OpEd: Jerusalem Post Calls for Ending the War with Hamas  

By Steve Kramer 

KFAR SABA, Israel — A recent editorial in the Jerusalem Post calls for ending the war now, without achieving Israel’s objectives to cleanse Gaza of the Jihadi Hamas fighters. This is a terrible idea.

By early 1943, after the Russians rolled back a German takeover, it was apparent that Germany was not going to prevail over the Allies. What if Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill had then decided to end the war without Germany unconditionally surrendering? Most likely only the most prominent Nazis would have been imprisoned or hanged (that happened even with Germany’s unconditional surrender) and the Nazi philosophy would have remained strong, most likely rising again within a few decades.

Right now, the majority of Israelis want to end the war in Gaza to retrieve all of our captives, alive and dead. ‘Stop the war and Hamas will agree to hand them over.’  Nonsense! Why would Hamas comply when its adversary has shown it is too dispirited to continue the war?

Israel may never retrieve all the captives. But at the very least it must continue to punish the Gazans, most of whom still back Hamas. Proof: it’s remarkable that none of the ‘civilians’ in Gaza has given information to Israel facilitating the capture of our hostages.

Israel is in a war that has seen 900 soldiers killed (as of 1/1/25). Has Israel paid this terrible price to allow Hamas to remain a force in Gaza? Even if all the captives were released but Hamas remained a potent enemy, wouldn’t the bereaved families think that their loved ones’ sacrifice was futile?

It was the disgraced former prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who as Vice Prime Minister to Ariel Sharon in June 2005 said, “We are tired of fighting; we are tired of being courageous; we are tired of winning; we are tired of defeating our enemies.”

Let’s not go down that road again. Israel must thoroughly defeat Hamas so that we retrieve as many captives as possible while preventing another battle against terrorists – at least for a generation. The Jerusalem Post editorial board should back the government on this issue, because giving Hamas a victory will only lead to the next war with Hamas.

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Steve Kramer is a freelance journalist based in Kfar Saba, Israel.