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Nidra Poller

Acrid fumes of ceasefire

The deal-makers can't brag: They've legitimated hostage-taking, promised future harm, and didn't demand humane treatment for the captives even now
Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Alexander Lobanov, whose body was among six recovered from the Gaza Strip after they were murdered by their Hamas captors, at the Ashkelon cemetery in southern Israel on September 1, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Alexander Lobanov, whose body was among six recovered from the Gaza Strip after they were murdered by their Hamas captors, at the Ashkelon cemetery in southern Israel on September 1, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

And they are boasting? Pushing each other out of the limelight, like vaudeville comedians: No, it was me. No, I’m the one. I couched it, I clinched it. At least the outgoing president Biden stood by Israel morally, militarily and, albeit, imperfectly, since the Simchat Torah October 7th jihad massacre. The incoming President-elect Trump set things up so that he could claim to be the deciding factor. All hell would break loose, he said, more than once, if the hostages were not released by Inauguration Day.

The first trickle of wrecked and tortured captives is scheduled to limp out of Gaza on Sunday the 19th of January. And the agonizing uncertainty will drag on for days and weeks and months and forever.

And you are the powerful men of the great powers? And you have trusted the merciless two-faced negotiators? And Joe feels he did his best and Donald pats himself on the back.

Can you look one young soldier in the eyes and tell him what a great guy you are? A wounded soldier, mutilated for life? A battered soldier, just off the battlefield, the sound of death ringing in his young ears ? Can you face the sweet lovely young widows, the orphans, the bereaved parents, the grieving families, the mourning nation?

Tears cascade down the slopes of the Judean Hills. A tsunami of sorrow pounds the Mediterranean shore. We are choking. I am sobbing. Because I love Eretz Israel, but not only. Because I love my precious descendants, because I honor my parents and forebears, because I love humanity, because I love freedom. And today, more than ever, I yearn for elevation: integrity, decency, honesty, lucidity…

You can tell me you are sorry you couldn’t do better. You can humbly beg us to swallow this bitter fruit of decades of confusion and surrender. You can ask for forgiveness and pray for enlightenment. You can promise to backtrack and learn the lessons of your failures, our failures.

But don’t boast. Don’t split our ears with your barnyard crowing.

The outgoing president is inaudible, but history will lend an ear to his words and deeds. The incoming president is, today, unbearably self-serving. The art of the deal? Polishing up an agreement crafted more than eight months ago under the auspices of a president he smothers with contempt. What did the triumphant Trump do to improve that already unacceptable agreement? Where did he put his incredible powers to bear? What did he alleviate?

Did he even ask, did he even think to insist that, starting today, all living hostages must be treated with respect? They must be given proper food, clothing, shelter, light, air, comfort, and the medication promised and denied for 450+ days?

No.

It is understood that the hostages will continue to waste away — some irretrievably, some fatally — and tough luck from now until the last days of the ugly agreement that will totter and stumble and be poked with holes and slathered with mud and drawn out like an eternity in hell.

Can you stop looking at yourselves in the mirror, in the TV screen, online, and onstage? Can you stop congratulating yourselves and let a modicum of wisdom seep into your souls?

Do you understand that, in the face of existential threats, the voice of the collective must be crystal clear and honorable? The collective voice of the free world should have articulated immediately, from the 7th of October 2023, a non-negotiable demand for the UNCONDITIONAL AND IMMEDIATE LIBERATION OF THE HOSTAGES.

Would it have been possible to reduce the suffering and death, including for the Gazans that the world seems to cherish like gold? Perhaps not. Maybe this death and destruction was unavoidable. Nevertheless!

The voice of the people should not have been contaminated, from the start and successively, with endless compromise that feeds back into the heart and mind of our nations, breeding helplessness and despair. The very notion of giving something in exchange for the hostages nourishes the belief that the killers deserve some compensation for the unspeakable brutality of that day of infamy. That it was somehow, even microscopically, justified.

And that is what has fed the fires of Jew-hatred flaring everywhere today. Because it implies Jewish guilt, some degree, maybe just a pinch of Jewish guilt, which would explain why we deserve to be punished. The fires of Jewish guilt and Jewish punishment consume freedom and human dignity everywhere.

Israel has demonstrated boundless courage and stunning intelligence. A willingness to risk life and limb to defend its existence. In just over a year, Israel has bashed and shattered the jihad network built by Iran over half a century. Need it be repeated — yes, it must! — that liberty is under attack everywhere, as long as Iran is not liberated from its fanatic dictatorship. If that is the plan, this shoddy ceasefire deal subverts it. So, we can assume that it is not the plan.

The plan is respite. What we call in French, “lâche soulagement.” Cowardly relief.

How much can a human heart bear? Individually? Collectively? The boundless joy of rescue and return of our loved ones. The inconsolable sorrow of those who will be maimed or killed in the future by the evil forces released in this disgraceful trade.

Who will forgive us?

How can we forgive ourselves?

About the Author
Nidra Poller is an American-born writer who has lived in Paris since 1972. She is author of works of fiction in English and in French, and has published in many venues, including the Wall Street Journal Europe, Family Security Matters, New English Review, Times of Israel (French), Commentary, Midah, Tribune Juive. She is the author of literary-political books testifying to the Troubled Dawn of the 21st Century and novels: madonna madonna (français) and So Courage & Gypsy Motion.
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