Israel’s “Sophie’s Choice” hostage deal would drive anyone to drink

In American author William Styron’s novel, Sophie’s Choice, Sophie was forced, at Auschwitz, to choose which of her two children would be sent to the gas chamber and which would live. Should she have refrained from choosing, both would die. That is the nature of the choice facing our leadership having to negotiate hostage deals since 251 people were abducted on Oct 7th.

And that is why you will never find me at ‘Hostages Square’ or any demonstration calling for a deal at any price or ceasefire NOW. Because I put myself in the shoes of a government that has to choose a Sophie’s choice kind of choice, meaning, the kind of choice that would drive any sane person mad.

Let’s try it out, okay? Here are some forced choice questions:

Nobody is or was going to make the choice to ignore the hostages and just bomb the hell out of Hamas without regard to how many of hostages would be killed in the process — and that came at the cost of so many soldiers. That is a choice I will not list here even though it was one that was made.

1. Let us go back to the year 2006 and Gilad Shalit’s family is pressing the government hard for a deal to release their son. They were not going to let Gilad be another Nachshon Wachsman who was killed in an attempted rescue operation. They have much of the country galvanized behind them.But you know the names, faces, and families of those who will be killed by some of the 1027 terrorists released in exchange for Shalit over the next decade. And you know the names, faces, and families of the 251 hostages that will be abducted in 2023 in an operation planned and executed by some of the released terrorists.

   Do you make the deal? We know the choice they made. (I was against the deal yet when Shalit was released, I was as glued to the screen as most other Israelis and happy to see him free.)

2. Now it is October or November 2023. You know, of course, the names, faces, and families of the 251 hostages abducted in an operation planned by some of those prisoners you released in 2006. And you also know the names, faces, and families of those who will be killed or abducted in the future by terrorists released in exchange for these hostages.Do you make the deal? We know they made a partial deal for some of the hostages. (I was against the deal yet when the first sets of hostages were released, I was as glued to the screen as most other Israelis and happy and excited to see them free.)
3. Now you request 34 live hostages be released in a hostage deal currently under consideration and Hamas says they will let 22 out now and not the other 12. You know the names and faces and families of those on both lists, the 22 and the 12. You know the names and faces and families of the remaining just under 30 hostages who are not on either list for some reason. You have already made some hard choices regarding requesting 30 some hostages and not insisting on the other 30 some hostages. Yet the demonstrators at ‘Hostages Square’ are insisting on a deal at any price. Do you go for the 22 now? Even if that may mean giving up on all the others? I say that because there is no guarantee that those who are alive today will be alive tomorrow.

I understand the demonstrators — all Israelis (I hope) want ALL the hostages released NOW because not another day can go by for them in the torturous conditions under which they are being held and the actual torture to which they are being subjected.

But since demonstrators are saying ‘at any cost,’ let us put some forced choice questions to the demonstration leaders :

1. You can get the hostages home in exchange for as many terrorists released as Hamas wants, and the cost is knowing your child/spouse/parent/sibling will be killed by one of those terrorists. Do you make the deal?
2. You can get all the hostages home right now but you must give Hamas your child to hold for ransom instead. OK? You did say ‘at any cost.’
3. You can get them all home and Bibi wins the next election or you can bring down the Netanyahu government forever — you cannot have both. Do you make the deal?
4. You can get them all home and end the war with Hamas still controlling Gaza and Bibi gets blamed for everything at the cost of another Oct 7th, the date, time, and place of which you are shown in a prophetic dream. Do you make the deal?

Of course hostages’ families and friends are out in the streets shouting for their loved ones to be sent home, even at any cost.

But I wonder how much those demonstrating consider future costs to a deal now. Demonstration leaders and those paying for them should and those who follow them should as well. Because there are choices regarding how to demonstrate — the choices those footing the bill make say something about their goals.

What they are saying and where they are saying it:

The choice of slogan is wrong — it should be “Let them go.” I criticized the use of ‘Bring them home’ almost exactly a year ago and fellow Substacker Lisa Liel recently wrote most passionately about it here. Others have begun to say this as well.

And where they are demonstrating is wrong — it should be in front of UN and International Red Cross buildings around the world and not in front of Bibi’s office, the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa, or in front of the Israeli ambassador’s Washington DC residence. Both Lisa Liel and I wrote about that as well.

After all, the goal of the demonstrations should be to force the world to force Hamas and ‘innocent’ Gazans to release the hostages and lay down their arms. Blaming Bibi for not accepting a deal at any cost just drives up the cost if a deal is even possible at this point. You wouldn’t do that if you were bargaining at the shuk so why do you, demonstrator, not understand this principle? Do you question the cynical path taken by the organizers and financial supporters?

Just put yourself in the leadership role and consider the national Sophie’s choice, that impossible choice that would drive anyone to drink, take drugs, have a heart attack, go insane…. I can’t even imagine.

You can find the Israeli Foreign Ministry ‘Hostages and Missing Persons Report’ here. The report says that 60 hostages are still alive; however, it does not name them. A list of names is provided by Chabad, according to which, 64 hostages are still alive.

According to the Chabad list, among the hostages still alive:

• 2 are mentally ill Israeli men who wandered over the border about a decade ago. We won’t go into how they were able to wander over the border and what that means about border security, will we? There are actually four, but one apparently joined the Islamists long ago and no longer is counted, I think; I wrote about International Red Cross visits to the other three (Hint: there were none, not even once).
• 50 other men, including 7 non-Israelis
• 2 are the two little Bibas boys (are they really still alive? I wonder if our leaders know)
• 10 are women

So do those 22 Hamas is willing to release include the 10 women, 2 babies (I doubt it), 2 mentally ill men, 7 non-Israelis and one other man? Do the 34 include all of these plus 12 more men? Who?

How did the Israeli negotiating team choose who to put on the list of those requested immediately?

Would you like to be one of the ones deciding who to request and who to leave still languishing in Gaza?