“Bring them home!” the crowd chanted in Hebrew, waving banners while marching through Zion Square next to my hotel.
“What’s going on?” I asked one of the protesters braving the heat of that smoldering evening.
He paused long enough to put down his sign and regard me as if I were an idiot, which, from his standpoint, I probably was and yet remain. “It’s about the hostages,” he explained, as if to a child. “It’s time we brought them home.” Then he added the kicker: “At any cost!”
And that’s when it hit me that they were chanting the wrong slogan. That their wrath, though well-founded, was aimed entirely in the wrong direction.
Let me explain. On Oct. 7, 2023, as everyone knows, Israel was invaded without provocation by an army of terrorists from neighboring Gaza, who brutally murdered, raped, and dismembered some 1200 innocent civilians. They also took more than 250 hostages, confining them in a vast labyrinth of underground tunnels hidden beneath the Gaza Strip.
Israel responded the way any nation would, by mounting a military assault with just two aims: eliminating Hamas, the governing terrorist entity that planned the attack, and freeing the hostages. To date, nearly two years later and despite significant military success, neither goal has been achieved.
And yet the world loudly demands an immediate ceasefire that would leave Hamas intact to mount another attack, something it has repeatedly vowed it would do.
The world’s reaction, frankly, doesn’t surprise me. Misled by major international institutions including the United Nations, which has a long history of anti-Israel bias, and a global media that uncritically broadcasts their lies and those of Hamas, many are uninformed or misinformed about the history and current reality of what’s happening in the Middle East.
Seeing Israelis themselves jump on board, however, is deeply disturbing.
To be sure, I share their genuine concern for the welfare of the remaining hostages and the suffering of innocent Gazans. The only way to ease those concerns, however, is by destroying Hamas utterly and completely. Which is why the protesters’ sole slogan ought to be “Let My People Go!” aimed at the entity that’s actually holding them.
To demand any compromise or cessation of hostilities by Israel only prolongs the agony by encouraging Hamas to hang on. As do the absurd promises by “allied” countries such as Australia, France, Canada, and the UK, to recognize a Palestinian state.
Israel gave the Palestinians an opportunity to create their own state two decades ago by unilaterally relinquishing its control of Gaza. Instead, they put Hamas in charge, used international aid to build a vast underground network of tunnels from which to attack Israel and, finally, made good on that attack.
Hamas could have ended the resulting carnage 22 months ago by simply surrendering its arms and returning the hostages. But the world’s support—now bolstered by Israeli dissenters—persuaded them to continue the catastrophe.
Lately, some positive developments have occurred. Gazan protestors have sued for peace, also “at any cost.” And under unprecedented pressure from several Arab nations that recently called upon Hamas to disarm and relinquish control of Gaza, the terrorist band has signaled a willingness to talk. But not to “raise the white flag,” a Palestinian analyst hurriedly assured the Washington Post.
And so, the war continues, with Israel now moving to occupy Gaza City and permanently eliminate Hamas until a more durable solution can be found.
My recent trip there was with a government-sponsored delegation of Philippines-based journalists determined to see what’s happening on the ground for themselves. The day after our departure, hundreds of thousands of Israelis were reported to have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv commanding their government to end the war and bring the hostages home.
Unfortunately, that’s not helping.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author with homes in Southern California and Northern Mindanao. His latest book, Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise, was recently voted #1 on Goodreads’ list of Best Memoirs Published in 2025. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times.
