Abandonment, NO MORE!
For about two decades, I and millions of other Israelis abandoned the Western Negev. Ever since the first rockets began to fly from Gaza, everyone was sad when children were killed in those attacks. There were no protests or demonstrations over the years by anyone other than the Gaza envelope residents. Most people just blinked and thought to themselves, it was the price of living where they chose to live. It definitely bothered some but not enough.
When the innovative Iron Dome system was deployed most thought, OK, now they have good defense against most of the rockets and if some get through, no big deal. It happens. That’s what they have the safe rooms for. Although the Iron Dome is truly a life saver, it also made the plight of the Western Negev a less important issue in the eyes of most Israelis. We saw that they were safer and no one is totally safe.
When members of the kibbutzim closest to Gaza reported movement in the ground under them, it wasn’t taken very seriously until some tunnels were found that were dug under the border and almost to their front door. It still took a while for the army to put major efforts into finding and eliminating more tunnels.
When the incendiary balloons flew from Gaza and burned agricultural lands and produce of the kibbutzim, it brought headlines but little action and minimal concern from the rest of us.
October 7 changed everything. Like so many, I felt blame for this abandonment. Of course, in the big scheme of things, it was the abandonment of the government for decades and of the army for a long time as well that enabled the attack, the infiltration, the massacre and the almost total absence of the army for long hours and the first days of the war. Yet, we Israelis must take some of the blame for being oblivious or ambivalent to what was happening for years in the Gaza Border communities. We did not raise our voices, we did not strike, we did not engage the lawmakers and government about what they were not doing.
In 2018, Netanyahu stated דין שדרות כדין תל אביב, (Din Sderot c’din Tel Aviv) meaning what happens in Sderot (rocket attacks), will be treated the same as rocket attacks on Tel Aviv. That statement was pure BS. Sderot and the Gaza border communities were never given an equal consideration to Tel Aviv or any other city in Israel. It was nothing more than lip service and we saw it with our own eyes. When the Gaza Envelope was attacked, barely a sigh. When a longer-range rocket managed to hit Tel Aviv, all hell broke loose.
The attack on October 7 made all of Israel feel vulnerable and the sense of security that most of us felt, suddenly and without warning evaporated. We all felt as though we were on the Gaza border. It became very personal and very real. The abandonment of the Gaza Border communities became the abandonment of the entire country. We all became Sderot and the border communities and what happened there happened to us all.
For 2 years, millions of Israelis were directly involved in the struggle to bring the hostages home. Every Saturday night, tens of thousands of us went out to the demonstrations in all weather and conditions. We forgot what a normal Saturday night was because the hostage crisis became a national crisis that was very personal and took precedent over everything else. The hostages became members of our families and we refused to allow the hostage families to be alone or feel alone. We were with them and they were part of us. Every single one of us recognized that we could easily have been one of them.
During the last 2 years, the only times that we were able to smile and cry for joy were during hostage releases. Nothing else could make us feel happy, even for those short periods which should have been longer and would have ended the crisis, if not for the political motivations to destroy every deal. Those short periods of hostage releases and joy were short-lived and we were forced back to the struggle to bring the hostages home, all of them.
Finally, last week, we were able to feel huge joy and relief, the hostages were all coming home and this horrible war was finally going to end. 20 living hostages, all of the living hostages came home and were able to rejoin their families who suffered so much over these 2 years. It never should have taken 2 years and that infuriated us and still does but we all retain that joy that they are home.
Unfortunately, not all of the deceased hostages have come home for proper burial. Since the war began, many of us understood that hostages, living and dead, were in great danger due to the massive and continuous aerial bombings. We now know without any doubt that our bombings killed several of the living hostages and it has long been suspected that others were buried under the rubble of the destruction of Gaza, those who were in buildings and those in the tunnels. The world knows that thousands of Gazans are buried in the rubble, so it would be naïve to think that there aren’t hostages among them as well. It is impossible to know who is buried in the rubble and it will never be known about many of them. The rubble will be cleared for reconstruction and it will not be sifted through due to the massive labor and time needed to do so.
In addition, there were Hamas terrorist commanders who were tasked with hiding hostage bodies and moving them when they deemed necessary and knowing their locations. We have killed many of those same commanders so that there are very few people, if any who know where bodies are buried and not all of them. Through interrogations, our intelligence has information about where some bodies may be buried or may have been before they were moved. This is information that should have been provided to Hamas through our mediators immediately. I have it on very good authority that it wasn’t done. Our side (I don’t know if it was the negotiating teams, the IDF, or the political echelon) was not forthcoming with this information and they were waiting to be asked for this intelligence. It boggles the mind to hear this and I have absolutely no understanding of why it was withheld and not provided immediately. It serves no one to withhold it. It was finally provided a couple of days ago.
