The Hostage Debate !

The hostage debate remains controversial in Israel while being politicised since October 7 2023. Hamas has recently suggested a five-year ceasefire for the return of all remaining hostages and the complete withdrawal of IDF personnel from Gaza. How serious was this proposal? Given Hamas’ history on hostage release, it’s dubious that any concrete result could have been achieved.

In fact, there was no chance of this proposal being accepted, not the faintest chance, and no one knew it better than Hamas when it made the offer. Israel was justified in rejecting the offer outright.

However, the government remains between a rock and a hard place in dealing with the hostage situation being held to ransom by Hamas, public opinion, certain sections of the media and understandably the families of the October 7 hostages. The government needs to present the plain truth to the country, and if the people disagree with the realities as presented, they can have their electoral remedy next October 2026.

It is no kindness to Israel to pay lip service in the region of unrealities, and get a false consensus by not offending anyone, and then, meanwhile, do the opposite and proceed to ostracise a significant % of the country. The main reason why these latest proposals had no chance of being accepted would have been their effect on Israel’s future security and that of its people, putting thousands of Jews at risk of being murdered and kidnapped in the future. If parts of the country insist on an agenda which has no connection to reality, Israel will find itself in deep trouble. The people must reject the smoothing-syrup for the good that the political Left dishes out while it exchanges winks between the political opportunists who know exactly what’s going on. Israel should be angry with the people who deceive them by employing false hope instead of turning against those who tell them the blunt truth, because unless the people know the truth, one day they are going to have a very rude awakening.