Why continue to protest?

I am amazed that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens find it worthwhile demonstrating over and over again against the Israeli government, calling on PM Netanyahu for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.  Today a nation-wde day of protests have been called by the Women’s Protest for the Return of the Hostages. After months of detailed negotiations involving the USA, Qatar, Egypt, Israel and Hamas, it was conclusively reported that Hamas is the culprit in refusing to accept the three-phase proposal of President Biden that has also been supported by the UN Security Council as well as the EU and many other nations. In that case these demonstrators should be protesting the Hamas terrorist organization, not the Israeli government. 

That is unless the demonstrators are not really protesting over the Israeli Government for not agreeing to release the hostages, but are rather using the hostage situation as an excuse to vent their anger at PM Netanyahu because they oppose his right-wing government.  That is a perfectly legitimate position to hold, but why exploit the hostages as the excuse, why not come right out and say that they are the “anyone but Bibi” protesters, who will use any excuse to try to bring down their favorite enemy.  Once we know that they are the usual leftist minority of agitators and not the real hostage supporters, we know how to take them, with a large pinch of salt.  

It is futile to demonstrate again and again against the Israel government when it has no more means to release the hostages. They have accepted a good deal, supported by most of the world, to no avail. The only other way they can release the hostages is through intelligence and military action. But rescuing hostages that are held underground under close guard by Hamas terrorists is indeed very difficult. In order to do so the rescuers put their lives at risk. The government doesn’t need us to demonstrate against them for what I am sure they are trying to do in any case. Think how good it would be for them to accomplish this if they could. All these anti-government protests only serve to support Sinwar and the Iranians, who think that Israel is divided and weak. Why help them?

Hostages

A disturbing report in the Wall Street Journal estimates that only 50 of the 124 hostages that are believed held by Hamas in Gaza are still alive.  According to their sources, the rest have either been killed by Hamas or died from mistreatment.  This is not, however, confirmed.  According to a Hamas spokesman, they don’t know who is dead or still alive.

This is by no means the first time Jewish hostages have been taken.  In Christian Europe it was a routine event, and Jews developed a specific response how to rescue hostages, usually a cash payment by the community. 

In a famous case, even a Pope held a Jewish child hostage.  In the book by David Kertzer and the movie based on it: Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara, the terrible true story is told of a young Jewish boy forcibly taken from his parents by emissaries of the Pope in 1858. A laundry maid testified that she had secretly baptized the boy without his parents knowing, and this was enough to justify the kidnapping. This cause an international cause celebre. The boy was kept by the Pope and indoctrinated/ brainwashed, until he became a priest and refused to return to his parents..

In an Islamic case, Sol Hachuel an 18 year old Jewish girl, whose beauty was admired by a wealthy Moroccan, but her family refused to allow her to marry him. Either he or others concocted a false tale that she had secretly converted to Islam and then recanted, which was a capital offense in Morocco. The Pasha had her arrested, and since she refused to convert to Islam, she was subsequently beheaded in the main square in Fez in 1834.

It is time to recognize that the release alive of most of the hostages taken into Gaza by the ruthless, bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists is unlikely. A nation state cannot base its policies on the hope for an agreement or an unlikely outcome. PM Netanyahu is right, we won’t leave Gaza until all the hostages are rescued, dead or alive.

The Bias of the Leftist Media

Regarding the rescue mission of the four hostages last Saturday, BBC anchor Helena Humphrey asked IDF spokesperson and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Jonathan Conricus, “did Israel warn the Palestinians before the rescue operation?” If that isn’t a stupid question, what is? How naieve can you get? I also saw Yalda Hakim, a CNN anchor ask an Israeli officer “why did you carry out this raid when there were so many civilians present, the US wouldn’t have done that?” Is that supposed to be neutral journalism, furthermore her assertion isn’t true, the US is notorious for killing civilians, remember “shock and awe,” while the IDF is well-known to take all precautions to avoid civilian casualties.

Perhaps most egregious is the reaction of Australian Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism. He accuses the IDF of “perfidy” in carrying out their hostage rescue, for having pretended to be Palestinians and aid workers, in order to get close to where the hostages were being held in a civilian neighborhood. What nonsense, does he think they should have come in holding up signs saying, “we’re not really Palestinians, we’re really IDF”!

Nevertheless, here are some answers to the questions:

1. If you warn terrorists of an impending attack they will kill the hostages!
2. The hostages were held in a civilian apartment by “journalist” Abdallah Al-Jamal, who was killed, and his family, with Hamas guards (using human shields is a war crime).
3. 84% of Palestinians in Gaza supported the Hamas massacre on Oct 7.
4. Hamas has distributed guns throughout civilian locations in Gaza.
5. When the attempt to rescue the three male hostages was detected, a large number of civilians took up arms against the IDF, they ceased to be civilians and became combatants.
6. The IDF needed a back-up squad to extricate the rescuers and the hostages, resulting in more Hamas casualties.
7. It is not possible to know how many died, certainly the Hamas figure is an exaggeration that the liberal media should not accept, but repeat.
8. In any such rescue mission the rescuers face death, and indeed one Israeli officer Arnon Zmora was killed (many rescue operations are unsuccessful, eg. Pres. Carter’s attempt to rescue the US hostages in Tehran).

