After more than a year and a half of war, Israel has found itself in an “impossible dilemma” as it tries to defeat Hamas and bring home the remaining hostages, former Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy says.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Levy said that it is crucial that Hamas not remain in power — and that it is also vital to save the hostages languishing in tunnels under Gaza.
“If this war ends with the Hamas regime that perpetrated October 7th still in power, it won’t end, it will just pause, and the next war will be a matter of time,” Levy said. “Israelis don’t want war. We need this war to be over, but we need this war to be over with the total defeat of the Hamas regime, or else this won’t be the last Gaza war.”
Israel has faced international criticism over its handling of the war in Gaza, with the U.K., France and Canada releasing a joint statement earlier this month demanding that Jerusalem end its military operations in the Gaza Strip. The U.K. also suspended trade talks with Israel because of London’s objections to the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of being “on the wrong side of humanity.”
“I think anyone criticizing Israel needs to come up with a better plan for how you remove Hamas from power, because otherwise they’re just giving it political power and trying to save [it] from the war that it started,” Levy told Fox News Digital.
The international community has been pressuring Israel regarding hostage swaps. Jerusalem has been pressured to free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages taken on Oct. 7. Levy acknowledged that while Israel cannot leave the hostages behind, there are valid concerns about these releases.
“Israel is facing the impossible dilemma because Hamas is demanding the hostage-takers of tomorrow for the hostages of today,” Levy said.
Levy also called out the international community, saying that most countries would not “pay ransoms to terrorist hostage-takers.”
“Here’s the absurdity of international pressure on Israel to pay a ransom. Most countries don’t pay ransoms to terrorist hostage takers because they understand it only incentivizes more hostage taking, it rewards it, it encourages more of it,” Levy told Fox News Digital. “Israel has paid a ransom to get hostages out in two cease-fires because we say we know the dangers, we know it’s risky, but we’ve got to get out these poor people who are being starved and tortured and even executed in the dungeons.”
Levy believes Israel “found itself stymied along the way” as countries that initially backed efforts to defeat Hamas “got cold feet very quickly” as they understood what removing the terror group from power would entail.
Looking at the broader picture, Levy wonders if Israel had taken on a different strategy from day one, whether the war would have ended sooner, though he admits it would have meant “defying international pressure.”
“I do wonder if that had been the strategy from the beginning—defying international pressure—then it’s possible the war might have ended sooner,” Levy said. “But again, Israel is caught in this impossible bind because there are still hostages who are trapped in Gaza, whom Hamas is threatening to execute if the Israeli army gets anywhere near them to try to rescue them.”
This is not a new or empty threat. Several former hostages reported being threatened and said they were told that their captors would execute them if Israeli forces got close. Six other former hostages, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, met this fate when they were fatally shot just before the IDF could reach them.
Not all of Israel’s international counterparts have turned on the Jewish state. America’s approach to Netanyahu shifted as President Donald Trump returned to the White House. While the Biden administration put more pressure on Netanyahu, Trump appears to support Israel doing what it must to end the war.
Levy told Fox News Digital that “Israelis definitely got the impression that the Trump administration has Israel’s back and is willing to endorse any military strategy that it wants to implement, but there are also signs the Trump administration, you know, may want to wrap this up very quickly.”
Since Trump’s return to the Oval Office, dozens of hostages have been freed, including American-Israelis Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Edan Alexander.
Trying to get the hostages out of harm’s way while also taking Hamas out of power seem to be conflicting goals—something Levy acknowledges, saying, “We cannot afford to pay this ransom, but we also can’t afford not to pay it.”
