hamas has released four Israeli hostages – but not the fifth it promised – in return for Israel handing them back not innocent hostages but Palestinian Arab criminals, including violent criminals.
In today’s Middle East, that is supposed to qualify as a fair exchange.
From Rory Jones, Anat Peled, Summer Said and Carrie Keller-Lynn’s article in the Wall Street Journal, via msn.com:
As part of the deal, Israel was expected to allow Palestinians to move more freely to northern Gaza through an Israeli-controlled corridor this weekend. But Israel said Saturday it would deny movement after Israeli officials said Hamas had failed to deliver a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, as part of Saturday’s exchange.
The multiphase deal’s protocols call for female hostages—civilians and soldiers—to be released first, followed by elderly and wounded men and then the bodies of the dead. But the two sides negotiated the first phase under the expectation that Hamas would first release female civilians and then female soldiers.
That meant Israel had expected Yehoud, 29, to be among those freed this weekend. Israel said Saturday it would only allow movement through the strip when Yehoud is freed.
The cease-fire deal began Sunday and the initial stage is expected to involve weekly hostage releases, with a total of 33 hostages to be handed over across 42 days until early March in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The U.S., Qatar and Egypt, the countries that negotiated the truce, are monitoring its implementation. Seven hostages have been released so far, all of them women, including the four on Saturday.
As part of the agreement, Israel will also free Palestinian prisoners each week. On Saturday Israeli authorities released 200 prisoners, including some serving life sentences, of which 70 were handed over to Egypt. The Palestinian prisoners being sent to Egypt will have the choice to stay or move to another country, mediators said.
Will this “deal” turn out to be a good one? Will it continue until all the hostages, dead and alive, are returned? What condition are the hostages in? What was done to them during their almost 16 months in captivity?
We don’t know the answers to those questions. What we do know, however, is that hamas is still in control of Gaza. And absolutely unrepentant.
Given the above, you’ll excuse me if I pardon anything Israel does to take hamas out.
I’ll end with a question for the people who demand that Israel’s response should be “proportionate”: If your enemy is committed, in writing, to annihilating your country and killing every one of you, and in that effort, massacres 1,200 – 1,400 of you, then promises on TV, that it will do so “again and again” – presumably until all of you are dead … what would a “proportionate” response be?
Think about it.
