Make a Hostage Deal Soon – But Not Yet!

by Emanuel Shilo, editor of Besheva, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The IDF's latest successes – both in battle and in eliminating Hamas leaders – bring us closer to breaking the fighting spirit of both Hamas and the Gazan populace. Now is not the time to stop!

The elimination two Sabbaths ago of arch-terrorist and Hamas mastermind Muhammed Deif two weeks ago – no proof that he is alive has been forthcoming since then – is of truly critical strategic importance in the ongoing war in Gaza. The Sabbath-observant public in Israel was happy to once again be the last to hear about this great success, just as it was regarding the IDF's Sabbath rescue of four hostages several weeks ago. Keep the good news coming, no matter when we hear about them!

The strike in Khan Yunis in which, with near certainty, Deif was killed, also did away with one of his associates and a mastermind of the October 7th attacks, Khan Yunis Brigade commander Rafa’a Salameh. The bombing attack is likely to become the decisive success of the current war – on condition that the Government of Israel and the IDF do not fall into the trap of giving away our military achievements of the past months, and those on the way, in exchange for a pot of porridge in the form of a surrender agreement with Hamas. The deal currently under consideration would return only some of the hostages, and would require at least six weeks of ceasefire during which Hamas will be able to regroup, regain control, and prepare for the next round of war. 

The assassination of Deif was enabled because the IDF took control of the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border. This move was a true game-changer, as is evident by the measure of flexibility that Hamas has actually been showing of late in the negotiations with Israel. It is as clear as day that Sinwar and his men are suffering from a shortage of armaments, given Israel's destruction of many – but not all – arms tunnels from Egypt under Rafah to Gaza. This marks the beginning of the end for Hamas, with its paucity of production means and trade connections. What Hamas needs now is nothing other than a deal with Israel that will halt the fighting; time is not working in Sinwar's favor. 

Proof that the murderous Hamas terrorist organization is very short on armaments lies in the fact that it has stopped firing long-range missiles into central Israel. It used to be, during the rounds of fighting that broke out every few years between Hamas and Israel, that Hamas would let loose with large numbers of such rockets towards Ashkelon and elsewhere – but recently, there have been little if any such attacks. In addition, Kassam and other projectiles are much less frequent than they used to be. In many cases, the IDF, which is deployed widely in and around the Gaza Strip, succeeds in identifying and eliminating the terrorists and their rocket launchers within minutes of their rocket launches.

As long as the IDF continues to hold the Philadelphi Route and engage in destroying the remaining tunnels under it, the total depletion of Hamas weaponry is just a matter of time. With persistence and patience, we can make sure to clean out Gaza of all weapons and explosive materials. We will discover and collapse more and more tunnels, and we will reach every weapons manufacturing lab. Gone will be the days when acquiring an RPG launcher in Gaza was as easy as buying a broom. 

It won't happen in a week or a month, and it might even be years – but with much firmness and patience, and Divine help and inspiration, it is within our ability to get the job done, as long as we don't fill ourselves with weakness and cowardice. 

One of the more interesting reports that emerged after the Khan Yunis strike was that of former senior Israeli journalist Yoni Ben-Menachem, a researcher for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He wrote that the prize offered by Israel of $100,000 for information about Muhammed Deif was shared by two Gazan residents, who supplied information about his whereabouts. 

This must be taken in the context of the difficulties that the ongoing war is having on the average Gaza resident. Typical Gazans who are sick of the war, and of the Hamas leadership that caused and is causing it, can very likely be induced to cooperate with Israel, for a monetary price of course. This could then lead to the finding and rescue of additional hostages, and even the locating and targeting of the few remaining senior Hamas leaders, such as Yichye Sinwar.  

It's not only money that interests the Gazans. The action that took out Deif and Salameh also killed dozens of local residents, demonstrating the dangers inherent in living near the terrorist leaders, and even in the vicinity of Israeli hostages. As time goes on, more and more Gazans will be interested in helping Israel defeat Hamas and end the war. All that is needed is to continue to apply military and other pressure upon Sinwar and Hamas. 

