As preparations ensued this past week for an Iran-led regional war, and October 2024 draws closer, the hostage posters are beginning to lose their colors under the decay of 10 months of upholstery, and this new normal, which once felt so foreign, so shocking, sinks in a little more comfortably.
There are still 115 hostages in Gaza. In a joint statement on Friday, the US, Qatar, and Egypt announced that finalizing talks for a ceasefire deal are ready and called on Israel and Hamas to send delegations, set for Thursday, either to Cairo or Doha.
It is time to “bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza, as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” they said. Immediately after that statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that an Israeli negotiating team would be present.
Since the November deal, the impression has been that Netanyahu is working to maneuver the deal to finesse the conditions to best secure Israel’s survival. But time has long since run out for the hostages; Last week, Israel marked the fifth birthday of Ariel Bibas, who was kidnapped with his brother Kfir, who celebrated his own first birthday in captivity, along with their mother, Shiri, and father, Yarden.
Perhaps this paradox captures the split approaches that have emerged since October 7; one, micro, centers on the hostages and their families, and the high casualty rates on both sides that humanize the individual. The other, macro, asks big-picture questions and is more power-oriented: How can we militarily guarantee Israel’s security? How can we use our strengths and allies to beat Iran?
The second approach views the first as tunnel-visioned, as missing the point, while the first maintains that without bringing about individual redemption, a national one is unfeasible. Both approaches should be considered, and included in such a deal.
Perhaps the split goes much deeper, much further back than October 7; perhaps it is the clash of two national approaches pushing different priorities.
We cannot ignore the fact that even when a deal is struck, when the handshakes are made and the photos have been taken, the painstaking scar left on the individuals, collective, and communities, will take years, perhaps even a whole generation, to heal.
The emotional, psychological, diplomatic, monetary, and physical damage is truly life-altering and has shaped – and continues to shape – this entire generation. Channel 12 ran a segment last week where interviewers spoke with survivors of the southern kibbutzim and the Nova music festival; they are the dor hamilhama, “the war generation.”
The damage does not discriminate: the survivors of October 7; those who lost family and friends; the soldiers who fought and died and continue to do so, at this very minute; to the roughly 200,000 citizens forced to be refugees inside their sovereign borders, their lives held in limbo; those dealing with stress, anxiety and depression; Arab-Israelis, caught in a tormented state of split identities – a conversation the public is not ready for. All of this will not go away; it will take years of intentional healing and time, and its legacies will be passed on to the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians living here.
This will not be forgotten by a deal that “ends the war.” Because a war has no end really, only casualties and survivors, and the survivors on this side of the border will not forget. In addition, most understand that “ending the war,” actually means a temporary ceasefire.
An ideology can't be killed
You can’t kill an ideology, but you can kill people, especially those held in air-tight tunnels deep underground for a period that is unfathomable to the mind when dozens of them have been already been killed since November.
“I’d rather have a bad press than a good obituary,” Netanyahu told Time Magazine in an exclusive interview last week. This is a calculation the victims and hostages did not have the privilege of making.
This delegation needs to be the last; ensuring the release of all the hostages, as well as the best possible conditions for Israel’s security; the people are tired and weary, and they don’t want the best deal – there is no more time – they just want their people home so they can begin to heal. Without that, without the micro, the recuperation cannot begin.