Only someone narrow-minded would view this hostage deal as an Israeli victory. We have fought for the past 15 months to eradicate the evil In Gaza and now we seem willing to revert to the status quo before October 7th. Both Trump and Bibi promised absolute victory but that is not what absolute victory looks like.
Trump promised Israeli victory as a campaign tactic. He forced Netanyahu to agree.
Ben Shapiro tried to defend the horrible deal by calling it “not a full-scale surrender”.
Why should the idea of a partial surrender, even if such a thing exists, be palatable? We have dominated every step of this war. Only our mercy on the people of Gaza and care for the hostages stopped us from annihilating Hamas. We were afraid to carpet bomb them so as not to kill the hostages - and Biden held up the necessary weapons anyway.
What Israel needs to do to accomplish the absolute victory that Netanyahu has promised from the beginning of the war, is to force Hamas to surrender unconditionally.
Releasing 900-1,600 bloodthirsty terrorists is not an absolute victory.
Withdrawing almost all of our troops from Gaza is not an absolute victory.
Doubling the number of aid trucks to Hamas is not an absolute victory.
Giving Hamas 50 days to reposition themselves is not an absolute victory.
And this is just the first phase of the ceasefire.
The other two phases which have yet to be negotiated involve rebuilding Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.
Why doesn't Israel adopt the same policy as every other sovereign country, not negotiating with terrorists?
October 7th came about due to the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 when Israel exchanged 1027 terrorists for a captured soldier. One of the freed terrorists was Yaya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7th massacre. Haven’t we learned our lesson?
After the great success of the deal that led to the release of Sinwar, he knew that if they took hostages, they would be able to guarantee a Hamas victory by forcing Israel to release thousands of terrorists for the hostages.
We are playing directly into their hands.
Even after Sinwar’s death, his strategy is still successful, proving its effectiveness in manipulating Israel.
According to Jewish law, and common sense, we must stop incentivizing terrorists to kidnap Israelis.
If Israel does not ignore Trump’s calls for surrender and tear up this horrendous deal, then I am afraid instead of me going into Gaza a year from now, my kids will in 20 years.
Joe Ben Malin is an American hesder yeshiva student drafting to the Israeli Defense Forces in March.