"Hamas kidnapped his cousin.
The Israeli calls for a ceasefire and negotiations instead of bloodshed.
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'We need to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas to release our hostages',
Israeli photographer Udi Goren tells WP
(my country's MSM).
His cousin was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Goren is one of those close to the kidnapped Israelis who opposes Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and appeals to the government of Benjamin Netanyahu for a ceasefire.
Do we know anything about the fate
fate of him and the rest of the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas?
'Nothing.
The Red Cross has no access to them, and Hamas has not even created a list of those kidnapped.
It does not inform about them.
The youngest hostage is six months old, an infant.
Many of the kidnapped were injured, and there were also chronically ill people in need of medicines. We don't know how they are treated'.
Israelis tell terrifying stories.
A mother whose two daughters have been kidnapped is begging to be taken to Gaza, too, to her children.
Another woman not only lost her teenage daughter on October 7, but her husband was also kidnapped.
She buried her daughter and is waiting for news about her husband.
Four hostages have been released so far.
What did they reveal?
'They said that Hamas held them in tunnels under Gaza.
Until now, we thought that these tunnels were 500 km long in total.
But we now know that they are even longer.
The hostages could be anywhere, and Hamas could move them from place to place.
So we need to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas to release our hostages'.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the opposite: there will be no ceasefire without the prior release of the hostages. He claims that the army will rescue the hostages during the ongoing military operation.
'How will our soldiers find them there?
What if Hamas executes the hostages when it sees Israeli soldiers approaching?
Secondly, many of them need help immediately because they are sick or injured.
We do not have time.
Additionally, Israel has been using bombs that can penetrate these tunnels and bunkers for a week. Our army is tasked with destroying them.
This means that we may have been bombarding our people for a week'.
So we need to start negotiations with Hamas.
Apparently, in the first week after the Hamas attack, there was an offer on the table - negotiated through Qatar - that the terrorists would hand over the hostages to us in exchange for a ceasefire.
We all remember that Israel waited and did not attack.
There were conversations going on. Now our government claims that Hamas did not actually want to release the hostages.
Hamas, in turn, claims that it wanted to.
No one wanted to blink first.
The arm wrestling began. Netanyahu, as we know from the media today (including the British "Guardian" - ed.), rejected the offer of a five-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of children, women, the elderly and the sick.
Netanyahu doesn't want to negotiate, he keeps playing the tough guy. Meanwhile, people are dying on both sides'.
Netanyahu's government not doing enough for the hostages?
'I think the most important goal of the Israeli government is the war against Hamas.
Hostages are not a priority.
The Israeli government keeps saying it will be a long war.
It's supposed to last months.
If so, what difference does it make if we impose a ceasefire for 3-4 days?
Let Israel say 'I'm checking' and agree to a ceasefire while waiting for the hostages to be released.
If Hamas actually didn't release them after a few days, then we would know he was bluffing. But let's give ourselves this chance'.
What would these negotiations look like?
In 2006, Palestinian militants kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
He was released after five years, and in return, Israel had to release over a thousand Palestinians, including Hamas members, from prison.
Now Hamas may want the same thing.
'I don't like such mathematical equations.
We are not the terrorist Hamas. Israel is a Western-style democracy, so we have an obligation to protect the lives of our citizens and do everything in our power to save them.
The state has already seriously failed us once, because it was not prepared for the bloody attack by Hamas and did not protect its citizens.
Now it has to sacrifice another 240 people?
NO!
The state must take the view that the lives of hostages are more valuable than anything else.
Even at the cost of freeing Hamas prisoners.
If our government says it will destroy Hamas, what difference does it make if these prisoners are released?
Many of them are actually terrorists with blood on their hands.
But if we complete our task, they will return to another Gaza, where Hamas will already be defeated, so their influence will be less.
However, the release of the hostages will have a positive impact on the life of Israel:
it will give us new hope and joy that these people are with us again.
And now we are immersed in collective sadness and agony'.
People who lost children or parents in the attacks on October 7 are protesting in front of the Knesset - Israel's parliament - and yet they are demanding an end to the bombing of the civilian population of Gaza.
Do you understand their motivations?
'Of course.
My cousin has been kidnapped and I'm calling for a ceasefire.
This war did not start on October 7, with the attack by Hamas that brutally murdered 1,400 Jews.
This war started 18 years ago, or maybe 55 years ago, or maybe 75 years ago, or even 150 years ago - it depends on which stage of this conflict you take into account.
This is not a new war, but another extreme emanation of the same conflict.
Violence is not the solution.
I have a request for people reading this:
let them Google the history of various ethnic conflicts on their phones, for example in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia or Ireland.
War never resolves such conflicts.
Palestinians need sovereignty, freedom and prosperity.
