Rally for hostage release
Rally for hostage releaseCourtesy:

Like everyone else, I also pray for the return of the hostages.

Like everyone else, my son and my students are fighting in Gaza to free them.

Like everyone else, I find myself blocked on the roads by an angry (and older) crowd that shouts at me that I, as a right-wing voter, am guilty of "abandoning" the hostages.

As a Religious Zionist rabbi, I receive special treatment: once a week on average, I receive a request with a furious demand to come to a "solidarity rally" for the hostages.

When I try to ask gently, what the purpose of the rally is because after all, don’t we all want the return of the hostages, I get a number of answers:

1) We need to raise awareness of the issue of the hostages;

2) The national religious public is required to prove that it "cares" about the hostages;

3) we must do something.

I answer them:

1) Since everyone wants the release of the hostages, the rallies, the signs and the millions that are being poured in are not to "raise awareness" but to push the government into a deal with enormous risks and costs.

2) The Religious Zionist public, with its hundreds of casualites, does not need to prove anything to anyone; if anything, the opposite is the case.

3) The best thing that can be done for the hostages is not to give Hamas any means of pressure. We have already seen the damage wreaked by the demonstrations for the Shalit hostage deal.

We will do our best for the hostages by having our best sons fight for them in Gaza; by backing the government to pressure Hamas militarily and return the hostages, this from a position of strength; by investing all our energies and funds in an international campaign to pressure Hamas (this is for whoever has not yet understood that Hamas is the villain here and not the Israeli government and who thinks "bring them home" rather than "set them free" is the right slogan); and by tearing open the gates of heaven in prayers.

Let’s learn from the Hostages' Families Forum and the Families of Fallen Soldiers Forum.

A view from Kibbutz Nir Oz-by Rochel Sylvetsky

Last week, I joined a group organized by Arutz Sheva to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz, hardest hit of all the kibbutzim in the Gaza Envelope on October 7, 2023. Only 50 of the former 400 residents of the kibbutz would like to return - that is, out of the 400 who populated the still beautifully landscaped kibbutz where we mourned over 100 burned and destroyed homes with black or yellow flags in front of each, black symbolizing those murdered and yellow those taken hostage (30 of those still in captivity are from Nir Oz). The contrast between the greenery outside and the desolation inside the wrecked homes is beyond description, almost too much to bear.

A beautiful family of five was totally wiped out (their family somehow found it fitting to scribble a sign accusing Netanyahu and cursing him on the wall of the house), an elderly man was murdered while his caretaker survived and on and on until one's heart breaks. Another desolate home has a road sign pointing to Gush Katif hung there because, sadly, the family was happy at the Disengagement. In the kibbutz's garage, a few former residents have returned to renew activity, the man once in charge of the fields has brought them back to full growth so that they would not be unsalvageable - is it the indomitable Jewish spirit, love of this land, all of them together?

We were accompanied by the mother of a hostage taken captive at the Nova party, a site we also visited to cry over the pictures of young people, some children of my friends who had "left the derech," young people partying innocently and then murdered bestially by Hamas barbarians.

I thought about how psychopath Sinwar was also a perceptive psychologist. He knew what hostage-taking would do to Israelis - as opposed to hostage-taking in other parts of the world. Not only would the unknown location of the hostages prevent the IAF from bombing all of Gaza to Hell for fear of killing them, but there would be Israelis willing to give up all the gains of the war to free the 100 suffering and dead Israeli brothers that Hamas is holding up for sale, even if it means over 800 of our soldiers gave their lives in vain. We are a merciful nation and we care about each other, so there are no adequate answers to the mother of a hostage except answering "yes."

But then I looked west and saw that Khan Yunis is practically within the reach of a baseball struck out of the field from Nir Oz. So is Rafah from Kerem Shalom, the most southern Israeli village. And although, like all Jews, I pray and hope for the hostages' safe return with all my heart, I realized that governments cannot rule with their hearts on matters of the nation's life or death. Israel must not give in to Hamas demands to free terrorists, to leave any area it holds, it cannot leave a power vacuum to be filled by Hamas. It doesn't matter if the army is vigilant. All the words about "we can handle it" don't mean a thing. We have heard them before. One rocket, one infiltrator,one kidnapping, one massive assault - by the time we can react, even if we are far from the catastrophic IDF delay on October 7, 2023, it will have started again.

There can be no Hamas on the western side of Israel's border. If they remain, our great grandchildren, including those of the hostage families, will once again be fighting and losing their lives on the sands of Gaza. We have to reach the point where Hamas begs us for a ceasefire and offers to return all the hostages at once - we have to stand strong against their absurd demands. For the sake of the future.