How are 4 hostages for 274 killed Palestinians a win?

Israel agreed to a complete ceasefire and release of ALL hostages—then went back on its word

I’m still waiting for an answer to what I believe is a pretty straight forward question.

Palestinians look at the aftermath of Israeli attacks in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, on Saturday, June 8. Jehad Alshrafi/AP

On May 6 Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire proposal that included release of all hostages. Israel rejected it. On May 31 President Biden announced an Israeli approved deal of a complete ceasefire from both sides and a release of all hostages. On June 7 Israel publicly rejected a UN resolution that was in support of Israel’s own deal. And on June 8, Israel bombed the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing 274 Palestinians and injuring 400 more. All done to secure four hostages, with celebration and commendation from US Secretary of State Blinken and other world leaders, yet no mention whatsoever of the hundreds of Palestinians killed.

So here’s my simple question no one seems to want to answer: How is anyone celebrating four hostages for 274 killed Palestinians, when the deal on the table was ALL hostages for zero killed?

I asked this question on social media, and while not a single person bothered to actually answer, plenty of people surprisingly responded that the goal is not release of hostages, but defeating Hamas. This is news to me because all we’ve heard these past 8 months is “the war will end when Hamas releases the hostages.”

But suddenly the goal posts shift, and the real answer is defeating Hamas, as social media reminded me, over, and over, and over again. For example, here’s just a snapshot of response I received to my above question:

If the real answer is not securing hostages, but defeating Hamas permanently, then I’d love someone to explain two things.

First, why did Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu happily fund Hamas for years, with the express goal of undermining peace and stability for Palestine (and ostensibly Israel too), and why has there been no accountability for his deliberate actions to empower and strengthen Hamas against Israel? As the Times of Israel reports:

Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.

According to various reports, Netanyahu made a similar point at a Likud faction meeting in early 2019, when he was quoted as saying that those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

And given that Netanyahu openly funded and propped up Hamas, it’s fascinating hypocrisy to see the United States invite him to address a joint session of Congress.

Second, if the “real” goal is defeating Hamas, can we drop the myth that it was ever about hostages? These aren’t my words, but the words of the former spokesperson for the families of hostages, Haim Rubinstein. In an interview given to The Times of Israel, Rubinstein lamented on how the Israeli government “absolutely ignored” them, and after an October 26 meeting with Netanyahu he felt particularly disappointed because the return of hostages was not the Israeli government’s priority:

We left the meeting very disappointed because Netanyahu talked about dismantling Hamas as the goal of the war. He didn’t promise anything regarding the demand to return the hostages. He merely said a military operation in Gaza was needed to serve as leverage for the hostages’ release. We later found out that Hamas had offered on October 9 or 10 to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the IDF not entering the Strip, but the government rejected the offer.

Joining this chorus demonstrating that the Israeli government has never truly cared about hostages is former hostage Louis Har, who said in an interview to Haaretz:

Our greatest fear was the IDF’s planes and the concern that they would bomb the building we were in. I was a soldier myself once. But the feeling that it could be our own bombs, our own planes — that this is what would kill us —that’s very scary and very anxiety-inducing.

So to recap: The very man responsible for funding and propping up Hamas, now used a propped up Hamas as the excuse to prioritize war over release of hostages. And now, that same man who agreed with President Biden to terms of a complete ceasefire and release of all hostages, now claims it wasn’t his deal to begin with and justifies killing 274 Palestinians to secure four hostages. And that’s precisely how his supporters then responded to my simple question above. For example:

Apparently, and according to the current goal shifting narrative, President Biden is now in cahoots with Hamas against Israel. So to be explicitly clear, Israel approved the deal President Biden cited. As NPR reports:

[President Biden] then laid out the three phases of Israel’s proposal.

The first phase is six weeks: a full and complete cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, as well as the release of a number of hostages — including American hostages — in exchange for the release of “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners.

And yet the alleged goal post shifted from release the hostages, to forget the hostages and defeat Hamas instead, to forget any deal at all because it wasn’t Israel’s deal in the first place. At this rate, who knows what the goal will be tomorrow, but one thing is for sure—Netanyahu has made clear he has no intention of stopping his indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. This much should be obvious to anyone. Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Which brings me back to the answer to my simple question that no one pro war seems to want to admit. That no, four hostages for the price of 274 killed Palestinians and ongoing bloodshed is not better than all hostages for zero Palestinians and a complete ceasefire. Knowing this, the United States has a clear choice: It can either finally uphold international rules based order and stop funding war crimes, or be remembered by history as complicit.

And for the rest of us, if we are truly committed to upholding justice above all else, we must be willing and courageous enough to call out these injustices loudly and clearly.