By Shmuel Stenge
The recently released Hamas propaganda video showing hostage Evyatar David — gaunt, barely recognizable, cruelly imprisoned in a Gaza terror tunnel — was a gut punch. His hollow eyes stared into the camera with a languid, desperate plea that cuts through all geopolitical spin: the hostages are still there. Still suffering. Still waiting.
Israel must respond forcefully. Not only with surgical airstrikes or secret negotiations. And certainly not by surrendering to the nihilistic demands of the Kaplan protestors, who insist on a deal at any cost — even if it mortgages our future security.
We must answer in the one way Hamas has no answer to: Israeli power. Sovereignty. Life.
The Gaza Ultimatum
It is a high time to present Hamas with a simple, clear ultimatum:
Free every hostage. Disarm. Dismantle your leadership. Or Israel will build a new city in Gaza.
Not a military outpost. Not a symbolic foothold. A real city — vibrant, modern, defensible. A home for thousands of Israeli families, including those exiled from Gush Katif who have long yearned to return and have been mobilizing to do just that.
Over the last decade, Israeli officials have pointed to building as the only appropriate response to terror.
By contrast, Gaza has become a textbook study in what happens when we do the opposite. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Strip — evacuating every soldier and civilian in a painful gesture of peace. And what filled the vacuum? Rockets. Terror tunnels. Kidnappings. October 7th.
We gave peace a chance. What did it yield? More war. More death — for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Let’s be clear: building is not just ideological. It’s strategic.
Every Israeli neighborhood brings with it intelligence, deterrence, and infrastructure. When families live in an area, the IDF operates with greater efficiency and public support. Security becomes part of daily life — not a temporary military presence, but an integrated reality.
Conversely, every inch of land we vacated becomes a terror launchpad.
It’s time to stop playing defense. It’s time to lead.
Here is the message I would ask our government to deliver to Hamas immediately and unequivocally:
You have days — not weeks. Release the hostages. Disarm. Or we build!
If Hamas surrenders, we win. Our people come home. The world witnesses that strength and moral clarity defeated evil.
If Hamas refuses, the far more likely outcome is that we still win. We reestablish an Israeli presence in Gaza that ensures no terror group will ever again be able to rearm, reorganize, or take our citizens hostage. The immense sacrifice of our soldiers will have meaning. We will put an end to the endless loop of restraint, retreat, and rocket fire.
And what of concerns over so-called “occupied territory?”
This is a paper tiger argument because, to Israel’s enemies, even Tel Aviv is “occupied.” Only Israel’s true friends understand that the more land the Jewish state controls, the better off the region and its people are. Just ask Israeli Arabs what country in the Middle East they would rather live in than Israel.
There is no going back to the fantasy that restraint brings peace. And no point in appeasing an international community that applies one standard to Israel and another to every other sovereign state on earth. Has any other country in history been demonized for not adequately feeding its co-combatants civilian population!
Israel must act for its own survival — and for the freedom of its daughters and sons still trapped beneath Gaza in darkness.
Palestinians who seek peace and coexistence will always have a future.
But the delusion that we can live beside a genocidal regime committed to our annihilation must be buried. Decisively. Permanently.
Hamas can end this. But if they won’t, Israel must — and will — answer in the most powerful way possible: with a prosperous and powerful renewal of Jewish life in Gaza.
A new city should rise in Gaza. Not in vengeance — but in vision. And with it, a future that Hamas will never again have the power to threaten.
Shmuel Stenge is a proud Jew originally from Montreal, Canada. He lives in Otniel, Israel, with his wife Raizel and their five children. Shmuel holds a Master’s degree in History and works in the tech sector.
