Another reason prisoner releases are bad

In August of last year, Nadav Shragai wrote about the dangers inherent in Israeli prisoner releases done in the name of “confidence building.”

An investigation by the Almagor Terror Victims Association in Israel revealed that at least 30 of the terrorist attacks perpetrated since 2000 were committed by terrorists freed in deals with terror organizations. Many were freed in the framework of goodwill gestures because they were defined by Israel as “without blood on their hands.” The bloody swath cut by these terrorists claimed the life of 177 persons, with many others wounded and made invalids.

Shragain concluded:

There needs to be a change in the “rules” that have crystallized in recent years where thousands of terrorists are released in return for isolated kidnap victims. This will limit the damage, for fewer freed terrorists will be free to return to the path of terror. One should not pay any price in order to bring about the release of kidnap victims or captives.

I recalled Shragai’s argument when I read the following report from Dan Gordon. (h/t Elder of Ziyon)

The villages of the Gaza strip were criss crossed with tunnels dug underneath the houses. Not weapons smuggling tunnels, mind you, these were kidnapping tunnels. The[re] were communication tunnels through which Hamas militants could go unseen from house to house and carry out combat in a civilian environment disappearing from one house, as it came under fire, to pop up in another. Those tunnels were not dug after Israel invaded as a response to that invasion. No one in Hamas said “Quick let’s dig these tunnels because the Israelis are coming!”

This was their battlefield and they prepared it according to a doctrine that said they would launch rockets from civilian areas in order to draw Israeli troops into those areas. They would turn whole villages into booby trapped battlefields while the villagers were still in them. Their hope was to kill two to three hundred Israeli soldiers and kidnap and take prisoner as many as fifty.

(As an aside, this gives further credence as to why Israel was right to stop the war when it did, regardless of not stopping the rockets. Israel was apparently risking kidnappings and needed to avoid that.)

This report shows an additional danger not mentioned by Shragai: that massive prisoner releases encourage Israel’s enemies to take more hostages for leverage.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.