Writer's note:This article advocates for implementing the death penalty for future terrorist acts to eliminate the incentive for hostage-taking. It is not an argument against the current hostage exchange-bringing our captives home is a sacred obligation. It argues that Israel must break the cycle that has made kidnapping profitable for Hamas by ensuring that future terrorists cannot be traded.
The great Moral Instructor and Mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva in Poland, Rav Yeruchem Levovitz zt"l, once said: (Daas Torah Shmos, p. 201):
"A person does not appreciate that the only reason he can sleep peacefully at night is because there are police in the city… He locks his doors, but still fears. Without the law's deterrence, man would swallow his fellow alive."
The buses roll into Ramallah in the predawn hours. Inside: murderers. Outside: celebrations, even if they are not outside because Israel prohibited them.
On October 9, 2025, the Israeli government approved a "ceasefire" that frees nearly 2,000 Palestinian Arab prisoners-including 250 serving life sentences for murder. Among them are architects of massacre, planners of bus bombings, and participants in lynchings where Jewish blood was literally waved from windows as a trophy.
This is not the first time. It is merely the latest chapter in a decades-long pattern of national self-destruction in the guise of compassion for hostages.
October 7: When Evil Came at Dawn
Let us not forget what brought us here.
On October 7, 2023-Simchas Torah-at 6:30 in the morning, more than 2,200 rockets darkened Israeli skies in just twenty minutes. As families huddled in bomb shelters, 3,800 elite Nukhba force terrorists and 2,200 regular terrorists and so-called "civilians" breached Israel's border at 119 locations. They came by land, by sea, by motorized paragliders. They came with one purpose: to murder Jews.
What followed was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
In Kibbutz Be'eri, terrorists went door to door. They burned families alive in their homes. They shot parents in front of their children. A young couple on a morning walk-Judih and Haggai Weinstein-were gunned down at 7:00 AM, their bodies dragged to Gaza.
At the Nova music festival, where 3,000 young people had gathered to celebrate, terrorists opened fire with automatic weapons. They hunted down fleeing concertgoers, shooting them as they ran. Young women were dragged away, their screams captured on video that the terrorists themselves proudly shared online. Shani Louk's broken body was paraded through Gaza in a pickup truck while crowds cheered and spit on her corpse.
At the Nahal Oz military outpost, seven young female soldiers were captured alive. Video footage shows them sitting against a wall, hands bound behind their backs, faces etched with terror, before being taken into the tunnels of Gaza. Several were later murdered in captivity.
By day's end: 1,200 Jews were murdered. Over 240 were dragged into captivity. Entire families annihilated. Grandparents, parents, children-some still in pajamas-shot, burned, mutilated.
The terrorists documented their atrocities. They live-streamed murders to victims' Facebook pages so families could watch their loved ones die. They called parents on their children's phones to boast of the killing. This was sadistic, premeditated attempted genocide - called "resistance" by Jew-haters.
The Price of "Compassion": A History Written in Jewish Blood
And now, two years later, Israel prepares to release their accomplices.
This is not new.
Since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s, Israel has released over 10,000 terrorists in "prisoner exchanges" and "confidence-building gestures." The results have been catastrophic and predictable:
The Ramallah Lynch of October 12, 2000: Two Israeli reservists took a wrong turn and entered Ramallah. A Palestinian mob dragged them from their car, lynched them, and literally ripped their bodies apart. One terrorist waved his hands-dripping with Jewish blood-from a police station window in triumph. That image was broadcast worldwide.
Raed Sheikh, who took part in that lynch, is one of those released.
Baher Dar, sentenced to 11 life terms for masterminding the 1995 Beit Lid suicide bombing that murdered 21 Israeli soldiers and wounded 69 others, many of them teenagers, was released in earlier exchanges. He has become a hero in Palestinian society.
Ibrahim Alikem, who murdered Ita Tzur and her 12-year-old son Efrayim as they drove home, was set free in prior deals.
The Shalit Deal of 2011 saw 1,027 terrorists released for one kidnapped soldier. Among them was Yahya Sinwar-who went on to become the commander of Hamas and the chief architect of the October 7 massacres. Israel literally freed the man who would orchestrate the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
The lesson Hamas learned was not mercy. It was that Jewish blood has a price-and that price is Israel's willingness to empty its prisons.
