The war in Gaza has been going on for more than 650 days, and for all this time, Israeli hostages have been held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in tunnels spanning the coastal enclave. The objectives that the Israeli government laid out for victory at the beginning of the war have not been fully met. Fifty hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive and the rest murdered by Hamas, remain in captivity. Hamas is still on its feet, despite 15,000 dead and many more wounded. And despite losing its top commanders and political leaders in the Gaza Strip, Hamas continues to resist and control the civilian population.
Israel has already paid a “steep price” in the war by releasing thousands of murderous terrorists who may rejoin Hamas in attacking Israelis in the future. The price was also paid with the blood of 893 heroic Israel Defense Forces soldiers.
A major part of the problem for Israeli policymakers and officials in the IDF command is the Israeli media. The left-leaning Israeli Hebrew outlets and TV anchors who have contempt for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-of-center government have skewed their reportage. Netanyahu and his government have been targeted as the reason for the absence of a resolution that would bring back the hostages, a wish the entire nation of Israel shares. Lost in the hyperbole is the fact that many Israelis support the government as they attempt to save lives rather than “carpet-bomb” the entire area.
Hamas operatives watch the same Israeli TV broadcasts that Israelis watch and derive immense pleasure from seeing the families of the hostages—encouraged by the hosts of news programs—rail against the government and Netanyahu, in particular, while demanding that a deal be made with Hamas at all costs. Their calls to end the war on Hamas’s terms would leave the terror group in place, armed, and in political and civil control of the Gaza Strip. That is music to Hamas’s ears.
Some of the families of the hostages have also traveled to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump, and before him, with then-President Joe Biden, adding to pressure on Israel to end the war, without the IDF accomplishing its goals. Instead of demanding that more American pressure be put on Hamas and its backer Qatar, they malign Netanyahu and accuse him of being more concerned with self-preservation than with ending the war and making a deal to release the hostages. Yet it is Hamas, not Israel, that has rejected all efforts for a compromised deal for the release of the hostages.
At the same time, Israeli leaders must talk less about eradicating Hamas and do more to make that happen. Unnecessary statements from Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz are unproductive and accomplish very little. They simply provide fodder for the foreign press to come out against Israel.
Israel often employs a Western mindset when dealing with terrorist groups that only respect overwhelming power. Jerusalem has made chronic mistakes in the Gaza Strip that have prevented Israel from achieving ultimate victory. One such mistake is believing that Qatar and the Hamas leadership in Doha can influence Hamas in Gaza to become more flexible about a hostage deal.
Another mistake is rejecting the idea of occupying the entire Strip. Depriving Hamas of territory in Gaza would deem holding the hostages meaningless and would give Israel command over the negotiations for their release. Likewise, it would reverse the roles, with Israel setting the terms on who is to be released, and, hopefully, it would be all 50 of them at once.
The strategy for a total victory must go beyond military triumph to change the existing reality on the ground. While IDF troops have been victorious in their encounters with Hamas and PIJ terrorists, killing all of them will take years and will compromise the lives of many IDF soldiers. Israel must therefore exploit Hamas’s weaknesses and disconnect them from the general population in Gaza by using elements within the Islamic faith and culture to expose and foil Hamas’s recruitment efforts.
Additionally, distribution of humanitarian aid to Gazans must continue to be carried out by an outside party, with the IDF being in charge of security. And Israel must encourage and support those Palestinians who seek to immigrate to other countries, in accordance with Trump’s vision.
Gaza’s reconstruction must be conditioned upon the freeing of all the hostages and their return to Israel, disarming the Hamas and PIJ fighters and facilitating their exile, not to Judea and Samaria, but preferably to other Muslim nations like Malaysia or Indonesia, as well as the deradicalization of the educational system in Gaza for the remaining residents and their children.
Finally, the legal constraints placed upon the IDF in its operations in Gaza must be lifted, allowing the IDF to use its full force to overwhelm and end Hamas’s will to fight, leading to its surrender. The media in Israel have to become more responsible and stop, knowingly or not, doing Hamas’s bidding. It is high time that the IDF be unrestrained so it can win the war.
