The Blogs: Confused about recent events? You should be!

In case you’ve had a hard time following the events of the past two weeks, let’s recap:

First, we’ve had intrigue.

The young-looking, dark-eyed Emir of Qatar has turned out to be an unreliable narrator. Behind his earnest attempts to get the hostage negotiations restarted lurk many questions. For example, did he and his friends know, when they bought influence in Israel’s prime minister’s office, that their contacts were, essentially, taking bribes from a foreign county? Were they aware this is a criminal offence in our country? And what, exactly, was their aim? Because, as we suddenly recall, Qatari money financed the Hamas tunnels in Gaza, the Al-Jazeera news station we expelled from Israel and anti-Israel, antisemitic campus groups. On the plus side, we have the World Cup and various world summits in Doha, putting this tiny, wealthy country on the global map.

But a possibly more important question is this one: Did our prime minister seize on the Emir to broker negotiations in an attempt to snub our friends in Egypt (who, as you may recall from an earlier episode, refused to create a tent city for millions of Gazans), or was he trying to stall the negotiations with an untried host?

Confused yet? We’ve also had some resounding ultimatums.

The leader of the so-called free world resembled nothing so much as a playground bully when he threatened Iran by saying that if the Ayatollahs did not accept his nuclear treaty, it would be “very, very bad.” But behind the cardboard cutout, Trump has cozied up to Moscow, and Iran is Moscow’s main dealer. Iran also funds, not in this particular order, the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. America is shelling the Houthis, who are interfering with a major shipping route through the Red Sea. It’s a crazy circle, and one that could well end very, very badly for many.

And then there is the war that stopped, but not really.

Our wars and skirmishes are continuing as though we never had ceasefires. Sirens are sounding in border towns and across the country. Ground troops are reentering Gaza, people are once again being moved around, our army is not budging from its outposts in Lebanon and Syria and we are dropping bombs near Beirut. Listen to politicians and you will hear we going back to the “aims of the war,” which include everything from totally destroying Hamas, to putting pressure on Hamas to release more hostages, to putting Trump’s plan to evacuate Gaza to into effect. The hostages released in the last round go to the media, one by one, and beg Trump, Bibi, anyone, in many languages, to end the war and return the rest of the hostages. Lies are told to the faces of the families of hostages: “We are doing everything in our power to free your sons and husbands.”

For a clue as to what is really going on, read the lips of our froggy defense minister: “We are retaking territory in Gaza.”

While you are at it, look into the eyes of the hostage Elkana Bohbot as he begs for his freedom in a made-for-Israeli-audiences release by Hamas. Look into the eyes of 13-year-old Yamama Jundia who was injured in Gaza as members of her family were killed in an IDF airstrike.

They are both a critical part of the story. Our leaders – the ones ordering the airstrikes, prolonging a war that can only end in more death and destruction – look away. They do not have time for videos and meetings with the families of hostages who have been tortured in Gaza for nearly 550 days; they cannot allow themselves to feel real compassion. If you, yourself, have looked into the eyes of suffering, you will also have the ability to see right through our leadership.

In the meantime, our Knesset is busy firing people, including the head of the secret service, who had been heading the Israeli team in the hostage negotiations, the major general and the attorney general. The extreme right wingers who had previously quit their posts over the ceasefire are now back in government. That, if you were paying attention, is another clue to what may lie in wait for the country. And while the army burns up shekels in ammunition, fuel and equipment, reservists are finding themselves losing their businesses and jobs. At the same time, the government is handing out money left and right to Haredim who support the coalition, even as they refuse to honor army draft notices.

Still confused? You are meant to be confused. That is why our politicians, led by our liar-in-chief, routinely claim the opposite of anything reported in the mainstream media. How could you not scratch your head at some point and wonder what is truly going on?

Let’s rephrase things.

Our governments work starting from the concept that there are gains to be made. Gains might be anything from staying out of jail and in power, to occupying new territory, to adding to our tally of Hamas members eliminated. Releasing hostages comes at a steep price, which rises as their number dwindles. Ending the war to get the last hostages out of Gaza is not a net gain by this reckoning, especially if you place a high value keeping your hindquarters off the hard jail cots.

When I try to make sense of it all, I start from the concept that compassion must direct our decisions, and compassion dictates ending the war and negotiating a release for all of the hostages. If you boil everything else down to this one principle, you can cut through the diversions and ask, for every news item reported with the muddling addendum “Others have been arrested; we can’t tell you more,” or: “This has been approved by the army censor” – does this help end the war and release hostages, or is it simply prolonging the suffering?

From my point of view, therefore, either none of this is logical, or else it makes a terrible kind of sense that points to some “very, very bad” outcomes. As usual, we are left hanging, waiting to see how all of this might possibly get sorted out. We’ll keep protesting, keep talking, keep hoping – hoping for miracles, at this point – and keep watching this space. Because, honestly, we are all trying figure it out.