Philosophically,
discussed in a seminar room, there’s reason to reject any hostage deal: Pay
ransom, and you encourage more kidnappings. Outside the seminar room, a
different reasoning applies: The force that holds Israeli society together,
stronger than any known to physics, is that we are all in this together. This
is deeper than Zionism or any other ideology. The Israeli social contract is
not that individuals have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. The social contract is that we all have an obligation to each other.
It’s the reason that a stranger can drop her toddler in your lap on a bus while
she taps her payment card. It’s the reason that the original administrative
plan for the state, written before independence, assumed that the state had to
provide health care for its citizens.
The
state is an instrument for fulfilling the contract—or is supposed to be.
Throughout
his long career, Netanyahu has gained and kept power by dividing us, by eroding
solidarity. His obstinance in the hostage negotiations, however, is his most
egregious violation of the Israeli social pact. This is unforgivable.
