Today marks one month since the beginning of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that has so far seen the return of 24 hostages. This month has been a heart-wrenching experience filled simultaneously with joy and sorrow, horror and hope. The returned hostages have shown unimaginable resilience and the nation of Israel has drawn more united around a common cause. Meanwhile, the path towards a lasting peace seems all the more distant.
Inheritance is joined by Oren Kessler to reflect on the deal so far. Mr. Kessler joined Inheritance as part of the “Oral History of the Hostage Deal” series, but we are releasing his interview in full today because we discussed a looming event that would begin to happen in the weeks ahead: that Israel would begin to receive dead hostages. However, just hours after we spoke on Monday, the news broke that four or five hostages would be returned dead this Thursday, February 20th. Reporting in the few hours prior to this post’s publication suggests that these will include the bodies of Siri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas. Kessler’s thoughts on the impact this will have on the nation of Israel is more timely than we had realized.
Mr. Kessler is an author and journalist based in Tel Aviv and New York. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was previously deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, Arab affairs correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at Haaretz English edition.
He is also author of Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict, which examines an under-covered portion of the region’s history: British Mandate Palestine in the years of the Great Revolt, leading up to the foundation of the modern state of Israel. It is an unflinching look at the messiness of the conflict, the grievances incurred by all parties, the individuals who sowed the seeds of Israeli and Palestinian national identities, as well as future discord. It is both well-researched and eminently readable. Palestine 1936 is one of the books that I read in the aftermath of October 7th in an attempt to better understand the region’s history.
Mr. Kessler and I spoke on February 17th. Below is a summary of our conversation.
The most memorable images from this deal
The images from the past two hostage releases have been particularly haunting. Or Levy, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Yair Horn emerged from Gaza gaunt, thin, and emaciated. They bring to mind images of concentration camp survivors. When they return to Israel, time started again for them. They learned what happened on October 7th and the events since. For some, they learn about the deaths of loved ones.
Only when he returned to Israel did Or Levy learn that his wife had been killed on October 7th. One particular image that has stayed with Kessler is of Levy embracing his wife’s sister, apparently apologizing for not keeping her safe.
This past month has “[felt] like we’re in this very grim and sadistic reality show.” Only hours or days before the event, do we learn the names of who will be released. The nation of Israel watches as the hostages are paraded out onto a ghastly stage and forced to record propaganda, and only here do we learn who has survived and get a sense of what they have endured.
Despite these horrors, the hostages have shown immense resilience. Less than a week after his release, Or Levy visited hostage square, against the advice of doctors. Ohad Ben Ami has returned to active life: recording interviews and talking about the importance of bringing back all of the hostages.
The hostages’ resilience
The resilience of these hostages is positively striking, and Kessler frequently wonders how it is possible. It is not only the hostages who have been remarkably resilient; even after the horrors of October 7th and the subsequent 16 months of war and hostage crisis, Israel remains one of the happiest nations in the world. He suspects that Israel can credit close family ties, a feeling that they’re all in it together, and a sense of national cause can all be credited for Israel’s, and the hostages’, resilience. Although shortly before October 7th, Israel had been more polarized than perhaps at any point in its history over the issue of judicial reform, national tragedy has brought out a sense of cohesiveness that plenty of modern societies are lacking.
A common refrain that you’ll hear from hostages who had some access to the media is “what kept me going was seeing people turn out in support of us.” But this makes the resilience of hostages who had a total media blackout all the more surprising. “How do you mark time for sixteen months in the captivity of terrorists and sadists and rapists and murderers if you don’t know that people are still fighting for you?”
When caskets are returned
The IDF estimates that eight hostages will be returned dead as part of the Phase 1 deal. With only weeks left in Phase 1, Israel will soon receive caskets. Watching living hostages return has been hard enough, so what will it do to Israel to release living terrorists in exchange for the bodies of the murdered?
Every day, Israel is faced with unprecedented realities. Last September, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages who had been executed in captivity. Just weeks ago, Israel learned that Shlomo Mansour, an 86 year old man, had been murdered in captivity, or possibly on October 7th. There have been so many horrors that new ones can feel like simply the news of the day. As tragic as it is, “we’re going to have to grow accustomed to the image of caskets. It’s a question of when and not if.”
