and improve its weapons manufacturing capabilities in house.