“Why the Hamas Deal Could Lead to More Hostage Taking — And Why No One Is Talking About It,” - Death penalty for terrorists?

 

Trading Innocents for Murderers

 

How many Palestinian terrorists will promptly return to terrorism?

The ceasefire that is now in force between Israel and Hamas has left many supporters of Israel aghast. 

For It was the IDF that had battered Hamas, not the other way round, yet Israel found itself having to sue for peace, granting Hamas concession after concession and leaving the terror group able to claim that it is still standing. Israel has agreed in this first phase to pull the IDF forces from Gaza’s main cities, including Rafah, Khan Younis, and Gaza City, thus allowing Hamas operatives inside those cities to reappear from their hideouts, both above and below ground, to regroup, rearm, and also to recruit new members. Israel has agreed to give up the east-west Netzarim Corridor, which allowed the IDF to prevent Hamas operatives moving from south to the north, or north to south of the Strip, in attempts to evade IDF attacks that focus now on one, and now on another part of Gaza. Israel will also withdraw its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor, along the Egypt-Gaza border, which has allowed the IDF to prevent weapons from being smuggled from the Sinai into Gaza.

Veteran Israeli journalist Nadav Shragai discusses the lopsided — in both quantity and quality — hostage-for-criminal exchange that Israel has agreed to here: “Why the Hamas Deal Could Lead to More Hostage Taking — And Why No One Is Talking About It,” JNS.org, Jan. 19, 2025:

…Those who insist may naively believe that after the deal, we can resume the war against Hamas at our discretion. However, we must simultaneously recognize the deal’s devastating repercussions and damage.

It is imperative to cling to the truth, no matter how painful, and to pose relevant questions—questions we have long avoided. We must confront the harsh realities we have whitewashed and repressed. This reckoning must occur now, mere moments before the first phase of the deal, and only then can we make an informed decision.

We must question aloud why the discourse surrounding the deal’s cost has focused for months solely on Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor (on the southern border with Egypt), the Netzarim axis (in the middle of the Strip), the return of Gazans to the northern Strip, and the war’s conclusion.

Meanwhile, the release of hundreds of terrorists—hundreds of potential “Sinwars”—remains absent from the conversation, accepted as a fait accompli and an inescapable fate we must simply “deal with” and contain.

We should challenge the assessments of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces that they can “manage” the released terrorists. On the eve of the Shalit deal, they made similar assurances and misjudged the reality.

We must ask them directly: Could you be mistaken again? Might Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar be wrong in 2025, just as Yoram Cohen was in 2011?

It is crucial to remember that since 1985, Israel has released thousands of terrorists through various deals, gestures and diplomatic frameworks. About half of them returned to terrorism and murdered Jews. Hundreds were killed or wounded by these released terrorists long before the Simchat Torah massacre on Oct. 7, 2023….

How many hundreds of Palestinian terrorists that Hamas demands be let loose in this latest, most regrettable exchange, will promptly return to terrorism, and how many Israelis will die as a result? And why did the Israeli leaders not show that they had learned the lesson of the Shalt debacle, and insist that no terrorist murderers should be included in the exchange?

 They could have listed a number of the most vicious of the killers that Hamas has demanded be freed, such as those responsible for the attack on the Passover service at the Park Hotel in 2001, including Abdullah Barghouti, a bomb expert who was sentenced to 67 life terms; Abbas Sayed, the planner of the Passover Seder, when 30 elderly Israelis were killed and 130 wounded, Ibrahim Hamed, commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Judea and Samaria during the Second Intifada, the man responsible for attacks including the double suicide bombing on Ben-Yehuda Street and at Cafe Moment in Jerusalem, and Ahmed Mughrabi, the Fatah-Tanzim commander in Bethlehem.

 Imagine the effect of listing these men, and their intolerable crimes, whom Israel is supposed to free but could still appeal to the world’s conscience: “are these people who, if they had been murdering your people in similar ways, you would have agreed to free?”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trading-innocents-for-murderers/?

What Matters Now to Haviv Rettig Gur: Death penalty for terrorists?

In the context of the release of convicted Palestinian mass murderers, ToI’s senior analyst delves into the charged issue of capital punishment and how it may shift the conflict

Welcome to a bonus episode of What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur.

This week, we answer a slew of listeners’ responses to our conversation last week, “Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released,” about the painful issue of the release of Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

We received dozens of emails from listeners who asked how an Israeli implementation of the death penalty for mass murderers may shift future terrible negotiations as the nation currently reels from the reality that terrorists with blood on their hands are being freed.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-matters-now-to-haviv-rettig-gur-death-penalty-for-terrorists/?