The Hostages are More Important than Philadlephi

Speak with any orthopedist and they will tell you that it is not physically possible for a human being to stand if that person has fractures in both legs.  Any attempt at doing so will result in the individual falling flat on his or her face.  Fact!!!!

Sadly, this is where Israel finds itself today, almost 11 months into the war that was forced upon us by the dastardly massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens by the recently enumerated 6,000 Gazans that crossed our southern border on October 7^th to slaughter our people.

On October 6^th of last year Israel was “fractured” by months of demonstrations and protests against what many saw as a serious threat to our democracy by those who were pushing an extreme version of judicial reform at warp speed.

Now, to be sure, Israel desperately needs judicial reform.  The concept of judges of the Supreme Court being able to participate in the election of their replacements at retirement, for example, has been a recipe for the creation of a court devoted to its own self-interests, not necessarily what is best for the country.  Nevertheless, the problem is not solved by taking away the court’s power to rule on the legitimacy of laws passed by the parliament.  That is a diminution of democracy.

Nevertheless, agree or disagree,  clearly half the population was against all or part of the suggested changes or the speed by which those changes were being pushed through.  The ongoing protests caused one “leg” of the Israeli body politic to “fracture” making it very difficult for the country to remain standing erect.  People inside and outside of Israel began to look at the country as an unstable place in which to invest or even to live.

The awful events of October 7^th initially seemed to “heal” the “fracture” as the population came together, seemingly overnight, in solidarity with the war effort.   While it took the government some weeks to get itself on a war footing, individuals, non-profit organizations, synagogues, first responders, seemingly everyone came together in a show of strength and cooperation dedicated to winning the war.

The twin goals of rooting out Hamas from Gaza and returning the over 250 hostages taken on that fateful day seemed to be within our capabilities and we were going to do everything we could to achieve those objectives.  Israel had a history of winning its wars quickly and none of us in those early days of the conflict, when the flags previously flown in opposition to the government were now being flown in its support, thought that this war would be any different.  Yet it was, it is and it will be.

Now, 333 days later, Hamas has been defanged but not defeated, over 100 hostages remain in captivity and this week we buried six of them whose bodies were brought back to Israel after they had each been shot in the head (i.e murdered in cold blood) by Hamas operatives just days before they were found in Rafah by our military.

The fact that we have not been able to get all the hostages released, coupled with our prime minister’s argument that if our insistence on remaining in control of the Phiadelphi Corridor that separates Gaza from Egypt is an obstacle to getting them back, we will, for all practical purposes, be willing to sacrifice the hostages.  To that I, along with, yet again, seemingly half the population, say “no”….the hostages need to be returned at all costs.

Now, instead of the original “fracture” being healed by the show of unity we felt at the onset of the war, both “legs” on which this country stands are “fractured” and, if those fractures, like any medical situation, are not properly set and healed, the patient, in our case Israel, runs the risk of falling.

I agree that the southern border of Gaza has been and may even continue to be the main access point of weaponry into Gaza, about which Egypt, which controls their side of the border, turns the other eye.  From now on, we need to be confident that this particular border of Gaza, the only one we do not directly control, is not an entry point for weaponry.

Yet, Egypt is a sovereign country with whom we have had a peace treaty for 45 years, and with whom we have an agreement that we will not have our troops on the Gaza side of the border.  So, positioning the IDF there is not a solution that stays within the framework of our agreement with Egypt.  However, here is a case where the United States has tremendous leverage as after Israel, Egypt is the recipient of the 2^nd largest US foreign aid package of any country in the world.

Therefore, our diplomatic activity should be centered around getting Washington to exert direct pressure on Egypt, by threatening to hold back its foreign aid payments to Egypt (similarly to their regularly threatening us with an arms embargo if we don’t restrict our actions in Gaza).  It always amazes me how easy it is for the US to threaten Israel but how cumbersome it seems to be for Washington to lean on others where they also  have real leverage

That should be the message that the prime minister puts out rather than trying to explain to 100+ families who have suffered unmanageable stress and heartache for 11 months that a 14km long strip of land on the border between Gaza and Egypt is more important than the return of their loved ones.

There is no way the fracture will begin to heal until the hostages are released even if military strategy makes people thing otherwise.  And if this country is to heal and, once again be able to stand proudly on its own two feet, both fractures have to heal, and the hostage situation must be resolved in order to make that happen.

Tomorrow is the first day of Elul, the last month in the Hebrew calendar, which is characterized by soul searching. The state of the world is putting extra pressure on us to do the math, to examine what we have done wrong, to figure out what we should ask for forgiveness for, and to decide to amend our faults in preparation for the new year.  Our government must do the same and do it quickly while as many of the hostages as possible remain alive.