Thus, we can also expect, if we are consistent, to rescue more hostages, either militarily or via hostage-holders who come forward to IDF representatives on their own (for a hefty sum of money). But even if not, we can expect that Sinwar will be increasingly willing to relax his conditions for a deal as he increasingly realizes that his end is otherwise near. It is likely that he will be happy to settle for his own safe passage out of Gaza, together with his close family and aides, in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. 

But in order for all this to happen, Israel must exhibit cohesiveness, stability, and determination. When the enemy sees us bickering among ourselves, and when we give the sense that the government is about to fall, and when we act as if Israel is on its way to giving up on all the war objectives it set for itself in the days after Simchat Torah – and all this simply for only some of the hostages – then we prop up the enemy with our own hands, and fan anew the flames of their flickering battle spirit. 

"Yes to victory, no to a cave-in agreement!" This must be the message that the Prime Minister and all our politicians must receive from the public. And this is also the demand that IDF leaders must hear from the fighters and officers in the field. Most unfortunately, the senior security echelons - whose leaders bear the primary responsibility (aside from Hamas) for the travesty of Oct. 7 - are still entrapped in the "conceptions" that led to it in the first place. They are willing to give up a victory, and for what? For a hostage deal of doubtful value. Their pangs of conscience for the suffering caused to the hostages and their families because of their terrible mistakes are pushing them to try to find a solution for today's problems without concern for the dire security situation in which the entire State of Israel will find itself a short time afterwards. As the Torah tells us, those who are too scared to fight a war like they should – let them turn back and go home.

Response to The Hague: Sovereignty Now!

by Yossi Dagan, Head of the Shomron Regional Council, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The international court in The Hague ruled scandalously and anti-Semitically several days ago that the entire Jewish settlement enterprise in the Jewish homeland areas of Judea and Samaria, as well as eastern Jerusalem, is illegal. The ruling is not binding, but it certainly increases both the pressure on, and the isolation of, Israel in the international arena. 

How must Israel respond? It must grow a backbone and a proud national posture, and respond with a unilateral decision of its own, to counter the court's one-sided decision: Israel must immediately annex all of Judea and Samaria and declare sovereignty there.

It was just before the onset of this past Sabbath that we heard the initial reports of the latest anti-Israel decision by the circus known as the International Court of Justice in The Hague – which was not a surprise in any way. The court headed by Judge Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, a country run by Hizbullah, ruled that Israel is an occupying power in its own homeland – Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem. But not only there: the same applies to Gush Katif, from where we voluntarily transferred nearly 9,000 men, women, and children, as well as gravesites, in the course of our unilateral withdrawal 19 years ago.

The Court's "Advisory Opinion" on this matter is so ridiculous, so detached from the reality of the evidence and of international law itself, that it can lead us to only one, incontrovertible conclusion: This international court decision is, not for the first time, openly anti-Semitic. The ruling is not based on one single piece of true or serious evidence. It in fact brings us back to the Medieval era courts, in which decisions were made first and evidence was sought only afterwards. 

Judea and Samaria – Yehuda v'Shomron, in Hebrew, or "Yesha" for short – is the cradle of Jewish history. The word "Jew" even stems from the name "Judea." It was here that the Patriarch Abraham, and his descendants Isaac and Jacob and their sons, walked the sacred soil. The first Temple was here in Shilo, and the Machpelah Cave, in which are buried our holy ancestors Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Leah, and Jacob and Leah, is here in Hevron. In between Jerusalem and Hevron is Bethlehem, where the Matriarch Rachel was interred and where the Prophet Jeremiah envisioned her weeping over her exiled sons and daughters. And here was established the first Jewish kingdom by King David, and here was erected the altar of Yehoshua bin Nun.

It cannot be said, therefore, that the Jewish Nation, is a conqueror or occupier of the area of Judea. The Bible, accepted as G-d's truth even by Christians and Muslims, testifies like 1,000 witnesses that the Land of Israel belongs to no one but the People of Israel.

On a more technical level, a simple reason that Israel cannot be an occupying power here is because the territory was not under any national sovereignty at the time Israel took it over. Jordan's annexation of eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in 1949 was not recognized by the international community, not even the Arab League – such that the area was desolate of foreign ownership when Israel entered the picture.