The Torah's Unambiguous Command
The Torah speaks with crystal clarity on this matter:
"שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם, בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ - Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed." (Bereishis 9:6)
This is not merely a suggestion. This is the first law of human civilization, given to all mankind after the Flood-the foundational principle that life is sacred precisely because it carries accountability. Murder demands ultimate justice.
Later, the Torah reinforces this command within Israel's covenantal code:
"מַכֵּה אִישׁ וָמֵת מוֹת יוּמָת - One who strikes a man and he dies shall surely be put to death." (Shmos 21:12)
"וְאִישׁ כִּי יַכֶּה כָל נֶפֶשׁ אָדָם, מוֹת יוּמָת - He that smites any man mortally shall surely be put to death." (Vayikra 24:17)
"עַל פִּי שְׁנַיִם עֵדִים אוֹ שְׁלֹשָׁה עֵדִים יוּמַת הַמֵּת - By the testimony of two or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death." (Devarim 17:6)
Far from rejecting capital punishment, the Torah enshrines it as a condition of moral order-bounded by strict safeguards of evidence and warning (eidim v'hatra'ah), yet commanding its existence as the ultimate defense of society.
The Talmudic Balance: Mercy and Its Limits
The Mishnah (Makkos 1:10) records a profound debate:
"A Sanhedrin that puts a man to death once in seven years is called destructive." Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: "Or even once in seventy years." Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva said: "If we had been in the Sanhedrin, no man would ever have been executed."
But then comes the thunderous response of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel:
"If so, they would have multiplied murderers in Israel."
This is the eternal tension. The first three opinions warn against executing the innocent. But Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel delivers an eternal warning that rings through the centuries to our very moment: excessive mercy destroys the moral fabric of a nation and multiplies the spilling of innocent blood.
The Rambam (Hilchos Sanhedrin 14:4) codifies this principle, ruling that even when the formal Beit Din cannot apply capital punishment, a king or court may execute beyond the letter of the law "le'migdar milta"-to protect society from chaos.
This is not academic theory. This is the halakhic recognition that when justice is abandoned, death multiplies.
The Gemara: When Torah Scholars Executed Criminals
The Gemara in Bava Metzia 83b-84a records a startling episode. Both R' Elazar ben R' Shimon and R' Yishmael ben R' Yosi-great Torah scholars-served as law-enforcement officials under Roman authority. Their duties included identifying Jewish criminals and turning them over to the state, knowing they would be executed.
R' Elazar encountered a Roman marshal commissioned to arrest thieves. R' Elazar asked: "Perhaps you apprehend the innocent and leave the guilty?" The marshal replied: "What can I do? It is the king's command."
R' Elazar taught him how to identify true criminals by their behavior-and the matter reached the palace. The king decreed: "Let the reader of the letter deliver it." R' Elazar himself was thus appointed to arrest criminals.
R' Yehoshua ben Karcha sent him a rebuke: "Vinegar son of wine! How long will you deliver the people of our G-d to execution?"
R' Elazar replied: "I am clearing the vineyard of its thorns."
R' Yehoshua answered: "Let the Master of the vineyard do that Himself."
A similar exchange occurred with R' Yishmael ben R' Yosi, to whom Eliyahu HaNavi appeared and asked: "Until when will you hand over the people of our G-d to execution?" He replied: "What can I do? It is the king's order!"
The Ritva explains the halakhic basis:
"That which he judged without eidim and hatra'ah and not in the Sanhedrin-this was different, because he was an agent of the king. It is among the laws of government to execute without eidim and hatra'ah, to maintain order in the world. The agent of the king is as the king himself."
In other words: civil government retains the halakhic right and duty to punish-even by death-for the preservation of society.
Even the rebuke of R' Yehoshua ben Karcha did not claim R' Elazar was committing a sin. The criticism was only that he lacked an extra measure of piety (chassidut). The halakha itself sided with those who executed criminals to preserve order.
