How the Left’s Missteps Shaped Israel’s Struggles

The history of modern Israel is one of resilience, sacrifice and survival against all odds. However, the political choices made over the past three decades reveal a tragic pattern of mistakes, particularly by the left, that have directly endangered Israeli lives and compromised the nation’s security. Today, in the ceasefire deal, the unrelenting, misplaced pressure brought to bear on the government may be another misjudgment. God willing we will not pay again with more blood.

Before my critique, a caveat. Geopolitics is inherently complex, shaped by a web of political, historical, cultural and strategic factors that defy easy explanations. The lines between left and right are often blurred, and reducing such broad ideologies to binary terms can oversimplify the picture. Yet, amid this complexity, there is value in stripping issues down to their core truths. Simplifying doesn’t mean ignoring nuance; rather, it allows us to identify patterns and make sense of recurring mistakes. For Israel, this means confronting the direct consequences of key policy decisions over the past three decades—decisions often driven by the left’s idealism, but with dire results for the nation’s security that threaten our survival.

Oslo Accords and the intifadas

In 1993, the Oslo Accords were heralded as a breakthrough for peace, with Israel conceding territory and granting legitimacy to Yasser Arafat’s PLO. The left championed this as a step toward reconciliation, ignoring Arafat’s double-speak and incitement to violence in Arabic. The right protested vehemently, seeing violence as a much more likely outcome than the peace that they also desired. By the time the first and second intifadas were over, more than 1,200 Israelis—mostly civilians—had been murdered in waves of suicide bombings and terror. Oslo’s architects justified these deaths as “sacrifices for peace,” but for the grieving families and country, it was a bitter reckoning for misplaced trust and mistaken national security policy. The left refused to accept responsibility, as exemplified by its architect Shimon Peres stubbornly reaffirming in a 2013 interview that “I do not regret the Oslo Accords.”

The withdrawal from Lebanon

In 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon under pressure from and leadership of the left. The vacuum left behind allowed Hezbollah to entrench itself and build an arsenal of over 150,000 rockets. The cost was felt during the 2006 Lebanon War and again in 2023, when Hezbollah’s missiles cleared northern Israel of its population for more than a year, with Israel barely escaping another Oct. 7.

The Gaza disengagement and its fallout

In 2005, the left coddled their new hero, the “reformed” Ariel Sharon, who spearheaded Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, dismantling Jewish communities in the hope of fostering goodwill. The right again warned that ceding land without guarantees would embolden terror. Their fears were realized when Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 after winning the popular vote in a rare Palestinian election, turning it into an antisemitic Islamist hotbed, a giant underground terror state and a launchpad for thousands of rockets, leading to multiple wars and untold suffering.

The price of Gilad Shalit’s freedom

The 2011 exchange of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for captured soldier Gilad Shalit was another tragic example. For five years, the left led relentless emotional campaigns, demanding his release “at any cost.” That cost became clear in October 2023, when freed terrorist Yahya Sinwar and his gang of released murderers orchestrated the massacre of 1,200 Israelis. The decision, driven by sentiment rather than strategy, directly contributed to one of the darkest days in Israel’s history and more than 15 months of brutal war that has cost the lives of 840 Israeli soldiers.

Judicial reform and division

In 2023, the right pushed for judicial reform to strengthen Israel’s democracy by curbing the overreach of unelected elites. The left, instead of engaging in debate, resorted to mass protests and threats, dividing the country. The result was a fractured and weakened Jewish people, which encouraged Hamas to attack.

The issue of moral simplicity

The left often frames its zeal in terms of morality, compassion, human rights and Jewish values. And indeed, these ideals typically underpin their positions. However, their ethical and strategic choices often lack the kind of judgment and sophistication needed; in geopolitics, values frequently conflict, and striking the right balance between competing moral principles—considering both long-term and short-term implications—is crucial. Often, fulfilling one “good” value comes at the expense of another. This is the reality we face today, when we need to make heart-wrenching decisions forced upon us by the evil of our enemies.

The 2025 hostage deal: A tragic moral dilemma

In the Israel-Hamas hostage deal, two good values are pitted against each other and are mutually exclusive. On one side is the profound Jewish value of redeeming captives (pidyon shvuyim), based on deep compassion for victims and their families. On the other side is the equally compelling need to prevent future murders, deter further hostage-taking and avoid another Oct. 7 tragedy. The left has championed the former value—redeeming captives—at the expense of the latter, which it has made sacrosanct. They have pressured for a deal at almost any cost.

