The Impossible War: Why We Can’t Heal – or Win – Without Our Hostages
Everything has been clouded in fog since October 7th. It’s been 666 days and we’re still stuck in this nightmare. There’s still no clarity, strategy, or logical direction to any of this.
I think that’s why we as a nation have been basically shuffling along with this paradox of ‘defeating Hamas and saving our hostages’. We were misled; it was never in the realm of reality, achieving these two declared aims in parallel. I mean, people have been talking about this contradiction in the war aims for many months. But it was always in the form of a debate about which should take higher priority, when, how.
We as a nation have been torn; not wanting terrorist monsters on our border capable of repeating October 7th, and understanding that our primary obligation as Jews and moral human beings is to do anything we can to free our hostages. And because of this conflict in our hearts, we’ve been going along with all of this. Trying to find a way to live our lives in some semblance of normalcy alongside the never-ending heartache. Because every moment that we let the pain win, is a moment taken away from our otherwise good lives – a moment we could be playing with a child, helping a friend, going on an adventure. Hamas has caused us enough sorrow; why should I give them the added satisfaction of distracting me from what’s important in my life? So we push the terrible thoughts and feelings to the side, as best we can. To choose life.
But enough is enough. The fog is lifting. I hate saying this but it feels like Sinwar is winning, from beyond the grave. The country is torn apart. We are not united. We are filled with rage. Our young, brave soldiers are still losing limbs, still dying. Our hostages are being deliberately starved and tortured. The whole world is increasingly turning against us. The leading nations of Europe are recognizing a state of Palestine, which essentially means they stand with Hamas and not with us. Hamas controls the narrative. Hamas is making it look like we are intentionally starving Palestinian civilians. Many Palestinians are needlessly dying. We are still running to bomb shelters almost daily from Houthi missiles.
And it feels ever clearer, day by day, that this was a mistake. We went about this all wrong. The hostages always should have been number one. Put aside the fact that morally, they should have come first. The hostages should have been the single, most important war aim because without them home, we cannot defeat Hamas. It’s like trying to punch someone with both arms tied behind your back. It’s impossible to win a war like that. Maybe a different type of country could have swallowed this price, but the Israeli people’s hearts beat with the hostages. And the longer they continue to languish in the torture chambers of Gaza, the more it’s clear that there can be no moving on and no healing for this whole entire country without their release. As long as Hamas still has hostages, we have no victory.
And yes, of course we needed to take on Hamas. But we could have thought outside the box. The presence of the hostages has been hindering our combat abilities since day one. I’ll never buy the argument that, had we made a complete hostage deal earlier on, we wouldn’t have had the legitimacy to go back into Gaza at a later date. Why would that possibly be true, when we literally go in and out of all enemy countries and attack them as needed, whenever needed – whether that’s Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, or even Iran.
The thing is, Hamas (aside from being the epitome of pure evil) is an ideological grassroots movement, and it doesn’t matter how many Hamas terrorists you take out – there will always be more, as long as there are Palestinians walking this earth. So what does it really mean, to ‘defeat Hamas’? I suppose it means doing something we haven’t done yet—maybe there are some secret plans in store up politicians’ sleeves that I just don’t know about, and maybe something will surprise me. Or maybe it’s just more of this rinse and repeat until Trump or an election finally puts a stop to all of it. All we’re really doing is playing an endless cycle of whack-a-mole. Because when this war is one day done, who is going to go door to door in Gaza and ensure that Hamas is really disarmed? Who are you kidding?
As we watch our hostages dying in these hellish Hamas propaganda videos, literally in the Holocaust of 2025, it makes me and so many of the Israeli public question: Where are the Jewish leaders? Where are the rabbis? What happened to ‘Never Again’? Why are the hostages not the number one priority? What happened to Pidyon Shvuyim? It’s literally written in the Torah that it is a religious duty in Judaism to bring about the release of a fellow Jew held captive. It is an essential commandment in Jewish law. Where are all you silent rabbis in Jerusalem? We the Israeli public see video footage of the Knesset and Cabinet meetings – why don’t we see our leaders shouting and banging on the table and demanding the prioritization of our hostages? How do you reconcile your Jewish values when you go to sleep at night? In what world do you sell yourself the story of a victory against Hamas, so long as they can continue to put out videos of skeletal hostages begging for mercy in Gazan tunnels? And to make things worse, all the Haredi politicians concern themselves with is how to serve their own private interests and finagle ways for their communities to dodge the draft.
I’m angry, so angry, and maybe I’ll regret typing some of these words one day. But as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, I had it ingrained in me from birth to never let something like the Holocaust happen again. I can’t be silent, so long as even just one hostage is perishing on a live Hamas feed for all the world to disregard. And the thing is – this has nothing to do with being right-wing or left-wing anymore. It’s not about that kind of politics. The majority of Israelis, across the political spectrum, are aligned on this.
We as a nation need to find a way to move on from October 7th; but we can’t. Our hands and hearts are tied behind our backs; our hostages need us to keep fighting for them. Our brave soldiers are going off to Gaza and sacrificing their lives. And for what? What’s the strategy? The very first time one single soldier was killed in an area of Gaza that we had controlled, left, and returned to – that should have been a glaring enough sign that something is wrong with our strategy. The first time that hostages were murdered by Hamas because our soldiers got too close to them in the tunnels, that should have been enough of a sign that something is wrong with our strategy. There have been so many moments, so many signs – so many letters, so many protests – it has been clear for so long that something is wrong with this so-called strategy. And yet we the people are helpless, powerless, forced against our will by our leaders to go along with all of this. What can we do? It’s a terrible feeling, needing so badly to move on, and not being able to. Enough is enough!
We are an amazing country, an incredible people. I’m so proud to be Israeli, a part of this magnificent nation of talent and balls and brains and beauty. There is no place quite like Israel. And our unity was always one of the things I loved most about living here – how people treat each other like family, strangers off the street just completely trusted. How we talk to one another like cousins, no formalities; we watch each other’s children without even being asked, we invite each other in for meals like it’s no big deal. We all just rely on one another and help one another, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. And yet, it’s so rare and special—it’s one of the most beautiful things about Israeli society.
Which is why it’s so painful to be abandoned like this by our government. Can’t they see how tired, how weary, how broken we are – soldiers’ families, hostage families, bereaved families, reservists’ families – can’t they see their struggles? Can’t they understand that there is no winning like this – what is a victory when your hostages have been forsaken; your young men have been sacrificed; your international standing has been shattered and globally ostracized; scores of soldiers are suffering PTSD and committing suicide; your economy has taken a severe beating that will take years to recover from; and worst of all—your people have been torn apart? For heavens’ sake, where is a true leader when the Jewish People need one? And the question we have been relentlessly asking for 666 days, the question our prime minister refuses to answer: How is this to end?
