Blaming Bibi: documentary about the family of a hostage
The harrowing plight of the remaining hostages, and their loved ones and friends, should not be forgotten. Their are still about 59 and perhaps half of them are still alive.
And so I read this piece with interest. It describes a documentary that focuses on one such family, with relatives both in Israel and in the US.
The hostage families are not a unitary group, and even within this family there apparently are considerable political differences of opinion. And I consider that the families of hostages have undergone such stress, turmoil, fear, and sorrow that they are almost beyond criticism for anything they might do or say. However, quite a few of them are on the Israeli left and have long hated Netanyahu, and it should come as no surprise that they consider him blameworthy.
But two things in the article surprised me enough that I’m going to discuss them. First, a little background:
The film, which won the best documentary feature award at the Berlinale film festival, shows the first months after teacher Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband, artist and mechanic Aviv Atzili, were taken hostage in the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, part of the wider Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Much of the film focuses on Beinin Atzili’s older parents, American-born couple Yehuda and Chaya Beinin, who have lived in Israel since the early 1970s. They worked with the couple’s siblings and three children to get their daughter and son-in-law released.
As it turned out, Liat was released in that first wave, but Aviv had been murdered on October 7 and Hamas still holds his body.
Liat’s father Yehuda had this puzzling thing to say about the family’s initial attitude:
“We thought another couple of weeks and this would all be over,” said Beinin. “Nobody thought we’d be in this for the long haul.”
Why would anyone think that? I understand that it might have been wishful thinking, but it makes zero sense to me based on history. Beinin must be aware that the negotiations for a single hostage, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, took five years to accomplish. Also, 1027 prisoners were exchanged for that one man, 280 of them lifers.
So how could anyone think this would “be over” in a couple of weeks, and why would that person not realize this would not just be a prisoners-for-hostages deal but would have to involve a war to destroy Hamas?
Yehuda Beinin is described in the article as a “peacenik” and “committed liberal who has long been opposed to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” So obviously he is going to see Netanyahu as the problem; perhaps that allows him to have a fantasy that this matter could have been resolved quickly and easily without Bibi. In fact, that leads to the second puzzling statement of Beinin’s:
It’s clear to Beinin that if Israel wants the remaining 59 hostages released, then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has to go,” he said. “The hostage families found themselves in a very difficult situation. There won’t be any resolution if he’s still prime minister.”
Well, I suppose he would be correct if Netanyahu was replaced by a leftist government willing to give Hamas everything it wants, keep Hamas in power, end all military operations and control of Gaza, and throw in a Palestinian state as well. But short of that, I can’t imagine what sort of magical thinking is required to think someone else would do better than Netanyahu – whose government, after all, made the deal that returned Liat Beinin Atzili to her family.
More:
And as [Yehuda] Beinin pointed out, both in the film and in interviews, he sometimes angers people, including his own grandchildren, when he brings in politics, and has tried to rein himself in.
So the family members are not united with him politically. And yet they have managed to work together. In addition, neither Liat nor Aviv’s relatives seem to want compromises in order to bring Aviv’s body home:
“Liat has said she doesn’t want a single hair on any Israeli soldier’s head harmed to bring Aviv home,” said Beinin. “And Aviv’s brother says if it will take twenty years to bring his body home, then it will take 20 years.”
I would be interested in seeing this movie if and when it becomes readily available.
I wonder if he was one of the morons who allowed the Islam Nazi goat shtuppers into their homes, thinking it would create Kumbaya Goodwill? You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.
hes in fantasy land, partially out of grief, but also his belief in the Oslo narrative, which I thought was absurd thirty years ago, and even more so, since October 7th
My favorite read of the day, and it’s at least kind of related to this post, but maybe it belongs in the open thread.
https://www.jns.org/the-israeli-woman-who-speaks-to-the-arab-world/
Let’s see: there’s a segment of the Israeli population that is mad at Netanyahu because all the hostages have not been returned, and a portion of the population of Gaza that is demonstrating against Hamas because they don’t want perpetual war with Israel. Both cohorts exhibit the Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe we should be hoping both groups will increase in size, although that’s not good news for Netanyahu. But he’s already been PM long than anyone else in Israel, I believe.
Let’s see: there’s a segment of the Israeli population that is mad at Netanyahu because all the hostages have not been returned, and a portion of the population of Gaza that is demonstrating against Hamas because they don’t want perpetual war with Israel. Both cohorts exhibit the Stockholm Syndrome.
==
The term ‘Stockholm syndrome” does not mean what you fancy it means.
==
Maybe we should be hoping both groups will increase in size, although that’s not good news for Netanyahu.
==
No, you shouldn’t. The people in Gaza wanting out of perpetual war are being reasonable. The people in Israel kvetching about the hostages are not.
==
But he’s already been PM long than anyone else in Israel, I believe.
==
Netanyahu’s time in public life thus far (40 years and change) is about the median of his predecessors. His current age (75) is a tad higher than the median age at which his predecessors shuffled off into the back benches or shuffled off into retirement. David Ben-Gurion was director of the Jewish Agency from 1935 to 1948 and then Prime Minister from 1948 to 1963 (bar two years); Netanyahu has some time ahead of him to surpass that.
It’s certainly possible that the October 7 attack could have been averted if Israel had a prime minister who devoted his energies to improving intelligence gathering instead of supporting West Bank settlers in their pointless nastiness. But we’ll never know that.
What we do know is that Netanyahu has no plan other than his own political survival.
