These are difficult and frustrating days for Israel. We seem to be dithering in Gaza, absorbing body blows in the North, and are increasingly becoming more contentious, divisive and disruptive in the prioritization of our efforts.
There are those who want to make sure that we are doing everything, absolutely everything, we can to free our hostages. This overarching desire often does not confront the reality of what such a priority would entail.
Implicit in the demonstrations that are increasingly resembling the pre-October 7th judicial reform protests, is the conviction that we, meaning PM Netanyahu and his “far Right” coalition members, are to blame for the failure to release all the hostages.
This attitude is reflected in the mantra, “bring them home now.” Such a cry assumes that the decision to bring hostages home lies with us, and that it is only a failure of will or resolve on our parts that has created an impasse.
Would that this were so! Would that the decision was up to us. Unfortunately, it has been crystal clear that it is Hamas who is calling the shots when it comes to the hostages, who is setting the parameters and who has shown little urgency to bring about a deal.
Why? Simply because the more obstinate, demanding and intransigent they are, the better the terms that they can expect.
This is a reverse of the situation early in the war when extensive and effective IDF action brought Hamas to the table, with the result that close to half the hostages were released.
Now the situation is quite different. The IDF continues to be quite effective, but its mandate is increasingly limited. We have allowed the Americans and their politically infused priorities to dictate the course of not only the negotiations, but all the aspects of how the war will be conducted: Rafah, humanitarian aid, the desire to wrest us from the Philadelphi Corridor, etc. because we need their weapons.
It is fairly apparent that American ideas and goals have at least one eye on the upcoming election, and the need to placate anti-Israel groups and constituencies as part of the election campaign.
There is the continuing unwillingness to let Israel win, even though the result has been the continuing humiliation of American efforts and initiatives.
Most concerning, we are seeing the rise of well-funded and well-organized anti- Netanyahu forces that have co-opted many hostage families into an effort to “bring them home now,” meaning to pay any price in order to do so.
One does not have to be Metternich nor Churchill to see how all of this merely plays into Hamas’s hands. Sinwar and his cronies must be ecstatic to see the growing internal dissension here, and the willingness of those they regard as the “useful idiots” who are in effect advocating for the preservation and restoration of Hamas, and the greater likelihood of future and sooner October 7ths.
The refusal by the government to go along with this exercise in societal hari kari is portrayed of course as self-serving and the product of far-Right extremism, when it is really leadership.
Rather than honestly confront the implications of a “hostages first” orientation, its proponents pooh-pooh its security implications in ways eerily reminiscent of October 6th hubris.
In addition, they refuse to take ownership of the idea that they are only incenting Hamas to demand ever more extreme positions, confident that they will have a built cheering section advocating their acceptance.
The most painful aspect of the “do whatever it takes to get the hostages back” approach is that the two likely results of it are both dystopic.
The proposals on the table envision staged releases in the context of increasingly diminished IDF activity in Gaza. Even those fervently supporting such a plan know that the likelihood of actualizing the subsequent stages is small. Therefore, the hostage release will become a lottery, with those not initially selected for release consigned to a nether world of uncertainty, being smuggled out of the country or death.
The other horrific specter is the number and nature of the Hamas terrorists that will be released as part of the hostage release. Here we must recognize that we have sown the seeds, as it were, for future terror attacks. Not only will many released terrorists return to the attack, as did Sinwar and so many others in the wake of the Galid Shalit trade, but the clear message is that hostage taking pays, since it assures captured terrorists of a likely subsequent release.
A further peril of the current environment is the loss of the sense that those who do not share our point of view are nevertheless acting from well-intentioned convictions. Instead, we are increasingly emulating the highly polarized American and Western European citizenries, where those who disagree with us are to be demonized.
Depending on who one speaks with, a significant cohort of Israelis are either fascists or traitors.
How have we allowed ourselves to revert back to the toxicity of political opposition that prevailed on October 6th last year? Haven’t we understood that shattering our fragile but essential unity only plays into the hands of our enemies?
Perhaps the visceral hatred of the PM runs too deep among so many that a reasoned reassessment of his approach and the motivations for them is impossible. But we need to recognize that this sanctimonious condemnation is ultimately self-defeating. Do Bibi haters really believe that subsequent leaders will be able to act in ways very different from that of the Prime Minister?
It is time for us to recognize that we are in this together, that we all want hostages released and Hamas defeated. And we need to impute good faith and similar motivations for the safety, security and success of Israel and its people to those who disagree with us on tactics and priorities.
Benjamin Franklin said it best: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.”
Douglas Altabef is Chairman of the Board of Im Tirtzu and a Director of the Israel Independence Fund