Exhausted, Israel has little choice but to end the fighting in Gaza

Israelis demanding the immediate release of the hostages
Israelis demanding the immediate release of the hostages - Anadolu

In the end, the only choice Israel can make is no choice at all. After nearly 500 days of war in Gaza – nearly 100 of its citizens still trapped in Hamas terror tunnels – the time to end the fighting has come, notwithstanding any last-minute delays as Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the terrorists of backtracking.

Not because it is necessarily the right time or right thing to do – but because it is the only thing to do. Never before has Israel, barely 75 years old, spent so much time battling on so many fronts against adversaries so committed to its destruction. But ultimately, the cease-fire that Israel may be about to sign with Hamas is the only way that Jerusalem can save itself.

Despite the clever messaging of Palestinian extremists and their proxies across the West, Israel is a nation exhausted by war. It was exhausted back in April when I first visited, weeks before Iran’s initial drone attack, when the nation was still convulsing from the horrors of Hamas’ massacre six months earlier. And Israelis were even more exhausted by August, when I returned for nearly a month.

The end of that trip coincided with the horrific discovery of six slain hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose mother, Rachel, had captured the world’s conscience just weeks before at the Democratic National Convention when she called for an end to the suffering on all sides in an act of immeasurable nobility and bravery.

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Three years ago I lost one of my sons for mere minutes at a park and still convulse when I think of it; more than 400 days imprisoned below the Gazan sands is beyond the scope of human endurance.

But scores of Israeli families have endured and are now preparing for a day they feared would never arrive. Which is why this cease-fire had to come – no matter the staggeringly high price Israel must pay. Despite Hamas starting this war – as well as bearing ultimate responsibility for its ongoing bloodiness – Israel must free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for just dozens of its own abductees. Babies, mothers, the elderly and infirm will be traded for criminals and terrorists, many with blood on their hands who could very likely terrorise Israel again.

It has certainly happened before. Back in 2011, after years in Hamas captivity, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was traded for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Among the Palestinians released was Yahya Sinwar, who went on to lead Hamas and mastermind the October 7 attack that has brought the world to this moment.

Sinwar may be dead, but Hamas remains very much alive – in some ways more alive than ever. Despite ten of thousands of its militants killed, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken reported this week that Hamas has nearly replaced all of its dead operatives with fresh recruits.

The results speak for themselves: in the past week alone, 16 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza as Hamas reconstitutes itself in the strip’s northern sectors, a staggering number for a nation whose soldiers are also civilians – sons, fathers, teachers, friends. Staggering because they fell in areas thought cleared of Hamas capabilities, a major blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel can and will achieve “total victory.”

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Still, Netanyahu has had plenty of victories since this war began – regime-change in Syria, Hezbollah’s defeat in Lebanon, a weakening of Iran’s military might, and the support of the West against Houthi rebels in Yemen. No other modern leader has redrawn so much of his region in so short a time. The 21st century Near East is now a landscape of Israel’s making, which is why the time is now for Netanyahu to turn his attention homeward.

This cease-fire deal – conjured up initially by President Biden but finally willed into being by President Trump – will return hegemonic influence back to the US, which has long served as the Middle East’s ultimate decision-maker. Assuming it goes through, the deal will be a win for American diplomacy and provides the tabula rasa Trump has demanded for his White House return next week. Trump has always loved a mess, but he loves messiness of his own design and Israel’s Gaza war has proven just too messy for him to inherit.

Of course there is no greater mess than the one Hamas might make if not dismantled to its core. But for Israelis, long accustomed to living with threats literally at their doorsteps, fear of making a mess has never held them back. Unlike us in the West, they understand that cycles of violence are the price they pay for living as Jews surrounded by people openly committed to their destruction.


David Christopher Kaufman is a New York Post columnist