Oct 11, 2026
Quote of the Day
When I met with my parents after I was released they said we hope you are not angry with us. I said I was not angry but was proud of them....my parents fought for me like crazy, and while they were fighting for me they were fighting for other things as well, and one does not cancel out the other. This was an issue of dinei nefashot, matters of life and death. Do you want to save a life now or save lives even later? To me it was ovious that if we make a deal now I would get out of there but in abother2 days, 3 days, a month, two months, a year, 2 years, 10 years, someone else will end up sitting here in my place.....
I looked at my captor and said to him I will not leave this land... He asked why not? I said look at the Gaza Strip - it is completely destroyed, everything here is death, when the war ends and the crossings will be opened will you leave to Egypt? He said no. Why not? Because this is my house. Exactly, this is my house as well.... In 100 years there will be Jews here. In 100 years there will be Arabs here. What should we do during these 100 years. Do you want my children to kill your children, and your grandchildren to kill my grandchildren? Or maybe we should be smart enough to find a solution so we can all live here. Because we will live here, one way or another we will be living here together...
-- excerpts from former hostage Avinatan Ohr's interview with Ilana Dayan
different news sources quoted different parts of the interview, each depending on the position they wanted to stress and promote. The first in which he is ok and understanding of his parents choosing to be in the Tikvah Forum and fight for advancing the war while not demanding immediate release of their children vs the second in which he talks about finding a way to allow Jews and Palestinians to live peacefully side by side. People are complex and situations are complex. People can hold different positions on issues that dont always jibe with each other so cleanly
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The hostages are one of the reasons Israel hasn't won this war.
ReplyDeleteFrom the start th war was about destorying Hamas. Recovering the hostages was important but it wasn't the goal.
But after the initial shock wore off and Bibi's enemies realized that Israel was now regaining the advantage, they immediately pivoted from being anti-judicial reform to reframing the war. It wasn't about ending Hamas. It was about getting the hostages back. All the successful offensives in Gaza? Worthless because Bibi didn't get the hostages back. All the amazing operations that destroyed Hamas' leadership and reduced the rocket threat to almost nothing? Who cares? Bibi didn't get the hostages back! That was the message and the government didn't push back hard enough.
The message should've been "If the only point was to get the hostages back we could've done that on October 10. We could've agreed to meet with Hamas' leadership and surrender to all their terms. You want 100 000 terrorist back? Sure, here that are. You want Israel to withdraw from all its towns and kibbutzim within 10 km of the border? No problem, we have a contract with U-haul. You want us to abandon the northern 1/4 of the country to make Hezbollah happy? Sure, it was a pain worrying about when they'd invade anyway.
And the terms of the ceasefire? We'll swear off ay further attacked on Gaza and Hezbollah and in return you'll continue to arm yourself and fire as many rockets as you want, then scream "Israel broke the ceasefire!" when we've had enough and finally hit back. Deal!
And in return Hamas would've, over months, returned 95% of the hostages but some it would always keep. The Bibi boys. Hersh. All the celebrity ones would've stayed because they would want some guarantee that Israel would never re-enter Gaza.
Bibi could've signed that on October 10. No dead Gazas. No bombed Gaza. 95% of the hostages returned. Yay!"
And the final line: Do you expect us the sacrifice the security and future of 9 000 000 for 250?