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Israel Must Remain Focused on Defeating Hamas Above All Else
An Israeli soldier stands during a two-minute siren marking the annual Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, at an installation at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, in Reim, southern Israel, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
JNS.org – Imagine an alternate reality in which Hamas took no hostages. One in which the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks still occurred but without the savage barbarity of mass rape, depraved torture and mutilation, and the kidnapping of hundreds as bargaining chips. Tranquil villages and military bases are still overrun. More than 1,000 Israelis—mostly civilians — are still viciously slaughtered. But the attack is ultimately repelled without a single hostage taken.
Would Israel’s response have been different? Would the strategic necessity of annihilating Hamas be absent?
The answer is no. Not even slightly. Even without hostages in enemy hands, no country that wants to survive could countenance the existence of a genocidal terror organization on its borders after such an attack. Any country would consider neutralizing such an adversary a strategic imperative.
This imperative is independent of the crucial task of rescuing and returning the hostages. Supporters of Israel must understand this and say so unequivocally.
This is why linking the release of the hostages to ending the war is at best misguided. In the long run, it serves Hamas’s interests. Yet public officials, pundits and politicians continue to call for “a return of the hostages and an end to the fighting.” This absurd platitude suggests that the hostages are the only reason for the war. Such sentiment is not just prevalent among ignorant millennial TikTok stars and Hollywood celebrities. It is ubiquitous in the highest ranks of international, American and Israeli policymakers.
Foremost among them is the Biden administration. Its rhetoric began with “Hamas must be eliminated” but slowly collapsed into self-serving diplomatic gobbledygook about the need “to secure the release of hostages together with an immediate and sustained ceasefire.”
Intentionally or not, this plays directly into the hands of Hamas. Not only because it raises the premium for a hostage release, but because it obscures the fact that Israel must defeat and annihilate Hamas no matter what. Hamas is a highly competent and motivated Islamist terror group that succeeded in inflicting a devastating blow and would do so again if given the chance. To have such an organization a mere hour’s drive from Tel Aviv is unacceptable, to say the least.
The temptation to focus exclusively on the hostages and their return is understandable. Many well-meaning supporters of Israel have earnestly submitted to it. Sadly, in the struggle for international legitimacy and persuasion, such a focus does have benefits. Past atrocities quickly fade from the collective global memory. But the hostages are still held in unspeakable conditions. As a result, their plight is pressing and visceral.
Nonetheless, the necessity of destroying Hamas would have been the same if not a single hostage had been taken. Thus, the leading pro-Israel hashtag shouldn’t be #bringthemhomenow but #crush_hamas. The military dog tags worn by many Israel supporters should signify support for IDF soldiers at least as much as advocacy for the hostages’ return.
The hostages force Hamas to pay a heavy price for international legitimacy. It does make them look bad. Nonetheless, they thought it was a chance worth taking. The essential question is: Will their gamble pay off? A hostage deal that stops the war indefinitely would vindicate Hamas’s strategy. If they succeed in playing the hostage card to secure their survival, it will mean that they were right all along. Whatever price they paid in public relations was worth it because taking the hostages saved their skins. This would only incentivize future mass kidnappings.
Many people have already pointed this out. But so far, they have not pointed out that the exclusive focus on the hostages unwittingly lays the groundwork for the disastrous concessions they oppose. In the end, it will force Israel to abandon its only real strategic imperative: the destruction of Hamas.
The current frenzy surrounding Rafah demonstrates this point quite well. Despite the protestations of many, if every single hostage were miraculously teleported out of Gaza, the elimination of the Hamas stronghold in Rafah would remain as crucial and urgent as it is now.
The suffering of the hostages, as well as their friends and families, is heartbreaking. But we must never lose sight of the fact that this war was always about one thing: crushing Hamas.
Yonatan Green is an Israeli-American attorney who is currently a fellow at the Georgetown University Center for the Constitution.
The post Israel Must Remain Focused on Defeating Hamas Above All Else first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Oil Minister Visits Oil Export Terminal as Israeli Strike Feared
A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oilfields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in Iran, July 25, 2005. Photo: Reuters / Raheb Homavandi / File.
Iran’s oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country’s main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry’s news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate in response to last week’s missile attack by Tehran “when the time is right.”
US news website Axios cited Israeli officials as saying Iran’s oil facilities could be hit, while US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet concluded how to respond.
Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with production of around 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 3% of global output. Iranian oil exports have climbed this year to near multi-year highs of 1.7 million bpd despite US sanctions.
Most of its oil and gas wealth is located in the south of the country, where the Kharg Island terminal is situated and from which around 90% of Iranian oil exports are shipped.
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad arrived on Sunday “to visit the oil facilities and meet operational staff located on Kharg Island,” Shana reported, adding that the oil terminal there has the capacity to store 23 million barrels of crude.
State media reported Paknejad met with Mohammad Hossein Bargahi, a Revolutionary Guards Navy commander, to check the security of Iran’s South Pars gas platforms and assess the effective actions of the Guards’ 4th Naval Region.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy plays an important role in the security of oil and gas facilities,” Paknejad was quoted as saying.
China, which does not recognize US sanctions, is Tehran’s biggest oil customer and according to analysts imported 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day from Iran in the first half of 2024.
The post Iran’s Oil Minister Visits Oil Export Terminal as Israeli Strike Feared first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says France’s Call for Halting Sales of Arms Used in Gaza is a ‘Disgrace’
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks as he meets with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu (nos seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 4, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Benoit Tessier
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit out at France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday for saying that shipments of arms to Israel used in the conflict in Gaza should be stopped as part of a broader effort to find a political solution.
“Shame on them,” Netanyahu said of Macron and other Western leaders who have called for what he described as an arms embargo on Israel.
“Israel will win with or without their support,” he said in a pre-recorded video released by his office, adding that calling for an arms embargo was a disgrace.
Macron earlier told France Inter radio that the priority was “to get back to a political solution (and) that arms used to fight in Gaza are halted. France doesn’t ship any.”
“Our priority now is to avoid escalation. The Lebanese people must not in turn be sacrificed, Lebanon cannot become another Gaza,” he added.
France is not a major weapons provider for Israel, shipping military equipment worth 30 million euros ($33 million) last year, according to the defense ministry’s annual arms exports report.
Macron’s comments come as his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is on a four-day trip to the Middle East, wrapping up on Monday in Israel as Paris looks to play a role in reviving diplomatic efforts.
The post Israel Says France’s Call for Halting Sales of Arms Used in Gaza is a ‘Disgrace’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After a Year of War, Wounded Israeli Reservists Face Long Road to Recovery
Aaron Bours, 34, an Israeli reservist and marketing manager who was severely wounded fighting in Gaza, participates in physical therapy as he recovers at Sheba Medical Centre in Ramat Gan, Israel September 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Ten months after he was shot in the leg by a sniper in Gaza, Israeli reservist Aaron Bours is walking on crutches and hoping to make a full recovery from the wound he sustained trying to rescue his officer in an ambush.
“There were bullets all around me,” Bours said.
Three hours after he was shot, he was in surgery at Sheba Medical center near Tel Aviv where doctors were able to save his leg. Long months of intense rehabilitation followed.
Some 300,000 reservists were called up at the beginning of the war and many have served for months on multiple tours. Their experience, and the experience of the families they left, will color attitudes in Israel for years to come.
As of September, more than 10,000 wounded soldiers have been treated by the Rehabilitation Department of the Ministry of Defense since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that triggered Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip.
More than two thirds of those treated have been reservists who returned to their military units from civilian life.
Just over a third are dealing with limb injuries, with the rest dealing with a variety of internal and spinal injuries, as well as eye, ear and head wounds that underscore the intense combat in the ruins of Gaza.
Israel Dudkiewicz, the doctor who runs the rehabilitation center at Sheba Medical Center, said the hospital understood on Oct. 7 that they would need to expand to receive an influx of wounded patients. With around a quarter of its staff called as reserves themselves, the hospital added beds and opened three new wings to treat the injured.
“I can’t say it wasn’t challenging,” said Dudkiewicz. “But in the end we were able to provide service.”
But the impact of serious injuries on reservists, who will return to civilian life when the fighting is over, will be felt for many years.
Yosi Sochr, 34, was severely wounded when an explosive device was detonated remotely. Doctors are still not sure if he will ever regain full use of his left arm and shoulder, which were hit by a piece of shrapnel.
So far he can move his hand but not the rest of his arm.
“It was hard,” said the reservist in the hospital bed next to his wife. “I’m not a 20-year-old kid. I have a whole world around me – when I just disappear, it’s felt.”
The post After a Year of War, Wounded Israeli Reservists Face Long Road to Recovery first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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