Will Bibi harden his heart again?

Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he did not heed them (Exodus 7:13)

After nearly 14 months of warfare in Gaza, which has wrought a humanitarian disaster of huge proportions and during which many Israeli soldiers have been killed or wounded, it is time for the war in Gaza to end. There are many reasons for this.

Firstly, it is the long overdue obligation of the government of Israel to end this war in order to bring the remaining Israeli and foreign hostages home. This should have happened a long time ago but it is better late than never. This would also bring to an end the superfluous suffering of the families of the hostages, who have literally been tortured by the government of Israel (and many of their followers) during the past 14 months.

Secondly, as part of the deal to bring the hostages home,  Israel must trade many Palestinian prisoners who have been in Israeli prisons for a long time, and many who are in administrative detention, in order to secure the release of the remaining hostages (most of whom are probably no longer alive). This simple fact has been known for a long time, but it has been rejected by the current coalition, whose most extreme elements on the very far right have dictated policy on this for too long. In contrast, the majority of the citizens of Israel in poll after poll have indicated that they favor a deal to bring back the hostages, and everyone knows by now that this means ending this war right away. Moreover, according to most security analysts, the IDF has destroyed most of Hamas’ capabilities, a major goal of this war, but it has failed to bring home the hostages. Only a diplomatic deal can do that.

The majority of Israeli citizens also don’t want to re-elect this crazy coalition again since they realize the tremendous damage it has done to Israel’s democracy, economy and social fabric. A poll released last Tuesday, November 26^th,  by Channel 12 News in Israel shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current bloc failing to secure a majority of Knesset seats, despite Likud’s status as the biggest party with 25 projected seats.

These results would reflect the loss of seven seats for Netanyahu’s party. According to this poll, political parties backing the current government are expected to secure 51 seats, while opposition parties would hold 69, out of 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

This government, which has been a fanatical one of destruction, death and despair,  has led to so much chaos in Israeli society as well as isolating the state of Israel internationally. More and more Israelis are realizing every day that 17 years of Netanyahu’s Putinesque autocratic rule has eroded our democratic nature and threatens our very existence.

Thirdly, ending the war would bring back some sense of “normality”, sanity and stability to Israeli society, which is exhausted physically and mentally from the nightmares of the war. Families have lived for 6-7 months, and sometimes even more, with the father of the family in the reserves, causing severe anxiety and tensions. Millions of citizens in the north and center have been running to their shelters for months now on a daily basis, often a few times a day. Interestingly, this ceased to happen months ago in the south, since the existential threat posed by Hamas was removed and the war was essentially over

Indeed, after the assassination of Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, on October 16th, 2024. many people in Israel thought that that was the time to declare victory, end the war, bring the troops home, reach a deal to redeem the hostages and take some deep breaths. Unfortunately, this did not happen, due to the insistence of the far right and the middle right to remain in Gaza forever, to re-occupy it in the name of security, with no plan for how to care for the two million plus Palestinians in the area, who are mostly homeless and hungry.

It is good that there is a renewed push by the Americans, the Egyptians and others to reach a deal that would end the war in the south (as has been done in the north), bring the hostages and our troops home, and secure the border with Gaza, which is now well defended. But we ask ourselves: will it work this time? Or will Bibi and his buddies harden their hearts once again, as they have done so many times during the last 14 months?

There is now growing pressure in civil society in Israel for a deal now and an end to the war. For example, Women Wage Peace, Israel’s largest peace organization, has launched a new campaign to end the war and bring the hostages home. They called for this loudly and clearly in ads in major newspapers in Israel this past weekend.

The cruelty and obtuseness of this government, led by a detached and deranged leader who only cares about his personal survival, is truly Trumpian. Just as nearly half of the American people, and most of the civilized Western world, were shocked by the election of this madman as president of the USA, so too most of the citizens of Israel are shell shocked, literally and figuratively by Netanyahu’s maniacal hold on power, despite his recklessness, irresponsibility and insatiable blaming of everyone else for Israel’s failures in recent years. Indeed, most of us here in Israel are in perpetual trauma and post-trauma, from the depths of destruction and division that he has sown during his 17-year reign. We are tired of his forever war in Gaza and would like to see it end already.

This may be his last chance to reach a deal to bring the remaining hostages home and end this war. Will he go for it? Or will he prioritize his personal survival over the redemption of the hostages and the sanity and stability of Israeli society and the Israeli economy once again?

In a place where there are no decent human beings, strive to be a human being. (Ethics of the Fathers 2:5, translation by the author of this post)