The Rashba: Halakhic Authorization of State Executions
The Rashba, in Teshuvot HaChadashot Miktav Yad §345 (cited in Beit Yosef, Choshen Mishpat 388), records an episode where he and another Torah sage were summoned by the king to judge a Jewish informant (moser). They ruled that the man deserved death, and the king executed him.
In his responsum, the Rashba provides the halakhic justification:
"In our case there is nothing wrong with what we did, for we did not judge him ourselves. We were asked by the king's court to examine his iniquity and to inform them of our counsel.
All these restrictions upon capital punishment were said regarding the laws of the Sanhedrin as decrees of the Torah (gezeirat hakatuv). But regarding the laws of the king (dina d'malchuta), these do not apply, for their laws depend only upon knowledge of the truth.
If you say that governments may not execute unless all Torah procedures are met-the world would become desolate, because murderers would multiply."
The Rashba then invokes the Gemara of R' Elazar ben R' Shimon, concluding that their actions were fully justified under halakha.
Thus, halakha itself recognizes not just the right, but the duty, of governments to execute murderers to preserve society.
The Chatam Sofer (Shu"t VI, Likutim §14) not withstanding, the Maharam Schick (cited in Meoros Nasan §61) explains and qualifies the Chatam Sofer’s lenient view and elaborate on this principle: when public safety requires it, the civil authority retains full halakhic license to execute even Jewish criminals under dina d'malchuta, for the stability and protection of society.
The halakhic tradition is not pacifism. It is ordered justice-a system that demands mercy when possible and death when mercy would destroy the innocent.
Modern Poskim: When Murder Becomes a Culture
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l, in Igrot Moshe, Choshen Mishpat II:68 (20 Adar II 5741 / March 26, 1981), the Rav addressed a letter to New York Governor Hugh Carey regarding capital punishment.
He explained that while Torah courts require the strictest standards of evidence and warning, these restrictions apply only when the sanctity of life is upheld by society itself.
But when murder becomes commonplace, when people "murder because for them the prohibition has become meaningless," the halakha itself demands deterrence:
"When the number of murderers has multiplied so much… we apply [capital punishment] in order to deter murder. For to do so is saving society."
Rav Moshe codified a principle directly relevant to Israel today: when terror becomes a culture, execution becomes an act of preservation.
Rav Aharon Soloveitchik zt"l in a letter to Dr. David Luchins, argued that without a Beit HaMikdash, capital punishment cannot be carried out by a Sanhedrin and therefore Jews should oppose it in practice. He cited the dictum "A Sanhedrin that executes once in seventy years is murderous."
This is a valid position-for Sanhedrin-administered justice in an ideal Torah society.
But Rav Aharon himself might acknowledge that the State of Israel, as a civil government, operates under dina d'malchuta-not as a Beit Din. And under those circumstances, as the Rashba, Ritva, Rambam, and Rav Moshe all ruled, execution is not only permissible-it is necessary when murder has become epidemic.
The Moral Foundation: Without Justice, Chaos Reigns
When law ceases to deter, when murderers are celebrated rather than condemned, when terrorists become heroes rather than corpses-society collapses into barbarism.
The Impossible Choice-and How to Prevent the Next One
Let us be unambiguously clear at the outset: This article is not an argument against the current hostage deal.
Every Jewish life is infinitely precious. The hostages must come home. Their families have endured unspeakable agony for two years. If releasing prisoners is the only way to bring them back alive, then we must do it-and pray that Hashem protects us from the consequences.
No one who has not sat in the Prime Minister's chair, weighed these impossible choices, and borne responsibility for both the hostages and future victims can judge this decision.
But we must be honest about what this deal represents: It is not a solution. It is a symptom of a deeper, systemic failure.
The Vicious Cycle We Have Created
Under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement:
Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be released by Israel. 250 of them are serving life sentences for murder and terror attacks. Among them are participants in some of the most heinous massacres in Israeli history. They will not return home humbled-they will hailed as heroes and incentivized to murder again.
Hamas released our hostages by parading them through mobs in Khan Yunis. Video footage from January 30, 2025, shows Arbel Yehoud and other captives being shoved through massive crowds of screaming Palestinian Arabs, flanked by armed terrorists, in what Prime Minister Netanyahu called "shocking scenes of inconceivable brutality." At least the deal prohibited that barbarism.
