Why did Hamas take Israeli hostages two years ago?

Negotiations began in Egypt yesterday to finalize a deal based on President Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The talks are expected to last “a few days,” with a focus on a proposed hostages-for-prisoners swap.

The negotiations began on the eve of one of the most tragic anniversaries in Jewish history. Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, is considered the deadliest and most brutal terrorist assault in Israel’s history.

Hamas is celebrating today’s anniversary as a “glorious day” in a message calling the invading terrorists “heroes.” Lest we forget: these “heroes” killed 1,195 people, including 815 civilians. Evidence and autopsies later revealed widespread sexual violence, with dozens of Israeli women raped, sexually abused, or mutilated.

In addition, the terrorists took 251 hostages. Here’s what we know about them:

• 146 have been freed or rescued, while eighty-three have been confirmed killed.
• Thirty-seven were under the age of eighteen; eight were eighty-one years of age or older.
• Fifty-one were women, some of whom were starved, intimidated, and threatened by armed men.
• Thirteen women and two men who survived captivity said they experienced or witnessed sexual violence while held hostage in Gaza.
• About twenty living hostages remain captive in desperate conditions, according to Israeli officials, and about twenty-five more are believed to have died, but their bodies have not been returned.

Why did Hamas take them two years ago?

The answers are not only relevant to peace in the Middle East but a window into human nature.

Taking Israelis hostage is nothing new

According to the British policy institute Chatham House, Hamas took hostages on October 7 for five reasons:

1. To be used as human shields in the face of Israel’s counter-attack.
2. As an insurance policy and bargaining chips as the conflict evolved.
3. To create media opportunities for Hamas and an ability to control the narrative.
4. To draw other countries into the conflict (given the multinational nature of the hostage group), inflicting harm not just on Israel but on some of its closest allies.
5. To generate terror, shaking the foundation of life for many Israelis.

Hostage-taking by Israel’s enemies is nothing new. Palestinian terrorists have taken Israeli hostages numerous times; in some cases, a few Israelis were then swapped for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

The calculus behind the taking of Jewish hostages is worth contemplating on this tragic anniversary.

The Qur’an describes the Jews as “apes and swine” (5:60; 2:65; 7:166). Hamas further claims that the Jewish people were behind World War I and World War II, among other global conflicts and revolutions. The terrorists are in fact convinced that the Jewish people are hostis humani generis, the enemies of humankind itself.

Such dehumanization of others is always the first step to their mistreatment:

• The ancient Romans saw themselves as a superior civilization and believed that conquering and assimilating other people into their empire was best for those they subjugated.
• Many European explorers characterized the indigenous peoples they encountered in the New World as an inferior race and culture, paving the way for the theft of their tribal lands.
• Many who supported the enslavement of Africans similarly considered them intellectually and morally inferior to whites, convincing themselves that Africans were better off as their slaves.

What pastors said about their members

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin famously observed that in nature, there are typically more offspring produced than can survive, creating a competition for limited resources in which the “fittest” tend to prevail. We don’t need to adopt his bias against religion or larger biological theory to recognize this principle as a basic fact of human psychology and culture.

Our “will to power,” the fallen drive to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), operates as a zero-sum equation: for me to win, you must lose. If Hamas can blame Israelis for all the Palestinians’ problems, they can justify unleashing their basest sinful instincts to oppress their “oppressors” and “advance” their people and cause.

This calculus is by no means limited to terrorists in the Middle East. In fact, every crime against another person is a version of such denigration and commodification.

We see this across the biological spectrum, from aborting unwanted babies to euthanizing the infirm and elderly. At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, Mother Teresa warned: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want.”

If I see you as my equal, created in God’s image as I am and equally loved by our Father, it will be difficult for me to lie to you, steal from you, or otherwise harm you. But my fallen nature wants to denigrate and commodify you so I can use you as a means to my ends.

I have known ministers who said (only half in jest) that they loved pastoring churches—it was dealing with church members that was the problem. Even now, I am tempted to write this article to impress you rather than to serve you.

If you were put on trial

As I noted yesterday, you and I are typically persuaded by ideas that appeal to our self-interest. So, let’s close with a biblical argument for sacrificial service that does just that:

• Our all-knowing, all-loving Father has a plan for our lives that is better than ours (Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 12:2).
• When we submit to his Spirit each day, he will lead us onto this path and empower us to walk it faithfully (Ephesians 5:18; Proverbs 3:5–6).
• One consequence or “fruit” of the Spirit’s operation in our lives is “love,” the selfless desire to serve others at our personal expense (Galatians 5:22; John 13:34–35).
• When we serve those who cannot serve us, we serve Jesus himself (Matthew 25:40).
• Serving Jesus is the key to significance in this life (Colossians 3:23–24) and “the joy of your master” in eternity (Matthew 25:21, 23).

To paraphrase my youth minister’s question: If you were put on trial for being submitted to the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Quote for the day:

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” —Jackie Robinson

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