Hostage Deal

 

Everyone is talking about the hostage deal now.  Is it good?  Is it bad?

I don’t really know the details so I can’t even really comment.  And what’s more important than the deal itself, is the follow up to it.

But beyond the details of this deal, it’s unfortunately indicative that we’re not leaving the cycle.  And that makes me sad.

For decades, it has been Israeli morals (as opposed to Torah morals) to make “painful sacrifices” on the alter of peace and redeeming hostages.

Is this deal terrible?  Was it worse than the Gilad Shalit deal of 2011, which let over 1,000 terrorists out of prison, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of Oct 7?

We will only know after the next Oct 7.  

As long as we keep feeding the cycle, we can’t expect the cycle to stop.

What is the cycle?

The cycle works something like this:  Individual terrorists kill Jews and get sent to prison for life.  Then they take Jewish hostages.  We negotiate a deal to get our hostages back, releasing the murderers back on the streets, together with some other kinds of concessions.  Then Israel continues arresting murderers, they take more hostages, and the cycle continues.

The only way to stop the cycle, is to stop the cycle.

As painful as it is.

This hostage deal reflects the unfortunate reality that the country of Israel is in a deep exile mentality and Moshiach is not yet here.

You can’t see the pictures of the men, women and children held hostage without your heart breaking for them.

You want to do everything and anything to get them out.

And “redeeming captives” is the highest form of charity in Jewish law.

But there’s a flip side.

Jewish law forbids us from “overpaying” for hostages (lest they be encouraged to take more- as they have and are…)

Torah commands us to be strong.

Torah commands us to not be afraid in war.

And you don’t negotiate with terrorists.

Not directly and not indirectly. (Negotiating indirectly is a joke.  You might as well do it direct.)

You can’t flinch at their balking.

You can’t be scared of their threats.

You treat them as if they don’t exist.

Their movement could be nothing.

Their only currency, leverage and honed skill is terror and hostage taking.

And that currency of taking hostages could be made valueless.

And if it was a valueless currency, they’d stop it.

And they would be nothing.

But the way to render their currency valueless seems heartless.

But it’s a painful sacrifice that we’ll have to make at some point (at least a sacrifice in our minds-because G-d runs the world and they may indeed come out).

Misguided Mercy, bashfulness & Kindness

The Talmud says that Jews are naturally “merciful, bashful & kind”.  

But these qualities need to be channeled by Torah values.

If our mercy and kindness is not channeled by Torah, we end up being merciful and kind to evil people.  And supporting (kindly) bizarre and immoral causes, like many Jews do.  

And when you’re kind to evil, you end up being cruel to the righteous.  That’s how it works.

If our bashfulness is not channeled by Torah, we end up being ashamed of being Jewish, the truth of the Torah, and our belief in G-d, instead of being proud of them, and channeling our bashfulness to our character traits.

Unfortunately, this is the source of the Israeli moral of “sacrifices for peace and hostages”.  As the left wing president of Israel (Isaac Herzog) admitted today in a tweet, this deal includes painful sacrifices and will pose challenges going forward.

Hostage Negotiation in this week’s Torah portion

In this week’s Torah portion, G-d commands Moses to go to Pharoah and get the Jews (hostages and slaves) out of Egypt.  G-d warns Moses (Exodus, 3:19) “I know that the King of Egypt will not allow you to go until I exercise my strong hand.”

G-d told Moses that Pharaoh will offer partial deals, but Moses must stand strong until Pharoah allows every last Jew to leave.  With their animals.  For free.  And with their Egyptian captors sending them off with gifts.

Indeed, even to get this deal with Hamas, Israel had to be extremely strong handed.  But it wasn’t strong handed enough.  And we buckled early.

Moses could have walked out early with every Jew, just leaving the animals.  But G-d commanded us to stand our ground until the end.

When a person is in an abusive relationship, it’s hard and scary to leave.  You’ve been primed to feel guilt and shame.  You feel like it’s your fault.  And you commit to yourself that this is the last time.  

Like we promised ourselves with the Shalit deal.  And the ones before it.

But of course, it happens again, and the cycle continues.

Israel is stuck in a dysfunctional cycle and psyche with Hamas (and most of the Arabs, the US and the global community) that could be likened to an addict-codependent relationship.

This deal is probably better than it could have been.  It’s heartening that at least a few of our brothers and sisters will be back to their families.  

But it’s sad, knowing that more of our beautiful soldiers will die for this deal.  And more hostages will be taken because of this deal.  

Guaranteed.

And we’ll only really know the price years from now.

We were told that October 7 was a gamechanger for Israel, and that the old ways will not continue.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case now.

Someday, a leader will arise in Israel, who will be committed to changing the status quo, and ending the cycle.

Standing for Torah values.

For real.

And then Moshiach will come.

For real.