Israelis and the US administration have lost their minds and are doing the bidding of a horrific terror organization.
When students and leftist citizens marched at universities and through the streets of many major Western cities in support of Hamas, I had thought that the world had gone mad. Pampered students and armchair lefties demanded “intifada revolution” and a non-existent Palestine “from the river to the sea.” Each statement implied the mass murder of Israelis and more generally Jews. It would be no less than people in the south demanding Alabama be cleansed of black people and the land between the Mississippi and the Atlantic be violently freed of blacks. Nobody would tolerate such racism, but demanding that Jews be killed so as to make way for an Arab-only terror state was OK. And those calls and banners have had physical consequences from Jews being beaten or chased from campus to actual threats on the lives of Jews in what was once the most tolerant country in the world.
But the student/lefty Hamas lovefest has now been eclipsed. Shortly after the 10/7 attack, Israelis on the left dropped their anti-judicial reform protests and switched them into anti-war events. No matter what happened on the ground in Gaza or up north against Hezbollah, Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and his government were the bad guys. The paid protesters came every Saturday night with new catchy shout-outs and made sure that some of their banners were in English for the foreign press to beam around the world. “Bibi, you are guilty!” “Bibi, the hostages’ blood is on your hands!” “Bibi, you are the reason 10/7 happened!” And on and on. As I pointed out in a previous post, demanding “Bring them home” puts the onus on the government, whereas saying, “Let them go!” is directed at the kidnappers, namely Hamas.
What happened on Monday in Israel took the whole pro-Hamas movement in Israel and the US to another level. The Histradut, the formerly powerful labor union that could cripple the country with a general strike, declared a national strike because the government had not brought home the hostages. The immediate driver for the strike was obviously the tragic and painful discovery of six hostages who after 330 days in brutal captivity were murdered in cold blood just days before the IDF reached their position. The death of these six young people was taken very hard in Israel. But beyond the grief and sadness, it was used to whip the people into an anti-government frenzy that led to the shutting down of the only major airport, the buses, banks, hospitals and businesses. The Histradut limited the strike to Monday and seven US-bound flights somehow received special dispensations to leave the country. But overall, the country was shut down. Our street was quiet like it was Yom Kippur.
And with the strike, the entire country is now in the unpaid employ of Hamas. They refuse to believe that Netanyahu and his government might actually be doing the right thing in not giving the terror group everything it wants in releasing terrorists and abandoning the Philadelphi Corridor for continued weapons running into the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu was forced to give an hour-long press conference with graphics to show the potential dire consequences of returning the Rafah crossings to Hamas. He had to “dance between the rain drops” as he has been the sitting prime minister during most of the years of endless gun-running into Gaza. So, on the one hand he said that he had opposed giving the crossings when Israel left Gaza in 2005 and that three previous mini-wars were directed at the weapons traffic there, but on the other hand, he has been in charge during all of the years when Hamas armed. He made it clear that the Philadelphi Corridor cannot be given back to Hamas, come what may.
Joe Biden, between vacations and licks of ice cream, saw a noisy percentage of the Israelis going against Bibi and concluded that he would join them. His advisors know that the return of key locations to Hamas will allow its rearmament and declaration of victory in the Middle East. They know that what Bibi is demanding is in Israel's best interests. But they don’t care. They want a deal done, even if the deal guarantees a Hamas victory and future dangers for Israel. Once weapons begin to flow again into Gaza, the terms of any deal will make it impossible for Israel to act. Israelis will simply wait for the next salvos of missiles to arrive and kill civilians. Instead of saying unequivocally that Hamas is the obstacle to an agreement, Biden pinned the failure on Bibi, claiming that he is not doing enough. Call it chutzpah.
The protesters in the West and those marching in the streets of Tel Aviv would have been smarter to direct their anger and hatred towards Hamas. Hamas started the war, Hamas murdered and tortured civilians in ways that the Nazis had not even thought of. Hamas took soldiers and citizens into captivity and as we saw this week, murdered some of them through execution. Hamas is a cancer on society that needs to be excised. Instead, Israeli citizens and the US administration have thrown their lot with Hamas and do its bidding in demanding that Bibi make any deal, no matter how bad it is. What Hamas negotiators in Doha and Cairo could not do, the Israelis themselves and their friends in Washington are trying to do for them: get a bad deal for Israel that will let Hamas live for another day and rearm. Bibi pointed out that once the IDF leaves Gaza, there will be no way it can go back. International pressure and logistics of a rearmed enemy make the argument that they can go back in if they need to do so moot.
It is painful to see hostages murdered so close to their release. It is painful to see the suffering families and try to imagine what their loved ones are going through every day in the hell-on-Earth that is Gaza. But even with all of the suffering, one still needs to keep his head clear. Getting a few dozen hostages back at the price of a rejuvenated Hamas and the future death of hundreds of Israelis at their hands is a wrong approach. While the strike meant fewer buses and cars on our street, the Histradut and White House would be well served to remember that they should be on Israel’s side, even if it is painful, even if the hostages are not brought home. Victory is for generations, and keeping certain parts of Gaza in IDF hands for the immediate future must be part of that victory. When the Palestinians really want peace, they can have the crossings back. Until then, woe to those who want to help Hamas rearm in exchange for freed hostages. They may save two dozen people while condemning another two thousand to die.