Let's play pretend for a moment. Imagine a situation where the prime minister of Israel (to negate any psychological traps, we shall name him: Israel Israeli for now) announced, on the morning of October 8, right after the massacre, while infiltrating terrorists were still within the territory of the State of Israel, that Israel declared a war of attrition on Gaza.
Not directly targeting its citizens (not even those complaining today that they have no food for their children – it's a shame they handed out all their baklava pastries on October 7, failing to save some for a rainy day), but rather all Hamas terrorists.
Using a variation of Winston Churchill's speech (and again, due to that same trap, we won't mention which the Israeli politicians idolize him), Mr. Israeli would step up in front of the cameras and declare:
"We will fight them in the tunnels. We will fight them in their places of refuge – offered to them by supposed aid organizations. We will fight them in the hospitals, schools, and all the hidden places from whence they operate. Any Gazan who doesn't want to die as a human shield can come out waving a white flag. But there is no ceasefire, and there will be no ceasefire until Hamas is completely destroyed. If this happens with minimum impact on Gaza citizens – wonderful. But to be clear, we will not stop, even if this means that the last Hamas terrorist is the last resident of Gaza."
He would say it and then make good on his word.
The world may have gone into shock. Countries that initially would have supported us would have even tried to block us through every diplomatic avenue at their disposal, including boycotts. And the Arabs would say that a djinn has possessed the Jews, that they have all gone mad. This may have been said in anger, but believe it or not, also in appreciation – admiration, even.
Where would we be today? No more diplomatically beaten than we are already, but with much greater achievements in the region, with the Hamas leadership destabilized and probably even dead, and perhaps even in the midst of normalization talks with neighboring, anti-Iranian countries.
But what about the hostages, you ask? Some of them would pay with their lives and be murdered by their captors (which already happened in quite a few cases), while others would be saved thanks to the captors' desire to save themselves and their loved ones. It is impossible to throw out an estimated number. Alternatively, anyone who thinks that such a war of attrition necessarily translates to the loss of all of the hostages' lives is mistaken.
Now, imagine an entirely different scenario. Prime Minister Israeli stands before the cameras and informs the people of Israel and the whole world that we have been severely hit, that we have prepared graves, that we are mourning, that while those vile murderers deserve to face their punishment, the State of Israel sanctifies life and therefore will refrain from any acts of aggressive warfare until all captives are returned home.
At what cost? Opening all the prisons and releasing thousands of Hamas terrorists detained in Israel – everything in exchange for everything.
"Yes," Israeli would tell his people. "Hamas will declare victory, but we must admit that it has indeed won on October 7. I promise we will still take revenge on them, but not now. First and foremost, our citizens, our daughters and sons, our soldiers will return home in peace. Meanwhile, we will investigate, learn our lessons, document Hamas' crimes to present them to the world, and respond at the place and at the time of our choosing."
Prattling on about Hamas's destruction instead
Such a step would also have a political-security cost: Images of Hamas celebrating its greatest achievement in the streets of Gaza, a wave of mockery from the Arab world. But then, there would also be tears of excitement and joy in hundreds of Israeli families' eyes instead of mourning. Alongside them, angry voices would also rise against the submissive policy, which Prime Minister Israeli would need to face – at least until he carried out his broad offensive operation against Hamas.
Now, let's return from the realms of imagination to reality. But first let's clarify that this is not a cold, after-the-fact analysis, as even before mid-October, voices in Israel were calling for either a "decisive war" (whether using terminology such as "atomic weapons," a "second Nakba," or "conquering Gaza" to represent a complete, rapid, and absolute victory), or for abandoning all aggressive action in favor of a swift give-and-take for the release of all the hostages.
What happened in reality? We did not tell the truth. We rattled on about taking Hamas out completely, but we didn't use all the necessary offensive means at our disposal to achieve this goal. Gaza could be destroyed in five and a half minutes, or completely conquered in five and a half days – and anyone who has been claiming for the past five and a half months that the truth is that what we are currently doing is the only way, that there is no other alternative – whether they be wearing a uniform or a suit – is lying.