This latest decision reached in The Hague was not only one-sided and unjust. It was a ringing slap in the face to Israel and its efforts over the course of decades not to make unilateral decisions in Yesha, and to thus leave the way open for dialogue. Such a brazen anti-Israel move cannot go unanswered by Israel, and the response must be absolutely unambiguous. Israel must respond with a proud national posture and issue its own one-sided decision, just as The Hague did.

Namely, Israel must apply its sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, as a clear response to the anti-Semitic and laughable decision by the ICJ in The Hague. The time to do this has long passed, but it is not too late.

Will New Elections Help Us Win the War?

by Emanuel Shilo, editor of Besheva, translated by Hillel Fendel.

The calls for new elections in Israel are disruptive, not smart politically, and distract us from our real needs.

Last week, when the Kaplanists [those who incessantly protest and disrupt life in Israel so as to bring about the downfall of the current government] declared a "Day of Disruptions,' I was very worried that I would be unable to reach Jerusalem from my home in the Shomron. In the end, not only did I have an uneventful trip, but the photos I saw from other areas in the country showed that the protestors were unable to recruit large numbers of people for their cause. Their attempts to recruit, as in the past, the Histadrut Labor Union, various hi-tech companies and their employees, doctors, municipal workers and more scored only very minor success. 

That is to say, the Nation of Israel is smarter and more responsible than what the Kaplanists thought. Even many of those who truly wish to undermine the current government understand that there are certain things you just don't do during wartime. Some of them may even now be realizing that the protests they held a year ago were simply over the top and catastrophically unrestrained, and even helped to a certain extent bring about the Gaza massacre. They might not admit it openly, but by voting with their feet and not showing up, they are indicating that it is time for more civility and less hatred and incitement.

With only five days left until the end of the current Knesset session – the parliament will then be in recess until Sept. 5th – it is clear that the government will not be falling in the near future. Yes, there are cracks in coalition unity, but they are expected to be harmless and all but forgotten for at least the next couple of months.

Anyone But Bibi – Logic, Anyone?
There are those who wish us to believe that in light of the very complex situation our country faces, the only solution is new elections. Among them are the "Anyone But Bibi" group, those who simply hate Netanyahu. They are hard to reason with. There are, however, some who are more to the point, and sincerely believe that new elections will bring about a new government that will know how to manage our crises better than the current one. The following words are directed towards the latter group.

Firstly, let us remind ourselves that the ramifications of an invective-filled election campaign, in the middle of a war or at any time, are liable to be higher than even a change in government that might follow. To this must be added the fact that it is far from sure than such a change will in fact happen. Yes, polls and surveys show that Netanyahu will not win another election – but who knows better than the Israeli public how misleading these polls can be. Not to mention that even what might be true today has no particular bearing on what might be true three or six or nine months from now.

And thus, new elections might likely end in yet another victory for Netanyahu. He might then use this as proof that the country trusts him and that he need not appoint a commission of inquiry into the events leading up to Oct. 7th. It could also lead to non-definitive results, as occurred in four recent elections, which would mean a transition government headed by none other than Binyamin Netanyahu. 

Those who truly wish to replace Netanyahu are therefore be advised to "sit tight:" When the elections are held as scheduled in October 2026, the voice will be heard of many right-wingers who believe that Netanyahu has had his day but that now is not the time to replace him. 

And in general, who among today's politicians can do a better job than Netanyahu? I beg to differ with the conception that everything will be fine and dandy once we replace Netanyahu; it is nothing but a Messianic idea, detached from reality. When we ask them who can take Netanyahu's place and do a better job, we receive no logical answer. They simply repeat their mantra: Netanyahu has to go! And then they call their political opponents "Messianic…" 

Who are Netanyahu's possible replacements? Benny Ganz, vague and hesitant, who is controlled by his advisors and surrenders to Kaplanist dictates? Yair Lapid, entirely a hollow poseur who switches his opinions and arguments whenever convenient, barely ever taking a consistent position on any issue? Avigdor Lieberman, who hates hareidim and has incited against them, and who, as Defense Minister, promised to kill Hamas leader Ismail Haniye within 48 hours if he didn't release the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Sha'ul? Or perhaps Naftali Bennett, who when he was Prime Minister not only was proud of having greatly increased the number of Gazan workers entering Israel, but also adopted practically the entire "conception" that led to the current war? 

