Opinion | When it Involves the Hostages, Israel Has Solely a Few Choices

Israelis have been held hostage many instances over the nation’s 75 years. In Could 1974, members of the Fashionable Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine held 115 hostages, most of them highschool college students within the city of Maalot, in northern Israel, for 2 days, an episode that ended within the murders of twenty-two hostages. An Air Power officer, Ron Arad, was shot down over Lebanon in 1986 and was by no means returned. In Could 1985, Israel launched 1,150 Palestinian prisoners in trade for the return of three Israeli troopers captured in Lebanon.

Over the course of these painful episodes, the nation discovered a terrific deal about the best way to work for its hostages’ launch, whether or not by way of third-party negotiations, secret again channels or power. However right this moment’s hostage disaster is in contrast to some other. It’s not only a few individuals being held by hostile forces. It’s about 200 individuals, together with ladies, youngsters and the aged, and it’s unfolding within the midst of a full-blown struggle. Not one of the previous guidelines apply.

Hamas held Mr. Schalit in a secret location. Is that potential with such a big group? Gaza is a really small territory with a really dense inhabitants, not all of whom help Hamas. The inevitable intelligence leaks may allow Israel to conduct rescue operations. Israeli intelligence analysts shall be on the lookout for leads anyplace they’ll discover them, akin to information from cellphones discovered on the our bodies of terrorists killed because the assault on Oct. 7.

It’s equally unclear how this group of hostages shall be handled. Hamas handled Gilad Schalit surprisingly effectively throughout his years of captivity. He was by no means bodily tortured. May the identical be the case with so many hostages? Hamas has stated that a few of them are being held by different teams, together with Islamic Jihad. No matter Hamas’s strategy is towards these hostages, there is no such thing as a assure that one other group will share it.

Killing hostages will not be what I might beforehand have anticipated from Hamas. However the killing spree of Oct. 7, together with the butchering of entire households, the burning of properties, the destruction of entire communities, modified that. On Monday, it launched a video of a 21-year-old hostage who appeared to have been wounded and was being handled on digicam. There have been no indicators that she had been tortured however it was clear that she was beneath duress.

Negotiating for the discharge of hostages may additionally be much less common this time round. The Schalit deal was very troublesome for Israel to simply accept. Greater than 300 of the Palestinians who had been launched from jail had been serving life sentences for violent acts, together with killing Israelis. It was arduous for me, too: My spouse’s first cousin, Sasson Nuriel, was kidnapped and killed by Hamas in September 2005. 4 of the individuals accountable for murdering him had been launched as a part of the settlement that I negotiated. Nonetheless, in the long run, almost 80 % of the general public, in line with one ballot, together with 26 authorities ministers and your entire nationwide safety institution, supported the deal. Prime Minister Netanyahu signed off on the settlement.

Right now, Israel holds about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners, of whom 559 are serving life sentences for killing Israelis, in line with Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group. Will Israelis, nonetheless reeling from the atrocities of Oct. 7, be keen to simply accept this type of cut price once more? Is it protected to take action? One of many males who killed my spouse’s cousin, who was launched in trade for Gilad Schalit, was among the many leaders of the Oct. 7 terrorist assaults, in line with Israel’s report of his current killing.

I’ve no official authorization as a negotiator, however so far as I do know I’m the one Israeli citizen who has contacts each with the management of Hamas and the management of Israel, so I’ve been in continuous contact with each side in hopes of advancing some long-term settlement. The discharge of these first two hostages is a optimistic growth, however total, prospects stay dim. Hamas continues to demand an finish to “Israel’s aggression in opposition to Gaza,” and Israel says it has no intention of ending this struggle “till the job is finished.” Mr. Hamad has not backed down from Hamas’s brutal assaults.

In my conversations with Hamas leaders, I’ve pushed them to launch the ladies, youngsters, aged and sick as a humanitarian gesture. Hamas rejected the thought. I imagine that Israel is open to simply accept a small deal in trade for such a bunch, so I proposed to my Hamas contacts that they commerce them for the 33 Palestinian ladies and 170 Palestinian minors presently in Israeli prisons, in line with Addameer. Hamas rejected that, too. Proper now, Hamas’s focus is attaining a complete cease-fire.

There are nonetheless official talks happening. Qatar is talking with Hamas and the US is talking with Qatar and Israel. That is too convoluted and complicated. There have to be direct talks between Israel, Qatar and Hamas, and nobody else. Not the US, and never Iran. The settlement of Hamas to launch the 2 Individuals was apparently negotiated by the Qataris and assisted by the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross.

America nonetheless has a job to play. It ought to proceed to strain Qatar, which ought to give an ultimatum that if hostages aren’t launched inside, say, 24 hours, all of Hamas’s leaders shall be expelled from Qatar, the place many are based mostly. I don’t imagine that Qatar will comply with that — and definitely not with out an Israeli cease-fire — however the American authorities and others have leverage over Qatar and it ought to be used.

There may be nonetheless a small probability and a restricted window of alternative earlier than the bottom assault begins to achieve the discharge of among the hostages by way of this type of settlement. After the invasion begins, it’ll rely on Israeli particular forces to attempt to save them.

Some will once more see their properties; others might not.

On the different finish of this struggle, I hope that the trauma and struggling we’re all feeling on each side of the battle will spur us to determine the best way to share this land that belongs to each Israelis and Palestinians. Perhaps our collective struggling and ache could be channeled to specializing in the best way to dwell collectively quite than killing one another. That shall be a protracted course of and can’t embody the leaders on each side who’ve introduced us to the place we’re.

We’d like a brand new era of leaders with new imaginative and prescient, new hopes, new goals and the power to steer. I hope that most of the hostages, along with their households, will quickly be capable to be part of the voices calling for change.