12 Comments
User's avatar
Jill Grunewald's avatar

And why are we negotiating to permit criminal terrorists release from prison in exchange for innocent Israelis? We are only incenting terrorists to kidnap Israeli innocents in the future. Our children and grandchildren will never be safe…Galid for sinwar? Haven’t we learned? At least insert locator chips with audio inside the released murderers so we can hear released criminals’ evil plans and know their locations (if we release them from our prisons)! 🇮🇱💪🏻🙏🏻

Expand full comment
JudyinJerusalem's avatar

Thanks for this, Sheri. It's so hard trying to explain this to well meaning people outside Israel.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

It's hard even for us, as well.

Expand full comment
Lioudmila Levina's avatar

Hamas never ever returns all hostages, they are their life insurance. When Israel will leave filadelfia corridor hamas will rearm and will carry more 7 of Octobers. They can smuggle remained hostages into other countries such as iran, turkey. We will never see these hostages again. It is my view.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

Yes. That is the fear.

Expand full comment
Miriamnae's avatar

Hamas should not be allowed a single ‘condition.’ Terrorists. Any condition means every enemy will know the worth of murderous massacre and taking hostages.

Expand full comment
Mark L's avatar

Israel comes first!

Expand full comment
Michael Lumish's avatar

“From day one—October 7, 2023—Israel’s twin goals in Gaza were fundamentally irreconcilable. Israel could not, as its leaders pledged, simultaneously destroy Hamas and secure all of the hostages’ release. The terrorists who regarded the hostages as the key to their survival would hardly give them up for less than an Israeli commitment to end—and therefore lose—the war.”

Michael Oren - The Hostage Deal Is the Price of Israel’s Failures, The Free Press

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

This is exactly what I thought all the way through and I wished they never said that -- about these two goals. They are mutually exclusive.

Expand full comment
Lioudmila Levina's avatar

Also this morning (Australian time) another thought crossed my mind - the current government IMHO signed a death sentence as Likud's voters will not forget that Bibi bended under the pressure of oppositions and their cohort but also under international pressure. And all these lefty mob will not vote for Likud whatever Bibi does or doesn't. So Likud looks like a loser and the mob as a winner together with hamas.

Expand full comment
Sheri Oz's avatar

I sadly tend to agree with you here. Hope that there is more behind the scenes that we do not know (of course) that would justify this and that we will get to know it after Jan 20. Hope. It protects me.

Expand full comment
John McDonagh's avatar

I find the timing of this deal the most troubling and cannot help but wonder if PM Netanyahu has been handed his own personal "Sophie's Choice" by the incoming Trump administration, although the deal smacks much more of Obiden somehow and I cannot make sense of it at all.

Expand full comment