GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 331

Playing The Long Game

The Sorrow Of The Nation

As the details about the six hostages came out, the reactions are exactly as you would expect they’d be as we read in a report from The Times Of Israel:

The bodies of six hostages abducted alive by Hamas on October 7 were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza’s Rafah overnight, shortly after they were murdered by terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday.

The hostages were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27.

These hostages were alive just before the IDF found them so it is obvious that Hamas killed them rather than have them rescued. If you need evidence to see how cruel and inhumane these terrorists are, this should be more than enough. Here is more information about these hostages:

Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi, Lobanov, Sarusi and Danino (an off-duty noncommissioned officer) were abducted from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, while Gat was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri.

Hamas executed them as we are now learning:

Their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds, Israel’s Health Ministry said, citing an examination carried out by Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.

The timing makes the point that Hamas didn’t want Israel to find them alive:

The ministry said that the hostages were murdered between 48 and 72 hours before their autopsy, meaning between Thursday and Friday morning.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the six were “brutally murdered” by Hamas shortly before troops arrived — possibly only a day or two before they were found.

“According to an initial assessment… they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short while before we reached them. They were abducted alive on the morning of October 7 by the Hamas terror group,” Hagari said in a press conference.

They were so close to finding them but Hamas also knew that which may explain why they killed them and fled:

“Their bodies were found during the fighting in Rafah, in a tunnel, about a kilometer away from the tunnel from which we rescued Farhan al-Qadi a few days ago,” he said.

The IDF were careful not to carry out military activities because of the intelligence they had:

The IDF said that it did not have the exact location of the hostages but had indications of a general area where the six could be held, and was therefore operating carefully in the area.

“Since Farhan was found, troops were given an emphasis on operating carefully even more than usual, because of the understanding that additional hostages may be in the area. We did not have information on the exact location of the hostages,” Hagari said.

Once they got close they soon knew the horrific news:

Troops began to search a tunnel complex, some 20 meters underground, on Saturday and found the hostages, dead, in the afternoon. Their bodies were extracted from Gaza overnight and brought to Israel for identification.

The Cowards Left

As we learned earlier in the report, the terrorists left before they could be killed themselves.

The IDF said there were no clashes with Hamas terrorists inside the tunnel, and the guards who likely murdered the six had fled the area. However, troops battled terror operatives aboveground in the area where the tunnel was located.

News that one of those murdered was an American caused some to actually start putting the blame where it should have been from the start:

US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the deaths of the hostages, in particular that of dual Israeli-US citizen Goldberg-Polin, whose parents, Jon and Rachel, he and other Americans had kept in their prayers.

“I have worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them and am heartbroken by the news of his death,” Biden said.

Biden then said the same thing that Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have echoed since October 7th – Hamas must pay:

“It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” he said.

Kamala Harris also laid the responsibility on Hamas, but stopped short of what her boss said:

US vice president and presidential nominee Kamala Harris expressed her condolences to the Goldberg-Polin family, and reiterated that Hamas now has “even more American blood on its hands.”

“Doug and my prayers are with Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Hersh’s parents, and with everyone who knew and loved Hersh,” Harris said in a statement.

“When I met with Jon and Rachel earlier this year, I told them: You are not alone. That remains true as they mourn this terrible loss,” she said. “Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands.”

The family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin also spoke out:

In a brief statement, Goldberg-Polin’s family said that they had “broken hearts.”

“The Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” they said in an announcement. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”

Some family members are laying the blame on the PM, though:

Gat’s cousin Gil Dickmann, a prominent voice among those campaigning for the release of the hostages, called on the public to take to the streets.

“The nightmare came true. It was in our hands. Get out of your homes to stop the next murder,” he wrote on X.

The Israeli president was more contrite:

President Isaac Herzog said in a statement that the “heart of an entire nation is crushed into pieces” with the announcement of the deaths of the hostages. “In the name of the entire State of Israel, I hold their families in my heart and ask forgiveness. Forgiveness for not being able to return your loved ones home safely,” he said.

We Must Remember Who Did This

In an op-ed from the Jerusalem News Syndicate, Caroline Glick reminds us what is really happening and who is complicit with Hamas now, and it’s not who you think:

On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists snatched Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Carmel Gat, 39, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 26, Alex Lobanov, 32, and Ori Danino, 25 from the Supernova Music Festival and their homes along the border with Gaza along with 250 other innocents and held them as hostages.

As we know from hostages rescued alive since, Hamas tortures the Israeli captives as a matter of course. They are raped. They are beaten. They are starved. And they are humiliated and psychologically tortured day in and day out.

