Hamas is being allowed to literally get away with murder. Never has that been so apparent than in the heartbreak surrounding the cold-blooded execution of six Israeli hostages held for nearly 11 months in Hamas terror tunnels under Gaza.
On Saturday evening, the IDF announced the news that no Israelis wanted to hear: The bodies of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Ori Danino, 25; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alex Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40, had been found. Autopsies revealed that the six had been shot in the head some 48 to 72 hours before they were discovered by IDF troops operating in Rafah. The pain of the families and friends of the victims is unfathomable. I also feel for the soldiers who found the bodies – each one risking his life in the hope of safely bringing a live hostage out of Hamas hell.
It could have ended so differently. Just a few days before, the whole country celebrated the successful rescue of Qaid Farhan Alkadi, an Israeli Bedouin man who was among the 250 abducted during the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad mega-atrocity of October 7. It’s thought that Alkadi’s rescue was the trigger for the execution of the six by their Hamas captors, concerned that the IDF was closing in on them.
The world immediately went through the motions we know so well – expressions of condemnation and shock, followed by calls for “both sides” to act to end the hostilities and release prisoners. The moral equivalence is automatic.
In the US, many were particularly upset to hear of the murder of Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen. His awe-inspiring parents, Jon and Rachel, have, with immense dignity, ceaselessly campaigned for their son’s release. US President Joe Biden was “devastated and outraged,” and Vice President Kamala Harris strongly condemned “Hamas’s continued brutality.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “completely shocked at the horrific and senseless killing” and declared “a ceasefire deal must be agreed by all sides immediately to end the suffering.” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy used similar terminology. Nonetheless, within days Britain placed an embargo on some weapons sales to Israel. Israel, it seems, must be able to defend itself – but not attack its enemies.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese once again showed that her true colors come in shades of Hamas green when she declared on X: “Free the hostages, both Israeli and Palestinians.”
CNN came under fire for its headline declaring Polin-Goldberg had “died” as if being shot in the head in a terror tunnel more than 10 months after being abducted could be considered death by natural causes. A friend in New York, Eva Owen, wrote to her local TV network after she heard a reporter say that over 200 hostages “were taken into custody by Hamas on October 7.” It treats the victims as if they were suspects in a criminal investigation, the outraged Owen noted.
Kalman Liebeskind
Journalist Kalman Liebeskind on his Reshet Bet morning radio show asked a pertinent question which, sadly, seems to be rhetorical. Liebeskind wondered out loud how Hamas was not expected to pay a price for killing the hostages. At the very least, having six fewer captives should lower the price of what Israel is expected to pay in a prisoner release, he suggested. But apparently, the demands on Israel to make a deal at any price have not changed.
On the contrary, there is more pressure on Israel to make concessions. Hamas, in the meantime, has not even presented a list of the 101 remaining hostages – those dead and those still alive.
Goldberg-Polin’s American citizenship and Lobanov’s Russian citizenship afforded them no extra protection in life and no special status in death. Hamas murdered them with equal impunity.
The terrorist organization is not afraid of the response. The international community’s words come in place of action. The demands to provide ever more humanitarian aid to the terrorist regime and for Israel to facilitate this aid strengthen Hamas. It does not fear the international consequences of the murder of 1,200 people on October 7: the rape, mutilation, looting, and arson.
Hamas leaders are still comfortably hosted by Qatar, which at the same time pretends to be an honest broker in the ceasefire-hostage release negotiations. Egypt, another negotiator on behalf of Hamas, seems as keen as the Gazan terrorist regime to keep Israel away from the Philadelphi Corridor, on the border where a warren of sophisticated tunnels for decades have allowed Hamas to smuggle arms, funds, and possibly captives.
As Israelis mourned the murdered hostages, many people noted that at least three of the dead were on a priority list for release – Goldberg-Polin, whose arm was blown off during the initial attack; and the two women. Many felt that an agreement was just around the corner, perhaps days away. They forget that this is a deal with the devil. Hamas could have released them long ago, in November when a combination of talks and military pressure led to the release mainly of women and children in return for Palestinian terrorists. But then Hamas broke its word. Surprise, surprise.
Is there anyone with a heart who doesn’t worry about the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two redhead boys, Kfir, who turned one in captivity, and Ariel, who turned five? And what about their father? And the old, the infirm, the young women soldiers? Is there such a thing as a non-humanitarian case after spending more than 330 days of captivity? What guarantees are there that if some of the hostages were to be released in a deal, others – dead or alive – would be kept as bargaining chips in the future?
When Biden said, in response to a reporter’s question, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to bring about a deal, he really meant that Netanyahu is not giving in to the Hamas blackmail.
Israelis are angry. It’s a stage in the grieving process. But the anger is being misdirected and exploited. It is Iranian-backed Hamas that is holding the hostages, and Hamas – not Netanyahu – that can release them.
The tragedy is compounded by its politicization and exploitation. While Israelis cried, Hamas and its supporters celebrated an added success. The country appeared to be returning to the days before October 7 when it was torn apart by the government’s proposed judicial reform and the response to it. This week we saw the return of the mass protests – aimed as much at bringing the government down as bringing the hostages home at any price. The Histadrut (Israel’s labor federation) tried to paralyze the economy with a national wildcat strike. Who could benefit from the closure of the already barely functioning airport, the reduction in public transport, government offices, schools and kindergartens, and hospitals? Some wounded soldiers noted they were denied rehab treatment because of the strike.
After several hours, the National Labor Court ruled that the strike was illegal – something I had noted as soon as Histadrut head Arnon Bar-David announced his intention to bring the country to a halt. This was no act of sympathy and solidarity. It was a political act that served Hamas more than it served Netanyahu’s rivals.
And Hamas is not alone. Due to a mix of vigilance and luck, four massive car bomb and suicide attacks were thwarted within a week in places ranging from Tel Aviv to Gush Etzion. The hostage tragedy overshadowed the murder of three police officers, two men and a woman, in a patrol car on Sunday, victims of the rising terror wave in Judea and Samaria. The terrorist was a former member of the Palestinian Authority’s Presidential Guard. Meanwhile, hundreds of Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks continue from Lebanon on northern Israel.
The banners across Israel proclaiming “Yachad nenatze’ach” – together we will win – are becoming battered and torn after nearly a year. And that is exactly what Israel’s enemies want to see. The deaths of the hostages aren’t on Hamas’s conscience. It doesn’t have a conscience. It has a goal – written in its charter – to destroy Israel. It’s happy to see destruction resulting from terror attacks or through the domestic turmoil it deliberately foments.
Hamas killed the hostages, but it can’t force Israel to commit suicide. And the world risks being dragged down into those deep, dark terror tunnels if it doesn’t extend a helping hand to Israel in its fight against the terrorists and their Iranian sponsor.