Gazans celebrating the ceasefire
Gazans celebrating the ceasefireMagdi Fahdi, TPS

Recently, 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 residents of the kibbutz would like to return - that is, out of the more than 400 who once populated the still beautifully landscaped kibbutz where over 100 burned and destroyed homes have black or yellow flags, black symbolizing those murdered (38 residents) and yellow those taken hostage (70 that day, with 30 still in captivity). The contrast between the greenery outside and the desolation inside the wrecked homes is beyond description, almost too much to bear.

Nir Oz home
Nir Oz homeChagai Huberman

A beautiful family of five was totally wiped out (someone strangely thought it a fitting memorial to scribble a sign cursing Netanyahu 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 sign taken from the road once pointing to Gush Katif, and hung there because the family, like others in the mostly left-leaning Gaza envelope kibbutzim, rejoiced at the Disengagement, now clearly a fatally egregious mistake.

Gush Katif road sign on Nir Oz home
Gush Katif road sign on Nir Oz homeChagain Huberman

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, both 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 the children of my friends who had "left the derech," young people partying innocently and then murdered bestially by Hamas barbarians.

Nova site memorial
Nova site memorialChagai Huberman

Yahya Sinwar was a psychopathic murderer, but he 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, where they would be seen as part of the price of war. He realized that not only would the unknown location of the hostages prevent the IAF from bombing all of Gaza to Kingdom Come for fear of killing them, although not doing so endangered IDF soldiers, but that there would be masses of Israelis willing to give up all the gains of the war to free their 100 suffering and dead brothers, held up for sale by Hamas, even if it means over 800 of our soldiers gave their lives in vain.

No tradition of a “stiff upper lip” exists here when it comes to the hostages, although anyone can see that the demonstrations at Hostage Square etc. were a boon for Hamas and led to their raising the ransom price. It seems that only the parents of dead and wounded soldiers are expected to mourn and suffer in silence.

Israelis attend rally for release hostages at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv
Israelis attend rally for release hostages at "Hostage Square" in Tel AvivMiriam Alster/Flash 90

We are a merciful nation, we care about one another, so there were almost no answers except “yes” to the mother who accompanied us to Nir Oz and the Nova party site when she asked about our willingness to free her daughter at the price of all our military gains.

In the end, Trump’s threats made the issue a moot point. Whatever comes of the hostage deal, we will rejoice if they are freed. No one asked us and we have no choice anyway. Out of the Blinken frying pan and into the Trump fire.

I looked westward as I stood in Nir Oz that day and what I saw was that Khan Yunis looks as though it is practically within the reach of a baseball struck out of the field from that ravaged kibbutz (the real distance is a few kilometers, small comfort). So is Rafah from Kerem Shalom, the most southern Gaza envelope community. And although, like all Jews, I pray and hope for the hostages' safe return with all my heart, governments must not make decisions with their hearts on matters of their nation's life or death.

Israel should have been the recalcitrant one, should not have given in to Hamas demands to free terrorists or to leave any area it holds. Israel should and could have reached the point where Hamas begs for a ceasefire and offers to return all the hostages at once – while Gazans should have been encouraged and helped to leave the Strip - but Biden and Blinken prevented that outcome by withholding arms and insisting on humanitarian aid.

Now it looks as though Trump wants to free the hostages more than he wants to prevent future ones. CoS Herzi Halevi does not seem to be seeking victory anyway, especially obvious when his operational strategy had IDF soldiers returning to the same places they were before after giving Hamas time to plant bombs there again, time for them to come out of the woodwork in the homes of those “innocent civilians” who hide terrorists in their midst, those who blend in with them and those volunteering to join the movement.

We have our work cut out for us after the ceasefire ends. We cannot leave a power vacuum to be filled by Hamas. If they are not destroyed, it won'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 do not repeat the tragically catastrophic IDF delay on October 7, 2023, it will have already happened again.

We must destroy Hamas. We must do so with a vengeance right after the ceasefire. There can be no Hamas to the west of Israel. If they remain, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, including those of the hostage families, will once again be fighting and losing their lives on the sands of Gaza.

Until that happens, can the Gaza envelope residents, including those of Nir Oz, feel secure at home? The answer is No.