This is the inevitable result of a policy that has rewarded kidnapping for thirty years.
Hamas has learned a simple equation: Kidnap Jews → Israel empties its prisons → Celebrate as heroes → Repeat.
How many future Sinwars are in the buses heading to Ramallah today?
How many Israeli families will be murdered five years from now by terrorists we are releasing today?
Breaking the Cycle: The Death Penalty as Prevention
This article is an argument for a fundamental policy change going forward: Israel must impose the death penalty for terrorist acts.
Not retroactively. Not for those already in prison. But from this point forward, every terrorist must know with absolute certainty: if you murder Jews, you will be executed. Not imprisoned. Not available for exchange. Dead.
This is not about vengeance. It is about ending the incentive structure that makes kidnapping profitable.
Consider the strategic calculus:
Under the current system:
Terrorist murders Israelis → Gets life sentence → Becomes a hero in Palestinian society → Receives salary from Palestinian Authority → His family receives stipends → Eventually released in a "deal" → Returns to a hero's welcome → Plans next attack
Under a death penalty system:
Terrorist murders Israelis → Executed within months → No hero's return → No future attacks → No leverage for Hamas → No incentive to kidnap hostages for exchange
When there are no terrorists in prison to trade, there is no reason to take hostages.
The death penalty doesn't just punish the guilty-it protects the innocent by removing the primary motive for kidnapping.
Why Hamas Takes Hostages
Hamas doesn't take hostages out of cruelty alone (though that is certainly part of it). They take hostages because hostages have strategic value.
That value is simple: Israel's prisons are full of thousands of convicted terrorists who Hamas wants freed.
October 7th was not random violence. It was a calculated strategy to maximize the number of Israeli hostages precisely so Hamas could demand the release of as many imprisoned terrorists as possible.
The Nova music festival wasn't targeted because of its symbolic value-it was targeted because 3,000 young people represented 3,000 potential bargaining chips.
Every kibbutz invaded, every home broken into, every Israeli dragged to Gaza-all of it was part of a kidnapping operation designed to eventually force Israel into exactly the deal we are seeing today.
If terrorists are executed, this entire strategy collapses.
You cannot trade the dead. You cannot have a "prisoner exchange" when there are no prisoners to exchange.
When Hamas knows with certainty that every terrorist they send will be executed within a year of capture, the incentive to commit attacks for the purpose of future exchanges disappears.
Yes, some will still attack out of ideological hatred. But the strategic, calculated, large-scale operations like October 7th-designed specifically to take maximum hostages for maximum prisoner releases-become pointless.
The Deterrent Effect: Not Perfect, But Powerful
Some will argue: "Terrorists are willing to die anyway. The death penalty won't deter them."
This misunderstands the purpose.
The death penalty serves three critical functions:
1. Incapacitation: A dead terrorist will never murder again. An imprisoned terrorist might be released to murder again (as Yahya Sinwar proved).
2. Elimination of Exchange Value: Dead terrorists cannot be traded. This removes the strategic incentive for hostage-taking operations.
3. Deterrence of Rational Actors: Not every terrorist is a suicidal fanatic. Many are rational actors responding to incentives. When the incentive structure changes from "prison with eventual hero's return" to "swift execution," some will choose not to participate.
Will it stop every attack? No. But it will stop attacks whose primary purpose is to gain leverage for prisoner releases.
That alone would prevent operations like October 7th from being repeated.
The Torah's Command: Eradicate Evil
The Torah does not mince words:
"וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִקִּרְבֶּךָ - You shall eradicate the evil from your midst." (Devarim 17:7, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, and repeated throughout Sefer Devarim)
This is not a suggestion. It is a commandment. Justice that spares the guilty destroys the innocent.
When R' Yehoshua ben Karcha rebuked R' Elazar ben R' Shimon by calling him "vinegar son of wine"-less refined than his saintly father-even he did not say R' Elazar was wrong. He said only that he lacked the ideal of chassidut.
But the halakha sided with R' Elazar: society cannot survive without justice.
