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Trading with Terror: The Price of Jewish Lives

by Ram ben Ze'ev


Trading with Terror: The Price of Jewish Lives
Trading with Terror: The Price of Jewish Lives

A proposed ceasefire agreement has been placed before the Israeli government and the Jewish people. Its details are by now widely known: a temporary cessation of hostilities, the release of 10 living Jewish hostages, the return of 18 bodies of murdered Jews being grotesquely held by Arab terrorists, and in exchange, the release of 125 Arab terrorists serving life sentences, and the release of 1,111 additional Arab prisoners captured since October 7th.


According to the proposal, President Trump would serve as guarantor of the ceasefire, alongside the US, Egypt, and Qatar.


Let us not deceive ourselves about the stark evil of the situation. We are negotiating with savages who see no moral equivalence between human life and political demand. The very fact that Jewish bodies—holy remains—are being used as bargaining chips is an abomination.



The souls of these murdered Jews cry out from beyond this world for honour and for burial according to halakhah. Their desecration is an open wound for Am Yisrael, and the prospect of their return is no small matter. This is a point we must press hard: no civilised nation can rest while its murdered sons and daughters lie rotting in the hands of beasts.


Likewise, the release of even a single Jewish life from captivity is of the highest value.


Pikuach nefesh—the saving of life—overrides nearly all other considerations in our faith. Ten Jewish lives, extracted from the hellish depths of Gaza, cannot be dismissed lightly. Each one is a world entire.


And yet—we must face another reality. The Arab terrorists being released will, in most cases, return to the machinery of death. It is a bitter truth. However, from a purely strategic standpoint, while they remain in Israeli prisons, they cannot be eliminated. Once released into the open, the opportunity arises to address them through other means. The Mossad, the IDF, and the long arm of Israeli justice will no longer be limited by the walls of a prison. Many a terrorist freed in past deals has found his ultimate judgement awaiting him not in the courts of man, but in the field of battle or by means of quiet precision.


But herein lies the core objection to this plan—not in its details, but in the pattern it presents to the world. The message it broadcasts is this: kidnap a Jew, dead or alive, and you will secure whatever ransom you seek. This is an invitation to more kidnappings, more murders, more extortion. It emboldens not only Hamas but every festering terror network lurking in the shadows.


Is the redemption of hostages worth the price? On the level of the individual Jewish soul, yes.


On the level of statecraft and deterrence, no. We find ourselves once again caught in the agony of Jewish conscience: to value every life infinitely, yet to protect the many by resisting submission to terror.



This deal—if it proceeds—must be the last of its kind. Israel must make it abundantly clear, through deed not word, that any future act of hostage-taking will result in an overwhelming, relentless, and utterly disproportionate response. No sanctuary, no state sponsor, no fig leaf of negotiation must shield those who would traffic in Jewish blood.


Our enemies must learn that we will recover our dead, we will redeem our living, but the price they will pay for the crime of kidnapping a Jew will be annihilation. Every terrorist released from our prisons must be hunted without respite. Those still in custody must be made to understand that they are safer inside an Israeli cell than outside of it — and that release is not freedom, but a death sentence awaiting them. Anything less invites only more terror.


This is the hard truth our leaders must face. And it is the truth that Am Yisrael must insist upon—not in the language of appeasement, but in the language of survival.


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