Opinion | Bibi’s Cold Calculation

Yesterday morning began as the IDF spokesman spoke the words we dread the most: “hutar l’prisum,” the names of the dead have been released. The rumors that had been flying over social media all night were confirmed. The bodies of six hostages held in Gaza—Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents were international advocates for his release and recently addressed the Democratic National Convention), Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi—had been found over the weekend by Israeli troops in a Hamas tunnel. They had been executed only days before the troops found them.

According to army radio, three of the hostages were to have been released in the first stage of the hostage and cease-fire deal currently in negotiation. “It was possible to bring them back alive,” the source said.

Demonstration in Tel Aviv. (Credit: Elad Lavi)

The sense of dread quickly turned into rage: Hamas may have murdered the hostages, but many in Israel believe that it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who sacrificed them.

During the day, spontaneous, angry demonstrations flared up throughout the country. By evening, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, along with numerous other civil society groups, had brought hundreds of thousands of people to demonstrate in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and in smaller cities and on dozens of highways nationwide. Major intersections were blocked with protesters.  In some places, the police used water cannons to break the crowds up.

In Jerusalem, thousands protested near the prime minister’s office, where the cabinet was holding its weekly meeting. Organizers read out the names of the cabinet ministers they hold responsible for the deaths of the six hostages. “Busha!”(Shame!), “Dy!”(Enough!) and “Achshav!” (Now!) the crowd jeered, many waving Israeli flags and blowing the kazoos and whistles the organizers had handed out. 

Later, hundreds of people, religious and non-religious, attended a memorial service for Goldberg-Polin at the synagogue where he had grown up and where his parents regularly pray.

In Tel Aviv, diplomats from some 30 countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany, attended a vigil and lit memorial candles. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew declared that the killing of Goldberg-Polin, who was a dual Israeli-American citizen, “is not something we take lightly,” and expressed the United States’ “heartfelt condolences” and “pure outrage.”            

Deftly, the diplomats avoided making overt political statements. But the hostages’ families, speaking to more than 300,000, according to the organizers, had no such reservations. 

Demonstration in Jerusalem. (Credit: Ophyr Hanan)

Her voice breaking, Ofri Bibas, aunt to the redheaded toddler hostages Ariel and Kfir Bibas and sister to their mother, Yarden Bibas, also a hostage, told the crowd, “I am crying out for six young, beautiful people who just wanted to live, like all of us. They were kidnapped, survived abuse, injuries and months of captivity. They survived nearly a year, only to be murdered just three days ago! They could have returned to us alive through a deal! We’re here to shout to the Prime Minister: Don’t stand idly by! Human lives, my family’s lives, must not be abandoned!”

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, declared, “My son is still alive, but every day is like a game of Russian roulette that Netanyahu is playing until all the hostages have died. This wasn’t supposed to be a political issue at all,” she continued, “but now political considerations are in one hand and the hostages are in the other. Netanyahu tried to feed me lies that he’d bring back Matan and the other hostages. But instead, they were sacrificed on the altar of the Philadelphi Corridor.”

Zangauker and the protesters were referring to the late-night cabinet meeting last Thursday, during which the government passed a resolution stating that Israel would not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border. For Hamas, this is a non–starter.

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The original goals of the war were to demolish Hamas and bring the hostages home. Only in mid-July—more than eight months into the Gaza War, when it seemed that a hostage deal and cease-fire deal might be pending—did Netanyahu begin to argue that Israel must maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, and the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, which divides the north of the Gaza Strip from its south.

Netanyahu is now insisting that holding on to the Philadelphi Corridor is the only way to prevent Hamas from rearming itself and that an Israeli presence on the Netzarim Corridor is the only way to prevent armed terrorists from returning to the north. A deal to save the hostages would compromise national security, he claims and so he has, he reveals, made the difficult decision to sacrifice the hostages for the good of the entire nation.

But Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi have made it explicitly clear that Israel does not have to hold on to these corridors in order to maintain security. Senior IDF and Shin Bet officials argue that if talks collapse after the completion of the first phase (the release of the “humanitarian” group of hostages), Israel could return and retake both corridors with a relatively small price to pay. “There are enough constraints in the talks, you don’t need to add another,” Halevi said at the cabinet meeting. 

