This overview shows an Israeli flag flying from a pedestrian bridge above a road inscribed with the names of hostages captive in the Gaza Strip since the October 7 attacks inscribed in Hebrew, outside the Israeli Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on August 24, 2024. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Shelly Schreter: Thinking About Hostages, Dangers, Priorities
Many Israelis today, not just critics of the Government, are worrying that our beloved country is unraveling, coming apart at the seams. Despite a wonderful citizenry, we are not built for a lengthy war of attrition, with no plan for exit and no end in sight. Nor can we draw reassurance from a leadership utterly detached from reality.
The economy is tanking, with a crisis in Israel’s credit ratings, all the failed businesses, the disappearance of tourism, the decline of our start-up boom, and the dire warnings of the Bank of Israel of worse to come. The Government’s management of the economy is a disaster, with vast budgetary irresponsibility, huge misallocation of scarce resources to coalition interest groups, and perpetuation of superfluous, costly Government Ministries. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will still be paying for all this.
Our security situation is increasingly gridlocked and in a bad trajectory. We lost ten soldiers killed during the last week, as of this writing. There is no measurable progress toward the illusory goal of “total victory”. Our position in Gaza has become static, which means trapped in a lethal swamp menacingly similar to the one we suffered in Lebanon during the 1980s-90s. In the north, we have lost sovereignty over a major part of the country, unable to undertake the massive military effort required to neutralize Hezbollah. And in the West Bank, we are straining to contain the rise of an armed insurgency, with troops needed on the other two fronts. Two Government Ministers, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, are doing their utmost to further inflame the situation there, aiding and abetting the crimes of Jewish terrorists against Palestinian civilians and blatantly violating the status quo on the Temple Mount.
The Justice Minister who initiated the effort to disarm Israel’s judiciary system has returned to action, after temporarily holding back since October 7th. Our international relations are at an all-time low. Iran is well on track to achieve nuclear weapons capacity. The Haredim continue to mock the rule of law through mass boycotting of conscription to the army. The hostage families are increasingly desperate and aggressive in trying to influence Israeli decision-making to secure the liberation of their kidnapped loved ones. Who could blame them?
And the Government of Israel remains serenely oblivious to it all. They have more important things to deal with, like foisting an atrociously inappropriate and tone-deaf ceremony to commemorate October 7th on a mostly disgusted public.
To an extent never imagined possible, everything converges under the autocratic reign of Prime Minister Netanyahu, whose solo decisions seem unchallengeable, not by the political opposition nor by anyone in his coalition. The latter are united in their desperate clinging to power, which elections would overthrow. By law, they could delay such elections to as late as October 2026.
The internal divisions within Israel, largely transcended during the first months of this war, are re-emerging with a vengeance. Keeping the antagonistic “tribes” of Israeli society – religious, secular, Jews from different countries, value systems and cultures, haredim, Arabs, etc. – in some kind of framework is always supremely difficult. The fault lines are now throbbing and I pray that our conflicts don’t overflow into violence. It has happened before. During the year before October 7th, President Isaac Herzog warned us against the danger of civil war.
Much of the controversy now focuses on the negotiations over the conclusion of the Gaza War and the release of the hostages. The malaise described above translates into overwhelming public support for prioritizing the hostages and disbelief in the good faith of the Prime Minister, whose decisions delay the negotiations and prolong the war.
It must be acknowledged that the issues are hardly simple. Hamas has an obvious interest in stalling, in the not-unreasonable belief that time works in their favor. The costs of acceding to their terms for a ceasefire are undeniably high, in terms of key Hamas leaders released from Israeli prisons, the encouragement that a Hamas victory will provide to the whole Iranian terrorist-proxy network, and the likelihood of Hamas retention of control over all or most of Gaza.
But we also have to consider the costs of NOT concluding a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. In addition to exacerbating all the pressures affecting Israel’s society, economy, military, and international relations, the overriding immediate cost has to be recognized: the sacrifice of the hostages.
There is no credibility in asserting that military pressure on Hamas is the only hope of saving them. Only eight of them have been rescued from Hamas captivity during the last almost eleven months, while many more have died, whether as the result of our military actions or by Hamas execution. If ever we do come close to liberating any number of them, Hamas is likely to kill rather than surrender them: That is who we are up against. Pretending otherwise is pointless.
Some military experts, notably John Spencer of West Point, have urged Israel to persevere in destroying Hamas, not only because they estimate that to be within reach, but also because failing to do so will harm Israel’s future security grievously. Netanyahu agrees with him. The majority of Israel’s defense establishment, past and present, does not. Their reasoning must interest us.
On one hand, they say that Israel can handle the security threats involved, after a period of respite and replenishment from our present distressed position. They do not believe that “total victory” over Hamas, or Hezbollah, is achievable. And they maintain that only the creation of an Arab alternative to Hamas for governing Gaza, i.e. a political solution, could effectively defeat Hamas. That path has been disqualified by our Government on ideological grounds: the fear that it could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. That is our elephant in the room.
Why have so many Israelis concluded that saving the hostages outweighs the military-security costs? It comes down to a basic value decision about what Israel is. Israel exists for many reasons, but one of the most critical is to serve as a sanctuary, to safeguard the lives of its citizens and Jews everywhere, if need be. That unwritten promise was massively undermined by the October 7th massacre, and then compounded by the Government’s subsequent failure (or refusal) to negotiate return of the hostages. If the State relinquishes the role of protector of our lives (hoping that this will reinforce future security), what are we doing here? Why should we endure the difficulties of living here? Why should we entrust our children’s lives to the IDF? Believing in the State’s commitment to do that is as basic and foundational as it gets, a central component of the glue holding Israel together. And that is what a decision to abandon our hostages, however agonized and unwilling, would destroy.
Hamas has boastfully mocked Israel for its concern with human life, while their warriors welcome the glorious death of martyrs. We need, for our own sakes, to proudly confirm their opinion of us and to reaffirm the sanctity of life as a source of strength rather than weakness, and in keeping with the deepest currents of our heritage. This means giving preference to saving the lives of the hostages.
October 7th left an open wound in our collective heart, and we need the balm of such an outcome to begin healing and to reinforce the basic understandings of the relations between citizen and state which make Israel possible, necessary, and resilient. If we needed any confirmation, the powerful jubilation that swept the entire country a few days ago with the liberation of hostage Kaid Farhan Al-Qadi on October 27th provided it. (A random example: When a lifeguard announced the rescue over the public address system at a Haifa beach, the crowd of bathers went wild in celebration.) This goes to the essence of who we are, why we are here, and why we will stay. We will of course continue to argue vehemently about everything, but dare not degrade the integrity of our foundations.
