War of no victory

Shame on those who call the recovery of six bodies of Israeli hostages a success! Shame on those who think that military pressure saves hostages – military pressure kills them! Shame on those who praise the flattening of Gaza and the killing of tens of thousands of Gazans!

To be clear, the first hostage deal in November 2023 wasn’t done thanks to the military pressure, military pressure delayed this deal by at least two weeks. I say this with 100% certainty. It was possible to save dozens of additional hostages back in November 2023, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the army chiefs wanted to renew the war, to exert more military pressure, which resulted only in the killing of more hostages and many innocent Palestinians. Netanyahu is committing crimes against Israel, against the people of Israel, and of course, against the Palestinian people. This war must end, and it’s Netanyahu who is preventing it.

There are another 109 Israeli hostages left in Gaza, a large number of them are probably not among the living. In order to bring them home, a deal must be made with Hamas. That includes ending the war and Israel withdrawing from Gaza. This war must end already. It’s possible to reach security arrangements that will protect Israel. Let’s not forget that what happened on 7 October wouldn’t have happened if there were 10 to 15 tanks on the border, and three attack helicopters in the air. That’s what it would have taken to prevent 3 000 murdering and pillaging Hamas and other criminals from entering Israel on that horrible day. When those Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s border, they were shocked that there was no Israeli army to prevent them from entering. One Hamas leader told me that they sent 1 500 of the elite fighters (Nukhba) into Israel and expected 1 000 of them to be killed. The same person said, “If we had known that there would be no army on the border, we would have sent 10 000 fighters and conquered Tel Aviv.”

What happened on 7 October 2023 was the result of criminal negligence, arrogance, and political decisions that for decades turned the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into the police force of the occupation and settlements. The IDF can protect the borders of Israel, and it could have protected Israel on 7 October if it had been there. The army and all of the Israeli security services have direct responsibility for the failure to read the clear intelligence signs that such an attack was about to happen. The chiefs or the army and intelligence services have spoken about taking responsibility, but almost none of them have yet to resign. Netanyahu refuses to accept direct responsibility, and keeps deflecting to the army, to the intelligence services, but he is the head, and he is responsible. His day is coming.

Netanyahu is also directly responsible for tying the hands of the negotiators that he appointed to bring home the hostages. Unlike negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit, who after five years in captivity – the longest any Israeli has been in the captivity of the enemy – Netanyahu instructed the Mossad agent in charge, David Meidan, to “Bring him home!”, Netanyahu hasn’t told the head of the Mossad, the head of the Shabak, and General Nitzan Alon, “Bring them home!” To the best of public knowledge, even after the last rounds of negotiations, the negotiators still didn’t have a mandate to make the decision to bring the hostages home. As of this morning, there remain 109 hostages in Gaza, with an assumption that most haven’t survived the more than 10 months in captivity. Israel had an ethos that “we don’t leave anyone behind”. That ethos has been broken, and with it the sense of social solidarity and mutual aid that were so much a part of what made Israel special.

The issue of the Israeli hostages has become politicised by Netanyahu’s own propaganda machine. Those who demonstrate around the country for a deal, including the families of hostages, are cursed at and look upon as traitors, aiding Hamas in defeating Israel. Even hostages who have come home are often attacked on the streets by some people yelling at them that it’s a pity they survived. This kind of behaviour was unheard of in Israel in the past.

Israel will never be the same after 7 October, and it will take many years to overcome the trauma of having so many hostages sacrificed for the unattainable goal of total victory. Hamas has largely been destroyed as a military machine and a government. But it remains powerful enough to engage in armed insurgency for many years to come, killing many Israeli soldiers along the way. It’s quite clear that the longer Israel remains in Gaza, the easier it will be for Hamas to recruit new fighters from the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost family members in this war and from the hundreds of thousands who have lost their homes and property to Israeli bombs. One would think that Israel had learned the lesson of staying in Lebanon for 18 years. But apparently not. There are still leaders in this country and officers in the army that think that total victory is within our reach and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be solved through the use of force. That isn’t the case now, and there never has been a military solution to this conflict.

Eventually, we’ll have new leaders in Israel and in Palestine. Eventually, we’ll understand that Israel will never have security if the Palestinians don’t have freedom and dignity. The Palestinians won’t have freedom and dignity if Israel doesn’t have security. To achieve this – freedom, dignity, and security for both peoples – we must, all of us, remove our failed leaders – on both sides and as quickly as possible.

• The writer is a political and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to peace between Israel and her neighbours. He’s a founding member of the Kol Ezraheiha – Kol Muwanteneiha (All of the citizens) political party in Israel. He’s now the Middle East Director for ICO – International Communities Organization, a United Kingdom-based nongovernmental organisation.