Hostage deal divides Israel as first captives return home – opinion

Yesterday, 471 days after they were abducted by Hamas, three civilian women – Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher – were released. They are the first of the 33 hostages to be handed over to Israel, dead or alive, in the next 41 days of the first stage of the agreement signed by Israel and Hamas.

Hopefully, the three-stage hostage agreement will be fulfilled in its entirety and in a timely manner. Yes, the price Israel is being called upon to pay, in terms of a complete termination of all military operations and the release of hundreds of heinous Palestinian terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands, is problematic and the cause of resentment throughout Israel. 

But also, the hostages, who at long last are being released, will be in much worse physical and mental condition than those who returned home 14 months ago, and if heaven forbid, their return is further delayed, their condition will be much worse, while many more are liable to die in captivity.

For people like myself (and I believe we are still a majority in this country), the Jewish principle of redeeming captives instills confidence that our state will do everything feasible to get us back home safely from various hazards abroad.

This principle applies should any harm come our way when we are abroad – due to reasonable or unreasonable risks we have taken, accidents, natural disasters, local violence in the locations we may visit, or hostile acts carried out against us for national, antisemitic, or straightforward criminal reasons. 

Embedded in our ethos 

This has been a part of our national ethos since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. For most of us, ensuring that those abducted from Israeli territory – whether dead or alive, particularly because the state failed to fulfill its duty of protecting them – there is no question that the principle of “redemption of captives” applies even more vigorously.

Unfortunately, there are groups within the country that reject this ethos, both for political reasons and for what seem to be concocted “religious” reasons. I view the rejection of the hostage deal because of possible harsh consequences, or the various distant messianic hopes to which events following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, gave rise – as no less sacrilegious.

THIS ISSUE is very present in our current reality because two members of Netanyahu’s coalition are among those who object to the hostage deal for such reasons: Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party. Paradoxically, I have greater difficulty accepting Smotrich’s position than that of Ben-Gvir. 

Both have stated that the deal is “reckless” (Ben-Gvir) or “bad and dangerous” (Smotrich), and both are willing to put off or obstruct the return of the hostages to prevent what they consider to be negative consequences of the deal. What both are indirectly telling the families of the hostages is that there are values more important than the lives of their dear ones, that supersede the redemption of captives.

I consider Smotrich’s position to be morally worse than that of Ben-Gvir’s. At least Ben-Gvir felt strongly enough about the issue to resign from the government immediately upon its approval of the deal on Friday night (as he said he would do).

Smotrich, on the other hand, voted against the deal but at the same time threatened to resign from the government if it were to negotiate a second stage to the deal later on.

In other words, Ben-Gvir acted on the grounds that he prefers his principles to the lives of all the hostages, while Smotrich informed the hostages and their families that he would let those selected to be part of the first stage of the deal live (if they are still alive), but that he is willing to let die those who are not lucky enough to be on the first list.

Forgive my cynicism, but I am not the only one who wonders whether Ben-Gvir and Smotrich would have acted differently if the majority of hostages were religious settlers from Judea and Samaria, former settlers from Gush Katif, and Kahanists, rather than the mostly secular voters of opposition parties in the Gaza border communities (quite a few of them kibbutzniks), the so-called “hedonists” who participated in the Supernova music festival, and around a dozen non-Jewish East Asians and Africans.

During the long hours before the hostage deal was finally signed by Israel and Hamas in Doha on Friday night, all Israeli TV channels held endless discussions about the pros and cons of the deal while speculating about the prospects of the agreement being thwarted at the last minute. On Channel 14, the latter prospect seemed to be a hidden wish, which appeared to evaporate as the night progressed.

Channel 14 was especially despondent over the fact that it was Donald Trump (whom the channel had treated until several days earlier as a martyr and savior) who had reportedly forced Netanyahu to accept various conditions for the deal that the prime minister had previously refused to consider, and thus forced Netanyahu into signing the controversial agreement.

All in all, the majority appear to agree that the deal reached is faulty in many respects, but that it is the best that could be attained under the circumstances. There also appears to be a common understanding that the prospects for the deal going through smoothly and without any hitches are slim. 

In addition, the physical and emotional state of those hostages returning alive will undoubtedly be much worse than that of those who returned over a year ago. We can expect to face an emotionally trying six weeks.

To further complicate the roller-coaster ride ahead, a rather belligerent recorded message from Netanyahu to the Israeli public was broadcast on Saturday evening. In his message, Netanyahu stated that the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would be temporary and that Israel would be increasing its forces in the Philadelphi Corridor and in a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Israel immediately (all contrary to the provisions of the hostage agreement).

May all 98 remaining hostages, whether alive or dead, arrive home safely, despite the expected bumps along the way.

The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job, was published by Routledge.