International pressure has again forced Israel into a deal in which it must trade convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons for hostages held by a terror group. It is easy for American diplomats or politicians to gamble with Israeli lives because American officials living 6,000 miles away will never need to pay the price.
In 1983, Israel released more than 4,000 Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for six captured Israelis. Many of those prisoners resumed their cross-border terrorism against Israel, killing scores. In 1985, Israel repeated the deal, swapping more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including nearly 400 serving life sentences for murder, in exchange for three captured Israelis. Throughout the Oslo Accords period, Israel repeatedly exchanged dozens of terrorists for the remains of just one or two Israeli soldiers.
In 2011, Israel freed more than 1,000 prisoners to win the release of Hamas hostage Gilad Shalit. Among those freed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the time was Yahya Sinwar, who would plan the October 7, 2023, terror attack that killed more than 1,200.
Hamas concluded that Israeli prisoners were currency and that the potential gains from trading in captured Jews outweighed the risks of operations against Israel.
Hamas concluded that Israeli prisoners were currency and that the potential gains from trading in captured Jews outweighed the risks of operations against Israel. Increasingly, they also benefit from the moral equivalence voiced in Western capitals and the United Nations between those imprisoned by Israel for crimes such as murder, placing bombs, and bodily harm, versus those held by Hamas for being Jewish.
President Ronald Reagan opened the Pandora’s Box of ransoming Americans held hostage by Iran and its Lebanese proxies and created a dynamic that only encouraged more hostage-taking. Whereas Reagan freed hostages for the cost of some military spare parts, the price inflated under President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden to billions of dollars.
Today, Netanyahu not only would release murderers whose covenant calls for genocide against Jews but also demonstrate to Hamas that seizing Jewish women and children is a surefire way to escape accountability for terrorism, preserve Hamas for the future, and win billions of dollars in United Nations and European assistance.
Foreign diplomats and Israel’s own politicians have transformed life sentences into a joke. Whatever sentence a judge hands down, there is little difference between the time served by a Hamas terrorist responsible for the murder of women and children versus a serial shoplifter or car thief. There is a Jewish exception for international officials that diminishes the value of Jewish lives. Why else would the International Committee of the Red Cross not visit Israelis held by Hamas?
The only way Israel can break this cycle is to cease holding terror prisoners. This does not mean a mass release. Rather, when Israel conducts counter-terror operations, it no longer should take prisoners. Israel’s aim should be to kill, rather than to capture.
Certainly, there is a valid argument that there is value in capturing prisoners to interrogate to gain immediate information of operational value, but current Israeli policy undermines any benefit from such interrogation if Israeli politicians and Western diplomats enable terrorists to reconstitute their cells after a brief time out.
Diplomats may cheer the bargain struck on January 15, 2025, and believe it ends conflict, but history suggests the opposite.
Diplomats may cheer the bargain struck on January 15, 2025, and believe it ends conflict, but history suggests the opposite. Rewarding terror catalyzes terror and costs more lives. Rather, Israel must now seek to kill rather than capture all terrorists, regardless of their rank.
Americans may complain this violates human rights law, but they are wrong. If Hamas fighters surrender en masse, that is one thing; if they raise a weapon, that is another. The U.S. Army did not prioritize capturing Al Qaeda terrorists; it sought to kill them and then held press events to celebrate the fact. Countering terror should be a black-and-white issue; to see shades of gray is to suggest some terrorism is more acceptable than other terrorism.
If Hamas sees its prisoners in Israeli jails as an invitation to bargain, the only way for Israel now and in the future to ensure that Hamas cannot bargain for them is to make sure its prisons are empty, and Hamas graveyards are full.
