I hate that we are negotiating with Hamas

And here is the only negotiation I could agree with. Sort of.

We would not be negotiating with Hamas if they were not holding hostages. They know this, of course. And the fact that we are negotiating with them because they have hostages means the whole Islamist world is watching and preparing for taking their own hostages. It is not only Israel that remains at high risk.

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Taking hostages is the best way to get those who say they will never negotiate with terrorists to negotiate with terrorists.

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I hate that we are negotiating with Hamas.

If there has to be negotiating to be done, this is the only way I could agree to it:

From this moment on, every day that goes by and the hostages — all of them, dead and alive — are not released back into Israel a certain predetermined area of land in the Gaza Strip will be annexed to Israel.

Of course the problem with that is the corollary — that it precludes annexing Gaza to Israel if they do release the hostages. And I want to see all of Gaza under Israeli sovereignty. (There! I said it.) Therefore, back to the drawing board.

I say this as rumours abound that there is going to be an announcement (today?) of a hostage deal.

Oy, the balagan in my belly (balagan = extreme chaos, confusion, mix-up). On the one hand, I am excited at the thought of soon seeing the hostages (reportedly 33 of the 60 or so still alive) walk out of Red Cross vans on one side of the checkpost and cross over into Israeli helicopters that will take them directly to hospital and the waiting arms of their relatives. On the other hand, I am afraid for the remaining live hostages not to be released in the so-called first step. Will they survive to the second step?

And on that same ‘other hand,’ I fear the other parts of that deal — the huge number of terrorists who have murdered Israelis that will be released (how many potential Sinwar’s are among them and how many atrocities will they plan?) and the potential withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. This latter means that Hamas will be able to re-arm, rebuild, and retain control over the Gazan population. And that will mean a Hamas victory over Israel. That is the last thing that should happen.

Gazans are already starting to celebrate the anticipated announcement of a deal and this makes my blood go cold. Hence, the balagan in my belly.

But maybe a deal will not be signed after all — there is word that Hamas has added a new demand: the release of Sinwar’s body in the first stage. I hope we do not agree to that. It seems that in every potential deal until now, Hamas added a new demand at the last minute and that scuttled the agreements.

In any case, from my perspective any deal is a bad deal for Israel and a good deal for Hamas.

You can read a detailed analysis of the pros and cons of a hostage deal from Israel’s perspective in Joshua Hoffman’s article entitled, not surprisingly, The Pros and Cons of a Hostage Deal. The comments below his article provide interesting counterpoints and should be read as well.

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