Moreover, at around the same time, talk began about the release of the hostages being the main war objective. In reality, we did not even go half the distance that we had gone in previous hostage negotiations. Admittedly, in those other situations, the numbers weren't as high (regarding the number of hostages). Even so, there is no comparison to how much was accomplished in other hostage cases, including instances when it was clear that negotiations were being conducted concerning the return of bodies.
As the lies began from the start, so they continue to manifest now: If Yahya Sinwar was willing to release the hostages in exchange for both his life, the lives of those close to him, and a safe exit into exile – he would have done so already. The only thing that interests him is securing Hamas's continued control in the Gaza Strip.
One can say whatever they wish about a Hamas leader, but there is no point in calling him an idiot. If someone in Israel is deluding themselves into believing that an interim arrangement could be reached in which the hostages would be released in exchange for an extended ceasefire, but at its end, fighting would resume until absolute victory, then they are deluding themselves and all who listen to them.
Sinwar had enough hostages to try out this route. Were we wiser and less trigger-happy, it is very possible that we could have gotten 20 to 30 more hostages released (my apologies for throwing out such numerical figures seemingly off-hand; it is entirely clear to me that each hostage means the world to their family and friends).
Sinwar is not stupid enough to lose the strongest card left in his arsenal in exchange for something that he cannot use to bring about his victory and that is unacceptable in the eyes of 90% of Israelis, even before considering the sort of political price that even a less power-hungry leader like Netanyahu would ever be willing to pay.
Lies about the hostage deal
So what are the negotiations with the participation of senior Israeli officials in Qatar all about? They are simply for show, seemingly committing to returning the hostages, just as discussions about "increasing humanitarian aid" are mainly performative in an attempt to sway (unsuccessfully, it must be added) the global public's opinion.
Imprisoned by its own inability to decide, in its own incapacity to tell the truth – first of all to the citizens of Israel (a phrase that opens every speech by the prime minister and those who aspire to replace him), then to the whole world, Israel is tumbling about in half-baked truths – which are worse than lies.
The Israeli government's inability (regardless of its width, narrowness, unity, emergency, or any other format) to bear responsibility for the truth is evident in its failure to speak it, whether this has to do with paying an internal political price or a diplomatic price vis-à-vis those who are still considered our allies.
Benny Gantz is still riding on the polls promising him a win in the next elections, mainly learning that the majority of his potential voters do not want him to leave the government (without understanding that the day they see that, they would have preferred him outside the government, it will be too late for him). It is amazing that even before becoming a leader, he had already forgotten that the primary duty of someone who aspires to be a prime minister is to know how to make unpopular decisions.
In the eyes of our murderers, we are one
Netanyahu has been promising "absolute victory" for a long time while he has been promoting a non-victory, or at least, not a full one.
"Backstabbing" seems like an apt description of what the prime minister is advancing, indicated in his recent statements that there are political factors in Israel that are collaborating with the Americans to advance the notion of Palestinian statehood. It is already clear that his election campaign will be something like: "I wanted to win, but enemies from within and from without prevented Israel from achieving complete victory."
Thus, lies upon lies, fiction upon fiction, misleading information, and media spin pile up. Their purpose: to return us all to using the rhetoric of left-wing against the right-wing, religious against secular, Ashkenazim against Mizrahim.
All so that we forget that in just one day, around 1,200 Israelis were murdered here, two-thirds of them civilians; that approximately another 250 civilians and soldiers – whom no one had asked if they did or did not support Netanyahu, if their ancestors were European or Middle Eastern, if they were ultra-Orthodox or completely secular – were kidnapped.
In the eyes of the new Nazis in Gaza (and their hundreds of millions of supporters around the world), we are all just Jews. What a shame it is that we cannot just view ourselves in that same way.
Citizens of Israel (politicians can say this, so we can too) do not wish for a perfect leader, just for one who will tell the truth, even when it hurts – especially when it hurts. This person can make mistakes, but they need to own up to them, to take responsibility for them, as there is no other way to correct a mistake unless a mistake is acknowledged first.
It is a great shame that a glance around the government table (for all its extensions) does not reveal even one person who can do just that.