Israel's tactical error

RABBI SHEA HECHT

What has the Israeli government done to its citizens? Israel has exchanged prisoners with the Lebanese guerilla group, Hezbollah. Eighty-seven percent of the people in Israel were against this trade, which has created fear among its own citizens. Forty-eight percent of Israelis fear the deal will lead to the kidnapping of more Israel Defense Forces soldiers and ordinary citizens. The deal has also given the Hezbollah, which was losing relevance, face-saving prestige.

Israel exchanged 435 Palestinian terrorists and the bodies of 60 Lebanese terrorists, for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers who were captured and killed at the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah also released Elhanan Tannenbaum, a civilian they kidnapped.

The Germans facilitated this deal to help free the terrorists, one of whom is a German national. The Israeli government acknowledged that they are paying a very high price for this arrangement but hope it will bring them closer to information about Ron Arad, the highest profile MIA. Arad ejected from his airplane over Lebanon in 1986. Israeli intelligence officers were never able to find out what happened to him, but if their hope materializes, they will have to give more terrorists their freedom in return for information on Ron Arad.

Two of the people who were set free, Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Durani, are very high-ranking Lebanese terrorists, who were directly involved in the kidnapping/torture/sale of Ron Arad to Iran. Yet Israel is freeing these two sheikhs without any tangible evidence on the whereabouts of Arad, just a promise of information.

In the past, each freed terrorist had to sign a commitment that they would refrain from any more violence against Israel. Those commitments were rarely honored; this time no commitment was even requested. Shin Bet security chief, Avi Dichter, warned that one of every eight prisoners would return to terrorist activity. The German terrorist, who was freed, announced before his release that he has no regrets for anything he has done and will go back to committing terrorism.

Through this exchange, the Israelis have driven up the price that can be extorted for a Jewish captive, making it more profitable to kidnap a Jew. At a rally in Beirut right after the prisoners were freed, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, warned that there would be more kidnappings to win the release of more terrorists.

Throughout the millennia, redeeming Jewish captives was considered a great deed, even at terrific personal and financial expense. It's very impressive that the State of Israel is willing to go to such ends in order to continue this important Jewish value. The Talmud warns, though, never to redeem captives for more than what would be the norm. Unfortunately, Israel is now setting a new norm and encouraging the kidnapping of Israeli citizens.

During the Middle Ages, Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg, the leader of German Jewry, was kidnapped for his ransom. He did not allow the Jewish community to pay the ransom, for fear that it would encourage more Jewish kidnaps. Rather than putting the burden of frequent abductions on the whole population, Rabbi Meir stayed in prison until he died.

Seeing that tradition does not ask us to put the welfare of one person before the welfare of the public, how can Israeli officials sign a deal with terrorists that does just that, thereby terrorizing their own citizens? The last time they made such a trade they could have claimed they were ignorant about the violence and abductions that followed, but what is their excuse this time?

Rabbi Shea Hecht lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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