The leftist media turned the story from a successful brave hostage rescue mission, into a humanitarian murder of civilians by the Israeli forces, typical Hamas propaganda. The lesson is, if you don’t want civilian casualties, don’t take hostages and don’t put them in a civilian environment.

Four Israeli Hostages Rescued

In a complex and difficult operation Israeli special forces today rescued 4 Israeli hostages from two locations in Nuseirat in central Gaza. Those released were Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27) and Shlomi Ziv (40). All were captured from the Nova Music festival in Re’em on Oct 7, 2023.

The operation was based on accurate intelligence and involved hundreds of IDF soldiers and security agents and was carried out in broad daylight. The hostages were held in civilian apartments, reportedly guarded by Hamas gunmen. Reports from Hamas say that 55 Palestinians were killed in the rescue, although this cannot be confirmed. However, it is likely that most of those killed were Hamas terrorists. One Israeli officer Chief Inspector Arnon Zmora later died of his wounds. All four hostages were recovered without injury and returned safely to Israel.

If civilians were unfortunately killed in the operation that’s too bad, but that’s what happens when you mess with us, when you attack us, murder us and take our people hostage. Expect to suffer and die. I would wish that the Palestinians would take the obvious lesson from these events, namely attacking Israel and killing Jews is not worth the eventual suffering to your fighters and to your people. This is what is called establishing deterrence.

The rescue had an immediate consequence, Benny Gantz, head of the Union Party and a member of the War Cabinet, who was due to announce his resignation tonight, cancelled his statement and was asked to remain on by PM Netanyahu and apparently agreed. This is good news since it stops a possible change in the government coalition. The Hostage Family Forum praised the release of the 4 captives, but re-emphasized that to rescue the remaining hostages will require an agreement with Hamas. Israeli authorities say 116 hostages are now left alive in Gaza, including the bodies at least 40 who have been declared dead.

Coincidentally on the same day, the UN Secty. General Antonio Guterres added Israel to its so-called “blacklist” of countries that have committed abuses against children in armed conflict, as thousands of Palestinian children have been killed in the Israeli military’s continued assault on the Gaza Strip. However this is a travesty, since Israel is the only democracy to have ever been placed on this list, and it is defending itself against a terrorist organization that committed unprovoked atrocities against its unarmed citizens, and at the same time it has acted to reduce civilian casualties. Making Israel equivalent to Hamas is shameful and shows how bankrupt the UN has become.

Egypt Sabotages Exchange Deal

For reasons unknown, but presumably due to its own interests, Egypt that was acting as a mediator in the exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, deliberately sabotaged the deal by secretly changing the versions agreed to by Israel and Hamas. So Israel and Hamas were given different version that neither of them accepted. It is now known that the Chief of Egyptian security altered the terms of the deal already agreed to. It was thought at the time that Hamas had altered the deal, but now it is known that Egypt deliberately torpedoed the deal.

At the time, Israel was relying on Egypt as intermediary because it was felt that Qatar was too identified with Hamas, both being members of the Muslim Brotherhood alliance. The Muslim Brotherhood is an enemy of the Egyptian government of President al-Sisi. It is presumed that Sisi was angered by Israel’s occupation of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. This might have prompted him to sabotage the agreement so that Palestinians would not be able to enter Egypt via the crossing, that he might have thought Israel intended to allow. However, this shows how even a supposed friendly Arab country is unreliable.

The world is an unfriendly place for Jews. They attack us, Hamas brutally murders 1,200 of our peoiple, yet they get all sorts of help, Egypt sides with Hamas, Qatar sides with Hamas, even our friends, the US, tells us what to do, the ICC wants to indict our PM and FM, and France sides with them, Norway, Ireland and Spain have now announced they will recognise a Palestinian State that actually doesn’t exist, the campuses of the world accuse us of genocide, that actually isn’t happening, the UN accuses us of preventing supplies from getting through, when its Egypt that is blocking them and the Palestinians themselves who have been stopping trucks and looting them. And the world thinks its the Palestinians who are the victims!

An Extraordinarily Generous Offer

US Secty of State Anthony Blinken characterized the latest offer by Israel to arrive at an exchange deal with Hamas as “extraordinarily generous.” What Israel did is reduce the number of hostages it would expect to receive from the total of 133 to ca. 33 consisting of only women, children, elderly and injured. In exchange it would accept an increased ceasefire of 40 days instead of 30, and would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including 100 with blood on their hands. Blinken stated that it is only Hamas that is preventing a ceasefire and it must accept these terms. At the same time a consortium of 18 countries, some of whom have citizens detained in Gaza, issued a joint statement that Hamas must accept a deal for a ceasefire.

