I’m sure that the families of our kidnapped spent a sleepless night only to awaken to the disappointing and heartbreaking news that the hostage extortion was going to take another day. Now they say (Qatar, that Hamas- supporting, antisemitic terrorist state is now somehow in the driver’s seat! Appalling!) that the ceasefire will start at 7AM and 12 hostages will be released at 4PM. Right before Shabbat. If those liars and extortionists, sexual deviant rapist murderers, baby-killing kidnappers are to be trusted. Do you think we should trust them? Yet, if it was your little girl they had in their hands, would you ignore the one chance of seeing her come home to you out of that darkness?

It’s an impossible situation. And all the people who write me exactly what Netanyahu and Israel should do or mustn’t do, or that he and the country are making a fatal mistake…Well, it’s so easy to talk when you don’t have to face the families.

But I agree that we cannot allow another Gilad Shalit fiasco when all the soft-hearted and soft-headed people in Israel agreed to let mass murderers out of prison because Sara Netanyahu decided to convince her husband to let them go. The parents of Shalit were camped outside the Netanyahu’s house for months. And as a mother of a soldier, she felt deep empathy for the Shalits. I know this because I interviewed her. This weakness resulted in the freeing of people like Sinwar, responsible for thousands of Israeli deaths, and a war which killed hundreds of soldiers. Those in change need to think with their heads, not their hearts.

In the past, I remember so many conversations with Israeli politicians touting support for horrifyingly wrong decisions on the grounds that it would be worth it “if it saves the life of only one Israeli soldier …” Such was the conversation I remember having with Ehud Olmert before the disengagement. Olmert was all in. Giving up all of Gaza, dragging peaceful Jewish inhabitants from their homes, was in his version a move that would “bring peace and save lives.”

We all see how that wound up. As for saving the lives of our soldiers, there is only one way: killing every last Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist and their supporters, taking their weapons and preventing their rearming, and keeping security in Gaza and on the borders of Lebanon and the West Bank in Israeli hands.

The West Bank. Another stupid decision Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres dreamed up, putting arch terrorist Yassir Arafat in control. How many of us died for that mistake which – let’s face it – we were forced into by American and the European pressure? Bill Clinton, that philanderer. Jimmy Carter, that antisemitic peanut head. “A nation that dwells alone,” our Torah tells us. Hard to bear, but that is the truth.

As for the hostages, I don’t know what the answer is, and I’m glad it’s not up to me. But after this deal, cooler heads have to prevail and do what is best for the country. Sinwar says in order for him to release our kidnapped soldiers, he wants us to empty out our jails of every Hamas monster. We can’t do that, of course. And so the next step is to empty out our rifles and our bombs until Sinwar isn’t dictating terms anymore.

As for the other hostages, I look at their beautiful faces, so young, so hopeful and my heart shatters If only we could be sure they are still alive and weren’t murdered like Corporal Noa Marciano in Shifa “hospital.” The visit from the Red Cross that was discussed with Qatar? Well, now they are claiming they “don’t know anything about that.” We have to stop negotiating with Qatar.

By the way, the director of Shifa, the one that was giving orders to the IDF about what they could and couldn’t do, claiming that entering his “hospital” was a “war crime” right up until the IDF uncovered the weapons and the tunnels. The director has now been arrested and is being interrogated by the IDF. He has much to answer for, including allowing Hamas to steal the “hospital’s” supplies for terror purposes, not to mention letting Hamas keep their fighters and weapons there. Videos on CCTV cameras inside the “hospital” show Hamas brutalizing hostages under his nose. He was in charge of the “hospital” when Hamas murdered 19 year-old Corporal Noa Marciano. Despicable.

And I will end with some good and hopeful news: since the Hamas massacre on Simchat Torah, 17,629 babies have been born in Israel. This is our strength. May tomorrow bring the longed for reunion with some of our kidnapped and great joy to a few of the families.

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