Somehow, “joy,” “elation,” “wow!” “exhilaration” don’t do it. They’re not enough to express the feelings we see upon the release of hostages. Their release (like their capture) is something none of us has ever seen. We have not lived what they lived, but we have lived our own torment imagining theirs, so no word is over the top when these innocent prisoners, their humanity having been reduced to bargaining chips, regain their humanity as they exit the worst jail and fall into the arms of family and friends — and each other.
We watch. We rub our eyes. We struggle to believe and struggle to find words.
We hope for freedom for them all.
We are aghast at the final brutality many had to go through, running the gauntlet of brutal masked cowards — but we are not surprised. What does surprise us is how inadequate we are to express our . . . joy, elation, exhilaration — and more. Inexpressibly more.
All this — and all that we already knew about the hostages’ conditions — makes it excruciatingly difficult to write that the current ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel should not have been agreed to by Israel. We cannot honestly say this without denying the human implications of our position. To reject this deal is the same as saying that the inexpressibly joyous reunions between hostages and their families and loved ones should not have taken place. It is the same as saying that the freed hostages should still be held in inhumane conditions. It is the same as saying that the redemption of these captives is wrong. Those are excruciatingly difficult things to say. So how can we reject this deal?
In 2011, 1,027 Palestinian and Arab Israeli prisoners were released from Israeli jails in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an innocent Israeli inhumanely held by Hamas in Gaza. Among the released Palestinian prisoners was Yahya Sinwar. This evil man was the person primarily responsible for the mass murder of Israelis and others on Oct. 7, 2023; the person primarily responsible for the kidnapping of some 250 hostages on that day; the person primarily responsible for the displacement of some 60,000 Israelis from their homes; the person primarily responsible for the deaths of some 800 Israeli soldiers defending the Jewish homeland — and, not to be overlooked, the person primarily responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Gazans who would be alive today had Sinwar not started the war that lead to their deaths.
Was the release of Sinwar in 2011, in exchange for Gilad Shalit, worth it? To answer that question with “no” is excruciatingly difficult, for it is the same as saying that the Shalit family should not have been made whole; that the Shalit family should, to this day, be torn and agonized beyond words. Yet, we answer “no.”
It is true that in Jewish law “ein nefesh docheh mipnei nefesh,” one person cannot be sacrificed for another. When the Nazis demanded that Jews hand over one Jew from amidst a large group of Jews, otherwise the Nazis would murder the whole group, it was forbidden to hand over the single Jew. What, in fact, actually happened in that evil circumstance devised by Nazis, we do not know; but this was the law: one doesn’t sacrifice one person’s life in order to save many people’s lives.
Clearly, the moral thrust of that law pervades the equally evil demands of Hamas: no human life should be sacrificed. But the scenarios are drastically different. In the current ceasefire, Israel is turning over, not one innocent person to save a group of innocent people. Israel is turning over guilty people — murderers — to save a group of innocent people. If it were the case that once these murderers were freed, they would never murder again, that would justify the grossly imbalanced trade of some 50 or 100 criminals for each freed hostage. But in fact these freed murderers come back to murder. Sinwar is just one example.
Nor is the invocation of Sinwar a red herring, an extreme example that has no parallel in the current release of Palestinian prisoners. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, one of the released prisoners, Zakaria Zubeidi, orchestrated attacks that killed Israelis during the Second Intifada, 2000-2005. Some 1,053 innocent Israelis were murdered during that intifada. Each successfully executed execution stimulated another one. Zakaria Zubeidi was an integral part of that terrorist murder spree. Was it worth it for Israel to free Zubeidi on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025? Just in case one might think that Zubeidi reformed himself while in an Israeli prison, he said upon his release, “What we are seeing today is a public referendum on the resistance fighters.” Translation: first, terrorist murderers are “resistance fighters”; second, the public deems them heroes.
“Heroes” of this ilk try to come back to do more of the same. Just like Sinwar did. This is not in doubt. This ceasefire deal is not a matter of certain freedom for hostages as over against possible recidivism by the release murderers.
And Zakaria Zubeidi is just one. On the day he was released, 110 Palestinian prisoners were released. Of those 110, 32 were serving life sentences. Given that Israel does not have capital punishment for terrorists, that life sentence is usually a code for: murderer. A life sentence is the maximum that Israeli law allows to be imposed on a terrorist murderer.
Released the same day as Zubeidi was Sami Jaradata. His life term was for directing a suicide bomber to attack a restaurant in Haifa. The attack killed 21 people and wounded 21. Was it worth it for Israel to release Zubeidi and Jaradata and their like, even if it meant the hostages were still be held and unprecedentedly joyous reunions denied? No.
Ein nefesh docheh mipnei nefesh — one person cannot be scarified for another — can also mean: One innocent person cannot be freed now at the expense of a multitude of innocent victims in the future — because that murderous future is exactly what previously released Palestinians prisoners (such as Sinwar) enacted and is exactly what at least some currently released Palestinian prisoners will attempt to enact again.
Note: This is not strictly an Israeli or a Jewish moral dilemma and determination. One of the victims of one of the Palestinian prisoners expected to be released was an American citizen.
Note: The same WSJ report that details Zubeidi’s crimes says that he was a lover of peace before Israeli troops killed his mother and brother during the Second Intifada in 2002. What the report doesn’t say is that some 10 years before 2002, Zubeidi was throwing stones at Israeli troops. He was 13. Stones are lethal. Hate starts young in the Palestinians areas, where Zubeidi was a hero then and is a hero now. Is there any doubt that under the current ceasefire deal Zubeidi will do his best to emulate Sinwar?
Note: It is not only we who think this deal should not have been made. Ironically, another one of the the released prisoners didn’t either. Hamas kidnapped Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, just like they kidnapped Gilad Shalit in 2006, in order to use them as bargaining chips for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. In order to free the current batch of prisoners, Hamas was willing to elicit the demolition of virtually all of Gaza and the death of thousands of Palestinians by going to war with Israel and kidnapping hostages. One of the released prisoners said:“If I had known that the price of my freedom would be the blood of Gaza’s children, I would have refused to leave.” His conscience did not pain him too much, since he did leave, but his grasp of the modus operandi of Hamas was clear: Kidnap many Israelis, knowing it will lead to war.
The implications are clear: When one side views human beings as expendable, that side can be given no quarter, lest more innocent people eventually die than the number of Israelis (and others) who are currently being liberated.
It is an excruciating calculus. It is what Hamas and its ilk have imposed.
© IJN 2025
