Top religious Zionist rabbis call for scrapping ‘dangerous’ hostage deal
Clerics with sway over coalition’s hard-line flank argue risk posed by possible agreement trumps imperative to free captives; senior UTJ lawmaker Gafni takes opposite position
Several leading rabbis of the right-wing religious Zionist community came out against a hostage deal with Hamas on Monday, arguing in an open letter that an agreement withdrawing troops from Gaza and swapping captives for Palestinian prisoners would endanger more Israelis.
The letter, whose signatories include Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, and leading hardliners, such as settler leaders Dov Lior and Elyakim Levanon and Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, may deal a fresh blow to hopes that the religious Zionist flank of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition could agree to a deal, should terms with Hamas be reached.
Netanyahu’s office announced late Sunday that he had directed Israel’s hostage negotiating team to depart on Thursday for another round of talks, indicating that there will not be a deal by the time the prime minister addresses Congress on Wednesday. He held an “in-depth discussion” with negotiators and senior security officials on Sunday ahead of his departure Monday morning to the United States, where he will reportedly seek Washington’s backing for a “tough” Israeli position based on his four “non-negotiables” — demands that toughen some elements of the Israeli proposal unveiled at the end of May.
“The prices demanded to free the hostages endanger all Israelis — old, young and women,” the rabbis’ letter read. “For example: releasing all the dangerous monsters so Hamas can rebuild its collapsed army, withdrawing from strategic areas, and stopping the fighting before Hamas is defeated.”
The letter claimed the dangers posed by the deal trumped the Jewish imperative to free captives. It is believed that 116 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 44 confirmed dead by the IDF.
“We suggest to our leaders that God will present good counsel on how to redeem the hostages, while ensuring the continued existence and well-being of the State of Israel,” the letter continued.
The 18 signatories are thought to have wide sway with the hard-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties in Netanyahu’s governing coalition. The leaders of both parties have indicated that they could bolt the coalition if a “reckless” deal with Hamas should be reached, complicating efforts to negotiate an end to the hostage crisis after nearly 10 months.
In contrast to these rabbis, MK Moshe Gafni, the head of one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism coalition party, was heard Monday expressing support for an immediate deal to free the remaining Gaza hostages at any price, calling the Jewish principle of redemption of captives “one of the most important commandments in the Torah, if not the most important.”
“We are in favor of doing an arrangement for the release of the hostages, all of them, now,” the influential politician was heard saying in a recording aired by Channel 12 news.
The recording was reportedly made during a meeting Gafni held with five relatives of hostages on Monday morning.
“Our position, I’m telling you here in this room, within these four walls, and I say it to the prime minister: Today, we have to free the hostages at any price,” he was heard saying.
Talks to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held there by Hamas have elicited increasing optimism of late, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Friday that “we’re in the 10-yard line” for a deal. Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a member of the security cabinet, assessed during an interview with Channel 12 news on Sunday that a deal could be signed within two weeks.
Over the weekend, eight members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party said they would refuse to back the current proposal. In a letter to the premier, the lawmakers said that “any agreement that includes the withdrawal of our forces from their current positions in Gaza is a complete defeat.”
Specifically, they warned against withdrawal from the Philadelphi Route between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel says Hamas uses to smuggle arms into the Strip. Likud MK Amit Halevi, one of the signatories, told The Times of Israel on Sunday that he “will not be part of a coalition that takes our soldiers out of Philadelphi.”
Retaining Israeli control of the Philadelphi Route was one of four non-negotiable positions presented by Netanyahu on July 7, along with demands that Israel be allowed to resume fighting until its war goals are achieved; that armed Palestinians be prevented from returning to the Gaza Strip’s north; and that “Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be returned from Hamas captivity.”
An Israeli official told the Walla news site that during a four-hour meeting Sunday, Netanyahu instructed Israel’s delegation not to budge from his demands, but to stick to Israel’s May 27 proposal, which includes a phased withdrawal of troops alongside hostage-for-prisoner swaps and a pathway toward ending the war.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to return to the talks after almost two weeks.
“There is a limited window of opportunity for a deal to release the hostages,” wrote Gallant on X, formerly Twitter. “Even if there are disagreements, the entire security establishment has your back in the mission to bring about an agreement.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday announced that it had confirmed the deaths of two additional hostages in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, underlining the urgency families say is needed to free their loved ones.
Alex Dancyg, 75, and Yagev Buchshtav, 35, were believed to have been held together by Hamas in Khan Younis, where they died several months ago, while the IDF was operating there, according to the military.
The IDF has now confirmed the deaths of 44 of the remaining 116 hostages held by Hamas since October 7. The terror group kidnapped 251 people during its onslaught across southern Israel during which is killed some 1,200 people and sparked Israel’s invasion of Gaza to free the hostages and destroy the terror group. Hamas is also still holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015 and the bodies of two soldiers since 2014.