A Call to Sanity: What Must Be Done Now
Israel must take steps to ensure this never happens again:
1. Reinstate the Death Penalty for Future Acts of Terror (Not Retroactively)
The Knesset must pass legislation effective immediately that mandates capital punishment for anyone who, from the date of enactment forward:
Murders civilians in a terrorist attack
Plans, funds, or facilitates such attacks
Takes civilians hostage
This is not about those already in prison. This is about every potential terrorist who is making calculations today about whether to join Hamas tomorrow.
The law must include swift execution following conviction-not decades of appeals that turn prisons into universities of terror. Within one year of conviction, maximum.
2. Never Again Release Mass Murderers
While we must complete the current exchange to save our hostages, this must be the last time.
Going forward: No more "prisoner exchanges." No more "confidence-building gestures."
When terrorists are executed rather than imprisoned, there will be no one left to trade. The entire kidnapping industry collapses when the inventory disappears.
The Torah is clear: "לֹא תִכְרְתוּ לָהֶם בְּרִית - You shall make no covenant with them." (Devarim 7:2) After we bring home our current hostages, we close this dark chapter forever.
3. Apply the Law Equally
If an Arab terrorist who murders a Jew receives a life sentence, a Jewish terrorist who murders an Arab must receive the same.
Justice must be blind to ethnicity and uniform in application. The Torah demands this: "מִשְׁפָּט אֶחָד יִהְיֶה לָכֶם - One law shall be for you." (Vayikra 24:22)
4. Fear G-d, Not the World
Israel must stop fearing the condemnation of a morally bankrupt international community that calls terrorists "freedom fighters" and victims "occupiers."
The United Nations that applauds mass murderers has no moral authority.
The Torah is our moral authority. And the Torah commands: Execute the murderer. Protect the innocent. Choose life by removing those who choose death.
Conclusion: The Vineyard Must Remove Its Thorns-Starting Today
When R' Elazar ben R' Shimon said, "I am clearing the vineyard of its thorns," he understood a fundamental truth: A vineyard that refuses to remove thorns will never produce fruit.
Israel is the vineyard of Hashem. The Jewish people are the fruit. The terrorists are the thorns.
We cannot allow this crisis to repeat itself every few years for the next generation.
The question before us is not about the current deal-it is about the next.
Will we allow the cycle to continue? Will our grandchildren face the same impossible choice-release mass murderers or abandon hostages?
Or will we finally implement the Torah's solution: Execute terrorists swiftly, remove the incentive for kidnapping, and break the cycle forever?
For two thousand years, we had no sovereign power to defend ourselves. We were slaughtered in pogroms, burned in crusades, gassed in chambers-helpless, unable to bring our murderers to justice.
No more.
The State of Israel is the first sovereign Jewish polity in two millennia. We have the power-and the Torah obligation-to execute those who spill innocent Jewish blood.
To fail to do so is not mercy. It is the guarantee of future massacres. Not betrayal of those murdered on October 7-they are already gone. Betrayal of those who will be murdered on the next October 7th, because we failed to learn the lesson.
The Torah's vision of justice-divine, disciplined, and compassionate-demands that we protect life through accountability.
To reinstate the death penalty for terrorists is not vengeance. It is not cruelty. It is not "sinking to their level."
It is the prevention of the next kidnapping, the next massacre, the next impossible choice.
It is choosing-once and for all-to protect Jewish children rather than preserve the lives of their murderers.
"You shall destroy the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear." (Devarim 21:21)
Let Israel once again become the vineyard that removes its thorns-not to punish, but to let its fruit grow in peace.
Let Jewish mothers sleep knowing their children are protected.
Let Jewish children grow up without fear of the terrorist released yesterday becoming the murderer of tomorrow.
Let the world know: Jewish blood is not cheap.
And let history record that when the Jewish people finally had the power to defend themselves, they chose justice over mercy to murderers-and thereby chose life.
Rabbi Yair Hoffman can be reached at yairhoffman2@gmail.com. He has authored over fifty halakhic Seforim and over 3000 halakhic articles with Haskamot from leading gedolim past and present. His Seforim are available here.