The ‘Bring Them Home NOW!’ movement has utterly failed

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum (the “Families Forum”) was established soon after the Hamas invasion and the outbreak of the Gaza war, October 7-8, 2023. It has been holding demonstrations and other public events at least once a week since November 2023.

During that time, the Families Forum has spent (and I’m sticking my neck out here because there are no figures) hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of dollars to fund their activities. (Almost all of this money has come from foreign sources, but that’s another story.)

A lot of money, a lot of noise, a lot of fireworks. But what have they succeeded in doing?

They have raised awareness of the hostage situation and kept it in the public’s attention, in Israel and abroad.

They have made the families the darlings of the Israeli media, who are given constant exposure on TV, radio, press and social media. They are treated like the proverbial “etrog wrapped in cotton wool,” and never asked any tough or embarrassing questions.

They have outspent, and therefore effectively silenced, the families of soldiers who are fighting in Gaza, or who have fallen. The majority of these families believe it would be a betrayal of their sons and daughters to end the war with Hamas still in control of Gaza.

They have kept themselves in the headlines by blocking traffic on main highways, starting fires in the middle of streets, and holding violent confrontations with the police.

They have divided the country by demanding that the government end the war by accepting Hamas’s terms in order to free the hostages. They have convinced the Israeli public that the only choice is zero-sum: You must be in favor either of freeing the hostages, or of defeating Hamas. You cannot support both.

More than that: They have convinced part of the public that bringing home the hostages is the one and only definition of an Israeli victory.

Yet after more than eight months, with all that money spent and all that public and media cacophony, the Families Forum has totally failed to bring about the release of even one hostage!

In fact, in November, when Israel agreed to a ceasefire for the freeing of some hostages (which led to 41 being released), the Families Forum initially opposed the deal because it did not include all of the hostages.

The leaders of the Families Forum and their PR advisors should listen to what they themselves like to shout at others:

“You failed completely! Go home!”

The time has come for the families to reassess their strategy until now and choose another way, less confrontational, more inclusive, less of a “struggle,” and more of a partnership.

This will certainly benefit not only the families and the hostages themselves, but the entire country.