Israel officially observed the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Sunday, October 27 — in accord with the Hebrew calendar — as it achieved success on every front in the subsequent war except one: the hostages.
Israel has crushed Hamas, the Iran-backed terror organization that carried out the attack. It has, astonishingly, decimated Hezbollah, another Iran-backed terror group, in Lebanon — once thought to be far more powerful than Hamas. It has punished the distant Houthis, the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, for launching missiles and drones at Israel. And, just Saturday, Israel finally struck back directly at Iran itself, hitting its missile and air defense sites.
Yet one major goal of the war has yet to be achieved, and some wonder whether it is beyond reach: freeing the 101 remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, roughly a third of whom are presumed dead. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) managed to rescue a handful of them; tragically, in the darkest day of the war, Israeli soldiers accidentally killed three escaped hostages, two Jews and an Arab, last December, mistaking them for Hamas terrorists setting a trap.
Israel is trying to restart negotiations, but Hamas will not budge — not even in exchange for safe passage out of Gaza. The only price Hamas will accept is Israeli defeat in the war, meaning a full withdrawal from Gaza and acceptance of Hamas rule. That is a price most Israelis cannot accept, even if some say a deal is worth any price.
The issue marked the day’s solemnity. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the official ceremony, a separate one was held in Kibbutz Nir Oz, scenes of the worst devastation on October 7. Until the hostages are home, a rift will remain.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
