End the war, bring all the hostages home
It seems that a partial deal to bring back only half the remaining live hostages and about half the number of dead ones, is in the offing and may occur soon, possibly even this week. This partial deal is the one that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his partners want, so that they can continue the war after a 60 day cease fire. But this is not the agreement that the people of Israel want. As I wrote last week, the overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens want this war to end, and to have ALL the hostages redeemed now, not in 60 days or more!
Why then does the government of Israel want only a partial deal? Why are they afraid to end the war now?
The first reason is the pressure from the fanatic right-wing of this extremist government. They want the war to continue so that they can conquer all of Gaza, expel all of it Palestinian inhabitants, and re-establish Jewish settlements there. Ben Gvir and Smotrich—the “leaders” of the radical right in the government, have stated this very clearly many times in the media in Israel and internationally. They are not afraid to say this and even to convene conferences to plan for these moves, which are attended periodically by many ministers in the government and many extreme right-wing members of the Knesset. Prime Minister Netanyahu does not say this but he supports these ideas and is working to fulfill their dreams by flattening most of Gaza and creating internment camps in what is left of Gaza, while his fanatic Defense Minister keeps looking for African or other countries to take in 2 million Palestinians via “voluntary emigration” (after you have no home to return to!)
The second reason is related to the first one. Prime Minister Netanyahu is a very cynical and self-serving politician. He is great at scheming and wheeling and dealing to keep himself in power and to preserve his government. Even the abandonment by three ultra-orthodox political parties, whose leaders are totally fed up with his lies and tricks, did not bring down this government. We now have a minority government in Israel, but it still keeps Bibi in power! Very clever. And look at the timing—right before the summer recess of three months, which begins at the end of this week. How coincidental! Yet, he is keeping Smotrich (Irreligious anti-Zionism party) and Ben Gvir (Jewish Fascism) in the government by his efforts to make a partial deal, and his refusal to end the war. If he agrees to end the war, he has no government! So, for internal political reasons, he keeps this horrific war going! It’s unbelievable but it is happening.
Thirdly, he is afraid of ending the war because he sees it as “surrender” on our part. He wants the Hamas militants to surrender and he keeps thinking that more and more force—more and more killing of innocent civilians and more and more destruction and devastation of whole cities, as well as mass starvation — will somehow catalyze the Hamas leadership to give in. He still thinks that this is possible, even after 21 months of death and destruction, which has not brought about their surrender. He hasn’t gotten the message yet—they are not going to surrender! —and therefore he keeps the war going, despite what it is doing to the Palestinians, to Israeli soldiers, to Israel’s moral standing in the world, and to the souls of most of the citizens of Israel by now who can no longer tolerate this war any more. This is a disastrous policy, which shows that he and his advisors have learned nothing about the Middle East, and especially nothing about wars with guerilla groups.
In addition, Netanyahu and company are simply not interested in rescuing all the hostages. This is not on their radar, not part of their consciousness. The cries of the hostage families and friends, and of the protest movement of hundreds of thousands of Israelis, are falling on deaf ears and obtuse minds. Bibi and his buddies—like Trump and his—have become cruel and vicious politicians, for whom human life—of some humans, mostly those not in their political camps—are not worth very much. They have no regard for human life, or human rights or civil rights, or the rule of law, or any of those old-fashioned values like justice, human dignity, peace or civility. If you don’t believe me, or think I am exaggerating, just read or listen to the news in Israel every day. You will hear outrageous immoral irresponsible, blasphemous statements by many of our ‘leaders’—like you hear from Trump and his friends in the USA—every hour on radio and television, and you can also read them, unless you don’t want to get nauseous, in the daily press.
In contrast to all this madness, the people of Israel are speaking up loud and clear now. There has been a shift in the protest movement in recent months. Now the focus is on ending this horrific, immoral, vengeful, counter-productive, pointless war. Why? Because most people here know that only ending this war this will bring home the remaining hostages, dead and alive. Also, it has become abundantly clear that this war is also doing terrible things to the Palestinian people in Gaza, which are incomprehensible to so many of us, so much so that we can no longer support it or defend the government that pursues it. Most people in Israel can no longer tolerate this war, not morally nor tactically nor strategically.
Is it too late to convince President Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff of the insufficiency of the emerging partial deal and the importance of a full deal to end the war, bring all the hostages home now, in exchange for many Palestinian prisoners, and the restoration of stability in the region? Maybe they can act as people of conscience and commitment and therefore force the government of Israel to do the right thing.
