The stomachache due to the hostage deal is enormous, and will continue to be nerve-wracking in the coming days. Yahya Sinwar, who was cultivated in our prison and released in the Shalit deal, knows us well. The weaknesses, the cracks, the emotions. Still, it's good that they made this deal. The children who were abandoned that Shabbat must return home, to Israel. Take them out of Lucifer's clutches.
This release of the hostages would not have been possible without military pressure. The fighting is beginning to bear results. The most striking proof of this is what was at the heart of the current negotiations: the terms of the ceasefire. The terrorists released from prison in Israel did not care Hamas as much as the length and terms of the ceasefire. The bone of contention was military - about the fighting - and not humane, about the identity of the prisoners.
The concept of Peace Now, who for years preached to us that a terrorist organization cannot be defeated by force but only through negotiations, has collapsed in this area as well. Therefore, the key question and test are what will happen in about ten days. After they finish plucking our nerves with another kidnapped person, after we get emotional and cry with every one who returns, after we repay the state's debt to at least some of the abductees.
In order for the war not to end like "another round", it will be necessary to continue at the same pace and with the same force. Because the goal is not only the abductees, but the toppling of the Hamas regime. If content and meaning are poured into this vague goal, then toppling Hamas only in the Gaza Strip is pointless if the other arms in Judea and Samaria and around the world are not eliminated. It is also pointless if our neighbors are not denazified, as they did in the 40s. The goal is to rebuild the settlements in the envelope, which will return only if the enemy is eradicated. The goal is not paracetamol, but root canal treatment, because the voice of our brothers and sisters cries out to us from the land on which they were murdered.
The test will also be that of the police and the State Prosecutor's Office – certainly now, when hundreds of minor terrorists will be released to the streets of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. It is clear that from the beginning of the war the police understood the magnitude of the hour. It acts decisively and quickly against any manifestation of incitement and budding terrorism. But is the state attorney prepared to continue the zero-tolerance policy for terrorism? Not sure.
About a week ago, the deputy state prosecutor ordered the police not to interrogate an Arab doctor who works at Barzilai Hospital after he expressed support for the Hamas massacres. The terror-supporting doctor will continue to receive our wounded from Gaza, under the State Attorney's kosher certificate.
We must not return to our tradition, we must not return to the State of Israel before October 7. We must not return to inclusion, to freedom of false expression, to intolerable tolerance in the face of acts of terror.
Toppling Hamas only in the Gaza Strip is pointless if the other arms in Judea and Samaria and around the world are not eliminated. It is also pointless if our neighbors are not denazified, as they did in the 40s
Another test is against Qatar, the devil who wears velvet. Those who speak politely and fuel an industry of murder and murder propaganda. Smiling with a kind of polished Middle Eastern dignity, and stabbing in the back. This is a great test, because Israel does not want to confront Qatar, and never did. It relied on the suitcases of Qatari money that fed Hamas terror for years, and now it relies on it, perhaps with no choice, on the issue of the abductees.
Here, too, there is room for political pressure. Yigal Carmon of the Mamri Institute has proposed a road map, and it is worth listening to. An appeal to the parliaments of each country, the declaration of Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism, an appeal by friendly countries to the International Criminal Court, an economic boycott of Qatari cross-ocean businesses, and more. The leverage on Hamas is not enough, the leverage on Qatar is necessary. The ledger must be open and the hand must write down everything, including the closure of Al Jazeera in Israel and Judea and Samaria at six after the war. We must not forget and must not be drugged in false silence.
The main thing: don't stop fighting. Because when you fight, you let go and win, even if it's just another achievement along the way. Just don't go back to the concept of silence.
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