At the intersection of Aza and Ha’ari Streets in Jerusalem, just meters from the Prime Minister’s Residence, there are newly posted signs in Hebrew that say “Ad hanitzachon!” (“Until victory!”) with a picture of one of the remaining hostages on each panel, each of which carries the identical Hebrew text.
A wonderful slogan, to be sure, advertising to everyone who passes, including the prime minister, of course, that we are prepared to continue fighting until we are victorious.
Nevertheless, the problem we all face is that there simply is neither a clear definition of what “victory” is nor any sense of how we will know when and if we are victorious. Even within the convoluted vocabulary of diplomacy, there should be some way to tell if we are victorious, or is the goal here so viscous that we will simply never know?
We hear from the political leadership here in Israel, via the prime minister himself, that we will not stop fighting until we have eliminated Hamas and brought all 59 remaining hostages back home, both those who are still alive and those who, sadly, will come back in coffins. But shouldn’t we be asking the leadership if both of these goals are simultaneously achievable and not mutually exclusive?
On the one hand, logic would dictate that if we really want to be fully victorious in Gaza and completely eliminate Hamas and its capability to wage war, we would need to pull out all the “stops,” as it were, and mount the biggest assault we could muster against Hamas and, by association, the population of Gaza as well.
Discounting what the reaction of the world would be if we did this, doing so would seemingly eliminate any possibility of bringing back the hostages or even finding them at all after “victory.”
However, that scenario, while perhaps attractive to the hawks in our society, goes fully against our value system. We do not abandon our brethren, we do not sacrifice them for the good and welfare of others, and we do not countenance admitting that we cannot rescue Israelis at risk wherever they may be located.
As for the second objective – to bring the remaining 59 hostages home – here again, logic tells us that this would be most easily achieved by stopping the war on the condition that Hamas return all 59 immediately.
After all, if we are committed to not leaving anyone behind, something we have repeatedly said many times over the last 18 months, we should ask ourselves, ‘Why not stop the war now, withdraw our troops, and bring the hostages home?’ Most likely, the enemy would agree to that.
I think some serious questions need to be asked. For example, living in Jerusalem, I regularly hear the flights of the Israel Air Force on their way to carry out yet another round of Gaza bombings.
But how much is left to bomb? How many more aerial raids does the government believe will get the enemy to surrender and return the hostages? Does anyone in the leadership really believe there is a specific number that will answer that question? Or do we just continue bombing in the vain hope that, eventually, the enemy will cave and surrender?
Yet why would they do that? At this point in time, they have nothing to lose by resisting and still have something to gain by using the leverage of the hostages.
So, where does that leave us? Logic rules and, once again, gives us a clear message. We can either continue military action until we kill every last member of Hamas (not even a real possibility, of course) or admit that we cannot realistically achieve both full victory and the return of the hostages.
Given this, one can only conclude that it would be best to acknowledge that we did our best in the last 18 months to (a) massively reduce Hamas’s fighting strength, (b) simultaneously do a number on Hezbollah and Iran as well, (c) contributed to the downfall of the Assad government in Syria while (d) bringing back 80% of the hostages.
Perhaps we should offer a deal to Hamas to bring the hostages home
Believing that there is little more to accomplish by continuing military activities in Gaza, perhaps we should offer a deal to Hamas, an end to the war and withdrawal of our troops in return for the release of the remaining hostages but with no further release of Palestinian prisoners in our jails. Frankly, we have done enough of that already.
We here in Israel need to begin to rebuild our society to face the new threats of a world in chaos. Our enemies will never go away – no doubt we will probably have to fight yet again – but it would appear there is little reason to continue this war, and we must bring our hostages home.
In the last 18 months, almost 2,500 people have lost their lives, either in the massacre of October 7 or in defense of our country. Thousands and thousands of our citizens were made into widows, widowers, orphans, parents in mourning, or other members of families whose seder table this year had one or more empty chairs.
We can best honor their memories by growing Israel to new heights in line with our sacred obligation to make sure that their sacrifice was not in vain and that the country for which they gave their last full measure of devotion survives and thrives.
The last book of the Torah, Moses’s exhortation to our ancestors as they were about to cross the Jordan River and enter Israel (Deuteronomy 30:19), states: “Today, I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now, I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live!”
May we be guided to make the right choice.
The writer is the founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.
Jesus Christ is King
