Eli Sharabi: Hostages realized we would’ve been freed sooner if not for makeup of Israeli government

Former hostage Eli Sharabi says he and other captives understood while being held by Hamas in Gaza that they would have been freed a lot sooner if it weren’t for the current makeup of Israel’s government.

The damning determination is voiced during a Channel 12 interview by Sharabi, a national consensus figure who to date has largely avoided criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. He was even tapped by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to testify before the UN Security Council earlier this year.

“We didn’t have a doubt, even when we were in a tunnel 50 meters underground — and the four of us [hostages] discussed this point exactly — that if there was a different political makeup [of the Israeli government], we would’ve been freed a long time ago,” Sharabi tells Channel 12.

“This was what we said. It was clear to us [then], and it has been more clear to us since our release,” Sharabi says.

Netanyahu asserts that freeing the hostages is a top priority of the government, but he has acknowledged that defeating Hamas is of greater importance, and has accordingly rejected Hamas offers to release all the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent end to the war, arguing that doing so would leave the terror group in power.

The stance has put him at odds with the majority of Israelis, as polls suggest most support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages. But Netanyahu also faces pressure from his far-right coalition partners who have threatened to collapse the government if he were to agree to such an exchange.

Polls for months have also shown that if elections were held today, the current coalition parties would be far off from having the majority needed to form a government.