Grim dilemma
Comprehensively degrading Hamas's ability to harm Israelis – and Gazans – has always been Israel's goal in its military operation since October.
For Israeli hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Alexander Lobanov, 33, Almog Sarusi, 27 and Ori Danino, 25 – murdered by Hamas, their remains found – the pain is over.
“Now I no longer have to worry about you. I know you are no longer in danger,” Hersh’s mother Rachel Goldberg-Polin bitterly said in a tragic rhetorical farewell to her son. Or as Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb put it, “There are no further nights, no further days, no further hope of being reunited with their loved ones.”
Their recent slaying, after 11 months of captivity in Gaza, has accelerated the pressure on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to come to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, including a deal for the release of the hostages, with more than 500,000 protesting in Israel.
But as Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto pointed out, “This war could end tomorrow if Hamas returned the hostages and surrendered. There is no place for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza.”
Comprehensively degrading Hamas’s ability to harm Israelis – and Gazans – has always been Israel’s goal in its military operation since October.
But over the long months of this war, dealing Hamas a knockout blow has proved to be at odds with securing the release of the hostages.
It has also proved to be at odds with the stance taken by the West, including the US, that a ceasefire must be reached almost at all costs, even if it leaves Hamas in a position to regroup. The US could have at any time placed pressure on its allies Qatar and Turkey, who harbour Hamas leaders, to force the terror group into surrender.
Choosing between saving the 101 hostages still missing after October 7 and persisting with the downgrading of Hamas is Israel’s horrible dilemma.
It is inflamed by Western media coverage from Gaza – images of destruction laced with Hamas’s casualty figures accepted at face value and generally repeated without qualification.
And for all the criticism from the Australian government over conditions in Gaza, its expressions of grief and solidarity over the latest Israeli hostage deaths have been several days late – and couched in “both-siderism”. Politics, not principle, seems to be the government’s priority.
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