And many of them have also been executed.

Hamas executed Hersh, Carmel, Eden, Almog, Alex and Ori, apparently quite recently. And the IDF brought their bodies home on Saturday night.

Glick says that Israel should fight fire with fire, something they refuse to do:

Rather than respond to the heartbreaking news with condemnations of Hamas and demands that Israel fight to victory; rather than call for Israel to execute an equal or larger number of Hamas terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities who are currently in Israeli jails, Israel’s opposition leaders in the Knesset have joined the anarchist groups in blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Hamas’s murder of the six.

Glick believes that those on the left both in and out of the military are sabotaging what really needs to be done:

As one, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Yair Golan and their underlings have joined the leftist groups that have been using mass riots, political violence and general mayhem since 2019 in an effort to oust Netanyahu from power, and have called on Israelis to take to the streets in response to the executions and bring down the government through violence.

The behavior of the likes of Lapid, Gantz, Golan; of 90% of Israel’s media organs and the rest of the left’s representatives, raises the question: Have they lost their minds?

Hostages are a very good strategic tool and Hamas knows that:

Hamas took the hostages on Oct. 7 because its calculating leader Yahya Sinwar rightly identified hostages as Israel’s soft underbelly. In 1985, Israel freed 1,150 terrorists from Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Syria by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Among those freed was Ahmed Yassin, who founded Hamas two and a half years later.

Yassin and his fellow terrorists freed in the deal used their freedom to transform terrorism from a tactical nuisance into a strategic threat to the existence of Israel, leading waves of terror campaigns for the next two decades.

The Jibril deal taught Israel’s enemies that Israeli hostages are their ace in the hole. Oct. 7 was born in October 2011, when Israel freed 1,027 terrorists, including Sinwar, for IDF Sgt. Gilad Shalit, whom Hamas terrorists had held hostage since June 2006.

Sinwar’s war strategy has been the same since the outset of the war: To use international pressure and domestic political unrest to compel Israel to capitulate to his demands. If he and Hamas are able to survive, Hamas wins. Obviously, the hostages are a key means of accomplishing his goal.

Hamas Needs That Corridor

As I’ve said over and over again, if everyone is against something internationally, then you can bet that Israel should do it. In this case there is ample reason to believe that Hamas killed these hostages rather than move them to put pressure on Israel to cave and leave the Philadelphi Corridor:

This brings us to the recent execution of the six. Apparently, their captors saw that IDF units were closing in on their position. They could have seized the hostages and run somewhere else. But they executed them. Why?

Consider recent events.

Netanyahu has been willing to bend on many demands by Hamas just to get a small amount of hostages, some of them already dead. But he insists on not giving up control of the Gaza/Egyptian border. Glick explains why:

While Israel’s position has changed over the course of the talks, Hamas’s has stayed constant. It demands a total cessation of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, and the total withdrawal of all IDF units from all of Gaza, including the border with Egypt. Reportedly, there are thousands of fully armed Hamas terrorists in Sinai waiting for the ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the border to enter Gaza and to in short order rebuild Hamas’s regime and its devastated forces.

Sinwar knows this. Netanyahu knows this. And yet those around the PM who also know this are playing right into the hands of Sinwar:

On the other hand, in acts of gross insubordination and strategic lunacy, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, Mossad Director David Barnea and other top officials have let it be known through their media mouthpieces that they oppose Netanyahu’s position. Halevi, Bar and others refuse to acknowledge the administration’s actual policy and insist that Israel can afford to leave the Gaza-Egypt border for six weeks. And returning will be an easy matter.

In other words, Gallant, the generals, the left’s political leaders and the rioters in the streets are all playing the roles Sinwar assigned them.

One relative of a murdered hostage posted this on X:

As Tal Gilboa, whose nephew Guy Gilboa-Dalal remains hostage in Gaza, wrote on her X account on Sunday morning, “If the formula is ‘dead hostages = shutting down the country,’ … what would you do if you were Sinwar?”

The PM finally responds:

Towards noon on Sunday, Netanyahu issued his first response to the news that that the hostages had been executed. He explained that Hamas stopped carrying out serious negotiations with Israel last December. Sinwar rejected the U.S. ceasefire for hostages deals in May and August—both of which Israel accepted. Netanyahu concluded by noting that the execution of the six hostages makes clear, yet again, that Hamas doesn’t want a deal.

Sinwar is getting all he wants with everyone but the one man who sees through it all: Netanyahu. Pray he has a spine of steel now as Hamas is running on fumes. To give into them now will only imperil the lives of future Israelis and perhaps more hostages.