Netanyahu contends that continued pressure on Hamas and presence of the corridors may force the terrorist organization into making concessions. But so far, they haven’t, and more hostages are dying.  

Demonstration in Tel Aviv. (Credit: Lisa Preiss)

These facts belie Netanyahu’s claims. Netanyahu is not acting out of security considerations. Maliciously, cruelly, he is willing to sacrifice the hostages for his political and personal gain.

By discounting his military leaders and presenting himself as the only one who can guarantee security for all of Israel’s citizens, Netanyahu is shoring up his populist base. Only he, Netanyahu claims, is strong enough to face off with the Americans, the Europeans, and all the other ostensible antisemites who wish to see Israel annihilated. Only he can stand strong and refuse to release large numbers of Palestinian prisoners (as he did in exchange for hostage Gilad Shalit in 2011.) The implication is clear: If his constituency does not support him, if they are not with him, then they are disloyal and weak. And who wants to be disloyal and weak in a time of war?

By refusing a deal and a cease-fire, Netanyahu also placates the extremists in his government and ensures that his coalition will hold. The Messianists who believe a war of Gog and Magog will lead them back to the Temple Mount; the radical settlers who want to resettle Gaza; hardliners like National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Treasury Minister Betzalel Smotrich—all of them have made it clear to Netanyahu that if he capitulates and agrees to a deal that ends the fighting with Gaza, they will topple the government.

And Netanyahu needs the government to survive in order to delay his trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust and stay out of jail. And he needs the war to continue as to avoid a national commission of inquiry that is likely to point to his failures leading up to and on October 7. As long as the fighting persists, there will not be new elections, which he wants to avoid at all cost. And so even if the hostages, their families and the entire nation must pay the price for his continued rule, he will keep the war going as long as he can.

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So far, Netanyahu has not met with or even phoned the hostage families, he has not appeared in public, and has not directly addressed the people. Long after U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made emotional statements about the death of the hostages on Sunday morning, and hours after Israeli President Isaac Herzog and other Israeli politicians released their compassionate statements, Netanyahu released a taped video. Cold, calculating and clearly well-rehearsed, he blamed Hamas for the failure of the negotiations.

People holding photos of Carmel Gat in Jerusalem. (Credit: Avishay Mohar)

“I am shocked to the depths of my soul by the terrible coldblooded murder of six of our hostages,” he recited off a teleprompter. 

But I wonder if someone who can make the heartless decisions that Netanyahu has made even has a soul.  And if he does, his is a soul that believes that, like Sparta, we must always live by the sword; that only naïve, wimpish fools believe in peace; that compassion and upholding life are trivial values; that it is right to cast dispersion on anyone who disagrees with him and to rule through divide and conquer, even in this vulnerable time; and that the morality of perpetuating this war is irrelevant.

In the demonstrations across the country, and at the funerals held on Sunday and Monday, family members asked their loved ones for forgiveness because they had “failed to bring them home alive.” Netanyahu has not ever said he’s sorry. At least in that he is being honest: I don’t think he’s sorry at all.

On Monday morning, the national labor union, many municipalities and most places of leisure declared a national strike, although, later in the day, the court called the strike off. Schools were closed or delayed opening. Demonstrations were again held throughout the country. In Jerusalem, calls were posted on social media calling on people to stand along the route of the funeral procession of Hersh Golberg-Polin; and thousands turned out, somberly waving Israeli flags. 

Ofri Bibas addressing the crowd in Tel Aviv. (Credit: Paulina Patimer)

According to the Israeli government, there are some 100 hostages left in Gaza; about one-third of them are assumed to be dead. In my neighborhood, close to the Golberg-Polin home, Hersh’s young, smiling face has been beaming at us from balconies and rooftops since his capture. Billboards with the faces of all of the hostages are everywhere, at bus stops, in shopping malls, by our favorite coffee shops. They are a constant reminder of the horrors of October 7. But they are also a reminder that bringing the hostages home will be a first step toward national healing. 

On Sunday rain fell in much of Israel. Commentators and pundits opined that maybe the skies were crying, too. When the winter rains come in full force, they will wash off the billboards and the signs. But I believe that we will still remember the hostages and how their government abandoned them. We will remember the more than 700 soldiers who have died in this war. And I hope that as a society, we will remember to choose life and joy over death and cynicism.