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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you have an opportunity to begin correcting a historic injustice – the strategic failure, the generational damage caused by your years of leadership, especially since October 7. Now is your moment. Stop hesitating, delaying and making excuses. You have the backing of the most powerful man in the world, who, in his straightforward manner, is stating the obvious: "All of them, now." Bring them home.
Make it clear that for every hostage harmed, the enemy will pay an unthinkable price. Starve them, deprive them of water – not out of cruelty to uninvolved civilians, if such exist, but for the well-being of our kidnapped brothers and sisters. You owe this to the future of our children if you have any desire for them to live here safely.
Sometimes, we are so lost that we need a child’s innocent clarity to wake us up and shout, "The emperor has no clothes." Tonight, it became evident that the world’s most important man can be that child.
On October 7, unimaginable evil invaded our land. It massacred, raped and abducted innocent civilians, sparing neither infants nor the elderly. But what is just as horrifying is that 16 months later, we are not behaving like a nation that has suffered such a catastrophe.
We have not fundamentally changed the rules of the game. Yes, we have intensified our military response, and Gaza, in its physical state, is unrecognizable compared to before. The number of buildings destroyed is immense, and the death toll among Gazans stands in the tens of thousands.
But the question we must ask ourselves is whether the entire Arab world, watching us closely – including the people of Gaza, who despite their losses still overwhelmingly support the massacre – understands that this was an unprecedented event for the Jewish people in their homeland.
Does the price they have paid, which may seem heavy to us, even register in their own perception? The answer is no. A simple online search will reveal countless celebrations by displaced Gazans, who, despite having no homes, jobs or material future, rejoice over their so-called victory and chant praises for the mastermind of the massacre: "We are the followers of Mohammed Deif."
Trump’s words reset the starting point
Do they understand, in their own language, that Israel – the nation claiming to be the strongest in the region – will never forgive or forget even a fraction of the atrocities committed against us? The unfortunate answer is no. They have remained standing and have not returned a single hostage without us paying a heavy price.
Donald Trump’s crucial remarks bring us back to square one — to the moment our confused leaders, alongside a stunned military, failed to declare from day one: "All of them, now." Otherwise, the residents of Gaza must be made to grasp, in terms they understand, what will happen to their lives. Or, as the former U.S. president put it, "Opening the gates of hell."
Yes, all of them – now. Or within the 72-hour deadline that Trump suggested. If not, their lives will cease to exist as they know them. No food, no water, no fuel, no heating, no medicine. Nothing. Their most sacred land will be lost to them, piece by piece, as they are pushed further south – until they reach the Egyptian border and beyond. There is nothing more justified, moral, or strategically sound than this.
Anyone who believes that negotiating with those who slaughtered and raped – who openly declare their intent to continue – makes more sense than setting a rigid deadline is utterly irresponsible. Providing humanitarian aid – thousands of tons of supplies, food, raw materials, fuel and even bulldozers—to those stockpiling it for the next massacre while deliberately starving our hostages to death is insanity.
A moral responsibility to end the kidnappings — forever
Beyond our duty to free the hostages, we have a responsibility to millions of Jews in Israel and worldwide to ensure that this is the last kidnapping of our people – ever. Future generations of would-be terrorists must remember the unbearable price their ancestors paid and abandon any notion of attempting such an act again.
We are the people of light, yet even when facing monsters, we continue to compete for the title of the "most moral army in the world," instead of striving to be the deadliest army in the world. The tragic irony is that only by being merciless against an enemy of absolute evil can we truly be moral — toward our children, ensuring they will never face such horrors again.
By extension, we would also be protecting the enemy’s children, ensuring they never consider repeating these atrocities because they will know in advance that it simply isn’t worth it.
Meanwhile, our enemy is pure evil, sparing no one — not in an orchestrated offensive aimed at murdering grandmothers and abducting children, nor in their defensive tactics, where they exploit our self-imposed moral restrictions and hide among so-called "uninvolved" civilians.
Amichai AttaliPhoto: Matan TzuriEighty years have passed — we are no longer victims, and Netanyahu is the Prime Minister, not the head of a Judenrat. We are a sovereign nation, strong and responsible for our destiny, and we must grasp the consequences of negotiating with the devil while surrounded by devils.
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Not only did we engage in talks with these monsters, but they have also played us time and again. Just yesterday, they had the audacity to announce that negotiations were "frozen."
Until now, this moral failure, led by the so-called "full-right-wing government," has been excused with a variety of justifications. You blamed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, President Joe Biden, and even my grandmother. But now, all the stars have aligned in a way that only someone as fortunate as you, Benjamin Netanyahu, could hope for.
There is no more arms embargo. There is no longer fear of international sanctions. Say it: "All of them. Now!"— or let them understand that, this time, Israel will not hesitate to go mad.
That you, Prime Minister, have not gone mad since October 7 is in itself an act of insanity.