At this stage, Israel is defenseless.

As expected, the hostage drama is now changing the whole course of Israel’s war against Hamas.

Israel is in a loose-loose situation.

If Israel pushes on with the war without facilitating the release of the hostages, they look insensitive and ruthless and inflame a large part of Israeli society.

But what we can observe now, as the “dealing” started, is that Hamas is firmly back in control, conducting a very clever and shrewd psychological warfare, while the whole world, even the US, is now following the script Hamas is writing.

With each deal, Hamas is rewarded for taking hostages.

Each deal sends the message that taking hostages is the best form of fighting Israel, and it will encourage Hamas and other such organizations to pursue taking Israeli and Jewish hostages from wherever they can.

At the same time, the cracks in Israeli society already started to show. This deal pits the families of the hostages against those who want to continue the war to achieve the main goal of removing Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Politicians are evaluating what they should do to preserve their political careers and improve their “legacy,” while many are already thinking ahead to the next possible elections — as politicians always do.

The “leftist” organizations and politicians never stopped blaming everything on Netanyahu and will do everything they can to unsettle and undermine the present government blindly following their agendas.

The cracks along the other deep divisions in Israel will also appear when the uniting force of the initial shock and collective grief wanes, especially if the war drags on and more and more soldiers die.

Hamas, Israel’s enemies, and even the so-called allies all act according to their self-benefit, and consciously or unconsciously, they all actually act against Israel. They are all instinctively driven by our inherently self-serving, self-justifying, egocentric, and exploitative nature that drives us to succeed at each other’s expense.

In the meantime, Israel is totally defenseless because Jews and Israel also act according to the same inherent human nature, each and every person thinking only about themselves.

As long as we all remain rooted in our inherently egocentric, subjective, and selfish nature, ruthless and clever organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah or shrewd major powers like the US, Russia, or Iran will easily play with us, separate and choke Israel society to a point where they can also attack Israel physically.

There is only one remedy for this.

Jews and Israel have to return to their original method of unity and mutual guarantee. That is not unity and mutual solidarity that appears as a result of external threat or pressure, as a result of collective suffering or grief; it is not even unity against others.

The original Jewish unity — the first Nation of Israel was established upon — is a so-called “unfounded unity” for the sake of unity itself, and above and despite the inherent human nature constantly fighting against and obstructing this unity and mutual solidarity.

This is a unity and mutually complementing integration that is built and sustained in order to make Israel similar to nature’s finely balanced and mutually integrated system, to help people feel and harness this system’s single governing and operating force that creates and nurtures life.

This unique “duality” between the original, instinctive egoism, selfishness, and individuality and the acquired selfless unity and mutually complementing integration helped the original Jews to attain a true and objective perception of reality, feeling, and partnering nature’s singular force.

True Jewish unity is a state where each individual — while sensing their own uniqueness and special abilities and qualities — feels themselves as a single, healthy cell in the fully integrated living organism of the Nation.

This is the proverbial state of “brotherly love,” balancing and overcoming the instinctive “unfounded hatred.”

If Israel managed to revive that original unity — instead of each Israel still feeling everything only through themselves and making all calculations mostly for their personal benefit, and view their unity, mutual solidarity, and cooperation beyond the physical survival of the Nation and the State of Israel, then the country would suddenly become “impenetrable and untouchable.”

Israel has a role and purpose in humanity that goes way beyond the physical survival of the Nation.

The original, unique, and “supernatural” — above and against instinctive human nature — unity and mutual guarantee is the only method and template for a safe, peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable human society, especially in our globally integrated and interdependent age.

A truly united Israel that lives according to the laws of mutual guarantee could again harness nature’s singular force and also show the necessary positive example for the rest of the world to follow.