Another Hostage Rescue Opportunity Lost  

 Earlier this week, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir made a cogent case for accepting the hostage deal that was on the table and approved by Hamas.

The deal was basically to get 10 living and 18 dead hostages returned with a 60-day ceasefire to be put in place and the release of a significant number of Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails.  However, the Prime Minister and a majority of his cabinet wanted any deal to include the full return of all hostages immediately, along with the surrender of Hamas, conditions which Hamas would have been unlikely to accept.

Zamir’s push was based on (a) getting as many live hostages out while they are still breathing, although currently at risk of dying, and (b) giving Israel 60 days to regroup before a possible new ground action in Gaza in October.

The Prime Minister decided yesterday that the Zamir proposal would not be discussed at last night’s meeting and all efforts would be made to make a deal that would  return all 50 hostages, both living and dead, immediately.

The Times of Israel reported that Nira Sharabi, wife of fallen hostage Yossi Sharabi, said at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square upon hearing Netanyahu’s decision, that “this is another evening where our beloved Yossi is still in Gaza. Another evening where my daughters are fatherless and also deprived of the right to mourn him. Another evening where 50 hostages have still not been returned, despite the fact they could have been.” According to her, “My Yossi could have been here if only the right decision had been made at the right time. This is another evening where a deal is on the table. Another evening where the right decision has still not been made.”

One cannot even imagine the pain of Nira Sharabi and others in Israel whose sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends remain in life-threatening conditions in the tunnels of Gaza.

To be sure, the current government has the legal right to make whatever decisions it feels are best for the country, given that they are in power after duly conducted elections in 2020.  Nevertheless, the legal right to do something is only half of the equation.

Many of us living in Israel today question whether the government in power also has the moral right to make these decisions, some of which, such as the one last night, put the living hostages at further risk of losing their lives.  I believe they have forfeited that right.

After all, the government today is exactly the same government that was in control on October 7^th and that bears full responsibility for its failure to protect us from the Hamas attack of that day.   Truth be told, until today no member of that government has stood up and taken responsibility for the events of October 7^th, no state commission of inquiry has been empaneled, no member of the government has resigned in shame, nor has anyone admitted guilt for the debacle.

Yet who has taken responsibility?  The IDF leadership, many of whose members have either resigned or been relieved of their duties.  This seems to be the pattern of this government: all mistakes are someone else’s errors, not theirs.

Given this pattern of behavior, while the government has the legal right to make the decisions it is making, it lacks the moral standing to do so.  There doesn’t even seem to be any voices inside the Cabinet who have the backbone needed to stand up and question whether the decisions themselves are based on moral principles.

As we enter this period of preparation for the holiest days of the year, members of the Israeli Cabinet will have a long list of families of the hostages whom they will need to call just before Yom Kippur and ask pardon and forgiveness for their lack of moral courage in abandoning the children of Israel still in captivity whom they could have saved.

Cicero’s Latin words, “O Tempora, O Mores,” shame on this age and its lost principles, should be emblazoned on the walls of the Cabinet meeting room as a reminder of the abandonment of morals.  And let us bless the IDF for being the moral force that helps us stay on the straight and narrow.