The success of the left’s marketing campaign has been striking, wielding the same PR machinery that rallied relentless domestic and global pressure for the Shalit deal and more recently against judicial reform. The influence blitz turned the hostage issue into an untouchable ideal; it was a PR triumph, practically transforming the hostage issue into a form of worship. It succeeded in swaying many Jews in Israel and abroad to focus on one value while inadvertently sidelining the other and thereby pressuring for a hostage deal even at a very high price.

Yet, the costs of this deal are staggering; not only an IDF withdrawal from strategic areas that will allow Hamas to rebuild and restock, but in the first stage alone, Israel is expected to release 1,904 Palestinian prisoners—many of them mass murderers and attempted murderers. These include 737 individuals serving life sentences for heinous crimes, such as one responsible for six murders and another for forty-five. Disturbingly, 47 of these prisoners are repeat offenders—terrorists previously released in the 2011 Shalit deal who later committed additional attacks. The numbers paint a grim picture. Hard evidence from too many past deals provides hard evidence of what we can expect: for one Israeli saved, Gilad Shalit, well over 1,000 were murdered. Eighty-two percent of the 1,000 terrorists freed in the Shalit exchange returned to terrorism, according to the Israel Security Agency. Applying similar math to the 2025 deal sends chills down the spine.

The deal forced upon us by the left considers the deep, real and tragic pain of the hostages and their families. But what of the unspeakable anguish of those whose loved ones were murdered by the terrorists now set free? What of the grief of the families of soldiers who died heroically—who fought to eradicate Hamas, to make evil pay and to prevent another Oct. 7, only to see their sacrifices undermined as the terrorists grow emboldened?

And what of the pain of the civilians and families who will inevitably suffer when these released monsters strike again—those who will be murdered or abducted because of this decision?

The pattern of mistakes

The left’s idealism, while rooted in genuine desire for peace and justice, has repeatedly ignored the harsh realities of the region. These decisions have not only cost lives but have emboldened those who seek Israel’s destruction. The right has consistently warned against these dangers, often standing alone as the defenders of Israel’s security. The right has been consistently and unmistakably right since 1993. The left has consistently left reality behind and led the Jewish people to multiple disasters.

Maybe there is something we don’t know; I hope so. But our people and leaders need to exercise better judgment, using wisdom and humility to ensure that critical decisions reflect both practical reality and higher moral principles.

The way forward

Stopping the left’s destructive influence requires an honest reckoning. Strategic decisions are always complex and filled with difficult moral calculations, but security must always trump sentimentality and naivete. As history shows, Israel’s survival hinges on pragmatic, hard-headed policies that prioritize the safety of its citizens over fleeting hopes of appeasement driven by the blind idealism of one side that ignores the antisemitic reality of the other. It is time to learn from the past, to stop repeating the mistakes that have cost so much and to stand united as one people in the face of an enduring threat.

Our children have now paid the price for the mistakes of the older and unwise generation. Israeli youth rose to the occasion as Jewish lions. As Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, “We saw how the ‘TikTok Generation’ emerged as a generation of historic strength, whose bravery will be etched in the annals of Israeli history.” But now we grapple with whether the superhuman sacrifices of the soldiers and their families, while unquestionably heroic, will achieve the lasting impact they fought for.

While it’s too early to definitively label this deal a disaster—especially since there’s a strong likelihood that Hamas will undermine the agreement—it is both scary and deeply unsettling to consider what may lie ahead. While the prospect of bringing hostages home is incredibly heartening, decisions must ultimately be guided by calculated probabilities and strategic foresight.

At this time, our whole people is in a collective state of trauma brought on by the Oct. 7 massacre, almost a year and a half of war, missiles and hostages, and the devastating antisemitic response and betrayal of so much of the world.

Will the left at last fulfill another Jewish value, that of having the humility to admit its mistakes and stop pressuring for dangerous policies? If they do, two critical outcomes will be achieved: Jewish lives will be safer, and peace with our neighbors will be closer.

Raphael Shore is a human-rights activist, filmmaker and lifelong educational entrepreneur. As founder of OpenDor Media and the Clarion Project, he has helped shape public discourse around Jewish identity, antisemitism, radical Islam and the resilience of Israel.