As the Jewish year is drawing to its end, we still have two empty chairs in our sanctuary, draped with a tallit each, and we are still wearing blue ribbons to remind us of the plight of the hostages.Last fall, after Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing hundreds, and injuring many more, they also took about 250 people…men, women, and children…as hostages. Since then, a majority of the hostages have been released, but as I write this, on day 314, about 110 are still in captivity. No one knows how many of these are still alive.
For many weeks now, there have been suggestions that a deal to release all the remaining hostages, alive or otherwise, is in the works. In fact, there seems to be negotiations going on at this moment, though Hamas has withdrawn its representatives (perhaps because the new
head, Yawah Sinwar, has indicated that he’d be receptive to a hostage exchange) so the current negotiations are only about a cease-fire.
This is an interesting development. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that his goal in responding to the events of last October 7th, is to wipe out Hamas in Gaza; recently some of the more centrist members of his War Cabinet have left the coalition, because they disagree with the prime minister’s goal. Clearly some of them are sensitive to the concerns of the Israeli who are regularly demonstrating against the government, demanding some action to bring home the rest of the hostages.
And in view of the massive destruction of Gaza, and the number of victims who were “collateral damage” of that process, the war has brought Israel condemnation from friends as well as enemies. The number of hostages rescued by military operations is miniscule, compared to those released as a consequence of negotiations. So the Israeli public seems to have moved past a desire for revenge, and is focused on the humanitarian crisis of both the remaining hostages and the civilians in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in compliance with the Supreme Court’s order that ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the military, about 3000 of those men are now beginning to receive draft notices. It is not surprising that of the first 90 men who received these notices, only about a dozen showed up at the draft offices.
On these two issues alone, Mr. Netanyahu is in a vulnerable position; his insistence that Israel continue its attacks on Gaza, and his obligation to comply with the Supreme Court’s order, have cost him support of people on both sides of the Israeli political spectrum. Though he may not budge on the war, he is likely to want to appease his supporters in the ultraOrthodox community or lose a vital part of his governing coalition.
In times past, Jews have been kidnapped, often for financial reasons: the Jewish community has been forced to ransom those captives.
Raising money for a ransom was easier than coming to an agreement on the rational and responsible thing to do, in a complex situation such as now faces Israel.And the clock ticks toward the one-year anniversary of the attack that began this crisis.