The one thing Israelis agree on: rescuing the hostages
Bibi’s failure to do so has prompted huge protests
比比没能做到这点，结果引发了大规模的抗议。
2024年9月05日 09:06 上午 |耶路撒冷
THE NEWS on September 1st that the bodies of six hostages had been repatriated from Gaza prompted the largest protests across Israel since the war began on October 7th. The fate of 250 hostages whom Hamas captured that day has remained throughout the conflict the issue most likely to bring Israelis out onto the streets in protest against their government. Even the country’s trade-union federation, which usually stays out of politics, called for a general strike.
9月1日，关于从加沙遣返6名人质的消息引发了自10月7日战争以来以色列最大规模的抗议。那天被哈马斯抓走的250名人质的命运，一直是让大家上街抗议政府的重要原因。连平时不太参与政治的工会联合会都呼吁罢工了。
Bodies of hostages have been located in Gaza before, but this time was different. Forensic evidence points to the six having survived over 300 days in captivity until being executed by their captors shortly before they were found. The possibility that some might have been freed alive as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas stoked anger towards Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. He has been blocking such a deal, despite Israel’s security chiefs broadly favouring one.
以前在加沙发现过人质的尸体，但这次情况不一样。法医证据显示，这六个人被关了300多天，直到被找到前不久才被处决。有些人猜测，他们可能是在和哈马斯达成停火协议后获释的，这让大家对以色列总理内塔尼亚胡非常生气。尽管以色列的安全官员普遍支持这样的协议，他却一直在阻止。
Over 40,000 Gazans have been killed in the war, according to Hamas authorities. In Israel the death toll is over 1,600. But the anger most Israelis feel towards their government is driven by its failure to rescue the hostages. Some 101 remain in Gaza, though Israel believes a third of them are already dead. A majority of Israelis keenly support a ceasefire because it might bring the rest of the hostages home.
据哈马斯当局说，战争中加沙已经有超过4万人丧生，而以色列的死亡人数也超过了1600人。不过，大多数以色列人对政府感到愤怒，是因为他们没能救出人质。现在还有101名人质在加沙，虽然以色列认为大约三分之一的人可能已经死了。很多以色列人都很支持停火，因为这可能让剩下的人质回家。
On a political plane, the issue of the hostages has rallied a divided opposition which shares a loathing for Mr Netanyahu’s government but has conflicting positions over the war in Gaza. “Every Israeli feels the hostages are part of their family, even a limb in their body,” says Dahlia Scheindlin, a pollster. In the current discourse, she continues, “ending the war for its own sake is barely mentioned”.
在政治上，人质问题把那些原本意见不合的反对派团结起来了，他们都很讨厌内塔尼亚胡政府，但在加沙战争的问题上却有不同看法。民意调查员达莉娅·舍因德林说：“每个以色列人都觉得人质就像是他们家里的一部分，甚至是身体的一部分。”她还提到：“现在大家讨论的时候，单纯为了结束战争而停火几乎没人提到。”
For the beleaguered Israeli left, the prevalence of such attitudes means they have to temper calls for an end to the war and efforts to draw Israelis’ attention to the carnage among Palestinians. For now, says Noam Davidov, a student and left-wing activist, the priority is a ceasefire, and so “the focus has to be on the hostages”.
对以色列左翼来说，这种态度让他们不得不放慢结束战争的呼声，也很难引起大家对巴勒斯坦人伤亡的关注。左翼活动人士诺姆·大卫诺夫说，现在最重要的是停火，所以“大家得把注意力放在人质身上”。
