The military pressure campaign on Hamas must continue, without apology and without hesitation.
I'm pretty sure you'll be able to feel my frustration jumping off the page of my weekly column.
Fatigue cannot drive negotiations
By: Gabe Groisman
(July 15, 2025 / JNS)
The back-and-forth over the past week about a potential deal between Hamas and Israel has been dizzying. U.S. President Donald Trump told the press on Sunday that he expects an agreement within a week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his visit to Washington, D.C., met with many of the hostage families. Once again, the world is holding its breath.
The deal being discussed is reportedly a two-phase agreement: Phase one would see 10 living hostages and 18 bodies returned. Phase two, after another round of negotiations, would include the remaining 10 living hostages and seven additional bodies.
Of course, Hamas will choose which 10 they want to release and which 10 they want to continue to torture. It will also dictate how many more terrorists Israel will have to release from prisons as the “price” for releasing the innocent hostages. There is no limit to its depravity.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday that three more soldiers were killed. And the world continues, reflexively, to malign Israel.
It’s getting exhausting for the Israeli public, for the global pro-Israel community, for the members of Knesset, who continue to bicker amongst themselves, for the families of the hostages who continue to suffer, and, most of all, for the hostages themselves.
The hostages are no longer even being categorized as “humanitarian” or otherwise. All of them, by every account, are deteriorating rapidly. The human spirit is remarkable, but it has limits. These hostages are far beyond them.
Everything must be done for them to be released as soon as possible. As always, the devil is in the details. Israel continues to painstakingly negotiate those very details day in and day out, while continuing to fight the war in Gaza and feed the Gazan people.
Still, the world refuses to apply meaningful pressure on Hamas, the group holding them. Instead, the pressure continues to mount on Israel.
Agree to a deal. What are the terms?
Don’t let aid in. Let aid in.
Don’t let Hamas control the aid. Stop controlling the aid.
Don’t leave Gazans to live in ruins. Don’t rebuild because a new city might “look like a concentration camp.”
It’s a never-ending spin cycle of contradictions. Circular chess moves with no winning side—except for Hamas, or what is left of it—which continues to hold out, refusing to release the hostages, staying relevant, and garnering more global sympathy, which will translate into dollars soon enough.
Israel may have won the wars against Iran and Hezbollah on the battlefield, but it has not been able to turn the tide of the narrative war. And perhaps it’s time to accept that no amount of truth or perceived goodwill will do so either.
So what does this all mean? It means Israel must stop making decisions aimed at winning international approval. That approval is not coming. The military pressure campaign on Hamas must continue, without apology and without hesitation.
There should be no more parsing out of hostages. No more phased deals. No more delays. No more talk of the “day after.” No more expanded aid. No more incentives. If Hamas won’t release them all, the military pressure must increase. It is only if Hamas understands that Israel is done negotiating that it will actually bring them to the table for a real deal to end the war.
Yes, war fatigue is real. But fatigue cannot drive policy, and it must not shape Israel’s terms for ending the war.
For Hamas, fatigue is viewed as weakness. The longer Hamas can hold on to power and the hostages, the better its leaders believe that they can negotiate a post-war situation for themselves.
Despite the fatigue, Israel must increase the military and political pressure on Hamas exponentially, ignoring the naysayers, as if the lives of the remaining 20 living hostages depend on it. Because they do.
https://www.jns.org/fatigue-cannot-drive-negotiations/