Israel’s most urgent task is to bring back the Israelis held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. This means one thing only – moving forward immediately on a prisoner exchange, including a willingness to free Palestinians jailed in Israel.
But the
lethal counterattack Israel launched against Hamas in Gaza, coupled with what is being said by members of the government, indicate that bringing back those Israelis doesn’t top its priorities. Even worse, the government seems to have decided to apply the so-called Hannibal Protocol, which allows risking abductees’ lives, to the 150 captive and missing Israelis. In an interview with CNN, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said that concern for the hostages’ situation is “not going to stop us, prevent us from doing what we need to do in order to secure the future of Israel.” Yossi Shelley, director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, similarly said that “the hostages are a fact. And the attacks are a fact. That’s the decision.” And Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich advocated at the cabinet meeting for Israel to “strike Hamas brutally, and not take the issue of the captives into account too much.”
The government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must not try to save Israel’s battered national honor, and that of the army, on the backs of
helpless babies, children, teenagers, elderly people and parents, or on the backs of their families here in Israel, who are going crazy with worry and pain. No government, and certainly not the most reckless government in Israel’s history, has the right to traffic in the lives of innocent civilians and decide to sacrifice them on the altar of national pride. We must pay whatever is demanded, with no delays, no fancy maneuvering and no tricks.
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