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Thursday, 24 October 2024

Free The Hostages

 


The taking of innocent civilians in hostages is a war crime, and almost everyone finds the practice abhorrent. But it also happens to be something which the Israelis and Palestinians have a record of doing to each other. Israel puts Palestinian political prisoners in various jails across their country, and Palestinians find ways to take Israeli hostages as well. Both sides have a long history of targeting civilians in various ways, and both sides seek to justify their actions. You would think that any national leader worth his salt would be doing all that he could to get the hostages of his people brought home  right?

Well, according to Israeli Newspaper Haaretz not Netenyahu,

“Wednesday night, Channel 12 News' Yaron Avraham, presented a comprehensive report detailing all of the hostage negotiation deals that have been proposed since November, when the last, and only, successful exchange took place.

Presented as a detailed timeline of the last 11 months, the investigation includes never-before-seen documents and previously unheard conversations which highlight Netanyahu's relentless attempts to "Torpedo the Deal," as the segment is titled…

…Over the next nine months, Avraham reported, Israel's negotiation team was sent on what is ultimately a futile mission to secure another deal that would bring home more hostages. Along the way, the investigation demonstrates, Netanyahu did everything in his power to make sure they are not successful. He repeatedly prevented them from traveling to cease-fire talks, or greatly limited their negotiation powers when they are allowed to go.

He walked back several promises he made, including an agreement to end the war, and invents new "non-starters" that were previously never mentioned. He changed his mind, he denied, and he shifted blame to anyone he possibly can. And throughout all of this, he has ministers like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir threatened to leave his government, if a deal moved forward.[1]

Why would Netanyahu not want these deals to go forward? Well, there is significant pressure from his ministers and government not to give in to any demands from the combatants holding their people, for one. And it must be said that Hamas has murdered some of these people, civilians who should not be targets in war, but often are, especially in the Middle East. So the leaders of Israel should be doing all that they could to get them out of captivity.  

I think this is important to bring up because it highlights how often the public image people have of political leaders is so far disconnected from the reality. I am watching a show right now and one of the main characters is this woman who is high up in a drug cartel laundering their money, though its not publicly known. And she gets up in one episode and gives a speech about how her family want to give back to the community to fight against the scourge of drugs that is ripping through the community, and she even mentions her brother was a victim of drugs. She says this, even though she knows he was a victim of her crime cartel and her own actions. But the public image she is presenting to the people is one of a politically connected woman of high character who is seeking to do good, when she is anything but. The writers of this show understand how the world works, what people see and hear from the powerful is anything but the reality. This is often how the powerful act, one face for the people and one face for who they really are. 

In the Australian media, and I am sure this is true for the American media too, the Israeli Prime Minister is being presented as a statesmen, a great man doing all that he can to get the hostages back. When the truth is journalists have revealed this is not the case behind-the-scenes. In reality, he's been tanking these negotiations. So why does he not want to work for the hostages to come back?

Well, one answer is that he is ideologically opposed to negotiating with terrorists,

“A few years later, Benjamin Netanyahu launched ‘the Jonathan Institute’, a counter-terrorism centre named for his late brother, and edited a book called Terrorism: How the West Can Win (1986). In it, he wrote his personal stance on hostage negotiation and counter-terrorism:

All citizens in a democracy threatened by terrorism must see themselves, in a certain sense, as soldiers in a common battle. They must not pressure their government to capitulate or to surrender to terrorism. This is especially true of public pressure on  government by families of hostages. Such pressure can only be called a dereliction of  civic duty. If we seriously want to win the war against terrorism, people must be prepared to endure sacrifice and even, should there be the loss of loved ones,  immeasurable pain.

Decades later Netanyahu’s words have an eerie resonance. As a matter of principle, Netanyahu, based on his personal experience and the idealised legacy of his brother, does not believe in hostage negotiations with terrorists.”[2]

So he is ideologically opposed to negotiating? Except he has at other times done such deals.[3] So, one cannot say that he is entirely ideologically consistent in this area.

