It is hard to grasp how many soldiers and hostages have been killed, murdered, or wounded because political survival was placed above human life. And despite repeated warnings, we are once again handed the same package that “surprised” us on October 7. If those responsible do not go home, the next disaster will come – and sooner than we think.

Let us pause and consider how much time has been lost. How many soldiers have fallen, how many have been wounded, how many hostages – men and women – have died or been murdered, all because of callousness, political foolishness, malice, and above all, a determination to survive politically at the expense of human lives.

Unlike the prevailing conception before October 7, this time there were many who shouted warnings, who pleaded: “Let’s discuss and decide on the day after. Let’s plan ahead.” I myself warned that there would be no alternative to the involvement of the Palestinian Authority, that there was no other viable solution.

And then – surprise. We received the full package: the Palestinian Authority, Turkey, and Qatar, alongside yet another strengthening of Hamas. As if there were a guiding hand that reinforced Hamas in the past and, having learned nothing, is now strengthening this terrorist organization once again. As if October 7 never happened. One can only hope this is stupidity, not malice.

There is a blood price to the loss and deliberate wasting of time in the Middle East – Benjamin Netanyahu’s favored policy. It is measured in hostages who were not returned in time or were murdered in captivity, in soldiers killed or wounded in body and soul, and in a society whose reserves of trust are steadily eroding.

We have been here before. In Lebanon, between........

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