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Let us remember that this terrible war that has already taken 2,000 lives, wreaking havoc on our society, began precisely because we did not hold firm during the Gilad Schalit fiasco 13 years ago.
By STEWART WEISS JANUARY 10, 2025 21:21
IDF arrests suspected Hamas terrorists outside of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
This Friday is a most unusual day. It is Asara B’Tevet – the fast of the 10th of Tevet – commemorating the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 425 BCE that would culminate, 30 months later, with the destruction of the First Temple.
This is seen as the catalyst for future exiles and a cataclysmic event from which we have never fully recovered because even when the Second Temple was finally built, it never returned to its full glory. Perhaps for that reason, the 10th of Tevet has been designated as a general day of mourning and remembrance of all the victims of the Holocaust whose burial places are unknown.
While this is the shortest of all fast days (in the Northern Hemisphere), it is also the only fast that can be observed on a Friday. While normally, Jewish law does not permit fasting prior to Shabbat – so that we enter Shabbat with strength and vigor – an exception is made for this occasion.
The fast this year is of special significance, as it allows the Jewish people worldwide to also memorialize any victims of the Oct. 7 massacre whose burial places are also not yet known – and, like those murdered in the Shoah, died al kiddush Hashem, in holy sanctification of God’s name and the eternity of the Jewish people.
The deadly price Israel paid
Clearly, the issue occupying center stage in the headlines today is the ongoing hostage crisis, as we are reaching a fateful, crucial stage in this agonizing war of wits with the enemy. There is no question that the vast majority of the Israeli public demands the return of our captives – the relatively few who have not been murdered by Hamas, as well as the bodies of all the others. Securing their freedom is both a national and a religious imperative that crosses all social and political boundaries. We must bring them home as a prima facie, sacred obligation.
But – and I say this with sadness and the utmost sympathy for the families of the hostages – it cannot and must not come at any cost and at any price. And that dreaded price would be the freeing of hundreds of bloodthirsty, barbaric murderers, who will invariably go on to kill untold numbers of Jews in the future if we, God forbid, unleash them on the public. They are sworn to carry out our destruction, and we dare not assist them in their vile ambition.
Let us remember that this terrible war that has already taken 2,000 lives, wreaking havoc on our society, began precisely because we did not hold firm during the Gilad Schalit fiasco 13 years ago. Capitulating to public pressure and mass-media provocation, we – members of this present government – set loose more than 1,000 barbarians in a grossly disproportionate deal, called by Israeli analyst Prof. Dan Schueftan “the greatest significant victory for terrorism that Israel has made possible since its establishment.” And whom did we free? Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and hundreds of his fellow villains, who immediately set out to devise and execute a plan to wipe out the Jewish state – a plan that, but for the grace of God and our magnificent armed forces – came all too close to fruition.
I know that there are many who will counter that “we will know how to contain these beasts,” that we will better monitor them and track them down if they attempt to stage yet another Oct. 7. Would that this were true; but history has shown that these are idle threats, just as Ariel Sharon’s vow to massively retaliate if Hamas launched even one rocket out of “liberated” Gaza proved to be an empty promise.
And the recent declaration by certain rabbis – including those who, in bitter irony, preach against their students serving in the army – suggesting that Jewish law allows for the payment of any price to save a hostage is simply false. There are certain demands that are halachicly forbidden to accept.
After speaking to members of the Knesset during the Schalit negotiations and writing a column about the danger of giving in to terrorism (“Too High a Price,“ The Jerusalem Post, July 13, 2006), an angry mother called me, saying no price was too high to pay for the soldier’s release. I asked her if she had any children of her own, and she replied that she had two sons. “Perfect!” I said. “Hamas has announced that it will free Schalit in return for your two boys. Will you agree to it?!” “Of course not,” she was forced to reply.
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Nor would anyone agree to trade Haifa for the captives’ release or give Hamas a nuclear weapon. Every intelligent, caring person knows that there comes a time to draw a line, that the safety and security of the public outweighs that of the individual, cruel as that may sometimes seem.
HAMAS SET out on Oct. 7 with two central objectives: kill as many Jews as possible, in the hope that all of Israel will be exterminated; and free hundreds, if not thousands, of the brutal murderers that we succeeded – often at great loss – in capturing and incarcerating (perhaps including one of the currently jailed terrorists involved in the fatal attack that killed our own son two decades ago).
This second goal would ensure that the terror war against us would continue for generations to come, resulting in an untold number of future victims. If we succumb once again to the pressure and give in to their demands, then Hamas will have won this war, regardless of our successes until now.
The operative slogan of the protesters is “Bring home our hostages – now!” But that little word “now” is, of course, a code word for “even if we have to capitulate to the worst demands of Hamas.” I say, instead, “Bring our hostages home,” but no – not if it places our nation in greater danger. Looking back, we foolishly handed Gaza over to Hamas in 1994, only to have them turn it into the planet’s largest terror base. We even supplied the terrorists with many of their weapons, in the disastrous Oslo Accords. Now, hopefully wiser with experience, the time has come for us to stand firm and Just say no to any proposal that will invariably come back to haunt us.
May our prayers for all the martyrs of our history be answered, our enemies vanquished, and the hostages returned speedily and safely.
The writer, director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana, is the father of Sgt. Ari Weiss, who fell in battle against Hamas in 2002; rabbistewart@gmail.com
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