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Source: https://www.wsj.com/us-news/hostages-like-me-were-also-nazacollateral-damage-7cfeb4aa?st=HkqaJM
Hostages Like Me Were Also Collateral Damage
(Wall Street Journal) Omer Shem Tov - I know what it is like to be collateral damage. That's what I was. Hamas kidnapped me from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and held me in Gaza for 505 days. One of my captors told me his mother had received a phone call from the Israel Defense Forces warning her to leave her home because an Israeli strike might put her in danger. Israel called to make sure she wasn't killed accidentally. There I was - kidnapped, starved and tortured by her son - while my army was trying to keep his mother alive. Warnings, evacuations and decisions not to strike saved Palestinian lives. Israel also paid a price for these careful decisions. They gave Hamas time. They exposed Israeli soldiers to greater danger. And they left hostages like me waiting longer. If Israel had cared less about collateral damage, perhaps I would have come home sooner. Fewer Israeli soldiers might have died. Fewer hostages might have died. But more Palestinians would have. The film that received a standing ovation in Venice sees the suffering in Gaza, but not what brought the war there: Hamas's planning, the murder of families on Oct. 7, the people dragged from their homes and a music festival. Fighting to free me, and to protect Israelis from the people who did this, is treated as morally suspect. A society's ability to defend itself must depend on the moral clarity to know that it has the right to do so. There must never be another Oct. 7. We have the right to ensure there isn't. And we shouldn't be ashamed of it.