Andrew L. Urban
If it weren’t for the hostages in Gaza, all the Hamas goons would be dead. Instead, huddled and terrified, or digging their own grave, the hostages are life insurance for the terrorists. It was an act of evil genius to kidnap 250 Israelis who they didn’t massacre on October 7, 2023. That number was enough to trade for Palestinian terrorists and other criminal held by Israel and still have enough prisoners to use as human shields and as the ultimate life-saving chips.
Unlike Palestinians, and in total contrast to Hamas and other Arab terrorists (eg suicide bombers), Israel has always held dear the sanctity of life. That moral strength is also a weak spot, an exploitable humanity that can be manipulated for evil purposes.
It seems that this major constraint to relieving Israel’s agony is ignored by many critics around the world who call for restraint by Israel … not first for human decency. Family and friends of the hostages also agitate and demand that the release of the hostages be a priority for their government. Well, it obviously is. How would they suggest such an outcome be safely achieved other than by trying to eradicate the captors? And how to eradicate the captors without endangering the hostages? That’s the evil genius.
As the late former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir once noted, “We can forgive [the Arabs] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [the Arabs] when they love their children more than they hate us…” This is crucial to an understanding of the mind set of Palestinian Arabs. It isn’t anything like that of those in western democracies.
If it weren’t a risk to the lives of those held by Hamas, Israel could find a way to flood the tunnels. Or create fires. Or seal up all tunnel entrances, and fumigate them with poison gas … that would be grand historic irony, huh?
Given no safe alternatives, Israel has to fight with its hands tied behind its back. Like the father of kidnapped daughters, he faces the agony of knowing that his – and the police’s – options are limited.
Hamas has succeeded in turning much of the world against Israel – an achievement that will go down in history as the most shameful failure of western morals. It even earned the betrayal of Israel, a long time friend, as Australia announced that in the UN next month it will recognise a state for Palestinians. What, like Gaza?
Given that’s where we are, the situation calls for desperate measures by Israel. Capturing their senior Iranian benefactors to hold them hostage for the safety of the Hamas-held Israelis would be perhaps one way to achieve freedom for the hostages … perhaps. Perhaps like in ancient civilizations. In ancient Greece and Rome, hostages, often high-ranking individuals, were exchanged to ensure treaties or alliances were honoured.
The 1979 International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages and the Geneva Conventions explicitly ban hostage-taking, classifying it as a war crime. But enforcement is always challenging, especially with sadistic non-state actors for whom war crimes are second nature.
Hamas has inflicted great propaganda damage on Israel but it has simultaneously created an eternal bloody stain on Palestinians in general and on Hamas in particular. It will never be forgotten or forgiven.