Opinion
Gaza war
Liberation can only succeed without weapons: finally bring the hostages home
Life in Israel is returning to normality. The memory of the hostages still held captive by Hamas has become part of everyday life.
© Jewel Samad / AFP
More than 130 Israelis are still in the hands of Hamas. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his coalition partners hardly seem to care. Time for the federal government to draw conclusions from this.
+++”21 Israeli army soldiers die in Hamas attack in the south Gaza Strip.”+++
Within a few hours, these two reports made the rounds in Israel on Monday evening. They reflect the terrible rollercoaster of hope and despair that the country’s citizens have been experiencing non-stop for more than three months. But they also make something else clear: After 109 days of war, it can no longer be denied that the two main war goals stated by Israel’s government – freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas – contradict each other.
A growing number of Israelis are becoming painfully aware of this these days. Last weekend, thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv, Haifa and elsewhere demanding an end to the war and a deal to free the hostages. More than ever since the beginning of the war.
The mood in Israel is beginning to change
“The mood in the country is changing,” says Yehuda Shaul, co-director of the think tank Ofek in Jerusalem and co-founder of the anti-occupation veterans organization B’Tselem. “It’s not a majority yet, but more and more Israelis understand that we won’t be able to free the remaining hostages using military means. And that we won’t be able to eliminate Hamas,” said Shaul in an interview with star. “What we can achieve militarily in Gaza is very limited.”
A few days ago, Gadi Eisenkot, minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet and former chief of general staff of the Israeli army, made similar statements in a TV interview.
But Netanyahu and his right-wing government partners don’t want to hear about it. They continue to vow the country to a long war – at least a year, the prime minister said again last week – but refuse to answer the question of what will happen afterwards.
Netanyahu and his coalition partners want to continue waging war – without a plan for what will happen afterwards
They seem as indifferent to the horrendous humanitarian situation of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip as they are to the plight of their own citizens in the hands of Hamas. His government partner Itamar Ben Gvir from the right-wing Jewish Force party is openly threatening to collapse the coalition if the government agrees to end the war in the Gaza Strip. In view of such statements, the initiative for a temporary ceasefire lasting “up to two months” as a concession for the release of the hostages seems like a feint.
Not interested in ending the war: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-right cabinet colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir (r.)
© Menahem Kahana / AFP
“This government doesn’t care about the hostages because they and their families are not part of its constituency,” says army veteran and current peace activist Shaul.
The federal government should face this situation more clearly than before. “We won’t give up, we won’t let up in our work until all of Hamas’ hostages are back home,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on the online platform X, formerly Twitter, on the 100th day of the war. On the way to this goal, blanket expressions of solidarity alone are no more helpful than the apparently planned delivery of German tank ammunition to Israel’s army – both of which are correct in principle, especially with a view to German history.
What would help would be an immediate, mutual, permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as a start to a process towards a diplomatic solution. Only such a process offers at least the chance of sustainable security for Israel and Palestinians. According to its own admission, it will not exist with the current Israeli government for the time being.
“Friendly fire” endangers the hostages
After more than 100 days of war, it is unclear what Israel can achieve with further military force in the Gaza Strip. But one thing is clear: a continuation of the war will endanger the lives of the hostages and countless Palestinian civilians. Not just because Hamas is playing a cynical game with the lives of its prisoners. “Friendly fire” from our own army is also increasingly becoming a deadly danger for those kidnapped.
Together with the USA, Germany could do more than others to bring about a change in thinking in Jerusalem. If the security of Israel’s citizens is part of Germany’s reason of state, then this should apply most of all to those of them who have been held hostage by Hamas for 109 days.