They must have the right to decide for themselves.
Israelis, on the other hand, need a security guarantee'.
Safety guarantee?
After all, Hamas wants to destroy Israel.
Therefore, the Palestinians must be offered something more than what Hamas promises them.
Hamas promises:
Your lives will improve as soon as Israel is destroyed.
We must offer them an alternative.
After all, the vast majority of people just want to live in peace, send their children to school, and play in the garden with their grandchildren when they get old.
Unfortunately, we have radicals on both sides.
In Hamas, but also in our Israeli government.
Yet radicals constitute only a fragment of the population.
And yet, on both sides, they decide what this conflict looks like now.
The position of those who support the actions of the Netanyahu government - and that is many Israelis - is that Israel has the right to defend itself.
'Of course.
The people of Israel believe that there is a war going on for our survival. They claim that Israel can be completely annihilated.
The nation is deeply traumatized by the bloody Hamas attack, which may indeed have reminded us of the Holocaust.
Yet I do not agree that we are in danger of extinction'.
NO?
'Hamas has no tanks in central Tel Aviv or planes over Jerusalem.
I believe that threatening that we are at risk of annihilation is harmful'.
Why?
This gives Netanyahu's government
carte blanche to do whatever it wants.
If we are one step away from destruction, the government must respond with appropriate force.
But we're not.
We are in Gaza City and we are the ones with the advantage'.
After all, apart from Hamas, you are threatened by Hezbollah from Lebanon, powerful Iran, and even rebel groups from Yemen.
'For now, we have one front in the Gaza Strip and escalation in the West Bank.
We have U.S. support and two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers in the vicinity of Israel, ready to help if something happens.
President Joe Biden has made it clear that anyone who joins Hamas will face the consequences.
Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi militants in Yemen all operate on Iran's behalf.
However, even if Hezbollah moved now, it would not annihilate us.
And the sooner we deal with Gaza, the sooner our army will have its hands free to deal with other threats.
It is therefore in our interest to end the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, we do not know what the goals of our government are'.
How come we don't know? Destroy Hamas.
'You admit that it sounds quite general.
Can this even work?
We must set very specific goals: destroy as many tunnels under the Gaza Strip, destroy the main command posts and eliminate commanders.
This sounds credible.
But to say that we will destroy all of Hamas?'
If the Israeli army kills Hamas commanders and blows up the tunnels, it will be difficult for them to operate.
'Hamas is not just individual soldiers, but an entire ideology.
We will destroy their missile launchers, but the ideology will remain in the heads and hearts of their supporters.
Moreover, we know that Hamas is well prepared to stay in the tunnels for months.
Its complete elimination is impossible'.
So what should the goal be?
We need to know what will happen on the first day after the war.
This is not just a military issue.
A political solution is needed that will change the status quo in the region.
Otherwise, it will be the same war we have been fighting against Hamas for 18 years.
We must find a solution that, in addition to Israel, will be accepted by Egypt, Qatar, the USA, the UN and others. Otherwise this war will be useless.
We must finally break the vicious circle'.
Vicious circle?
Hamas attacks us, and we respond with bombing: innocent people, civilians, children are killed.
Then the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip begins.
Money, medicines, food, building materials flow there. And all this still ends up in the hands of the ruling Hamas.
Help comes from the UN, the European Union, the USA and even Israel.
After all, on normal days, dozens of trucks drove through Israel to Gaza.
And what?
And everything ended up in the hands of Hamas.
And Hamas, having these resources and money, rebuilt the destroyed buildings and built tunnels under them for its soldiers.
Ordinary Palestinians lived in poverty, without jobs, and had two options: either to leave or to join Hamas, because Hamas had money and 'took care' of its own people.
This mechanism finally needs to be changed.
If the European Union sends supplies to the Gaza Strip, it would be good for someone from the EU to check on the spot whether these goods actually go to civilians and not to Hamas fighters'.
Is the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel still on the table?
'Now we have religious fanatics in the Israeli government, and Netanyahu will not agree to the creation of a Palestinian state.
He is unable to lead us to a reasonable solution. This task is beyond him.
For now, we must at least reach a lasting truce.
Pass a resolution that provides some benefit to everyone.
Palestinians need to see hope and a future beyond what Hamas has for them.
However, Israel must receive security guarantees.
We must start the process of building bridges again.
Reduce violence and pursue peace'."
Wow
My thoughts exactly!
The rest in the link.
Click Translate
- Musimy negocjować z Hamasem na temat zawieszenia broni, by móc uwolnić naszych zakładników - mówi WP izraelski fotograf Udi Goren. Jego kuzyna 7 października porwał Hamas. Goren jest jednym z tych bliskich
wiadomosci.wp.pl
abcnews.go.com
www.nbcnews.com
