War of the Captives

By: Paula R. Stern
July, 2006

Though much of the world simply refers to the “War in the Middle East.” There is discussion in Israel and abroad about what to call this war. Often, it is all in the name. What we in Israel call “the War of Independence,” the Palestinians refer to as “Nakba” – or “Catastrophe.” Israel, like the United States, is often quick to give names to operations, but this war so far has been muddled in confusion and terminology.

Some Israelis have said Israel is in the midst of a war on three fronts: Lebanon, Gaza and the ever-present Terror front. Others say that a war is something in which two sides square off against the other and thus this would be the War of No Fronts because while Israel fights with army and troops, our enemies shoot rockets, send explosive-laden children, hide behind homes and store weapons in mosques and ambulances. Since the Israeli government has not yet even called this “situation” a war, some may quip that it is the “No War of No Fronts.”

But what this really is, is a War of the Captives. The incursion, murder and kidnapping of Gilad Shalit initiated the War on the Gaza front, requiring Israel to recognize that its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was a farce. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, expressed his amazement that Hamas would do something that would so obviously lead to Israel returning ground forces to Gaza when he turned to the Palestinian representative at the UN and said, "You must be in love with occupation.” 

The war in the north, like Gaza, began when Hizbollah crossed an internationally recognized border to attack, murder and kidnap Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Here too, Israel’s response was the easiest to predict. Would we leave our soldiers in the hands of those who have butchered our people? Would we abandon our sons, knowing their fate? Would we continue to ignore, as we have for the last 6 years, the Lebanese government’s ongoing failure to seriously follow UN Resolution 1559 and secure their control within their own borders?

But beyond the kidnapping of Gilad, Ehud and Eldad, the reason this truly is the War of the Captives is because this war is about the people of Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinians themselves.

For more than 58 years, we in Israel have been captives of our neighbors who remain unwilling to accept that we are here to stay, that we want our portion of land and not theirs, that we want peace with them but will not willingly kill ourselves to give them peace without us.

This War of the Captives is about the people of Lebanon, who are captives of Hizbollah, and have been for decades. And, before that, they were Captives of the PLO and other terrorist organizations. For the majority of the years since Lebanon declared itself independent, it has been captive to foreign groups seeking to attack Israel from within Lebanese territory or captive of the Syrians and the Iranians, who launch their war of terror from Lebanese soil.

The Lebanese government has done little to really prove its independence and control over its territory and so its crying that it is the victim now falls in the face of the ongoing war being waged against Israel from Lebanon. Someone must stop Hizbollah. For the past six years, and before it became necessary for Israel to stop Hizbollah and the Palestinians in the past, the Lebanese government could have taken these actions. And so, it is clear that the only explanation to why Lebanon has refused to act in the interests of the Lebanese people is that they too are hostages to Hizbollah.

And finally, although “democratically” elected, Hamas holds the Palestinian people themselves captive. Captive to the false hope that Israel will some day disappear and they will suddenly receive now what they have turned down every year since Israel was created. Had they chosen peace and not war, negotiation and not violence, the Palestinian people would not now be held hostage by leaders who care more about martyrdom and rhetoric than seeing to the needs of their people.

Israel pulled out of Gaza last year. Had the Palestinian leadership shocked the world and done the unexpected, see to the needs of its people, the Palestinians would now be on the way to establishing a legitimate and peaceful country, rather than dealing with Israel’s re-entrance into Gaza to rescue Gilad.

While it is true that much of this war is about stopping the kassem rockets from hitting our southern cities and katushyas from hitting our northern communities, the rockets and missiles that capture the eyes of the world are a symptom of a greater ill that plagues the Middle East. When people use terror and force to inflict their ideas on others, innocents on all sides will suffer.

So long as the Israelis, Palestinians and Lebanese are captives of fundamentalist, extremist Islamic groups, the War of the Captives will continue.