Five hundred is a striking number. Five hundred is the number of companies in the Standard and Poors 500. A five hundred dollar bill is generally a good amount. Five hundred is the number of days that the hostages in Gaza will be held captive, five hundred is the number of days since October 7, 2023. And that is five hundred days of horror and terror for all of Israel, with a very special emphasis on the hostages and their families. We are going for five hundred days, and the counting will continue. Irrationality and injustice persist.
The conflict that has been going on for these last five hundred days is full of absurd situations. An event of collective murder with torture, followed by the kidnapping of two hundred and fifty people of all ages, is validated by the entire world. The kidnappers and their intermediaries are accepted as negotiators of ransom conditions and other perks, this action is legitimized as a negotiation mechanism to achieve ends that are not unmentionable or hidden, they are clearly stated.
As we approach five hundred days, not to finish anything but to surpass them, Israel remains mired in the largest psychological war known to man, thanks to the ease of communication that conveys to us the daily difficulties of those involved. A society divided between negotiating with those who express their resolve to exterminate them in order to rescue their loved ones, and the certainty that the price for bringing back the unfortunate hostages will be more blood and suffering at the hands of those who are freed in exchange in absolutely exaggerated proportions.
From the beginning of these events, permissiveness towards the kidnappers and their allies or sympathisers has been decisive. The situation is very inconsistent. Israel must provide its enemy with food, medicine and fuel so that it can administer and distribute it to a population that it controls and manages at will. This results in something unprecedented, as it further empowers those who perpetrated the massacre and the kidnapping. Paradoxically, no one denounces this and those who do are branded as extremists. The international organisations, in charge of ensuring the smooth running of humanity, have not been at all effective; they have been absent. The Red Cross, which does not attest to the life of any of the kidnapped people, nor to their condition. The UN, probably busy with some vote and subsequent resolution condemning Israel.
There is no doubt about former President Joe Biden's good intentions when he arrived in Israel just a week after October 7. He was visibly moved by what had happened, and in solidarity with the victims of the moment, the people and the entire nation. In a heartfelt statement, he expressed a "no" The situation is one that, as the days go by, no one seems to have been able to understand. After all, the strongest pressure was exerted on Israel when it was asked for humanitarian aid quotas for the enemy, when it was embargoed on ammunition and when it was given certain deadlines and conditions that it was not in its power to control. The good intentions, also shown in the defence of the regional ally against Persian attacks on two occasions, end up confusing. The fact of the matter is that, when negotiating with this type of counterpart, the results are obvious: there are kidnapped people without proof of life, they and their families are tortured, all of Israel, every day, all day long.
As the hostages released, thanks to leonine agreements, come in dribs and drabs, the brutality of the captors becomes evident once again. Their actions, intentions, strategies and evil. Rape, starvation, physical and mental torture, humiliation. Each release event is a degrading spectacle, with masked men taking hostages to a seedy and frightening setting, Red Cross vans that have always been conspicuous by their absence, and the terror that the exchange will not take place. Seizing, even if it is a mistake, seems to be Israel's motto. And really, there is no other option.
As President Donald Trump returns to the world stage, a brutal dose of logic seems to pour into a world accustomed to irrationality and brutality. Trump, with very little grace, warns that Gaza should not be rebuilt because it has been done several times and always with the same negative result. Moreover, living conditions there are disastrous under any circumstances. This is simply true, however annoying it may be to some.
After participating and lobbying in the last days of the Biden administration to force a hostage release agreement, and after seeing the spectacles of the hostages' release and the reactions of their families, President Trump, directly and surely inelegantly for some, says that the agreement is not adequate. It is not right that the hostages do not come all at once, it is not sensible that they are returned in a trickle. He sets a date and time for the release of all and, in addition, announces that if this is not done, the gates of hell will open. While the "no" Biden's was confusing, the “hell” Trump's statement is quite explicit.
There are things that are very clear in this long conflict, before and after these long five hundred days. The first is that hell opened to receive some kidnapped people, with the consequent hell for their families and loved ones. Israel is also experiencing a hell of tensions of all kinds, internal and external. The other thing that is very clear is that Donald Trump's raw logic denounces and harasses the brutality that is being experienced.
Brutality and barbarism cannot be confronted and overcome by negotiation and logic. Logically, this is the case, however brutal it may seem.
Elías Farache S.