military pressure will lead to the release of hostages, or so we’re told
Already in the first few days of the war we were being told that military pressure would expedite the release of the hostagers and weaken Hamas’ leverage. In reality however, Hamas only hardened its positions. The military pressure, we learned the hard way, not only did not lead to the release of the hostages but also led, to our horror, to the actual death of some by aerial bombings or by friendly fire.
Given that simple truth, you might be thinking, shouldn’t the people who came up with this slogan retract from it? Oh, we wish. But because those in power understand that releasing the hostages will mark the end of the military campaign, and they don’t want to end that military campaign for various reasons, they continue to argue that military pressure is necessary in order to release the hostages. But the hostages are not coming home. Not the injured, not the elderly, not the women and babies, not the abducted soldiers and the young men; yet the military pressure continues. And Hamas isn’t backing down, on the contrary.
And yet the slogan, that is repeated over and over again by every military or government official, has already been burned into the public consciousness and plays on the desire for revenge against those who caught us with our pants down. So who can say no to military pressure? ‘That’s the only language they understand’. Is it not?