Hostage murders cast an angry shadow over Netanyahu's Gaza campaign
Hamas murdered six hostages last week after using them to wage psychological warfare against Israel
Editor’s Note:
As summer has been winding down we have contended with some very dark days. The recent murders of six Israeli hostages shook the nation to its core. As did the comment made by PM Netanyahu in a security cabinet meeting on the evening of Thursday, August 29, which was leaked to the media.
Challenged by Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, as to whether he would prioritize continued military control of the Philadelphi Corridor in Gaza or agree to withdraw from the Corridor if that concession may lead to a hostage deal, the Prime Minister responded: “Philadelphi.”
Since the shock of the PM’s statement, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest the government’s position.
Netanyahu says that without control of Philadelphi then all the sacrifices made to date will have been in vain. If Israel does not control the Corridor – and, presumably, the smuggling tunnels running beneath the Corridor – then Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could move underground into Egypt and on to Iran, taking any surviving hostages with him.
One would have thought that if true then Philadelphi would have been the IDF’s initial and ongoing target. But it was not until May 20 that Israel took Philadelphi.
The country’s top military and intelligence professionals take a different position from Netanyahu. They say that a withdrawal is manageable. That if necessary Israel can re-assert military control over Philadelphi. But, most critically, they say that this could be the last opportunity to negotiate a deal for the hostages’ release. We are out of time. And they – and many Israelis – fear that the impact of failing to rescue the remaining hostages will be lethal….for the nation’s cohesion and fortitude, in every way.
So, on Saturday, August 31, the crowds on Israeli streets protesting for an immediate hostage release swelled to more than 500,000. In a country of 9-million. In the midst of this mass gathering, Hamas publicized on one of its Telegram channels the photographs of six hostages, saying that they were dead. After 11 months in captivity.
For almost 12 hours the nation waited for the IDF to confirm the worst case scenario. Hamas has put out misinformation in the past in order to maximize psychological trauma in Israel.
This time, tragically, the information was accurate.
The six hostages were buried on Sunday, September 1 and Monday, September 2. Since then, Israel has convulsed, without pause, from the devastating cruelty and loss. Many blame the Netanyahu government for their deaths and the horrific hostage drama that never ends.
Below is my column that ran on Saturday, September 8, 2024 in Canada’s National Post newspaper. I get into the issues outlined above in the column but from a slightly different angle.
Some general news for subscribers: We will not be dropping a weekly update podcast today due to the fact that it seems that everyone is travelling this week and schedules are just not aligning. Also – I put out a bonus podcast midweek with former IDF Spokesperson and State of Tel Aviv favorite, Jonathan Conricus, so I feel that we’ve been keeping the material coming.
This week we will put out Part II of the podcast series on the 47-minute film as well as some new material. And we are giving significant thought to how and what to address in these few weeks leading up to the anniversary we all dread. October 7. How can a year have passed when time has, in many ways, stood still?
Hamas terrorists pulled the triggers, at least six times at close range, ensuring that a bullet lodged in the head of each hostage.
Late Saturday afternoon, the bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Almog Sarusi and Alexander Lobanov were recovered by IDF soldiers in a tunnel 20 metres below ground in Rafah. Autopsies confirmed that they had been murdered between Thursday and Friday afternoon.
Each one was a civilian, captured violently by Hamas on October 7, 2023. They were starved, dehydrated, had chronic medical issues and suffered from untreated injuries, torture and a lack of air, light and hygiene.
We know that Hamas forced each hostage to record at least one short video that adhered to a formulaic script virtually identical to previous videos released by the terror group (a powerful tactic borrowed from ISIS): name, age, and where they lived, followed by expressions of love and longing for immediate family members. They then yelled at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failings of his leadership and the army to protect and rescue its citizens. Each hostage beseeches Israelis to continue to protest in the streets for their freedom. Their gaunt frames. Sunken eyes. Deathly pallor. Pull at every heartstring.
This is known as psy ops — or psychological warfare — in the world of security and intelligence. Hamas excels at it. Psy ops are intended to exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of the enemy. In this case, Hamas aimed directly at the beating heart of Israel and its unspoken covenant to ensure security for its citizens. Should there be a slip-up, it is understood that the nation will do everything possible to leave no one behind. To most Israelis, this means that in the current situation, redeeming the life of a hostage is an ultimate duty and value.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who speaks Hebrew fluently and studied the Israeli mindset assiduously when in prison for 22 years, understands the national DNA well.
