Israel must change course. It has to stop negotiating with terrorists and start being the strong horse.

The world, or at least what is left of a world that knows the difference between right and wrong, mourned the news of the six Israeli hostages that were just murdered by their evil Hamas captors, in cold blood.

Why were they killed? Clearly, not because of anything they had done wrong—not like they could have done anything anyway, even if they wanted to—but merely because they were Israelis. No doubt they were sleep-deprived, and most likely spent their last year on earth in ankle chains and other restraints. They were being held against their will, underground in dark dank tunnels. They were moved from one barren, horror-filled chamber to another. They were not a danger to anyone, least of all their captors. They were killed in cold blood, shot at close range in their heads, because the IDF was getting close to rescuing them.

And because Hamas just could. They could just write another horror-filled chapter to a civilized society that cherishes life, rather than following their sick warped vision of torture and murder.

(With the proviso that I have no hostage family involved, but did volunteer work for two weeks in February, I have felt all along that Israel has mismanaged its response to Hamas.)

One can arguably posit that Israeli security was inadequate on October 7th. But Israel’s initial wrong-headed response to the tragic attack was shaped by tradition and societal expectations. 

Consider the slogan “Bring them back.” Those words placed the burden on innocent Israel and not on the drugged-up psychopaths who had perpetrated the horrors.

Moreover, Israelis expected the IDF to bring home both the living and the dead; even if it meant that some Israeli forces might die bringing back a corpse.

All of this focus took the onus of responsibility away from the perpetrators of unspeakable crimes. “Release them” should have been demanded of Palestinians and Hamas, rather than “Bring them home” which was the Israeli cry.

This upside down focus has played right into Hamas’s hands. Approximately 100 or so “hostages” are still in captivity, dead or alive. Israel has agreed to a deal multiple times; Hamas has not.

Bibi Netanyahu is now being blamed for not doing enough to bring the hostages home and is being blamed for the deaths of the last six hostages. Israel has been brought to a standstill by a country-wide strike. This is lunacy and magical thinking.

These reactions are akin to those of a victim of domestic abuse: If only I had cooked a better meal, or was wittier, prettier, thinner, then he wouldn’t have hit me. Nonsense. That’s not how any of this works. But these Israeli protesters are playing right into Hamas’s blood-stained cynical hands.

Israel must break its deadly cycle of exchanging hundreds of terrorists and murderers for Israelis, both dead and alive. This type of negotiation only encourages hostage-taking, and is not the peace through strength red line in the sand that’s needed.

As painful as it most surely will be, Israel has to unequivocally tell terrorists: We do not negotiate.

But, we will track and hunt you down, and we will repay every single person who touches a hair on an Israeli head. You will not get a prisoner exchanged for a hostage, but your house and your street will be bombed into oblivion. You will personally pay the price for any Israeli you rape torture or murder, and every last Israeli will be avenged.

Israelis must stop looking inward, and start looking outward to where blame, true blame lies.

In 2010, Tim Smith wrote a book entitled The Strong Horse, and in it he quoted an observation made by Osama Bin Laden which recognized that Arab culture decrees that when faced with the choice between a weak horse and a strong horse, an Arab will always select and follow the strong horse.

Israel: Stop acting bat s–t crazy and be the strong horse!

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.