Israel: what’s next for the remaining hostages and for the war?
Here’s an extremely touching and difficult interview with a recently released hostage. This man looks haunted, like a man come back from the dead. The first group of hostages never looked or sounded like this.
He also discovered, after his return, that his wife and two teenage daughters were murdered by Gazans on October 7. What a homecoming.
You probably are also aware that Israel is now saying that the second part of the deal is off, or postponed, because Hamas rejected the US’s Witkoff plan. Also, Israel has stopped aid to Gaza. However, the latter hardly matters for now, because Gaza has gotten tons of aid recently and has enough supplies to last for months.
Your guess is as good as mine – or anyone’s, really, on what will happen next. So sorry – I can’t answer the question I posed in the title of this post.
I watched a small segment of this. It’s his description of what hunger does to you. Extended hunger, that goes on for months. It’s heartbreaking.
It’s happening again. We said never again, but it’s happening again.
Strategically, it’s status quo ante.
Except, this time, I suspect the Israeli public will be tired of war. Since nothing was gained, not even pushing Hamas away from the border.
So, as they say, as well hung for a sheep as for a lamb, or something. If you’re gong to be condemned by the world for shooting back…what worse can they do if you…go all Samson on the enemy, whichever target that looks like?
Or, maybe, go back to the Old Way but promise to be more vigilant in the future.
“… promise to be more vigilant in the future …”
I’m not sure if it’s accurate but supposedly the intelligence people who were stationed around Gaza District suspected that HAMAS was getting ready to commit a massive terrorist attack.
And their superiors, safely ensconced in Tel Aviv, ignored their multiple warnings.
If true, those superiors should not only be sacked. But put on trial too. All the misery is on their shoulders. But all of Israel is paying the price for their smugness.
Tuvea.
True, but being smug in the face of actionable data could be considered “not vigilant” in the larger sense.
So the qualifier for the Big Chairs in TA must be a smug assessment…?
My father said most generals–he was an officer in WW II–had a pretty good view of themselves. After all, they’d started with a couple of thousand second lieutenants back in the commissioning day and…those guys weren’t generals. So maybe smug is an occupational hazard unless some kind of personality quirk occurs.
I’m not bulimic, nevertheless Dayan makes me want to puke.