The government’s expected approval last night of the deal to release dozens of hostages from Hamas captivity in return for a temporary ceasefire, a significant supply of fuel, and the release of female and minor-aged terrorists from Israeli prisons shows what makes Israel special, yet also very vulnerable.
This is a quintessential Israeli moment: placing responsibility for its citizens above everything else, even at the risk of endangering other citizens – soldiers and civilians – somewhere down the road.
It is this feeling of mutual responsibility that makes Israel different. It is doubtful that many other countries would agree to halt a raging war, giving the enemy a much-needed respite to regroup, in order to release a few dozen hostages.
But this is what sets Israel apart. This sense of mutual responsibility is part of the Zionist ethos – that no Jew is left alone, that Israel will go literally to the ends of the Earth to rescue Israelis and other Jews in distress.
This is a fundamental building block of Israeli solidarity. And solidarity is critical for the resilience and unity in a crisis that allows the country to flourish and thrive.
As National Unity Party Minister Benny Gantz said, the return of the hostages “is a moral imperative and part of the resilience that enables us to win wars.”
But there is more to it than that.
We are a small nation, and everyone can identify with the families of those whose relatives are languishing in Hamas captivity.
Israelis see their own relatives in posters of hostages
While in certain corners of the globe, sick people are tearing down posters with pictures of those kidnapped, Israelis see the faces on those posters of babies, children, soldiers, mothers, fathers, and grandparents and see their own relatives. They see those faces and whisper to themselves, “There, but for the grace of God, go my kin.”
As such, they ask themselves, were it my son or daughter, my mother or father, my grandmother or grandfather being held by the Hamas monsters, would I not go to any lengths, be willing to pay any price, for their release? We identify with the victims, and, as such, are willing to take considerable risks.
Israel released 1,027 security prisoners, including 280 terrorists serving life sentences, for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011. Their number included those who organized, planned, and took part in the October 7 massacre. Then, too, the country closely identified with the Shalit family during his five years of captivity, seeing him as their own son and willing to pay an exorbitant price for his release.
The argument then, as now, is you can’t sacrifice a life because of a concern for what will be. When what will be, comes, then you will deal with it. Which, by the way, is exactly what we are doing now.
It was clear from the very beginning of this war that if there was a possibility for a deal to release the hostages, Israel would take it. Israelis could never bear the thought of simply giving up on 240 people in Hamas’s hands.
Hamas, obviously, knows this. They also surely thought that they could get much more than they are now getting for the hostages. If they got 1,027 terrorists for Shalit, what might they not get for a 10-month-old baby? That they were not able to get a higher price is a direct result of Israel’s military assault on Gaza.
Hamas is in trouble. More than it needs the release of its security prisoners from Israeli jails, it needs a ceasefire. It needs to regroup, to refuel. It needs to stop the IDF’s slow but relentless destruction of its capabilities. It hopes that the world will step in and lengthen this ceasefire.
There is a risk that when the fighting resumes after the ceasefire, Israel will lose more soldiers as a result of Hamas having been able to regroup. There is a risk that the world will, indeed, step in and not allow Israel to continue its offensive. But, with the lives of babies and children and mothers hanging in the balance, it is a risk that the country is willing to take.
It’s part of what makes Israel, Israel.
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