Sound and fury, accomplishing nothing
A long time ago, we learned about ’cause and effect’ by studying a tribe on a distant continent. A prolonged drought was causing the death of their crops and animals. The local shaman (whom some westerners would mistakenly call a witch doctor) promised the people that if they performed a ritual dance regularly and conscientiously, the rains would come.
And so they did. After a few more weeks of drought, the rains came. “You see,” exclaimed the shaman, “our rain dance worked! We brought the rain!”
The tribe knew nothing of the shifting wind patterns in the upper atmosphere, the increased evaporation from the seas, and the development of the clouds.
For 14 months, the Saturday night “Bring Them Home NOW!” crowd has been performing its rain dance. Bankrolled by the wealthiest foreign foundations, they have blocked traffic on main highways, started fires in the middle of streets, and held violent confrontations with the police.
They never lacked money for new caps, shirts, posters, banners and slogans. PR advisors gave them carefully worded speeches and new gimmicks to keep the attention of a fawning media.
For 14 months, members of the Families Forum and their supporters have been treated with kid gloves by interviewers who lost the right to call themselves “journalists.” They are given prime time exposure, almost constantly, and they are never asked any difficult or embarrassing questions.
Now they are celebrating a victory which they believed their struggle achieved: The “deal” that is bringing home some of the Gaza hostages.
“You see,” they say, “our struggle is successful! This proves we must continue it until the last of the hostages is returned.”
In fact, the hostage “deal,” such as it is, has nothing to do with their efforts.
After 14 months, we can say with certainty that their sound and fury has accomplished nothing.
The hostage “deal” is the result of how the American people voted last November 5. Donald Trump, as incoming President, was able to impose this deal on the negotiators.
For 14 months, our government stood up to the angry mob, the crying relatives, the journalists, the celebrities, the PR professionals, and said “NO!”
“We refuse to ‘pay any price’ to get the captives back.”
“You are too emotionally involved to decide our national priorities.”
“You will not define ‘victory’ for the country according to your personal interests.”
“You will not politicize the hostage tragedy to fit your own agenda.”
It’s clear that without Trump’s intervention, the government would still be saying NO!
But the most powerful indicator of the complete and utter failure of the Saturday Night NOW! crowd is the fact that they have been unable to advance their political agenda one iota!
While the demonstrators themselves may really care about the fate of the hostages, their foreign funders have more strategic goals in mind: The destabilizing and even toppling of the elected government.
Yet in survey after survey, including the very latest, the Likud is still the party that receives the most mandates, and Benjamin Netanyahu remains the people’s choice for prime minister. When hypothetical new parties are added to the possibilities, the only ones scoring higher than the Likud are those even farther to the right.
No one knows how much money has been poured into the Bring Them Home NOW! movement. It must have been many millions of dollars, yet its effect on Israeli society has been minimal. We would be in a better place today if all this money, the creative effort, the passionate involvement, the media organization – had been channeled to meet the physical and emotional needs of our soldiers fighting on four fronts and of the people evacuated from their homes on the northern and southern borders.