A few days after Oct. 7, the main objective of the war—the release of the hostages—became unattainable. The hostages had been squirreled away so that they could never be located by friendly forces, let alone rescued. So by our own definition, we lost the war a few days after it broke out. The other stated objective—crushing Hamas—has not been attained either after a year and a half of fighting. So it becomes worse. In a real sense, this war was lost before it even began.
Hamas will never willingly give up all of the hostages, because that is their only leverage and thus their only guarantee of survival. Any idiot understands that. So what is left? I amongst others referenced Sophie’s Choice, accenting the psychological torture of having to chose who gets released. We might as well have referenced the Kastner train, the last train out of Hungary before the final curtain went down. Kastner, a Jew, negotiated directly with the Nazis and chose who would be on that train. Family of course, and other assorted friends and acquaintances.
Tough luck for those left behind. That is the message being given to the “unchosen ones” and their families. Tough luck. This is a moral outrage. Israel should never agree to any deal that does not include every hostage. That we have in this case, will come back to haunt us. Israel is not morally resolute. This is a great shame and a hilul HaShem (desecration of God’s Name).
Many thousands of American citizens and POWs were in Japanese prison camps during WW2, yet the main foreign policy goal was not to secure the release of the hostages. It was to defeat imperial Japan. American citizens were suffering and dying in terrible conditions in Japanese camps but, again, the goal was to defeat Japan. When that was accomplished, and only then, the surviving American prisoners were released.
It has been estimated that as many as 13,000 Union soldiers died in Andersonville, the notorious Confederate prison camp. The survivors were freed when the Confederacy was beaten and surrendered.
Israel's first and primary goal should have been to destroy Hamas with as much speed as possible. International complications made that difficult, I have no idea how much more could have been accomplished with a stronger and more determined Israeli leadership.
Allowing Hamas to remain will cause more suffering and more death in the long run, not less. Unless, of course, the terms of the current agreement are broken.
Hamas is evil. Pure evil.