There supposedly will be rewards offered to Gazans who may have information leading to the location of hostage bodies. I’m not sure if it will be more effective to do now while Hamas is re-grabbing power on the ground or if it will be better to wait until the new Technocratic Palestinian governing body comes in to take control together with security forces. In any case, I’m sure that they there will be many Gazans claiming to have information because everyone in Gaza is so desperate and any amount of money will be like winning the lottery at this point.
There are, of course members of our government who claim that Hamas has breached the agreement as they haven’t returned all the hostage bodies. Yes, Hamas may have breached the agreement but it is still not definite. These extremist politicians don’t care about the hostages and never have. They only want to use any excuse to go back to war so they can attain their goals of expelling the Palestinians and setting up Jewish settlements throughout Gaza.
Netanyahu has strict orders from Trump that he is not to go back to fighting. However, Netanyahu still has Trump’s ear and is hammering him with the actions of Hamas since the ceasefire: not returning all the hostages, the return of uniformed and armed terrorists on the streets taking back control and the summary executions of rivals and anti-Hamas Gazans. Trump’s statements of the last days show Netanyahu’s influence and we all know that Trump can easily reverse any direction that he was going in previously. The only thing keeping him in check and not giving Netanyahu the green light to go back in are his close advisors who brought about the deal, Witkoff and Kushner. They are working very hard to make sure the war does not restart.
The only reason to restart the war is the same reason that the war went on for so long, Netanyahu’s political survival. With Ben Gvir and Smotrich biting at his hems and the fragility of his failed government threatening to fall apart, he sees going back to war as a way to keep his extremist government going for as long as possible. The costs to the nation are not important, they are necessary for his survival, in his eyes. I have faith in Witkoff and Kushner to prevail and not allow the war to restart. As soon as the multinational security forces enter Gaza, that will make going back to war impossible, so we hope that this will happen quickly in conjunction with the placement of the new Palestinian government. They must happen at the same time.
Every scenario, however leaves us in the same place: the bodies of hostages are still in Gaza and must be found and returned. The families of these last hostages are still in limbo. Hadar Goldin’s family has suffered this limbo for 11 years already and it is only because of October 7 that the nation as a whole joined in their struggle which had been going on for 9 years with quiet support from everyone but no action. October 7 changed that and they joined the entire family of Israel in their struggle and the struggle for the rest of the hostages.
With the release of the 20 living hostages, and the outrageous display of the Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana removing his hostage pin on the day that Trump came to the Knesset, the families of the dead hostages were slapped in the face and their great fear of another abandonment became a horrid possibility. (As a side note, it has been the height of hypocrisy for Ohana to wear the hostage pin to begin with. He was directly responsible for the physical violence of the Knesset police against hostage families in the Knesset. He and his husband were abusive to supporters of the hostages outside of their apartment. His husband blasted music from their porch to drown out the announcing of the names of the hostages still in Gaza and police were called on the demonstrators several times by them).
Following the release of the 20 hostages, almost all of the families, in their joint press announcements on the following day held pictures of the remaining hostages in Gaza and stated unequivocally that they would continue the struggle with the rest of the hostage families until the last hostage came home.
Tamir Nimrodi was a soldier who was abducted alive on October 7 and his fate was unknown until last week with the return of his body. His mother, who has been involved in the Hostage Family Forum, was interviewed on the day that Tamir’s body was brought home and she said that she would be back in Hostage Square as soon as the shiva for Tamir ended. Einav Tzengauker, ‘the lioness’ who was a leader in the entire struggle received her beloved son, Matan back and she was back at Hostage Square last night continuing the fight to bring all the hostages home. These are the people who represent the real Israel, the Israel that lives by a moral code that we were all raised with, that we are all responsible for each other. They show us with action, not just words what we are made of and what we can do when we act together. Our leadership is totally lacking in all of these areas. If they ever knew what it meant, they have long forgotten, not only are we responsible for each other, they were elected to act on that code. We will bring forward new leadership that not only understand that code, but they live it and act on it. They will have to prove daily that they are worthy of us because we have proven that we are deserving of that kind of leadership.
I have not removed my hostage pin, I continue to wear my hostage shirts, I write the number of days in captivity every morning and put that tape on my shirt and I will continue to go to the demonstrations and support the struggle until the last hostage comes home. I am not alone by any means. And we must make sure that no one abandons the hostage families who have yet to bring their loved ones home. The struggle is not over and we will not abandon them.
“I’ve never met them,
But I miss them.
I’ve never met them,
but I think of them every second.
I’ve never met them,
but they are my family.