Not only is there no candidate for Prime Minister who is not infected with the "conception" that Hamas (and Hizbullah) are deterred and need not be vanquished, there is similarly no one who has the proven strengths and skills to deal with the crises facing us that Netanyahu has. Is there even one person in the current political establishment who would be able to succeed in standing up to the pressures of The Hague and the Biden Administration and insist on conquering the Philadelphi route in Rafah? Netanyahu did so, even under the threat – which was carried out, at least partially – of an embargo on American weapons. 

Furthermore, Ganz, Lapid, or Eisencott would have long ago caved in to the demand for a "deal at any price" for the release of some of the captive hostages. For, as we know, what is on the table now is a deal for a limited number of hostages, including corpses, in exchange for an end to hostilities and the ceding of nearly all our military achievements of the past 8 months. 

This does not mean that Netanyahu is running this war effectively. He is not. But he is apparently doing a better job than any of his potential replacements could do. What this means is that the solution to our problems is not political. What we are missing is a strategic solution. 

Israel is facing a very difficult strategic challenge, pressure-filled from many angles, with dangers and little room for maneuver – in short, one with no simple solutions. The questions are many and complex. If we want to destroy Hamas, is there any alternative other than total conquest of Gaza and the installation of an Israeli military government? Can we afford to end this war without a decisive blow to both Iran's nuclear project and Hizbullah? How can we achieve the release of the hostages without caving in to Hamas and enabling a Hamas victory? 

Given such fateful questions, it is sadly regretful that instead of thinking all together about the correct strategic formula, we are being forced into internal bickering and misplaced hopes that new elections will save us.

What we need are not new elections, but a unity government. This means that the Likud and the current coalition partners must agree to a redistribution of the ministerial portfolios. The country needs the best of its minds and thinkers to sit around a table and come to effective strategic decisions that will serve us well in the long run. As head of the government, of course, Netanyahu must be attentive to his partners, and not think that he has all the answers.

Forget politics. It's time for strategy.

Connecting Gush Etzion to Jerusalem – Literally

by Haggai Huberman, translated by Hillel Fendel.

It was 25 years ago, in May 1999, when I interviewed the late Shilo Gal for the now-defunct HaTzofeh newspaper of the Mizrachi movement. Gal was then completing 20 years as the first head – mayor, essentially – of the Gush Etzion Regional Council. 

I asked him what accomplishment he was most proud of during his term as the founding head of Gush Etzion. He answered firmly: "I am proudest of having formed a wall of Jewish settlements between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, which blocks a Palestinian spread and push westward to the Green Line [as the former border between Israel and Jordan was then known]."

If that's what he thought then, when the "wall" was quite sparse, we can just imagine what he would say now!

Shilo Gal came into the world in 1948. He would have been born in pre-State Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, but the women and children had been evacuated to safety some weeks before; Shilo's father remained there and was killed when the Jordanians captured the area. This occurred the day before the State of Israel's independence was declared, when Shilo was two months old.

In September 1967, Shilo was among the group that re-established, with governmental permission, Kibbutz Kfar Etzion on its 19-year-old ruins. Chanan Porat, who led the initiative, met with then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to obtain his authorization. He told me years later that Eshkol hinted that the few small communities he was willing to authorize then would soon grow much bigger… "Eshkol went over to the large map on the wall and placed his hand over the entire Mt. Hevron area," Porat continued, "and said, 'Let's see, Gush Etzion is here? OK, we'll say that we just expanded Jerusalem a little…'"

That's how it was in the days when the Labor Party was more right-wing and nationalist than today's Likud party.

Nearly 57 years have passed since then, during which Gush Etzion has grown many times over and has seen four successors to Shilo Gal. Two weeks ago, the government approved official community status for five outposts in different areas of Judea and Samaria: Evyatar on the trans-Shomron highway, Sde Efrayim in western Binyamin, Adurayim in the Mt. Hevron area, Givat Assaf near Beit El, and N'vei Ori (Cheletz) in northern Gush Etzion. The location of each one of them has critical strategic importance.