Will Netanyahu, and not Trump, Biden or Blinken, be blamed no matter what happens next? The answer is Yes.

Why? First, because the left has incurable Bibi Derangement Syndrome, but also because Israelis have a problem differentiating between being responsible for something and being guilty of it. Signs paid for by the Kaplan demonstrators’ unlimited funds were all over Israeli roads for months saying “Netanyahu – You are at the head. You are guilty”, but while the head of an organization cannot escape assuming responsibility by definition, Netanyahu bears no guilt for what happened that long October 7th day, for the disastrous unpreparedness and delayed reactions of the defense establishment. Those guilty of that are the IDF and ISA decision-making echelons who could have routed the Nukhbas in a matter of minutes despite the “conceptsia” and did not get their act together for hours. (They reached Nir Oz at 1:30 p.m. - the terrorists and their captives were long gone.)

The belief in the so-called ‘conceptsia,’ despite the all-embracing smokescreen it affords the left, doesn’t matter – it was never supposed to take the place of being on guard – what mattered is the IDF and ISA making light of warnings, not waking the PM, Intelligence head Haliva on vacation and turning off his mobile phone when our lives are in his hands. (He should find a job, like carpentry, where one can turn off one's mobile phone with impunity, but will probably become a wealthy strategic consultant.)

On a deeper level, the ISA, IDF and IAF are guilty because they worked according to a flow chart that had erased the “no” column, something none of us, including Netanyahu, ever imagined they would do. That is why they could ignore obvious signs that an attack was imminent, refuse to come to flight practice, and lower IDF readiness on the borders. In fact, Netanyahu jumped into action as soon as he was finally told of the situation by those he had, up to then, thought he could trust, the military and intelligence experts who he and we thought were always on the alert, "conceptsia" or no "conceptsia".

This is not to say that Netanyahu has not made other disastrous errors, like freeing over a thousand terrorists for Shalit, one of them the October 7th mastermind, but that does not contradict the fact that October 7 was stoppable had the defense echelons not failed us.

And on another note: Strangely, the hostage deal may put the haredi draft issue on the back burner, where it will be resolved or perhaps shelved. That G-d-fearing sector missed a golden opportunity to sanctify G-d’s Name in the eyes of the Jewish people had they enlisted in droves when the Jewish state was fighting for its life last year. True, it would have taken months to train those who were fit for combat, but G-d’s message in the Burning Bush – I am with you in your hour of need – would have resonated worldwide and who knows what its positive influence would have been?

I, who believe that we must support Torah learning, yeshivot, and those who are really learning, regret that the haredi yeshiva boys went on as usual while their brothers were killed and wounded to sanctify G-d’s Name, those fallen soldiers reaching the highest level to which a Jew can aspire. One Haredi Rosh Yeshiva I spoke to said that the boys who aren’t really learning (it is easy to see the dropouts in Jerusalem, for example) are the most in danger of becoming non-haredi in the army so they cannot be allowed to enlist, another said that if the army would announce that those who are really learning are exempt, the Roshei Yeshivot would allow the dropouts to join. The establishment of the haredi Hashmonaim Brigade could have been met by a courageous decision on the part of those mutually contradictory Rosh Yeshivas, both of whom are sincerely worried about each student and about Torah.

Perhaps the haredim backed the deal figuring it would remove the draft issue from the table and allow them to continue relating to the state of Israel as merely the geographic site of the Holy Land, to love living in it but bear no physical responsibility for its survival. They would like to continue to believe that the IDF soldier is there to risk or lose his life to protect Israeli civilians, of which they are a special part, a part whose Torah study is the backbone of the state. That, of course, may imply that Torah learned by Religious Zionist soldiers who went out to war is less important, and that one can halakhically ignore an existential war aimed on annihilating the Jews of Israel, but the bottom line is that the army needs dedicated fighters, not unmotivated haredi combat soldiers.

Israel is now at an existential crossroad: Will it destroy Hamas after the ceasefire is over? Will the IDF echelons who made the fatally flawed decisions or non-decisions on October 7th resign their positions during the next 42 days? Will IDF figures who want to win take over? Will the haredi draft issue fade away? It is never too late to pray, and our Sages said that one must never lose faith in G-d’s salvation even if a sharp sword is held over one’s neck...