Why "Bring them back" was never going to work...

The rally cry for the families of Israelis 242, now 134, Israel hostages has been "Bring Them Back" and for nearly 5 months, the families have traveled all over our country and all over the western world, demanding that we bring the hostages home. Like many, out of respect for the families, I have joined in using this phrase, though something always bothered me about it.

Through several attempts at a follow-up ceasefire to the two-or three extended ones that brought home just over 100 hostages, Israel has succeeded in bringing home only 3 hostages. Successive ceasefire attempts have failed. And continue to fail because, like bringing the hostages home, a ceasefire is not within our power to achieve. We can cease firing any time we want; they will not.

Now, Hamas has come with an offer, says the United States, for a ceasefire. Needless to say, the families of the hostages, without actually knowing what Hamas is offering, are demanding that Israel accept the terms, or, at very least, they be sent to Qatar with broad and nearly desperate instructions to come back with a deal.

What's wrong with this scenario? Don't we all want our hostages home? The answer, of course, is that we do. Of course. We too had our lives broken apart on October 7. Few in Israel don't know someone who has been killed or kidnapped, kidnapped and killed, or lost their homes, or have been exiled from all that they had on October 6th.

More than 1,500 Israelis have died in the last 6 months - 1,200 murdered on the first day of this war, hundreds more killed in battle, by terror attacks, by missiles fired.

So far Hamas' terms have been relatively insane - withdraw and stop firing and then we'll talk about a ceasefire. Um. No.

Release ALL Palestinian prisoners (thousands) and we'll agree to release the elderly and the female hostages...if we can find them. Um. No.

Hamas has, not once, not once offered legitimate terms for a ceasefire. I know the families are desperate. Some have even been honest enough to acknowledge that they want a ceasefire "on any terms."

And the answer to that demand, with broken hearts, is no. The soldiers of Israel have been fighting for almost 6 months to bring back your relatives. Israelis all over the country have done all we can do to help - donate, raise funds, pray. We have done ALL we can do. So why has it failed? Why aren't the hostages home. We can't be "bring them home"?

Because, my dear and beloved brothers and sisters, not once in almost 6 months, has the option to bring them home been in our hands. You have spent 6 months demanding that Bibi and our government bring them home. But Bibi and our government aren't holding the hostages.

You have traveled the earth demanding support, and have been welcomed in country after country, and still, the hostages aren't home.

Because the sad, barbaric, incomprehensible and unacceptable truth is that the fate of the hostages is in Hamas' hands, and theirs alone.

And sadly, as you demand our government cave in to the demands of a terrorist organization in the midst of its dying days, you weaken not only our government, but the chances of bringing your loved ones back.

And that, with great regret, is the truth. Stand WITH our government, and perhaps other countries will as well. Weaken our government, and Hamas will keep playing their psychological games.

The time is indeed running out - but granting Hamas the power to decide what our government does has never been the solution.

And I know this is not popular. And I know it's not what you want to read. And I know that leaving the fate of our loved ones in Hamas' hands is not something any of us want to do. But pretending their fate is in the hands of the Israeli government doesn't bring the day that we reach a conclusion any closer.

Yes, we were able to bring them home from Uganda, from Yemen, from Syria, Russia and Ethiopia. But never have we had to bring back so many being held but such an inhumane and barbaric enemy.

It's never been "Bring them Home". It has always been "Let my people go".

And that should have been the cry from the beginning. Let my people go...or the 10 plagues of Egypt will look like a gentle summer rain. Let my people go.