Who said Netanyahu wasn’t preparing for “The Day After”?
On July 31st, the Islamic Jihad released a video showing its captive – Rom Braslavski – stripped of any dignity, left with no hope to carry his withered body on. On August the 2nd, Hamas reached an even greater cinematic achievement: A video showing Evyatar David digging his own grave.
Two days later, sitting on their executive seats in a well-lit air-conditioned room, each with their personal bottle of water in front of them, members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense of the “Knesset” (the Israeli parliament) convened. Families of hostages participated in the televised meeting, as they have been doing ever since the October 7th massacre. For months on end they have barely been able to sleep, eat, or function, their energies focused only on one thing: bringing back their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and husbands.
For over a year, medical experts have been issuing increasingly grave warnings about the health outcomes of being so long in captivity, malnourished, without proper medication, lacking oxygen, sunlight, social support, enduring physical and mental torture. Hamas is making sure that reality is constantly one step ahead of such warnings. In February of this year, Hamas released three Israelis. According to the Ministry of Health, they had lost forty percent of their weight in captivity. That was after 491 days in captivity. We are now approaching 700 days for the remaining hostages. Based on the last two videos, medical experts predicted they had only a few days left. That was a few days ago.
As hostages have been slowly fading away, so have their families. Perhaps even more so. Drowning in guilt and feeling completely helpless, they are the captive audience of these back-to-back seasons of “Survivor: In the hands of Hamas.”
Now, the latest images of Braslavski and David are giving them one additional push over the edge. It is remarkable they are still hanging on – by a very thin thread.
Hoping that the last two “episodes” would finally get members of Knesset from Netanyahu’s coalition to act, families of the hostages mustered whatever strength they had to return to the Knesset. Indeed, members of Knesset from parties forming the government were moved to act – against the hostages’ families. One such member of Knesset, Tally Gotliv, of Netanyahu’s Likud party, told the families that Hamas would never release the hostages if it heard their pleas to sign a deal. “So, what do you want us to do? Do you want us to shut up?” asked a member of the “Hostages and Missing Families Forum.”
“Yes,” answered Tali Gotliv, “Shut up.”
Member of Knesset, Tally Gotliv (Oren Ben Haakon/Yisrael Hayom).
This was not the first time a member of Knesset spoke in such a merciless manner, nor was it the worst in the ongoing abuse that the anguished families of the hostages have had to endure. Several months ago, I wrote a blog post on this platform, showing how, ever since the October 7 massacre, members of Netanyahu’s coalition were using every vicious tactic to silence these families. Netanyahu wanted to get them out of the way. They were interfering with his plans to continue the war. They were an obstacle to “Decisive Victory.” For almost two years Netanyahu has been repeatedly declaring that we are a step away from this “Decisive Victory.” Now, says Netanyahu, the time has come. Several days ago, the war cabinet approved a plan to complete Israel’s takeover of the Gaza Strip, beginning with the city of Gaza. In practice, this means entering the last enclaves where Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders are hiding.
Netanyahu describes the goal of “Swords of Iron” as twofold: First, to annihilate Hamas and its affiliate terror groups. Second, to free the hostages. According to him, the IDF can achieve both goals in one swift operation. We know from leaks to reporters that the Chief of Staff thinks otherwise. He believes that both goals contradict each other, and that the planned operation will risk the lives of the hostages. That is because the IDF does not know exactly where the terrorists are keeping the hostages. It only has in mind several large and very densely populated areas where Hamas and the Islamic Jihad may likely be hiding the hostages. To add to the difficulty, the hostages are frequently moved from one location to another. The IDF does not know how many are kept together, or how many were separated from others. Finally, the hostages are in booby-trapped tunnels, deep under the ground of the Gaza Strip, guarded by terrorists ready to execute them if Israeli soldiers come anywhere close. This is exactly what Hamas did a year ago to six hostages. After this tragedy, the IDF has refrained from going into areas it believes the terrorists may be hiding the hostages. Nonetheless, Netanyahu is bent on going on with the plan to conquer the last bastions of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Under such circumstances, laying a final blow to Hamas may turn out to be the final blow to the hostages as well.
A tunnel where six hostages were executed by Hamas (Office of the IDF Spokesperson).
What does MK Gotliv have to do with this? Well, seems like Netanyahu and members of his coalition are already preparing their insurance policy in case of such a horrific ending to the lives of the hostages. You see, for Netanyahu, as important as what happens on the “day after” is the narrative explaining the “day before the day after.” Tally Gotliv proves this point.
Phrased as a conditional argument, she warned that if Hamas finds out that families of the hostages are applying pressure on the government to reach an agreement, it will never release the hostages. This is not an interpretation of what Talli Gotliv said. This IS what she said. Yet, her words, captured by the Knesset’s TV cameras, were directed at Netanyahu’s base, more than at the families of the hostages.
Following Gotliv’s logic, we can infer that if Hamas does not release the hostages (i.e., the hostages perish in the Gaza Strip), it was not because of any of the last-minute U-turns Netanyahu made as Israel and Hamas were about to reach an agreement. Rather, it was because the families spoke out. Had they only “shut up,” Israel would have already returned the hostages alive and well. The families dug their own grave, so to speak.
It is too incredible to believe that our own leaders could possibly use the families of the hostages in this manner. Yet, it is incredible only from a moral perspective. As far as this government goes, so long as it works for Netanyahu’s base. And it will. For these twenty-two months, his coalition members have been successfully laying the foundations for this moment. They’ve been as successful with this as Hamas had been laying the foundations of its tunnels. Members of his coalition have been toiling endlessly to make a cement-solid case that anyone, but they are responsible for their own failures. If that means putting the blame on families of the hostages, so be it. Claiming that campaigning for an agreement with Hamas is weakening Israel and is strengthening Israel’s enemies is one thing; Ruthlessly vilifying the families is another. It leaves little doubt that Netanyahu and his clan have been running a smear campaign, trying to weaken the families, not the other way around. How else can we explain why supporters of his government burn photos of hostages, or wish them dead?
“Massacre the Left” spraypainted on a banner of the “Families of the Hostages and Missing Forum” (Kan News on “X”; in accordance with section 27a of the copyrights law).
And so, like a chorus in an ancient Greek play, Netanyahu’s pack will recite: “It is the mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters of the hostages, by their own doing, who prevented a deal. Had they only been silent, their loved ones would have already been freed. But they could not resist. Instead, they pleaded and begged, held rallies, and flew overseas to meet with heads of state. Their pleas to cut a deal to release the hostages fell like ripe fruit into the hands of Hamas. They became Hamas’s “fifth column.” Their acts have encouraged Hamas to constantly raise the price, until it became too “expensive” for Israel. We could not allow Israel to pay such a price. We could not afford to release so many arch-terrorists. We could not afford to have Hamas stay in power and continue to threaten Israel. We could not look weak in the tough Middle East. Even if they are not directly to blame for the tragedy that befell their own sons and husbands, they certainly did not help. We told them from the start to be silent. But they did not listen.”
“And then,” the chorus goes on, “it was too late for a deal anyhow. The videos of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David proved it. The hostages were on the brink of death. There was nothing left to lose. It was now or never. Going into the last enclaves of Hamas was the only way that may have saved the hostages.”
“Of course,” the story sarcastically ends, “the families of the hostages did not mean to harm their own loved ones. It is an awful tragedy. It is time now to hug the families and comfort them. They are our brothers and sisters.”
