For years, Israel has been taken advantage of in terms of the exchange of prisoners and fallen soldiers. When it managed to strike an agreement, the country had to pay an incredibly high price in exchange. When it put down its foot and resisted, it got a much more sensible deal.
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The death of Jenin terrorist Daoud Zubeidi is an opportunity to change the rules of the game and turn the blackmailers into blackmailees.
True, a funeral has been held for Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in 2014 during Operation Protective Edge, although his remains are held by Hamas. True, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, who fell in the same battle, has been declared an IDF casualty whose burial place is unknown, although the presumption is that his remains are also held by the terror group, along with two other captive Israeli citizens.
During Protective Edge, the IDF tried to learn from the mistakes it made after the abduction of soldiers Sgt. Eldad Regev and Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser, who were abducted by Hezbollah in 2006, by promptly declaring both Goldin and Shaul casualties, hoping it would aid them in negotiations. But Israel released the bodies of terrorists and detainees caught during the operation too early, giving up the leverage it could have used against Hamas.
The redemption of captives is not a modern matter for the Jewish people, and it has been discussed in the Mishnah, which says that "we do not ransom captives for more than they are worth." Meaning that the conditions for the release of a captive must be reasonable.
Here is where it gets complicated. What is considered "reasonable"? Does it make a difference whether the soldier is dead or alive? The equation is complicated not only due to an halachic aspect (aspect of Jewish law) but also due to social and state responsibility. At what point can the state say that the price for the exchange is too high?
In 1978, Israeli soldier Abraham Avram was released in exchange for 76 terrorists, including Rima Tannous, who several years earlier helped hijack the Sabena Flight 571.
Similarly, in 1997, the body of fallen IDF soldier Itamar Ilya was released in exchange for a dozen Palestinian terrorists, including Hadi Nasrallah, the son of Hezbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.
In 2004, the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Omar Sawaid, and Benyamin Avraham, who were killed and abducted in a Hezbollah attack on Mount Dov, were returned to Israel along with Elhanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli civilian held by Hezbollah, in exchange for 400 terrorists and another 35 additional prisoners, among them Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, who had at one point held missing IAF navigator Ron Arad.
Four years later, Israel received the bodies of fallen soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for the murderer Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 took part in an attack in Nahariya in which three members of the Haran family and a policeman, Eliyahu Shachar, were murdered. Together with Kuntar, Israel also released four other prisoners and the bodies of 199 enemy fighters.
And perhaps most famously, in 2011, Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners after more than five years in captivity by Hamas. Several years earlier, Israel also released two dozen terrorists in exchange for a video showing Shalit.
Do you see the pattern? The enemy has leverage – women, terrorists hailed as heroes, family members of prisoners. Meanwhile, Israel seems to not use any of its cards.
Again and again, it released terrorists and symbols of Palestinian heroism too early. Perhaps it is not pleasant to go from being the one who is taken advantage of to the one who takes advantage of another, but Israeli leadership and society must understand that more of the same will not bring about a change. We have an opportunity to change the rules of the game. We should hold on to Zabeidi's body, and from now on, to the body of every valuable terrorist.
The time has come to let the other side know that we will no longer tolerate being blackmailed, for releasing the body too early would undermine the very goal our soldiers were sent to battle: to fortify state security.
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