Coerced or not, the hostages’ rage as reflected in the videos ricochets throughout Israel, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in protest of the government’s handling of the hostage crisis. Every night. Some have taken to calling Bibi “Mr. Abandonment,” saying he prioritizes his political survival over the rescue of hostages, violating a sacrosanct foundation of Israeli society.
It is unclear exactly when these videos were recorded. Gat, who says she is 39 years old in one clip, turned 40 on May 16. A safe assumption is that Sinwar and his deputies have accumulated a library of videos of each hostage to be deployed when they determine it will inflict maximum damage.
In the days before the murders, fury was already at a full boil throughout Israel following the leaking of a recording of a security cabinet meeting held on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 29. Things became very tense, with the Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, putting this ultimatum to Netanyahu: “If Sinwar presents you with the dilemma: Either you leave Philadelphi (Corridor) or you return the hostages, what do you do?”
The prime minister said he would choose Philadelphi. (Philadelphi is a strip of land running along the Gaza-Egypt border and through which Hamas smuggles most of its weapons.)
Tempers flared in the security cabinet room. (Outside, once leaked, this position inflamed the country. And this was before the public was informed of the murders.)
Also attending this meeting were certain key security and intelligence officials — heads of Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff — who, along with Gallant, agreed in July that Israel could manage a full withdrawal from Gaza for six weeks. For the last two months, publicly, they have been saying that this is the last chance to get the hostages out, alive. If taking advantage of that means relinquishing control of Philadelphi, they say, Israel can and must do so.
Netanyahu has since elaborated as to why he says “no.” If we withdraw and find it necessary to re-enter, we will face enormous international political pressure. There is more to this conundrum than military logistics. In fairness, there is considerable merit in what the prime minister says.
The problem is that more than 70 per cent of Israelis — who agree that Hamas must be destroyed as a military force — also think that Netanyahu should resign. His leadership is toxic and divisive. Most importantly, he led the country to the October 7 disaster. He has lost the confidence of too many.
In recent weeks, a number of Israeli security experts have asked: “If Philadelphi was so critical to Israel’s security, then why did we not begin the ground offensive there, rather than heading straight for Gaza City?”
Israel’s detractors and enemies understand well the agony pulsing through the country. They condemn all civilian casualties, but then go on to point out the numerical disparity. So many thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in this war, they say, and yet there is such lopsided anguish — for six hostages? Only six? What about the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in Israeli air strikes?
And there is only one response to them.
Where were you on October 7, as Hamas was torturing and slaughtering and kidnapping Israeli civilians? Were you dancing in the streets of Montreal? Mississauga? Paris?
Were you chanting, gleefully, for “Intifada, Revolution”? “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”? Did you organize and participate in demonstrations to “Free Palestine”?
Because, if so, then you have declared your support of actual genocide as personified and pursued by Hamas. In the Hamas Charter, which has undergone cosmetic tweaks since the group was established in 1988, what remains is a clear commitment to destroy Israel and murder all Jews. There is no ambiguity in their rhetoric and political stance. If anything, Hamas and its supporters have become bolder and increasingly intransigent.
And many in the West, for some reason, are besotted with this hateful, primitive ideology. Queers 4 Palestine seem oblivious to their fate under an Islamist regime like Hamas. As do so many “progressives.”
They excuse Hamas savagery — including rape — as “legitimate resistance” to the “settler colonial” aggression of Israel.
The moral rightness of war is not just measured in the number of civilian deaths. If that were so, we would be less than 100 years into the “thousand-year Reich” promised by Hitler in 1933.
The civilian toll in Israel and Gaza is dreadful. But the casualties arise from very different circumstances.
War sucks. Hamas should not have started one on October 7.
But Hamas’s grievance, as its supporters affirm, did not begin on October 7. It begins with the existence of the state of Israel and the defilement of the land by Jews. (Jews. Not Zionists. This is about Jews. The Hamas Charter confirms this point.) It will end once Israel is destroyed and replaced by Islamist rule.
Hamas doesn’t want a deal. Or peace. If it did, it would not have murdered the hostages. The tunnel in which their bodies were found was connected to a shaft leading to a child’s bedroom in a civilian home. Hamas has turned virtually every mosque, hospital, school and civilian building and home into part of the extensive tunnel network. The tunnels exist purely for military purposes. Civilians are denied shelter, even during air strikes. They are of greater value to Hamas leadership if they die and suffer.
Every single person on Canadian streets — in academic institutions, unions, governments — who pretends otherwise, is a Hamas supporter and accomplice to genocide.
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