Solomonic Wisdom for a Ceasefire and Bringing Hostages Home

When Solomon was king, one night the Lord appeared to him in a dream and offered him whatever he wanted. Solomon could have asked for a long life, many riches or even the lives of his enemies, but he decided to ask for wisdom to be able to rule the people, which was pleasing to God because he had chosen correctly.

One day sitting on his throne, two women who lived together came to Solomon. Both had recently given birth. One of the women accused the other of stealing her son while he was sleeping, exchanging him with the child accidentally crushed by the other woman.

While the argument continued between the two women (since they both claimed to be the mother of the living child), King Solomon sent for a sword and proposed that they split the child in half and that each of the mothers obtain an equal share.

One of the women agreed with Solomon’s proposal while the other, terrified by the idea of seeing the newborn die, decided to give the child to the first woman. At that moment Solomon decided to give the child to the mother willing that the child not die because he knew that only the real mother would do something like that.

More than 400 days after the “Al Aqsa Flood” operation, 101 civilians are still being abducted by Hamas in the Gaza Strip despite the State of Israel’s effort to recover them. Meanwhile, the families of the hostages live in constant anguish, not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.

The results of the poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute between September 15 and 19, showed a significant polarization in Israel’s public opinion on whether or not to continue with the war in Gaza, with the return of the hostages being the main reason for seeking a ceasefire with Hamas.

The objectives of the State of Israel have been clear since the beginning of the war: to completely dismantle the terrorist structure of Hamas so that another “October 7” never happens again and to recover the hostages alive.

However, such goals have been difficult to achieve in their entirety. First, Israel engaged in an urban guerrilla war in which the IDF had to penetrate one of the most densely populated areas in the world with approximately 5500 inhabitants per km² and try to decipher and destroy one of the most complex tunnel networks ever known under civilian structures such as apartment buildings, schools and even hospitals that have served as a shield for such a sophisticated network built by Hamas.

Since then, the IDF has managed to destroy hundreds of tunnels in Gaza, significantly weakening Hamas’ operational capacity but at a high cost. Hundreds of soldiers killed, thousands more wounded, some 43,000 killed in Gaza, (mostly civilians) and 60% of the infrastructure damaged or completely destroyed in the Gaza Strip are some of the collateral damages left by the conflict to date. Added to this, the prolongation of the conflict has generated division in Israel at the political level and among citizens and has been a major factor in the increase in anti-Semitism around the world, something that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans already experienced on November 7 in Amsterdam.

On the other hand, it seems logical that the State of Israel did not want to reach a ceasefire until it had considerably weakened the terrorist group Hamas, a threat that the State of Israel from its perspective had to completely neutralize after the massacre of October 7. However, at this point it is very unlikely that Hamas can one day become what it was until that day even if it does not cease to exist as an organization. Therefore, bringing back those 101 hostages alive should be the number one priority of the State of Israel at this time.

For this, the State of Israel must seek a solution that satisfies both the different political factions and the citizens of Israel, as well as knowing how to negotiate with Hamas in order to achieve this objective.

Such an agreement would produce a ceasefire that would give rest to its army on one of the many fronts that Israel has at the moment, to the populations of both Israel and Gaza and could lower the escalation of palpable anti-Semitism since the beginning of the war.

It would also be a media victory in many respects as long as it does not allow the resurgence of Hamas, something that the people of Israel will surely demand. Although it may be difficult to uproot, it could be cut every time you try to grow as exhausting as the task is for the IDF.

But for this purpose, on the one hand the State of Israel must ask God for wisdom as King Solomon did one day and on the other hand it must give in to some of its objectives set since the beginning of the war, as did that woman willing to renounce being the mother of her son as long as he lived.