IDF Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, who completed his stint this week as Commander of the Central Region, riled up not a few people, including myself, with his parting speech sharply criticizing the outpost settlers. On his way to what appears to be his new career as another left-wing former army general commentator, he seemed to identify in his speech less with the Jewish residents and more with the Arab population. 

However, it must be said that just a few hours before his uncalled-for speech, he signed a document of great value and importance for the settlement enterprise: an order that includes the area of the N'vei Ori farm in the Gush Etzion Regional Council. This paves the way for the next step in the planning process: the preparation of the taba, or "town building program." In general, the addition of five new Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria is good news for the nationalist sector and the State of Israel.

N'vei Ori was established a few months after the despicable terrorist murder in 2019 of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, a National Service volunteer from Tekoa. The farm is located just a few kilometers away from the site of the murder, on a ridge above the Heletz Brook. Particularly significant is the fact that it actually connects Gush Etzion to Jerusalem – a fulfillment of Levi Eshkol's joke-come-true about "expanding Jerusalem a little." 

As Gush Etzion Council head Yaron Rosental wrote last week, "The decision to recognize N'vei Ori as a new Jewish community in the Heletz area is exciting and important for two reasons: 1) Another Jewish point of settlement in Gush Etzion! And 2), it completes the link between Gush Etzion and Yerushalayim, totally and absolutely!"

Rosental illustrated this second point most concretely:

"One who walks northward from the Lone Oak Tree [a remnant of the original Gush Etzion bloc, and now a tourist site featuring a three-dimensional topographic model of the entire Gush Etzion] just outside Alon Shvut will encounter the following milestones and communities: 

• After 50 meters he will hit upon Alon Shvut.

• A half-kilometer further up he will reach the Netiv HaAvot neighborhood of Elazar.

• 800 meters (a half-mile) later – N'vei Daniel.

• One kilometer further north – Sde Boaz.

• Two kilometers from there – the new N'vei Ori farm.

• Another kilometer later, he will arrive in Har Gilo.

• Another few hundred meters and he is in Jerusalem!

"In the 70's [Rosental continued], after the founding of the first communities in Gush Etzion, no one believed that we could actually be connected to Jerusalem. This is why [in accordance with Moshe Dayan's original plan], Route 367 was "broken through" towards the Elah Valley in the west, so as to connect the Gush with western Israel and not Jerusalem.

"I recall that when I finished the army, I used to walk from Har Gilo to Kfar Etzion on Fridays. The first part of the hike was simply beautiful, but the truth is that it was a bit unpleasant, because there was no Jewish presence all the way up until N'vei Daniel. But now – we have done it! Jewish communities fill the land all the way up to Yerushalayim!

"I write these words with tears of excitement and emotion in my eyes at the privilege granted me to take part in this process. I believe with all my heart that the defenders of the Gush in 1948 are looking down at us now from above and singing the traditional pioneers' song, 'Shuru, habitu, ur'u – look around and take note how great is this day!'"

Rosental then thanked Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister Smotrich, former Gush Regional Council Head Shlomo Ne'eman, and the Tal family who have lived in the farm for several years. 

When the first Kfar Etzion pioneers moved in, they were 15 young men and women, and though hundreds of people joined in the initial ground-breaking celebration, by nightfall they barely had a minyan [ten men]. Today, however, the 22 (!) communities of Gush Etzion number 28,000 residents (!) – not including the 68,000 in the hareidi city of Beitar Illit or the 12,000 in Efrat. That comes out to well over 100,000 residents between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem. May they increase again and again!

Messianic Hopes of Different Kinds

by Dr. Geulah Paran, Professors for a Strong Israel, translated by Hillel Fendel.

"Messianics, zealots, delusionals" – these have become the derogatory nicknames of choice to term the members of the Religious Zionist party and, sometimes, the camp in general. Journalists, politicians, former military officers of the "conception" mindset that proved to be so catastrophic – all of them have taken to accept as a given that "extremist right-wing Messianism" is one of the main dangers facing the State of Israel. 

