Israel Matzav

A better way to deal with terrorists

Rabbi Binny Freedman, who was friends with an IDF soldier who has been missing for nearly 30 years, and who himself is a terror attack survivor, wonders if there's a better way to deal with terrorists than what Israel did today. Well, of course there is (Hat Tip: Michael P).

In exchange for bringing home a few live Israeli soldiers and bodies, including Hezi Shai, who was Zack Baumel’s tank commander, Israel for the first time negotiated, through intermediaries, with Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, releasing 1,050 prisoners. Among the released was Lod Airport Massacre perpetrator Kozo Okamoto, and Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.

I still remember the late Yonah Baumel’s stance on that deal. Even though his son was still held prisoner, he was vehemently against the deal, believing that it would open up a Pandora’s Box that would give terrorists free license to kidnap Israelis in general, and Israeli soldiers in particular.

If anyone had the right to an opinion, it was certainly Yonah Baumel. And yet, one wonders if his position against negotiating with terrorists (or at least agreeing to completely lopsided exchanges) lest a line be crossed, might well be the reason that his opposition no longer applies. After a number of such prisoner exchanges, the deterrence no longer exists.

Yet, we have crossed a new line this time, as the nature of the terrorists we are releasing includes a large number of murderers with actual blood on the their hands, and suggests that we may be releasing individuals who will absolutely kill again. And of course, there is the fact that leaders of Hamas have already declared that they absolutely plan to kidnap more soldiers seeing that Gilad Shalit’s kidnapping produced such wonderful results from their perspective.

Some suggest that it is important to bring Gilad back home as IDF soldiers need to know that no matter what, the State of Israel will do everything to bring them home safely, and that this is important as it affects the morale of the soldiers. And yet, my son-in-law, currently a sergeant and headed for officer’s course in the elite recon unit of the Israeli paratroopers, upon hearing this suggestion at our Shabbat table this week, asked indignantly in whose name this argument was offered. After all, over the past 5 years, while Shalit has been in captivity, the percentage of recruits signing up for combat units in the IDF has actually gone up. And he remarked that he knows of not a single soldier who decided not to join a combat unit due to the story of Gilad Shalit. If anything, the opposite is true.

And just to complicate things even further, there are the theological questions. It is interesting that the large majority of the religious right wing in Israel is vehemently against this exchange for reasons expressed above (though they will be as happy as everyone else for the Shalit family). And yet, specifically from the religious perspective, one might contemplate an entirely different position. After all, it seems this exchange will happen, so it must be G-d’s will. And in the end whatever tragedy may, G-d forbid, occur at the hands of these terrorists in the future, must also be the will of G-d, or else it would not happen.

And of course, there is the fact that a Jewish soldier being held captive for five years is a terrible hillul Hashem, in which case freeing that soldier must be a kiddush Hashem. Unless of course one considers the fact that Hamas held out and got what Israel said it would never give, which is itself a huge hillul Hashem, demonstrated by the huge celebrations in Gaza, and the various despots lining up to congratulate Hamas on bringing Israel to submission, all of which of course is a tremendous hillul Hashem.

In short, one does not envy the Prime Minister who has to make such decisions, and I envy those who can say with absolutely certainty that they know what the right decision is in this case.

...

Going forward, perhaps another piece of wisdom shared with me by Yonah Baumel is worth contemplating:

In the 1980s there were numerous kidnappings of foreign citizens in Lebanon. Most notable amongst them was the Rev. Terry Anderson, an American held in captivity for eight years; three of them with a sack over his head and chained to a wall in a shed like an animal.

Yonah shared with me that around the same time, the Amal Militia in Lebanon kidnapped two Soviet diplomats. But the Russians do not think like Westerners. The very next day, the Russians kidnapped two Amal commanders, and sent a box to Amal headquarters in Beirut with two index fingers and two ears, and a message saying the Amal militia would receive two new body parts every day until they ran out of body parts, and then they would kidnap two new Amal commanders and start over again. The two Russian diplomats were released the very next day.

Makes me wonder whether we need to re-think the box we have opened, and at least going forward, start to deal with our enemies in ways they can understand.

It's a nice idea, but I don't believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has the junk to do something like that. And I know that Defense Minister Ehud Barak doesn't have it.

Labels: Palestinian recidivism, Palestinian terrorism, terrorists for Gilad trade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:24 AM