{"id":274158,"date":"2026-02-04T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/274158\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:12:08","slug":"israels-internal-clashes-brought-the-hostages-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/274158\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s internal clashes brought the hostages home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ran Gvili\u2019s<\/a> return home \u2013 and Israel\u2019s 843-day mission accomplished, accounting for every hostage while freeing 168 \u2013 should have united the nation.<\/p>\n

Yet, four days later, the front page of Haaretz absurdly called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> \u201cresponsible for\u2026 abandonment of the hostages.\u201d Meantime, the government\u2019s hostage negotiator Gal Hirsch mocked the hostage protest slogan \u201cAll of them \u2013 now,\u201d saying, \u201cthere was no need to create a sense of urgency on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moderate Me regrets Israelis\u2019 inability to take victory laps with our left and right feet. How else can we avoid falling? And Historian Me has a politically-incorrect theory: the clashing strategies produced the miraculous result.<\/p>\n

First, that winner\u2019s lap: WE DID IT. As we mourn the hostages murdered, did anyone really expect that 168 would return home alive? And did anyone expect that Israel would find every hostage \u2013 with none lost amid Gaza\u2019s rubble or purposely cemented away in some tunnel\u2019s foundation? Israel\u2019s absolute success exposes the evil of Hamas and many Gazans \u2013 and Zionism at its best.<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, Israel retrieved every hostage because Hamas commodified humans, treating people as trophies.<\/p>\n

\"St.-Sgt.-Maj.St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili (credit: Hostage and Missing Families Forum)Hamas uses hostages as pawns to exploit<\/p>\n

These cruel mass kidnappers tracked each body, knowing how Israelis mourned each loss and wouldn\u2019t abandon anyone, dead or alive. Viewing suffering innocents as pawns to exploit, these brutes boasted about holding them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why a Palestinian Islamic Jihadist, finally captured in southern Gaza City, could specify when interrogated that the body he buried in a few different places as IDF pressure intensified, was Ron Gvili\u2019s.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the time, resources, care, skill, and passion that the security establishment \u2013 led by the IDF, and yes, Netanyahu\u2019s government \u2013 invested in bringing everyone home was soul-stirring. The finale, Operation Brave Heart, with 20 dentists and hundreds of soldiers sifting through 250 bodies, in an exposed area, was extraordinary. It showed how Jews value life, how Israelis love family, and how Zionists cherish community and posterity.<\/p>\n

Historians dislike the word \u201cif.\u201d The hostage activists believe that \u201cif\u201d they had been in charge, they would have freed every hostage much sooner. Many coalition members believe that \u201cif\u201d there hadn\u2019t been protests, Hamas wouldn\u2019t have demanded such a staggering price \u2013 Israel freed 2,058 security prisoners, including 250 murderers with \u201cblood on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I kept arguing that \u201cif\u201d the demonstrators had only protested outside Israel, pestering every European Parliament, every Qatari and Turkish embassy and property, the issue wouldn\u2019t have divided Israel so badly, and the world might have mobilized to press Hamas.<\/p>\n

All \u201cifs\u201d aside, here\u2019s what we know: Israel defied the odds by whupping our enemies on seven fronts, while freeing every hostage. If I were commissioned to write a book about the hostage crisis, I would treat both extremes as caught in their own self-serving half-truths. Neither sheer military force nor weak-kneed pleas to Hamas\u2019s humanity succeeded without the other.<\/p>\n

The facts confirm that we crazy, passionate, divided, gritty Israelis created a nationwide, 843-day living laboratory validating kite-flying, the Talmud, Hegel, and some modern political theories. Kites rise from the tension between the wind pushing them and the string holding them back. The Talmud celebrates Mahloket, constructive clashing, as did George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel\u2019s formula pitting thesis against antithesis to yield the best synthesis. The Belgian political scientist Chantal Mouffe explains that democracies naively prize consensus, yet conflict, clashing forces, and antagonisms are inevitable \u2013 and produce the best outcomes.<\/p>\n

In fact, diplomacy, spearheaded by Israeli negotiators \u2013 along with previous and current presidents Joe Biden, then Donald Trump \u2013 liberated 160 hostages, in stages. But the negotiations needed Israel\u2019s hard-hitting military pummeling of Hamas. We should salute the mind-boggling heroism and unspeakable sacrifices from IDF soldiers and pathbreaking leadership from the IDF\u2019s top brass \u2013 and, yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s courageous, strategically-oriented ability to sometimes say \u201cyes\u201d to American pressure, while often saying \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try explaining the hostages\u2019 freedom without Israel\u2019s repeated blows against Hamas, its humiliation of Iran, elimination of Sinwar, and bombing of Doha, which expanded America\u2019s deal for ten live hostages and possibly abandoning the last ten, to all twenty, immediately, last October. Sacrificing its one real constraint on Israeli might enfeebled Hamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But also try telling this story without the effective, dignified advocacy of so many parents, especially Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, which melted hearts worldwide. You also can\u2019t ignore the hostage pins and posters. The global campaign helped many world leaders understand why freeing the hostages, alive and dead, was so important to all of us.<\/p>\n

Consider a couple of other major cultures. America, the Superpower, ignores about 40 civilians held hostage, especially in China and Russia. Europe, the Super-appeaser, disappoints about 50.<\/p>\n

Much remains for Israelis to fight about, including the \u201cconceptzia\u201d: how the two-state solution\u2019s supporters and opponents both suggested before October 7<\/a> to pay off and tolerate a supposedly pragmatic Hamas.<\/p>\n

For now, Israelis should enjoy a moment of shared national pride and thanksgiving. Hug families who tragically buried their hostages \u2013 or soldiers or concert-goers or kibbutznikim. Stop demonstrating, maybe for a week?<\/p>\n

Apologize to Ron Dermer\u2019s family and the families of other Israeli leaders whom some hostage-activists harassed so unfairly. And keep thanking every soldier, reservist, and intelligence analyst \u2013 especially the 22,000-plus wounded \u2013 and their families, for their collective effort.<\/p>\n

Finally, let\u2019s ponder the Talmudic teaching about constructive conflict. Perhaps our passionate, polarized fellow citizens, tackling other searing dilemmas, can find the sweet spot of political friction. Let\u2019s try, as a nation, to soar like kites, or eagles \u2013 who need their left wings and right wings flapping, sometimes in synch, and sometimes contrapuntally.<\/p>\n

The writer is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist born in Queens, living in Jerusalem. Last year he published, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath. His latest E-book, The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred was just published and can be downloaded on the website of JPPI \u2013 the Jewish People Policy Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ran Gvili\u2019s return home \u2013 and Israel\u2019s 843-day mission accomplished, accounting for every hostage while freeing 168 \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,71704,51,85,46,3794,142105,43,67947,96174,2892,142106,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-274158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-haaretz","10":"tag-hamas","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jerusalem","14":"tag-kibbutz","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-rachel-goldberg-polin","17":"tag-ran-gvili","18":"tag-ron-dermer","19":"tag-talmud","20":"tag-the-october-7-massacre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}