Netanyahu still maintains the pretense that the hostages are a primary concern. If he were just to say, "I will gladly sacrifice all the hostages if it is necessary to destroy Hamas and thereby avenge their attack and bring greater future safety to Israel," then one at least could argue about where priorities ought to be.

But he--and others--still maintain some pretense of the reality not being that the hostages are being sacrificed in favor of the war. In his speech to the U.S. Congress just two days ago, he made it seem as though the conduct-war approach was what was working to free hostages. He didn't lie, but "Israel has brought home 135 of these hostages, including seven who were freed in daring rescue operations" followed by several minutes of talking about anything but the ceasefire deal with hostage exchange that freed almost all of them is not exactly forthright.

So, if the conflict is not about hostages--at least to Netanyahu and those who think similarly--they at least ought to be able to say so, and debate their position on the merits.