Channel 12 News chief political analyst Amit Segal weighed in on a letter sent by families of Israeli hostages to Gal Hirsch, in which they called for his resignation and accused him of intimidating them while advancing the Prime Minister’s political agenda.
In his remarks, Segal referred to Hirsch’s assertion that the families’ messaging and that of Hamas had effectively aligned. “Gal Hirsch says they and Hamas essentially spoke in the same voice. We all know the videos Hamas released every Saturday included messages that were almost identical to what was said at the protests – for example, that Netanyahu is delaying a deal, that now is the time to stop the war, and that military pressure endangers the hostages’ lives. Those who later returned told us what they were instructed to say and what the objective was,” Segal said.
Segal went on to explain that such overlap in messaging raises difficult questions in the political arena. “There’s a rule in politics – when two enemies run the same campaign, one of them is wrong. I can accept the claim that we and Hamas said the same thing, but that we were right – because morally, Israel benefits from returning all the hostages. But don’t gaslight us and say it didn’t happen. Say that it was important on a moral level. Don’t say Hamas said one thing and we said the opposite – because that’s not what happened.”
He further stressed that his criticism was not directed at the act of protesting itself, noting the emotional impact those demonstrations had on captives. “There’s a claim often made in interviews with returning hostages, who said the protests warmed their hearts – and that is absolutely true. The point was never to say that protests are bad,” Segal clarified.
However, Segal argued that the broader narrative promoted at the time was counterproductive. “But the narrative that claimed there is only one way to bring the hostages back – by surrendering, withdrawing, ending the war, all of them now and at any price – that was a serious mistake. It did not help the effort to bring the hostages home,” he concluded.
{Matzav.com}