Another answer is that he does not want this war to end, because it allows him to stay in power,

“Netanyahu’s stance is also key to his political survival. Oct. 7th took place during a time of unprecedent political division within Israel. After winning the 2022 Israeli elections, Netanyahu formed a ruling coalition with extremist religious and nationalist parties, creating the most right-wing government is Israel’s history. Netanyahu and his coalition partners attempted to pass a ‘judicial reform’ bill that would strip Israel’s supreme court, the only check on its 120-member legislature body, the Knesset, of judicial review powers. Israel had mass protests for nine months that only ended with 7 October and the start of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s approval rating plummeted after 7 October, but has recovered. The war has allowed Netanyahu to put the protests behind him and instead portray himself as the protector of Israel.”[4]

So, another possible answer is that this is politically a winner for Netanyahu whose political career and freedom were in danger before this war happened. His hold on power was in fact on the brink. 

Still another answer is that his goal is to completely destroy any semblance of self-rule in Gaza, and a deal would not help achieve that.[5] This even goes as far as drastically decreasing the population of Palestinians in Gaza by trying to drive them out. As the Intercept reports,

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked his top adviser, Ron Dermer, the minister of strategic affairs, with designing plans to “thin” the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip “to a minimum,” according to a bombshell new report in an Israeli newspaper founded by the late Republican billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

The outlet, Israel Hayom, is considered to be something of an official organ for Netanyahu. It reported that the plan has two main elements: The first would use the pressure of the war and humanitarian crisis to persuade Egypt to allow refugees to flow to other Arab countries, and the second would open up sea routes so that Israel “allows a mass escape to European and African countries.” Dermer, who is originally from Miami, is a Netanyahu confidante and was previously Israeli ambassador to the United States, and enjoys close relations with many members of Congress.

The plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians faces some internal resistance from less hard-line members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, according to Israel Hayom.”[6]

If Netanyahu makes a deal that brings the war to an end this puts his Prime Ministership in jeopardy and he loses his chance to clear the Palestinians out of Gaza once and for all. Or at least to break their ability to make any resistance to the increasing encroachments of Israel into their territory. Therefore, for multiple reasons, from his perspective, a hostage deal is not preferred. Israel must keep pushing if it wants to achieve its goals.

This is medieval. This man is clearly on a crusade. Going to war like this on such a scale between two states is a thing of ancient military history, not modern war practice. Yet here we are. And he appears to be willing to take down the entire West to fulfil his crusade. And not one senior western politician seems willing to counteract this quest. The hostages create his public cover, his justification. But in reality he could have done a deal long before now. 

Hamas should release the hostages. So too should Israel release their political prisoners. But at the end of the day both these sides are not really focused on that, they both want dominance over the same land, and this war is really about that. Some Christians are ok with this because they believe it fulfills prophecies in the Bible. Many other Christians condemn the actions of both sides because they are placing the lives of innocent civilians in danger. Either way, we can see that the public image of a leader doing everything he can to get these people back is not the case.

Don’t fall for the public image presented by the media of public leaders, especially leaders who are willing to drop bombs on civilians. Our modern media is a fully captured propaganda arm of the globalist military machine. This war will be condemned by the same media in years to come, just like they now condemn the Iraq war. But that is not good enough. Evil is happening now, and there is every good reason to speak out against it while it is happening.

List of References



[1] Rachel Fink, 2024, “New Evidence Reveals Netanyahu's Relentless Efforts to Block Hostage Deal, Report Shows” https://archive.md/ysGm4#selection-1159.0-1175.361

[2] Charlotte Krausz, 2024, “Why Netanyahu Doesn’t Want a Hostage Deal” https://www.foreignaffairsreview.com/home/why-netanyahu-doesnt-want-a-hostage-deal

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ryam Grim 2023, “Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: ‘Thin’ Population ‘to a Minimum’” https://theintercept.com/2023/12/03/netanyahu-thin-gaza-population/

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