The left has lost its way. It used to have a Golden Calf before which it bowed down, in the form of imaginary "peace in the Middle East." However, it came crashing down with a great thud on the 7th of October, and the left now has no place to hang its sorrow and disappointment. Nothing remains of its weltanschauung, and in its bitterness and anger (at itself?), it has turned on those who were actually correct. As Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said this week, "Isn't it time you listened to us, given that we have been right for 30 years now?" 

The nationalist/religious/right in Israel has been proven correct in its warnings against the Oslo agreements, and when it cried out, "Don't give them guns!" It was similarly on the mark when it objected to leaving Lebanon and turning our backs on the soldiers of the Southern Lebanese Army, and most certainly when we begged the government not to disengage and quit Gush Katif (Gaza) and the northern Shomron.

Truth be told, it is not easy to admit a mistake, and especially when its consequences were so grave. The integrity needed to acknowledge an error is a rare commodity within the progressive-liberal left camp. Instead, they often replace it with something known as "projection." This is a defense mechanism that protects those who use it from dealing with emotional matters that are simply unbearable. The process is to take the "threatening content" and "project it" upon, or attribute it to, the other side. Thus, the offending party – the left, in this case – avoids confronting the issue and can relate to it as something of total irrelevance.

Some of those in the so-called "peace camp" have actually taken stock of their views and have admitted the error of their ways. Some of them have even gone so far as to say they now recognize there is no one on the other side with whom to make peace.

However, much too many of them, in their bitterness, direct their arrows to those who were right in the first place. They "project" their Messianism – their unshakeable belief in "peace in our time" – on those who believe that the State of Israel is truly destined for greatness. Many, as stated, do not suffice with calling them Messianists, and add in "extremist" and "delusional' to boot.

My heart goes out to them. It is hard to live in the State of Israel without faith and belief. In every dispute between right and left, the latter will always chime in with a challenging, "What, shall we have war forever?!" The answer from the believer is invariably, "We have no choice in the matter, but we have faith in the Eternity of Israel and in the coming of the Messiah." In response the left would smirk and scoff, taking their own "Messianism" back to their imaginary, longed-for "peace." But now, to where can they take it? The left-wingers can only lash out at those whose faith continues to strengthen them. 

For some, the breaking of their faith weakens them on all fronts, and they can't even fight their enemies, while those whose faith is renewed daily are able to continue fighting for the sublime cause, knowing that they can, must, and will continue until victory.

It could be that even more former peaceniks than we think have allowed the events to affect their thinking and have made a careful accounting of their convictions. But a small and very vocal minority is still holed up in its anger and disappointment, and is seeking – successfully, to an extent – to revive the protest movement that took over our country until last October 6th. They have a different excuse each time: "The government must be toppled! The hareidim must be drafted! The captives must be freed at any price! We will never cooperate with the dangerous Messianists!"

And who are these Messianits that they are referring to? Parents and families of fallen soldiers, true heroes who went out on Oct. 7th to save Jews with practically their bare hands, and who continue to fight – and die – in battle today to protect those who scorn them.

The recent funeral of fallen IDF soldier Elon Veiss, a 49-year-old reservist commander who insisted on serving in combat even at his advanced age, was a lesson for all sides. After the singing of Hatikvah, the participants continued soulfully with the words of Maimonides: "Ani Maamin – I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and even if he tarries, I will still await his arrival every day." 

Ani Maamin much is more than just a song. It was originally composed during the Holocaust, and provided the Jews with a glimmer of hope in a devastated world that appeared to be all but Jew-free. These words were a spark of Jewish faith – faith in the justness of our path, in the eternity of the Jewish People, and in a blessed future for Am Yisrael in its Land. And in many other funerals, as well, this song was borne on the lips of the mourners – strengthening, comforting, and uniting.

With the strength of this faith, the Nation of Israel fights its enemies until their total defeat, settles the entire Land of Israel with a sense of historic and national mission, and believes that the price it is paying is not in vain. And even when they continue to be mocked as Messianists, they need only remember Menachem Begin's classic words. Addressing himself to those who protested Israel's right to protect itself and bomb the Iraqi reactor, he said: "If there are some bleeding-hearts who want to turn up their noses at our actions – they can remain with crooked noses!"