As the delegations are meeting in Cairo, Hamas issued a statement that it finds the deal proposed by Israel generally acceptable. But, so far no deal has been agreed. It should be obvious to all concerned, including the hostage families that are constantly putting pressure on the Israeli Government, that it is doing its utmost to make a deal. But, Israel cannot and will not agree to a permanent ceasefire at this stage. The Israeli government still intends to carry out a military campaign in Rafah to destroy the last stronghold of Hamas after the terrible atrocities they committed against unarmed Israeli civilians on Oct 7, and threatened to do so again and again. This must not be forgotten! A large majority of the Israeli public supports this action.

Israel has also made the acceptance of the deal by Hamas as a condition for not attacking Rafah now, even though the IDF has issued orders that they are ready to act and continue their assault in Gaza. Of course, there is NO “genocide” of Palestinian people in Gaza as claimed by enemies of Israel and various anti-Semitic groups. And Israel has issued a 4 point plan to remove ca. 1 million civilians from the Rafah area to safe zones and has purchased 40,000 tents that are being placed in these areas. But everything now depends on Hamas accepting the generous offer. If they do not then Israel will launch its delayed assault on Rafah. The choice is in their hands.

Qatar Cannot be Trusted

The Emir of Qatar announced last week that his country is withdrawing from being an intermediary between Hamas and Israel in the negotiations over the hostage exchange and the ceasefire in Gaza. This is good, since Qatar has been playing a double game, it presents itself as a neutral intermediary, but in fact it supports the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Hamas is also affiliated. And it has been sending huge sums of money to Gaza, most of which has been used by Hamas to buy arms from Iran and to build tunnels, and it harbors and protects the leaders of Hamas in great luxury, while its people are suffering the effects of the war brought on them by Hamas’s actions.

Because Qatar hosts the Hamas leadership, they could put great pressure on them to accept a hostage exchange deal, but apparently they haven’t done so. Equally, because the US has a large military base in Qatar, it could put great pressure on Qatar to force Hamas to be more flexible in negotiations, but President Biden apparently has not done so. The result is that Hamas has been inflexible, holding out for a permanent ceasefire, that Israel cannot accept (there was a permanent ceasefire in effect when Hamas attacked Israel last Oct 7). Also, why should Hamas Chief Sinwar accept a short-term ceasefire agreement, when he sees that Biden is pressuring Israel to stop the war and not attack the last Hamas stronghold in Rafah. Similarly why should Iran fear a US attack when Biden has made it abundantly clear that he will not support a widened war in the Middle East, so Iran thinks it can attack Israel with impunity.

The only reason that Sinwar will accept a hostage exchange deal is if there is some kind of pressure or leverage put on him, and since the IDF has mostly withdrawn from Gaza, and the US is against a Rafah operation, there is no leverage. Only if Israel decides to go ahead with a military attack on Rafah will Sinwar feel that there is enough pressure for him to agree to a temporary ceasefire and an exchange of hostages.

The Hostage Families

This letter was published in The Jerusalem Post on April 3.

I am writing to express my disgust at the mainly leftist minority who have chosen to take advantage of the war situation to try once again to get rid of PM Netanyahu by returning violence to our streets (“Thousands in J’sam rally for elections, April 1). They put politics before the interests of the country. They should be punished at the next election. 

I am sure that the accusation that PM Netanyahu is not doing his utmost to retrieve the hostages is utterly wrong. It would be a great feat for him if he could arrange a hostage deal.  But he is not alone, other members of the War Cabinet, including Benny Gantz and Yoav Gallant are involved in these decisions.

To say that the Israeli Government is responsible for the lack of release of the hostages is ridiculous, Hamas, and only Hamas has taken these Israelis hostage and is holding them in southern Gaza.

I agree with Netanyahu that the only way to achieve victory in this war with Hamas is to expand the operation to Rafah, including humanitarian considerations.  And the only way to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages is to threaten their final stronghold in Rafah. 

Jack Cohen, Beersheva   

In addition to the above I would like to say that I feel it is a huge mistake for the hostage families organization to join with the anti-government/violent rallies against PM Netanyahu. In doing so they are not only losing public support for their just cause of releasing the hostages, but they are demeaning their cause. The violent actions of the families in the Knesset tonight was an example of this.

They are holding signs saying “Stop the War,” this is precisely what the terrorist enemy Hamas wants, that’s why they took the hostages, in order to bring pressure on the Israeli government through the families to stop the war with a permanent ceasefire and give them victory. If the Government did this, then Hamas would survive and would declare victory and we would be back to square one, waiting for the next Hamas attack to kill thousands of Israelis.

No, the only way to ensure the true release of the hostages alive is for the IDF to put so much pressure on the leadership of Hamas, by taking Rafah, so that they need to use the hostages to “pay” for their physical survival. Otherwise, if they get what they want, they will simply kill the hostages. You are not dealing with humanitarians that share your feelings, but with ruthless killers. Ironically the families of IDF soldiers taken by Hamas know this, while the families of women, children and the elderly are overtaken with personal grief.