What we do know is that Netanyahu has no plan other than his own political survival.
y81:
Perhaps you do. However, I lack such enlightenment. And I distrust mindreading.
Cites?
Bibi is 75?
He’s a silver fox.
When things slow down, he should market a diet and exercise program. Or go up against Ralph Lauren with a line of clothing. 🙂
@y81
I am reporting you to Interpol for suspected illegal smuggling because I see no other explanation for the giant strawman than this. As for “energies to improving intelligence”, Bibi worked hard to try and reel in the institutional Leftist groupthink in Mossad and elsewhere, but was hampered by the left. Moreover, reports about the prep work for the attack were already filtered up the chain of command by IDF intel assets but were ignored.
It is also this context that makes the “settlers” actions a lot more reasonable than whatever navel gazing bullshit the Israeli left or you are advocating.
Even if that were true it is painfully clear that the Israeli left have no plan other than repeating the same abject failures of the Oslo process, in spite of how even most of their domestic base no longer believes that liable to obtain results.
Judges 2:8-13…
I’m not going to plug up the thread with the whole quote…but that ‘peacenik’ doofus seems to possess the same kind of forgetfulness the early Israelites suffered. It’s a recurring issue.
At this point he’s too far removed from the camps and ovens.
Been wondering how many hostages were still unaccounted for.
It’s a no win situation with families, they want 1 ending and it’s not always possible.
Sorry to think that these hostage family members have nothing to cling to but wishcasting. When one looks objectively at Israel’s enemies, it is impossible to believe that any kind of peace is possible, unless it is the peace of the grave. Whether the grave is occupied by Israelis or Arabs seems to be the only real choice. Sadly, it also appears that there are many Israelis who prefer the grave for themselves and their country. Like the democerat left in America and its unreasoning hate for all things Trump, they are consumed by an irrational hatred for Netanyahu. I am unable to understand such a mindset. Self-loathing only begins to describe it.
Self-loathing only begins to describe it.
==
That doesn’t describe it at all. They think quite well of themselves. They’re unwilling to acknowledge the implications of what they’re advocating. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy…
Please note that in the 1973 legislative elections in Israel the Labor Party, the ancestors of Meretz, and political parties who later merged with the Labor Party captured 45% of the vote. In 2022, the Labor Party and Meretz captured shy of 7% of the vote. The Labor Party, btw, has for nearly 60 years been rather hard-headed compared with the majority faction of the Democratic Party in the United States. In Israel, there are nationalist parties, there are social-liberal parties, there are religious parties, there are Arab interest parties who draw from different inspirations. What we would call ‘the left’ has largely withered away; you see the same story in a number of European countries. In Israel, the left do occupy gatekeeper positions in the legal profession and they’re motivated to attend large mass demonstrations, but they account for only a small fraction of the general public.
Art Deco:
The left is also disproportionately represented among the victims of 10/7.
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer):
I’m surprised you find it so hard to understand.
The actual position of Israelis is so dire in terms of being surrounded by so many people sworn to destroy it and its inhabitants; who wouldn’t be eager to think things aren’t quite as bad as all that? Acknowledging the truth is very very depressing.
Same for anti-Semitism. Its pervasiveness over time and place and circumstance is mind-boggling and hard to acknowledge.
The actual position of Israelis is so dire in terms of being surrounded by so many people sworn to destroy it and its inhabitants;
==
Israel hasn’t been at war with an Arab state since 1973. It’s enemies are paramilitary gangs, several of whom are financed by Iran. In different ways, the capacity of Hamas and the Hezbollah to accomplish much has been severely degraded. The Houthis are a threat to shipping; they’ll learn the hard way that others can shoot back. Al Fatah and its hangers-on have been successfully contained for nearly 20 years. As for state actors, Syria’s productive capacity in comparison with that of any other country in the Near East may be as low as it has been in the last century. Iran is a threat. Iran’s dispositions have been frozen in amber by the remarkable longevity of its current boss, who was second in command from 1981 and in charge from 1989. He has a life expectancy of about five years. NB, Iran in its antagonism to Israel was never motivated by reasons of state.
Art Deco:
Gaza and the so-called West Bank are two of its immediate neighbors – sworn to destroy it. Egypt has nominally been at peace with Israel for decades, but it helps the Palestinians in a host of ways and was responsible for allowing the Gazans to arm and facilitated that arming. The Egyptian population is anti-Israel. Jordan’s leaders are far more friendly towards Israel than Jordan’s population, which is pretty indistinguishable from the Palestinians. Lebanon has been run by Hezbollah, pretty much, which takes its marching orders from Iran. As for Syria:
Gaza and the so-called West Bank are two of its immediate neighbors – sworn to destroy it
==
The sh!tty little toddler who lives next door to you may have a propensity to bite people. That’s not a mortal peril to you.
==
That a population is ‘anti-Israel’ does not mean it is willing to waste blood and treasure on killing Jews.
==
Again, the difference in productive capacity between Israel and Syria is quite large. They’re not in a position to wage war on Israel and have not attempted to do so since 1973.
Did someone mention derangement?
Related, essentially, if somewhat entertainingly…
“March 28: We Had to Hide the Truth in Order to Save It”—
https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/march-28-we-had-to-hide-the-truth
H/T Powerline blog.
BTW, the anti-Bibi demos are clearly following that good ole’ “Biden” Color Revolution script.
(Gosh! Whoda thunk THAT???)
As such, might one wonder who’s funding it?
File under: “Biden” might be gone but “his” legacy lives on. HOLD ON! “He” hasn’t gone anywhere…