The high cost to the hostages of ‘enlightened’ hypocrisy Ruthie Blum

Posted By on August 30th, 2024

https://www.jns.org/the-high-cost-to-the-hostages-of-enlightened-hypocrisy/

The argument over whether there’s such a thing as too high a price to pay for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza continues to rage in Israel unabated. And “rage” is the right word to describe what is rarely a serious discussion on the part of the “Bring Them All Home Now” advocates.

Those whose family members are still languishing in the Strip can be forgiven for seeing the issue from a prism of personal pain. Still, not all the captives’ loved ones agree with their more vociferous counterparts that the government should cave in to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s demands in order to seal a deal that would put an end to the 11-month nightmare.
The latter group grasps that it’s not so simple. In the first place, Sinwar hasn’t consented to free all the hostages, including if Israel withdraws all troops from Gaza and leaves him in power to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 “again and again and again,” as his henchmen have vowed to do.
Second, the hundreds of bereaved families of soldiers who fell in this war to defeat Hamas and rescue the hostages are desperate not to have all that loss be in vain. Ditto for the men and women in uniform risking their lives every day in the same pursuit.
The people who deserve no sympathy are the ones who’ve been exploiting everyone’s devastation to fan the flames of the pre-Oct. 7 protests aimed at ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition. Indeed, their cynical abuse of the hostage crisis to further a political agenda that got upstaged by the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is nothing short of despicable.
Since the bulk of the Hebrew media has been complicit in this effort, it’s often difficult for members of the public to make a distinction between rational debate and “anybody but Bibi” hysteria. Occasionally, though, the disingenuousness gets exposed—and it’s a doozy.
Take a recent broadcast on Army Radio, for example. During her weekly talk show with co-host Natan Datner on Aug. 23, Odeya Koren complained that the powers-that-be in Jerusalem have “no heart” when it comes to caring about the welfare of the hostages. In fact—she and Datner both indicated—this is true of anyone who takes consequences into account where a ceasefire/hostage deal is concerned.
In fairness to Koren, she didn’t exempt her own camp.
“I proposed the following to people on the left: All the hostages return and Netanyahu remains prime minister for another eight years,” she recounted. “Before I even finished the sentence, shouts of ‘No way!’ erupted. And that’s from people who go around yelling, ‘At any cost.’”
The above morsel came to mind this week when I encountered Mr. and Mrs. M., acquaintances of my parents, while on a stroll in Jerusalem with a close friend who also happened to know them.

“How’s your father?” asked Mr. M. “Please send him our warmest regards.”

“Will do,” I replied, taking a photo with my cell phone and sending it to him via WhatsApp.

“I used to call him regularly, but the last time we spoke, we had a dispute,” Mr. M. said, explaining, “I told him that Bibi is the most dangerous leader in the history of the state, but he didn’t concur.”

“Nor do I,” I said, unwittingly unleashing a tongue-lashing from him and then his wife—not, however, about the war in Gaza; not a mention of the hostage rescued by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet the previous day.

“Bibi’s a cheapskate,” he announced. “Not just any type of cheapskate; a pathological one.”

I shrugged, not sure where the conversation was heading. Mrs. M. hastened to show me.

“This is a fascistic, messianic, cult-like regime that’s destroying the country,” she hissed. “The religious Zionists, settlers and haredim will be the end of us.”

“No,” I countered, “They’re our people.”

“They certainly aren’t mine,” she barked.

“Am I a fascist?” I asked, challenging her definition of that utter misnomer.

“I don’t know,” she retorted with a sneer. “Are you?”

I laughed. She wasn’t amused.

“Are you a settler?” she then taunted.

“Yes,” I said. “As are you. We all are.”

“I am not!” she bellowed, taking genuine offense.

My friend and I gave each other a collusive side glance, preparing to put as polite an end to the unpleasant conversation as we possibly could, yet to no avail. By virtue of our refusal to bash the bad guys—not Hamas, but the “deplorable” Israelis—we had traversed into enemy territory.

It was a perfect reminder that sound policy does and should drown out the Bibi-bashing, for the sake of the men, women and children in the clutches of an actual monster—the one observing “enlightened” Jews aim their venom in the wrong direction and calculating his moves accordingly.

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