For months now, the State of Israel should have given absolute priority to the release of the greatest number of hostages held by Hamas and its associates in the Gaza Strip. It has until now been in the DNA and values of the State of Israel to do everything to free Israeli citizens detained by its enemies.
For fifteen months, the Netanyahu government has made it a priority not to avenge the crime against humanity of October 7 but to destroy the power of Hamas, a theocratic and terrorist organization which has been plaguing Palestine for almost twenty years now. On this point, Israel scored points, as did Hezbollah in South Lebanon. But it must be recognized that the filthy beast is far from being destroyed.
The signing of an agreement as fragile as it is ambitious for a truce and then an attempt to end the crisis between Hamas and Israel could be seen as an admission of weakness by those who want to put an end to Hamas once and for all. It is indeed likely that the astonishing timing of this ceasefire agreement, particularly in its phases 2 and 3, will relaunch Hamas on the Palestinian and international scenes.
Likewise, the blackmail over the names and release deadlines of the first 33 hostages is also in some ways a tragic and bloody victory for Hamas. Freeing women and children piecemeal, creating a sequence of releases day by day for 42 interminable days, with its share of suffering and tears which follow one another almost daily, is somehow giving in to the cruelty of politics as Hamas’s partners understand it. The terms of this agreement create an emotional elevator that will weaken Israeli society.
But despite these concerns, it must be said that if the 96 Israeli hostages are not released now or in the days and weeks to come, it is feared that they never will be.
The release of hostages and a humanitarian and civilizational emergency.
How many of them are already dead? No one knows! Even the French Minister of Foreign Affairs (and even though France has largely sided with those in favor of a strictly humanitarian approach to a conflict that is nevertheless deeply political) does not know whether the two Franco-Israeli hostages, Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are still alive.
With this agreement the Gilad Shalit syndrome comes to mind: this Franco-Israeli soldier was released in 2011, after 5 long years of detention, against 1027 Palestinian prisoners. Among them, Yahya Sinwar was able to resume his political fight to the point of instigating the sordid day of October 7, 2023 and taking the lead of Hamas, before being eliminated by Israel. But soldier Gilad Shalit is alive and well and it is Israel’s pride to have saved one of its own.
Donald Trump’s attitude in signing this agreement also sets the tone: if the next president of the United States was only the caricature he gives of himself, he would never have accepted that such an agreement be signed under the Biden administration and offers the latter such a diplomatic victory.
By participating hand in hand in the negotiations of recent weeks, Donald Trump has revealed himself to be much more nuanced than what his most radical natural allies had hoped for: it is a safe bet that with Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu will have a hard time.
Because the 47th President of the United States, as he had already proven during his first term as President of the American Republic, does not like war, does not like armed conflicts and will be ready for any pressure on his natural allies like Israel to be able to obtain an armed peace, even if it means forcing everyone to make painful concessions.
But while waiting for these political convolutions, let us finally hope for the imminent release of as many hostages as possible.
Michel Taube
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