We are facing a totalizing ideology, known as Palestinianism, executed by Hamas and its enablers, that seeks nothing less than ending the humiliating specter of sovereign Jews.
Our enemy is dedicated, by all means necessary, to teaching a final lesson to those Jews who dared imagine themselves equal, sovereign, and masters of their fate in their own state on their ancestral land—so that they never attempt to do so again.
We are up against an enemy that not only invaded our country and our homes to gleefully murder and mutilate the most peace-loving people in their beds but went on to kidnap hundreds of them to ensure they face no consequences for what they did on October 7.
The brutal executors of the ideology of Palestinianism, Hamas, did not kidnap people for the limited goal of releasing murderers from Israeli jails. Rather, they did so to ensure they pay no price for what they did, enabling them to do it again, and again, and again.
Make no mistake: as far as Hamas is concerned, it has paid no price and suffered no consequences for October 7. The devastation in Gaza and the people killed are all meaningless to Hamas. Buoyed by global pressure to provide it with ongoing supplies even as it conducts a total war, Hamas remains in firm control of Gaza and its people.
It has secured a position as a legitimate negotiating partner. At the same time, all the pressure is placed on Israel to yield to its demands to return to the status quo of October 6—with no consequences for its actions. Nothing is being done against the backers of Hamas—Qatar, Egypt, and Iran—with the first two being falsely portrayed as helpful (they're not) and the latter as uninvolved.
Once Hamas exchanged the women and children it kidnapped—who were, above all, a liability for their total cause—for guaranteed ongoing supplies that secure its rule in Gaza, the only additional deal to which it would agree, as it has repeatedly made clear, is one that returns to October 6: Hamas remains in charge of Gaza, including the border with Egypt that has been the site of endless supplies for its army and economy, Israel withdraws completely, and Hamas continues receiving billions from the world through UNRWA and other channels, allowing it to become even more effective in executing acts of mass murder in the future.
Hamas executes hostages or attempts to do so when Israeli soldiers are close to rescuing them because the one thing they cannot accept is the idea of lowly Jews rescuing their own people. The kidnapped hostages are Hamas's insurance policy to continue fighting until there is no more Israel.
What the government should do
In the face of a totalizing ideology that plays a long game with an annihilationist goal, there is only one moral position for any government or international organization to pursue (and it should have been the policy from October 8):
1. Unconditional release of the hostages.
2. Unconditional surrender of Hamas.
That is the only way to end the immediate war.
(Ending Palestinianism as the ideology that negates a sovereign Jewish state in any borders is necessary to end the century-long war.)
And until then? It is war and should be waged as such, with no illusions about the enemy we face.
Einat Wilf is a former Israeli politician and author who served as a member of Knesset for Independence and the Labor Party.