The news flickered on Channel 12 News on Monday night: the release of 70-50 abductees against Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel, and a five-day lull in the fighting. In response, the SOS call to Benjamin Netanyahu is presented: Answer Hamas with a greater "no." Nothing to talk about.
True, it is difficult to adhere to such a response. "No" is especially difficult for you, since most of the public sees you solely responsible for the concept (the army bears great responsibility for the failure – but you are the only issue that caused the failure, when you filled Hamas' coffers with $30 million a month, and trampled on the Palestinian Authority to ensure that during your tenure there would be no negotiations between the leaderships of the two peoples).
If it agrees to release only 70 or 100, leaving Hamas with 130, the negotiations will become a nightmare, perhaps even a cry for generations. The price Israel will now pay for the release of 70 will be only the low threshold for determining the freedom allowance of their successors.
If these 70 or 100 are citizens of other countries, and their governments manage to release them, please, willingly, but without Israeli involvement. Because it is fundamentally and morally forbidden to distinguish between blood and blood. Therefore, if you want to advance the release of the hostages to the main goal of overthrowing the Hamas regime – a controversial outline – persist until the end. That is, pay Hamas the full unbearable price immediately, and release all the abductees from its jaws.
It's perfectly understandable what's bothering you. At the time, the public urged you to pay Hamas a terrible price in blood for releasing despicable murderers (including Yahya Sinwar) in exchange for Gilad Shalit. But a moment after the photo of the smiles on his return from captivity, the public sword turned on your head, and many began to condemn you for the excessive payment.
This time, the public assault on you will be even more severe. Because at the time, no one was left captive by Hamas after Shalit's release, while this time most of the abductees will remain in its hands. The price of the two stages of release will be higher than the end of the dark deal in one gear, whatever the price you agree to pay to the terrorist organization.
It is worth freeing ourselves from illusions: releasing the abductees using the salami method – piece by piece and slice by slice – will cancel Israel's striving to overthrow Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. Five days of respite will turn into seven, and eight into nine, and even the Golani soldiers who were photographed to the pride of all the people of Israel in the Hamas parliament will no longer be reluctant to return to battle.
Even if Hamas is expelled from the regional capital, it will continue to act like a government in exile from Khan Yunis or Rafah. He will remain weakened, and it is possible that for a few years he will not be able to harass the residents of Sderot and Kfar Gaza, Netivot and Be'eri - but the "trade name" will continue to fly over the Gaza Strip, and Sinwar will participate as an official representative in conferences in Iran, Russia and China, and the situation will resemble a malignant tumor that has shrunk but has not been uprooted.
If you want to advance the release of the abductees to the main goal of overthrowing the Hamas regime – a controversial outline – persist until the end. In other words, pay Hamas the full unbearable price immediately, and release all the abductees from its jaws
In an article published about a week ago in Yedioth Ahronoth, Nachum Barnea mentioned that when the American army lost its superiority in Vietnam, it began to publish with jubilation the number of Viet Cong casualties. I, too, am concerned about the tendency to announce that 20 terrorists were killed in the hospital and another ten in the tunnel.
Of course, every Israeli is very pleased to know that terrorists have been killed. He will be more and more pleased if he hears that 239 abductees have been released and returned to Israel. But these desirable results are no substitute for the main thing: the test was and will remain the toppling of the de-facto Hamas administration throughout the Gaza Strip and the placement of a legitimate Palestinian administration under it.
The preferred administration is the Palestinian Authority. Abbas failed at the Camp David summit with Ehud Barak and in his contacts with Ehud Olmert, nor is he fully fulfilling his commitment to security cooperation with Israel to prevent terrorism. But it partially complies with it, and is the best alternative Israel has after withholding its weapons.
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