Israel's Top Hostage Negotiator as Corrupt as Netanyahu, Critics Say

Just weeks ago, Hirsch reportedly scolded European diplomats over their countries’ decision to back the decades-old Olso Accord

Gal Hirsch, the head of Israel’s Kidnapped and Missing Persons Task Force, is a controversial pick and is an example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline and anti-Palestinian government, critics say. 

The Financial Times reported last week that Hirsch is widely considered a “darling of Israel’s right” who, in 2018, spoke about the time he was forced to square off against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. 

“I killed Arabs there,” he said in the interview. “I fought them there, and there.”

The paper noted that he was tapped for the job one day after the 7 October raid by Hamas. The paper said his critics see him as a failed politician who is using the attacks to try to breathe life back into his career. Israel’s right-wing media has been accommodating. The FT noted that The Jerusalem Post ran a headline shortly after he took over the role: “Gal Hirsch vindicated at last.”

Hirsch’s role is voluntary, and his office told The FT in a statement that he considers his task a holy mission. 

An expected truce is about to begin. There were about 240 Israelis taken hostage during the raid and are believed to be scattered across Gaza. Netanyahu said he will not relent in the bombing campaign and the blockade until the hostages are released. 

The Washington Post reported that the deal is “close” and would include the freeing of dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza. Israel would have to agree to stop fighting for five days. 

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Israelis are growing impatient. 

“I don’t think they appointed the best, most talented person to deal with the issue,” Neta Heiman-Mina, whose mother was taken hostage, told the paper. “He got in touch and I said: ‘What can you tell me about my mother?’ He said, ‘I don’t know what to say to you.’ I said, ‘Well, why did you call me then?”

TRENDPOST: Haaretz has called for Hirsch to step down from the role given he faces a tax-evasion indictment, which he denies. His critics see him like Netanyahu – who is also facing corruption charges – as interested in serving only his future political career.

“Gal Hirsch is an idiot, living in his own world; he’s full of himself, has no empathy. It’s a disgrace that he’s put in charge of something so sensitive,” a former soldier told The FT. “He invented his own military language, he has no experience in intelligence, [and he] hasn’t done any negotiations in his life.”

Haaretz mocked him for walking next to one of the few freed hostages while wearing a bulletproof vest as though he, single-handedly saved her, even though the deal was ironed out between the U.S. and Qatar. 

“Unbelievable. Even now, at Israel’s lowest moment, Netanyahu’s people are busy first and foremost with self-glorification, and to hell with the country,” the paper wrote.

Just weeks ago, Hirsch reportedly scolded European diplomats over their countries’ decision to back the decades-old Olso Accord. 

“Instead of asking us how we can help in releasing the captives, he came to reprimand us for an agreement signed when none of us were in office,” one of the envoys told The Times of Israel.