The absurdity of the Hamas proposal

Picture this scenario. A notorious gang member comes to your house, beats you within an inch of your life, puts you in the hospital, and just as you’re about to be released, you’re handed a bill for your beater’s dry cleaning, whose clothes were splattered by your blood.

That about wraps up the absurdly offensive and insulting proposal made by Hamas to free Israel’s hostages. Not only did their demands include a complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, ending their military efforts to finish off our enemies, but other demands included:

·A return to 2002, when no Jew could enter the Temple Mount or the Al-Aqsa Mosque area

·Guarantees that released Palestinian prisoners cannot be re-arrested

·Improvement of conditions for all remaining Palestinian prisoners

·A minimum of 500 trucks with humanitarian aid, including fuel

·Return of all Gazans to their homes as well as the opening of all crossings with no restrictions

·Provision of heavy equipment to clear out rubble

·Provision of health equipment along with the rehabilitation of hospitals

·Setting up residential camps, along with 60,000 temporary shelters (15,000 per week) and 200,000 tents (50,000 per week)

·Restoration of infrastructure, including water, electricity and communication

·Restoration of UNWRA with its funding intact

·Provision of diesel to operate Gaza power plant

Let’s get this straight – Hamas terrorists parachuted into Israel’s sovereign territory, for the purpose of committing a savage massacre against innocents, wiping out whole families and slaughtering 1200, but we are supposed to compensate them, to the max, for all the suffering which their people endured as a consequence of their heinous actions? 

If that’s not the height of chutzpah (gall), then what is? 

It’s almost as if Hamas purposely provided a laundry list to which they knew, in advance, that Israel would never agree. So why waste anyone’s time? It could be that they were banking on the tremendous pressure that has been unrelenting by hostage families to bring their loved ones home at any cost. Yet, as much as everyone is committed to their return, there are just some demands that are so out of the realm of reality that they just cannot be met.

It should be noted that Hamas also made it clear that they would not release any of the hostages until they saw a good faith movement towards the above demands first – meaning that we would already need to withdraw troops and begin providing equipment and shelters, at our expense – of course, before we would see the first hostages released.

A second explanation as to why Hamas would suggest such delusional demands could be due to their own shock and surprise as to how easy it was for them to do what they did on October 7 before anyone even responded to the attacks. 

As reported in the Jerusalem Post, “Where was the air force which was supposed to respond quickly? Why weren’t commandos sent to the border to stop the terrorists from bringing women, children and the elderly back to Gaza? How were 200 soldiers killed by Hamas, an organization that was supposed to be inferior to our IDF? How come the high command and intelligence services didn’t know about the planned attack? Why weren’t tanks sent directly to the border? Why did it take a day or two just to secure the area?

Up until October 7, Israel’s reputation of fierce and ready fighters was the main deterrent for any major terror attacks. Our intelligence capabilities were legendary, so who would dare to mess with us? Yet, once they did, our pitiful unpreparedness emboldened the enemy to believe that Israel’s capabilities had been highly overrated by them. Add to that the great anguish that has been suffered by over 130 families and friends, as well as millions of Israelis who have personalized this attack, internalizing the death and suffering of each victim, as if it was a member of their own family.

When you take those things into account, and couple them with international pressure being placed on Israel, amid an upcoming American presidential election, as well as the growing anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment, it’s not hard to imagine Hamas arriving at the conclusion that Israel is desperate enough to repair its world standing by allowing itself to agree to a disastrous deal.

Well, here is where the real underestimation comes in. Because as horrific as the events of the last three months have been, together with the acknowledgment of our many mistakes and failings, Israel is not about to commit to a suicide pact with an avowed enemy who is obsessed with the goal of a Jew-free planet.

As the saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.” Israel has paid a heavy price, not only from the point of physical deaths, but also to our collective psyche which has now been irreparably harmed by the knowledge that we are not as invincible as we once thought. A vulnerability has set in, letting us know that we can never again afford to be negligent and derelict in our obligation to protect the homeland.

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airwaves, to address the nation, concerning the Hamas hostage proposal, “rejecting the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza and rebuffing US pressure to move more quickly towards a mediated settlement of the war, stating that there could be no solution to Israel’s security issues except ‘absolute victory’ over the militant group.”

We can only hope that a crucial lesson has been learned by our leaders who now know that they can no longer rely upon advanced technology, our flawed intelligence or even top military personnel who should have been more suspicious and less trusting of a known terror group which was foolishly propped up by a government that wanted to believe in them.

Nor can we rely upon our allies, who, one minute stand shoulder to shoulder with us, but who, the next day, begin to waffle and consider political consequences and ramifications of the cost to them for being a good friend. 

Short of the watchful eye of the Almighty, who has promised to always preserve Israel as a nation before Him, we cannot count on too many to be there for us in our time of need.

Israel took a beating on October 7, and our blood was splattered on Hamas terrorists, but they will have to find someone else to pay for their cleaning bill, because the blood which was spilled is very much on their own hands!