There’s a parallel to this deluge of horror and to the macabre displays that Hamas is orchestrating. During the second Lebanon war, Hezbollah attacked an Israeli convoy traveling in Israel along the border. Two soldiers were abducted into Lebanon and their fates were withheld from Israel for two years, until the day of they were returned as part of a deal. As Kessler recalls, this release had the same sort of sick reality show feeling. The Hezbollah representatives arrived with their van and announced “now their fate will be revealed.” The truck was opened. Inside were the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
This sadistic practice of toying with the families of the deceased is common practice amongst Israel’s enemies. Just weeks ago, Eli Sharabi was forced to participate in a Hamas release ceremony where they goaded him into talking about how much he was looking forward to seeing his family again. Meanwhile, Hamas knew full well that they had already murdered his wife and daughters.
Kessler believes that Israel will be shocked by it at first, but eventually, will grow familiar with this idea: another week, more caskets.
A path towards reconciliation
While it is imperative to get as many hostages back as possible, and Kessler wants to see Phase 2 of the deal go as far as it can to that end, he is not particularly optimistic this will happen. The price extracted by Hamas for the remaining hostages will be exceedingly high and will provide Hamas the image of victory.
Images of a victorious Hamas is not something Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to be able to tolerate. It is also not likely that Netanyahu’s government would be able to survive a Phase 2. Bezalel Smotrich and others on the far-right have threatened to leave the government should Israel not return to routing Hamas from Gaza. “Does anyone think [Netanyahu] will risk his coalition for the sake of a few more hostages?”
That said, both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, who serves as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, have indicated that they are committed to going ahead with the deal.
With regards to long-term reconciliation, Kessler is even less optimistic. For the longest time, the assumption was that peace with Palestine would be the first domino to fall: a necessary precondition for peace with the rest of Israel’s neighbors. However, the Abraham Accords showed that assumption was wrong: Israel was able to work towards normalization with Bahrain, the UAE, and Morocco. Now, Kessler believes that peace with Palestine will be the last domino to fall, as it is the thorniest, most irreconcilable conflict.
That said, we are in an era of the unknown. The Abraham Accords struck him like a bolt out of the blue. Donald Trump’s recent “Mar-a-Gaza” proposal is something that absolutely no one saw coming. Perhaps an enduring solution will emerge unexpectedly.
Israel since the ceasefire deal
Mr. Kessler describes a surreal nation. Today, the bars and cafés are full. “On the face of it, life goes on as it always has…but when you go to the bars, when you go to the cafes, there are posters of the hostages everywhere.” Even if you want to forget about the hostages for a moment, it is impossible to do so. There are reminders everywhere.
People on the streets are happy and enjoying life, but there’s something different now. There’s this strange commingling of happiness and sadness, particularly on days that hostages are released. How can you not celebrate people leaving the darkness and coming out into the light? How do you celebrate Yair Horn returning to freedom without being gutted that his brother Eitan is still there? You have to give equal weight to both.
Reliving October 7th
Prior to this deal, the last hostages to be released from Hamas captivity were brought home in November 2023. In those interminable months since, four hostages were rescued by the IDF and the bodies of a few murdered hostages were recovered, but very little progress was made in bringing the hostages home. There was an odd sort of stasis that emerged.
Since this deal began, however, a flurry of raw emotion has reasserted itself. In some ways, it is like reliving October 7th. For the hostages, time froze. They are coming out of Gaza to learn the true scale of what happened on October 7th. Some are learning that their own loved ones had been murdered or are still in captivity in Gaza. Some hostages had thought they were the only one taken that day and are learning that they were just one of 250.
Family you’ve never met
Israel is home to fewer than 10 million people. Almost everybody in Israel was affected by October 7th and the subsequent war in some way. Indeed, Kessler’s own cousin, Tomer Shoham, was a commander of an elite unit and was killed on October 7th. As hostages return to their homes in Israel, they also return to the shared plight that seems to have gripped everyone in the nation.
As an outsider, it has struck me to see how consistently and how deeply Israelis and Jews in diaspora care about the hostages. It is a care that is all-consuming at times and that manifests every day. It is unifying to share this care with others, while somewhat isolating from those who have already forgotten them.
It is a strange feeling to care so deeply about people that you’ve never met, but whose faces have become so familiar and whose stories you have come to know so well. It feels as if their fate directly impacts your own.
A common refrain from the hostages who have returned is that they can not begin to find closure until all of the hostages have returned. It was a failing of the entire country on October 7th. Despite the exceptional heroism shown by soldiers, police, and ordinary civilians that day, the institutions failed and 1,200 people were murdered. Kessler identifies a lingering feeling that the country, the government, and the army owe these hostages and bereaved families a debt that has not been repaid in these past 500 days. For them, time continues to standing still in this way.
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More From: An Oral History of the Hostage Deal
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