{"id":15312,"date":"2024-02-09T12:47:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/israels-repudiation-of-a-deal-with-hamas-draws-fury-from-hostages-families\/"},"modified":"2024-02-09T12:47:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:47:39","slug":"israels-repudiation-of-a-deal-with-hamas-draws-fury-from-hostages-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/09\/israels-repudiation-of-a-deal-with-hamas-draws-fury-from-hostages-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s repudiation of a deal with Hamas draws fury from hostages\u2019 families"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 united a shocked, grieving Israel behind its leaders, burying at a stroke the divisions that had riven the country\u00a0for years. Four months into the war and with hopes for a new deal to return Israeli hostages from Gaza in doubt, those divisions are re-emerging \u2013 and Israelis are increasingly ready to speak their mind. <\/p>\n

Many, including the families of those hostages still held by Hamas, direct their anger toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,\u00a0who dismissed the terms of a ceasefire and hostage deal put forward by Hamas in forthright terms. <\/p>\n

\u201cSurrendering to Hamas\u2019 delusional demands will only ask for another disaster for the State of Israel, another massacre,\u201d Netanyahu said, adding that continuing military pressure was a \u201cnecessary condition\u201d for Israel\u2019s safety. <\/p>\n

Survivors of the October 7 terror attack and the families of hostages were furious at the uncompromising repudiation of a deal that \u2013 ultimately \u2013 could have resulted in the return of all the remaining hostages in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Adina Moshe, 72, who was released during a ceasefire deal agreed in November, was among five former hostages who spoke out against Netanyahu on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Netanyahu, I\u2019m turning to you. It\u2019s all in your hands. You are the one. And I\u2019m really afraid that if you continue the way you do, the destruction of Hamas, there won\u2019t be any hostages to release,\u201d Moshe said at a press conference for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Moshe\u2019s words carried power \u2013 she was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz and held hostage in Gaza for seven weeks. Her husband David (Sa\u2019id) Moshe was murdered by Hamas. <\/p>\n

Another former hostage, Sahar Kalderon, 16, said she was grateful to the government for bringing her back, but asked: \u201cBut what about my father who is abandoned anew every day, uncertain if he will live or die?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBring him back, do not make me lose faith in our country a second time,\u201d the teenager said. <\/p>\n

Protesters back in the streets<\/h2>\n

As the war drags on, the emergency unity government that was established after the attacks is looking increasingly fragile, with disagreements mounting over Netanyahu\u2019s strategy for getting hostages home, the future of Gaza and attempts to recruit more soldiers. <\/p>\n

The families of the hostages held in Gaza have emerged as a leading voice and they attract huge support among Israelis. For months, they mostly held off from criticizing the government and stayed away from politics. But this has now changed. <\/p>\n

Israel was consumed by months of weekly anti-government protests before the Hamas attack \u2013 October 7 was meant to be the 44th consecutive Saturday of mass demonstrations against Netanyahu\u2019s controversial plans to overhaul the judicial system. <\/p>\n

The proposed reform would have weakened the power of the courts and given the government more control over the appointment of judges. The opposition and the protesters criticized the plan as an attempted power grab by Netanyahu. <\/p>\n

Lital Shochat Chertow, from Israel Democracy HQ, the group that organizes the protests, said that most Israelis found themselves in \u201csurvival mode\u201d after the October 7 attacks and that everyone\u2019s focus immediately shifted from political protest to aid. There was a sense that it was not the time to oppose the government. <\/p>\n

There were protests and gatherings, but they were apolitical and solemn in nature. Most were held to express solidarity with the hostages and their families, to call for more action to bring them back, and to honor the victims. <\/p>\n

Political protesters like Shochat Chertow were keeping themselves away from these events. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd before we even dared to think of going out and protesting, we had bereaved families approaching us and saying \u2018we lost our son or daughter, our entire family, and we haven\u2019t heard from the government. They didn\u2019t come to the funeral, they didn\u2019t come to the shiva, we didn\u2019t get a letter, nothing,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Shochat Chertow\u00a0said. Shiva is the traditional seven-day Jewish mourning period. <\/p>\n

