Israel at War—The Hostage Deal, Consequences

The leftist supporters of the anti-Israel/anit-Semitic movement are guilty of fantasy thinking 24-7. Like all leftists, they construct a world—history, facts, statistics, and opinion—that doesn't exist but supports their fantasy narratives. They gladly embrace blatant lies when those lies serve their narratives, and enthusiastically construct new lies that will serve their needs going forward. The reality of the Left is fantasy.

But all of us, including yours truly, are guilty of fantasy thinking every so often. For me, it sometimes happens when I see what I think are bad decisions that are made with good intentions. I hope against hope that I'm wrong in my assessment of the decisions, and that things will work out in the end. But deep down, I know the decision is the wrong one, even if it was made for the right reasons.

That's what happened when Israel agreed to the terms of the on-going release of kidnapped men, women, children and seniors by the Hamas terrorists. Those same barbarians abducted 240+ souls, and murdered, raped, and mutiated over 1200 more Israelis. 

I knew Israeli officials agreed to terms that wholly favored Hamas for the right reasons—to get some of the abducted people home. But by every logical measure, I recognized that by agreeing to those terms, Israel put itself at a tactical and strategic disadvantage that could, if not carefully navigated, lead to a disastrous outcome in which Hamas survives and prospers, the palestinians in Gaza remain a parasitic blight on the region, and israel gains absolutely nothing but the global opproprium that always occurs when the tiny democratic state responds to terrorist attacks.

Alex Berenson contends that agreeing to the terms of the hostage release is a grave mistake on the part of Israeli leadership:

It is impossible to overstate how bad this deal is. The ceasefire - whether it lasts four days, 11, or much longer - is a disaster for Israel on every level.

Symbolically: By agreeing to a hostages-for-prisoners swap, Israel has implicitly agreed the Palestinian criminals in its prisons are no different than the civilians that Hamas’s terrorists grabbed from their beds and homes on Oct. 7.

Militarily/Tactically: The pause gives Hamas’s fighters a chance to rest after weeks of bombardment, rebuild their defenses, and rearm.

Worse, Israel has lost the chance to force the action. Hamas decides whether to keep the ceasefire in place by releasing more hostages; Israel has no choice in the matter.

Militarily/Strategically: By agreeing to a ceasefire only weeks only beginning a bloody invasion, Israel enables its critics to question if the invasion was necessary at all - especially because it has failed to capture any senior Hamas commanders and killed only one, the commander of the group’s “Northern Gaza Brigade.” Even the most fervent Israeli partisan cannot justify killing thousands of civilians to take out the equivalent of one mid-level general.

Morally: Most importantly, Israel has squandered what is left of the world’s sympathy for it. It should have told Hamas that the taking of hostages was a war crime and it would never agree to a ceasefire as long as Hamas held them. It should have drawn that line and stuck to it. It should have repeated over and over: As long as Hamas holds hostages, Israel views all of Gaza as a legitimate military target.

Now Israel has lost that moral clarity. 

As much as it pains me to say so, I have to agree.

Sure, the relatives of the released hostages win in this arrangement, and that's wonderful for the individual families that are involved. Sure, the criminal scum that Israel was forced to release just adds a few more death cult members to a palestinian population that is loaded with them—no big deal. 

But Israel as a whole loses.  

No one who is anti-Israel will give the Israelis credit for any cessation in violence including the leftist elites who lead many countries and all of the main stream media. No one who is anti-Israel will recognize that the deal gives new power to an Islamist death cult, No one will make any demands of Hamas—only Israel.

I hope in the end this works out in a way that allows good to triumph over evil. But I fear that's nothing more than fantasy thinking.

UPDATE-1:

The Biggest Lie becomes even bigger. Rabbi Michael Barclay comments on the reason that palestinian "civilians" (who the lie goes, "hate" Hamas) are returning to the War Zone during the 4-day truce:

From the moment the ceasefire started, hours before the hostages were exchanged, Hamas revealed its real goal of this ceasefire time if we only look at their actions. It is a setup to increase demonstrations for Gazan “civilians” after Israel recommences the war.

Thousands of Gazan “civilians” are moving frim the safety of the south back to the battlefield of the north, including women and children. On Thursday night, Hamas urged that all “civilians” who support them go back to the north. Why would they do this? Why would any family consciously put themselves back in harm’s way when they could stay safely in the south?

It is because they are not “innocent civilians” at all. They are simply Hamas terrorists and supporters without physical weapons. These “civilians” are not forced human shields being abused by Hamas, they are willing and active cogs in the Hamas war effort, willing to die for their cause of destroying Israel and repeating the horrors of October 7, which they celebrated in the streets of Gaza at that time. They are unarmed soldiers whose only goal is to protect Hamas against Israel when the war is restarted in a few days. These “innocents” are anything but innocent, and are returning to the north with the intent of stopping Israel from destroying Hamas bases, tunnels, and weapons.

These thousands of unarmed soldiers are not being forced to be human shields. They are returning to the north so that they can become martyrs. They hope to die for their cause, and in so doing, create more images of “innocents” dying to negatively affect world opinion of Israel. They are hoping that their presence as “civilians” will protect Hamas bases from Israeli attacks; that it will lead to more IDF deaths, God forbid, and that if they die, they will have sacrificed themselves as brave soldiers for Hamas in the effort to get the world to allow Hamas to survive this war.

As depraved as Hamas’ acts on October 7 were, the acts of these unarmed soldiers betray an equally sick and twisted psychology.  

Thousands of Gazans are consciously putting their own children in harm’s way with one intent: to protect Hamas with their children’s lives. These are not innocent civilians; they are the very worst and most dangerous type of soldiers: soldiers with a death wish. Not just for themselves, but for their children.

Canon fodder and Martyrdom—Islam at its most perverse.

UPDATE-2:

The editors of The Wall Street Journal comment:

... Hamas is using the hostages to play on Western respect for human life. Hamas knows its strategy is dividing Israeli opinion between those who prioritize the release of the hostages and those who want Hamas defeated so it can never again slaughter 1,200 people.

Hamas is also manipulating the world, including the Biden Administration. President Biden said Sunday he hopes the initial four-day military truce can be extended so more hostages will be released. That includes the unknown number of Americans held in who-knows-what condition underground. Hamas released the first U.S. hostage on Sunday, a 4-year-old American-Israeli girl, Abigail Edan, whose parents were murdered in front of her.

But every day the truce lasts the more time the jihadists have to regroup, slip out of Gaza, rearm, or plan more ambushes against Israelis. And the longer it lasts the more odds increase of an extended cease-fire, which is what Hamas really wants. The onus will fall on Israel to end the truce, though Hamas is unlikely ever to release all hostages, who are its only source of leverage.

This is a terrible choice that Hamas doesn’t have to make because it considers civilians, including Palestinians, to be expendable weapons of war. That’s why it hides in hospitals, schools and mosques—and kidnaps women and children to serve its murderous ends.

In a way, this is similar to Sophie's Choice. No matter what decision is made going forward, Israel loses. But the world has already decided (predictably and wrongly) that Israel is the villain in this story. Maybe it's time for the Israelis to play the part—publicly demand that Hamas release ALL the hostages within 24 hours, since keeping them is a international war crime. Start the clock the minute the demand is made. When they refuse (and they will), end the truce ...

... drop a million warning leaflets, use social media to warn palestinian "civilians" to leave once again now that they've cynically returned to the war zone, wait another 12 hours, and then ...

... finish Hamas with prejudice.