How to end the Israel-Hamas war now - opinion

• Published date: 02 April 2024
• Author: MARK LAVIE/THE MEDIA LINE
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

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Now picture this: An Israeli missile boat and several smaller warships anchor off the coast of Qatar. Israeli submarines make their presence known. The Israeli government instructs Qatar to hand over all the Hamas leaders it's harboring—or else. Once that is done, the Israeli government instructs Hamas leaders in Gaza to release all the Israeli hostages immediately—including the dead, the two who just wandered into Gaza a few years ago, and the bodies of Israeli soldiers from a previous conflict—or else.

"Or else"? Use your imagination.

Now picture this: An American aircraft carrier group and an Israeli missile boat accompanied by smaller warships anchor off the coast of Qatar. You know the rest.

Is this scenario absurd? Impossible? Unrealistic?

No, here's what's absurd, impossible, and unrealistic: High-level pilgrimages to Qatar to genuflect before the rulers of a nation that has bankrolled and encouraged a murderous Palestinian terrorist group, with the hope that the leaders of that murderous terrorist group will be reasonable.

Israel is at fault for letting Qatar finance the Hamas terrorist tunnel network, but it's Hamas and its sponsors who are fully to blame for the massacre, rape, torture, and mutilation of more than 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of more than 250 others last Oct. 7, as well as the damage and suffering that has followed Israel's counterattack.

Testimony and evidence continue to pile up, documenting the atrocities committed by thousands of Hamas terrorists who crossed the border. There's a 43-minute video, compiled from body cameras of the terrorists themselves, graphically and literally showing not only the atrocities but the joy with which they were perpetrated and the hero's welcome the terrorists received back home in Gaza.

The video is available to the world but not in Israel. The Israeli government, in one of its few correct steps since Oct. 7, decided that its people were traumatized enough without seeing the Hamas horrors on their own screens.

And those are the "partners" in "negotiations" to free the hostages? Really?

And while we're at it—it's puzzling why all the back-and-forth over a "deal" involves the freeing of only 40 hostages in return for a de facto end of the Israeli military operation against Hamas. The latest figures from the Israeli government show that Hamas is still holding 134 hostages, and 36 are known to be dead. That leaves 98 that might be...