Against the background of the deal for the release of some of the abductees, Eliyahu Liebman, whose son is also held captive by Hamas, says that the demand should have been the release of the abductees by force and not by a deal. These are the words of Liebman, who heads the Kiryat Arba local council, in an interview with the CEO of Hotam and Combat Doctrine Organizations, Rabbi Aviad Gadot, as part of a series of podcasts to strengthen the fighting spirit. According to Liebman, it was necessary to provide a cure for the blow and act firmly against any attempt to harm the citizens of Israel. And this is what would have prevented the reality in which the State of Israel finds itself these days.
At the beginning of his words, Liebman refers to the feelings that surround the family in these difficult days when their son is in the captivity of Hamas. According to him, "We receive a lot of strength from the people of Israel, there is a very special mutual guarantee here. We see the stories of heroism, the fighting of all the people of Israel against God's enemies and we pray for miracles. We are in the month of miracles, and with God's help we hope for miracles and the victory of the people of Israel, and of course all the abductees, and among them our son, Elyakim Shlomo, will return and with God's help we will see salvation."
In his reference to the fighting, Liebman says, "We need to remember that we are in a war with Israel's enemies, the enemies of God, who want to destroy us. We understand this, so we should have preceded the blow - 'Whoever comes to kill you, let him be killed', and address every stone thrown, and every attack that has happened in the past decades, as if they had launched a war against us. Not to move to the agenda, and to worry about warning and collecting a price. Unfortunately, we did not do it, and now is the time for us to do it on all fronts. Wherever it is said that the State of Israel must be destroyed and children are being educated to do it, we need to provide a cure for the blow."
Later in his words, Liebman also refers to the issue of the release of the abductees and the deal that is underway these days. "The issue of the abductees is really a sensitive issue, and my heart goes out to all the families. As a father whose son has been in the cruel hands of Hamas for over 40 days, we all pray that they will soon return home. We must remember that the whole point of terrorism is to carry out an attack that we will not be a free people in our country, and an attack invites another attack and inspires more. We have a responsibility for the eight million Jews in Israel, for the millions of Jews in the world, and we have a responsibility for the entire people of Israel, and we also have lessons from history.
"Every time terrorists were released, it encouraged terrorism, more attacks took place, because you can sit in prison and not be eliminated, and then you will be released, encouraging more kidnappings. Much Jewish blood was spilled from prisoners released from all the deals. Jibril and Shalit, including dear brother Shnayor Shlomo, hy"d, who was murdered in Samaria together with Harel Oz Ben-Nun. Their terrorists were released in the Shalit deal and they were part of the massacre, in our estimation, because some of them went to Gaza," says Liebman.
Liebman explains that, therefore, our demand is to release the abductees by the armed forces of the IDF and the security forces, under international pressure for carrying out painful attacks. We will hurt them, not that they will hurt us. Against the Qataris, against the Iranians, and against Hamas elements, in Israel and around the world. International pressure, continued security activity for what is happening in Gaza. Even in Gaza sometimes we have mercy. There is no ceasefire and no humanitarian aid. We need to crush them without thinking about what the jurists will say, what the world will say, because they have no security responsibility. We currently need to restore the spirit, we must restore the high spirit of the people of Israel. Enemies are not to be achieved, but to be destroyed."
Regarding the search for Elyakim, Liebman says, "As far as I'm concerned, I don't know what's been going on with him since nine in the morning. We know from witnesses that until 2:00 in the afternoon he was still taking care of the wounded, but we'll only know that on Sunday. On Saturday night I crossed Sderot and there was crazy shooting, I had entered a war movie. Everything was on fire, burning trees, burned vehicles, dead bodies. I drove directly to the location he sent us because as far as I was concerned he's lying there wounded and in the chaos and mess there was no one available to reach him. Every dead body I passed on the road I stoped to check maybe it's God forbid him, maybe he was injured there.
"At a certain point, I realized that I wouldn't be able to get there because there were hundreds of burned and overturned vehicles. I reached the last point of the location and then I saw a very difficult scene of dozens of dead people who forces began to gather them to a point, that was exactly the point of the last location. Righteous Zaka people were already there and IDF forces, and at first I tried to identify one more and another, but at some point I realized that it is a very, very large amount. Early in the morning I returned to the city of the ancestors completely shaken by the situation I saw," Liebman continues to share.
As mentioned, the conversation between Rabbi Gadot and Liebman was held as part of a new series produced by the 'Hotam' organization and Combat Doctrine Organizations following the war. This is in addition to a series of short videos released by the 'Hotam' organization these days to strengthen the fighting spirit in the IDF, in which various rabbis participate and give their perspective on the fighting.