Why Hamas Took Hostages
by Steven Shamrak
Immediately after the horrifying Hamas terrorist attack on 7th October 2023, people in Israel and world-wide have been asking the question – “Why did Hamas take hostages?”
To answer this question we need to look at what was going on in Israel before the attack.
- Israel’s political opposition was using any opportunity to attack the current coalition government of Israel, trying to destabilise it and bring it down. For several years the Left-inclined prosecutors and judges were conducting endless investigations and court hearings against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of corruption. Never before in Israel’s history has a sitting prime minister faced criminal charges. In spite of the Hamas attack and ongoing war in Gaza, Israel's Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit announced to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases. This is a clear attempt to bring the democratically elected government down by the judicial system!
- For almost a year, before the 7th of October attack, Israeli opposition was trying to bring the current government down by organising endless demonstrations against judicial reform, which the government was trying to introduce.
Israel was deeply divided; Prime Minister Netanyahu's government was not popular, and the coalition was disunited. That is why Hamas leadership perceived that the Israeli government was weak and it was a good opportuning for the attack!
So why did Hamas take hostages, even bodies of people they murdered?
On 25 June 2006, IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas terrorists in a cross-border raid via tunnels near the Gaza border. Gilad was held in Gaza for over five years. In 2011 Hamas released him in a prisoner exchange deal - for 1027 security prisoners/terrorists held by Israel. For five years Israel was paralysed and humiliated!
Hamas leaders thought that the weak, disunited, and paralysed Israeli government would not respond using full force, but just with a ‘proportional’ one
After that, they were planning a long and protracted ‘negotiation’, and emotional blackmail of Israeli Jews for many years.
Thank G-d, they were mistaken! They did not realise that the feeling of “Never Again Is Now” is strong among Jews. In addition, by waging the war in Gaza against Hamas, Netanyahu’s government regained political support and approval of Israeli voters.
Since its independence, Israel has fought many wars with its Arab neighbours; signed numerous cease-fires, and even signed useless peace agreements (so-called Hudnas - temporary "calm" or "quiet"). All those efforts have not brought about any permanent solution to the endless terror that Israeli society has been enduring daily. Antisemitism is on the rise again and has become a ‘popular norm’, as it was before and during the Holocaust! Only by defeating its enemies decisively and unapologetically, will Israel be able to reunite Eretz-Israel, the Jewish state on the land of our ancestors, and receive due respect even from the Jew-hating international anti-Semites!