Make The Deal and Save the Remaining Hostages 

What we saw this weekend is Hamas’ next gruesome move in the war that they started.  There is now a very real possibility that Hamas has decided to execute hostages when there is a feeling that they are about to be liberated by the IDF.

So let us understand a basic fact.  The six executed/murdered hostages are dead forever.  Tragically, they can never be brought back to their beloved families.

However, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and/or the Philadelphi corridor is not quite the same.  One can be fairly sure that within a week or a few months, Hamas will once again violate a ceasefire and Israel will find itself back in Gaza and back in control of the Philadelphi corridor.

Some have pointed out the fact that as part of the Gilad Shalit deal of 2011, Yahya Sinwar was released and that this caused the current situation. This however gives far too much credit or power to Sinwar and shifts the responsibility for the disaster of October 7.

On October 7, a covenant between the citizens of Israel and the military/governmental authorities was violated.  That covenant was that the State of Israel would protect its citizens from attacks, and most certainly from pogroms and massacres.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, together with other political and military leadership in Israel, were operating under strategic assumptions regarding Hamas and Gaza that were terribly wrong.  Buying off Hamas with money from Qatar was never a realistic option.  Assuming that Hamas could be influenced to be more concerned about governing that it was about killing Jews and destroying Israel was a disastrous miscalculation.   Ignoring the intelligence reports warning of an imminent invasion, especially when reported by female border observers, was sexist and catastrophic.

Had the IDF taken the warnings seriously, the entire attack could have been stopped with a few helicopter gunships in less than an hour with little or no casualties.

In addition, the management of the war has been abominable. It is clear that it was critical to take over the Philadelphi corridor and choke off the pipeline to the resupply of weapons. This, however, was only done in May.  It should have been done in November. Once again, this represents an abject failure of both the political and military echelons in Israel.

It is for these reasons that, no matter the cost, Israel needs to make every effort, including withdrawal from Gaza, to bring the hostages back.  As mentioned previously, the basic covenant between Israelis and their government, between Jews and Israel, is that Israel will keep Jews safe from being massacred. This covenant must be reestablished as soon as possible.

It is now the responsibility of that government to fulfill the commandment of pidyon shvuyim, redeeming the captives.   The rabbis called pidyon shvuyim a “mitzvah rabbah,” a great mitzvah.  In their view, captivity was viewed as even worse than starvation and death (Bava Batra 8b).  In the Middle Ages, a responsa was written which stated that it was even permissible to sell a Torah scroll in order to redeem Jews who were slaves on ships which docked at ports along the Mediterranean.

So, from a traditional and practical standpoint, our choice is not a “Sophie’s choice” but a clear one.  Let us not be willing to sacrifice the current hostages for the sake of our own personal security. The time to bring them home is now!  Let Jewish history record that at this terrible moment, we chose to save the lives of our captives.

Sadly, that might very well be the greatest tribute that we could offer to the lives of the six were executed by Hamas, a horrific and brutal terrorist organization.  The six martyrs were murdered because they were Israeli and because they desired to live in the land of their ancestors, a land which is now the only country in the world wherein Jewish self-determination is even a possibility.

Am Yisrael Chai!