Crowds filled the square outside Israel\u2019s national theater, waving flags and carrying posters that called Netanyahu \u201cCrime Minister,\u201d\u00a0a play on his official title referencing the fact that the prime minister is currently on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. <\/p>\n

The protesters have urged the government to call new elections as soon as possible \u2013 the first time such a demand was made since the terror attacks. These anti-government protests are still strictly separate from the hostage families\u2019 events, which tend to take place just down the road at what has become known as the Hostage Plaza. But more people are coming to both. <\/p>\n

Hamas militants stormed the town during the October 7 attacks, killing 18 police officers and some 20 civilians. At one point, they were on Shabtai\u2019s roof, he said. The vast majority of the town\u2019s residents were evacuated following the attacks, but the government is now trying to convince them to return \u2013 something Shabtai said he was not prepared to do since rockets are still targeting Sderot on a regular basis. <\/p>\n

On Monday, Shabtai spent five hours traveling to Jerusalem with a small group of people to protest outside the government building. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Gaza, we see a lot of use of civilians for military purposes (as human shields); in Israel, the government actually paid me to find shelter,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Like hundreds of thousands of Israelis, Shabtai serves in the reserves and has spent the past three months fighting in Gaza. He is now being sent up north to Israel\u2019s border with Lebanon. <\/p>\n

The idea of sending his wife and two young children back to Sderot is a non-starter. \u201cTo put it gently, I really disagree with that. I feel like my government is trying to bring us back before they can make sure it\u2019s secure \u2013 because of the financial cost (of housing the families elsewhere),\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Shochat Chertow\u00a0said this is exactly why the protesters are back in the streets. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst crisis and the families (of the victims of the attack) have been abandoned and they still have no support from the government,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey say \u2018it\u2019s war time, we don\u2019t do politics and we don\u2019t protest during wartime\u2019 but the government is doing politics,\u201d she said pointing to a recent controversy over the state budget, which saw Netanyahu allocating billions of shekels to provide monthly payments to ultra-orthodox Jews who study the Torah full-time, instead of investing money into aiding survivors of the October 7 attacks and soldiers returning from the war. <\/p>\n

The government has left the criticism largely unanswered. Netanyahu has held a couple of meetings with representatives of the hostage families, but most were reported to be hostile and ended up with the families being angry with him. <\/p>\n

The latest political row consuming the country is over a proposal by the government to extend the length of both the mandatory military service and time served in the reserves for Israeli citizens. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the government is insisting on keeping the exemption for Haredi ultra-orthodox men, who do not have to serve in the military \u2013 although they can join, if they choose to, and more have been signing up since the October 7 attacks. <\/p>\n

The minority ultra-Orthodox community is a key electorate for Netanyahu, which makes the controversial exception a vital issue for him. <\/p>\n

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair\u00a0Lapid, from the centrist Yesh Atid party, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the proposed law would be a \u201cbetrayal of IDF soldiers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018together we win\u2019, and it\u2019s not \u2018we fight together\u2019. It\u2019s young men and women who will serve the country and risk their lives, unlike those who got themselves exempt,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

But even as some call for a new election \u2013 which would be Israel\u2019s sixth in just four years \u2013 many are not prepared to ditch Netanyahu. The prime minister, known as \u201cBibi\u201d in Israel, can rely on a shrinking, but sizable number of voters who would vote for him no matter what. <\/p>\n

And even some of those who didn\u2019t vote for him before see him as the only possibility. <\/p>\n

Evyatar Cohen, a law student, said that while he is no big fan of Netanyahu, and has never voted for him, he doesn\u2019t see another option. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is our best alternative right now. As a rational person, I have to choose between alternatives. As a right-wing person, I of course, want someone who would be more aggressive, who will have no tolerance against terrorists\u2026 but he is the best real alternative that we have right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The deadly Hamas attacks of October 7 united a shocked, grieving Israel behind its leaders, burying at a stroke the divisions that had riven the country\u00a0for years. Four months into the war and with hopes for a new deal to return Israeli hostages from Gaza in doubt, those divisions are re-emerging \u2013 and Israelis are <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}