Vivian Bercovici: Hostage murders cast an angry shadow over Netanyahu’s Gaza campaign

Hamas murdered six hostages last week after using them to wage psychological warfare against Israel

Published Sep 07, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  6 minute read

Families of October 7 abductees carry coffins equal to the number of abductees murdered in captivity and whose bodies were returned to Israel. Photo by Hostage Family Forum Media

Hamas terrorists pulled the triggers, at least six times at close range, ensuring that a bullet lodged in the head of each hostage.

Late Saturday afternoon, the bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Almog Sarusi and Alexander Lobanov were recovered by IDF soldiers in a tunnel 20 metres below ground in Rafah. Autopsies confirmed that they had been murdered between Thursday and Friday afternoon.

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Each one was a civilian, captured violently by Hamas on October 7, 2023. They were starved, dehydrated, had chronic medical issues and suffered from untreated injuries, torture and a lack of air, light and hygiene.

We know that Hamas forced each hostage to record at least one short video that adhered to a formulaic script virtually identical to previous videos released by the terror group (a powerful tactic borrowed from ISIS): name, age, and where they lived, followed by expressions of love and longing for immediate family members. They then yelled at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failings of his leadership and the army to protect and rescue its citizens. Each hostage beseeches Israelis to continue to protest in the streets for their freedom. Their gaunt frames. Sunken eyes. Deathly pallor. Pull at every heartstring.

This is known as psy ops — or psychological warfare — in the world of security and intelligence. Hamas excels at it. Psy ops are intended to exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of the enemy. In this case, Hamas aimed directly at the beating heart of Israel and its unspoken covenant to ensure security for its citizens. Should there be a slip-up, it is understood that the nation will do everything possible to leave no one behind. To most Israelis, this means that in the current situation, redeeming the life of a hostage is an ultimate duty and value.

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Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who speaks Hebrew fluently and studied the Israeli mindset assiduously when in prison for 22 years, understands the national DNA well.

Coerced or not, the hostages’ rage as reflected in the videos ricochets throughout Israel, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in protest of the government’s handling of the hostage crisis. Every night. Some have taken to calling Bibi “Mr. Abandonment,” saying he prioritizes his political survival over the rescue of hostages, violating a sacrosanct foundation of Israeli society.

It is unclear exactly when these videos were recorded. Gat, who says she is 39 years old in one clip, turned 40 on May 16. A safe assumption is that Sinwar and his deputies have accumulated a library of videos of each hostage to be deployed when they determine it will inflict maximum damage.

In the days before the murders, fury was already at a full boil throughout Israel following the leaking of a recording of a security cabinet meeting held on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 29. Things became very tense, with the Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, putting this ultimatum to Netanyahu: “If Sinwar presents you with the dilemma: Either you leave Philadelphi (Corridor) or you return the hostages, what do you do?”

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The prime minister said he would choose Philadelphi. (Philadelphi is a strip of land running along the Gaza-Egypt border and through which Hamas smuggles most of its weapons.)

Tempers flared in the security cabinet room. (Outside, once leaked, this position inflamed the country. And this was before the public was informed of the murders.)

Also attending this meeting were certain key security and intelligence officials — heads of Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff — who, along with Gallant, agreed in July that Israel could manage a full withdrawal from Gaza for six weeks. For the last two months, publicly, they have been saying that this is the last chance to get the hostages out, alive. If taking advantage of that means relinquishing control of Philadelphi, they say, Israel can and must do so.

Netanyahu has since elaborated as to why he says “no.” If we withdraw and find it necessary to re-enter, we will face enormous international political pressure. There is more to this conundrum than military logistics. In fairness, there is considerable merit in what the prime minister says.

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The problem is that more than 70 per cent of Israelis — who agree that Hamas must be destroyed as a military force — also think that Netanyahu should resign. His leadership is toxic and divisive. Most importantly, he led the country to the October 7 disaster. He has lost the confidence of too many.

In recent weeks, a number of Israeli security experts have asked: “If Philadelphi was so critical to Israel’s security, then why did we not begin the ground offensive there, rather than heading straight for Gaza City?”

Israel’s detractors and enemies understand well the agony pulsing through the country. They condemn all civilian casualties, but then go on to point out the numerical disparity. So many thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in this war, they say, and yet there is such lopsided anguish — for six hostages? Only six? What about the thousands of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in Israeli air strikes?

And there is only one response to them.

Where were you on October 7, as Hamas was torturing and slaughtering and kidnapping Israeli civilians? Were you dancing in the streets of Montreal? Mississauga? Paris?

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Were you chanting, gleefully, for “Intifada, Revolution”? “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”? Did you organize and participate in demonstrations to “Free Palestine”?

Because, if so, then you have declared your support of actual genocide as personified and pursued by Hamas. In the Hamas Charter, which has undergone cosmetic tweaks since the group was established in 1988, what remains is a clear commitment to destroy Israel and murder all Jews. There is no ambiguity in their rhetoric and political stance. If anything, Hamas and its supporters have become bolder and increasingly intransigent.

And many in the West, for some reason, are besotted with this hateful, primitive ideology. Queers 4 Palestine seem oblivious to their fate under an Islamist regime like Hamas. As do so many “progressives.”

They excuse Hamas savagery — including rape — as “legitimate resistance” to the “settler colonial” aggression of Israel.

The moral rightness of war is not just measured in the number of civilian deaths. If that were so, we would be less than 100 years into the “thousand-year Reich” promised by Hitler in 1933.

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The civilian toll in Israel and Gaza is dreadful. But the casualties arise from very different circumstances.

War sucks. Hamas should not have started one on October 7.

But Hamas’s grievance, as its supporters affirm, did not begin on October 7. It begins with the existence of the state of Israel and the defilement of the land by Jews. (Jews. Not Zionists. This is about Jews. The Hamas Charter confirms this point.) It will end once Israel is destroyed and replaced by Islamist rule.

Hamas doesn’t want a deal. Or peace. If it did, it would not have murdered the hostages. The tunnel in which their bodies were found was connected to a shaft leading to a child’s bedroom in a civilian home. Hamas has turned virtually every mosque, hospital, school and civilian building and home into part of the extensive tunnel network. The tunnels exist purely for military purposes. Civilians are denied shelter, even during air strikes. They are of greater value to Hamas leadership if they die and suffer.

Every single person on Canadian streets — in academic institutions, unions, governments — who pretends otherwise, is a Hamas supporter and accomplice to genocide.

National Post

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