Prof. Aumann: Hostage families’ campaign only raises their price
Prof. Robert Aumann expressed anger over the campaign by the families of the hostages, called to embrace them but not to agree to all deals, and wants to see Jews returning to settle Gaza.
By Israel National News Staff
(December 22, 2024 / JNS) Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Yisrael (Robert) Aumann, one of the world’s leading experts on Game Theory, is calling on Israel to carefully consider any hostage deal and to think about the good of all of the people of Israel and their security.
“I don’t know all of the details of the deal, but it doesn’t sound good to me. This whole campaign that we have seen since October 7th is in my opinion very negative and raises the price of the hostages. You aren’t supposed to raise the price yourself and make the deal impossible,” Aumann told Benny Teitelbaum on Kan Moreshet radio.
He added: “If we sign now on a deal with their conditions, which includes dozens of terrorists in exchange for one hostage, who can go and kill more Jews, they will also demand that we surrender in the war and withdraw from Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor and that will cause more wars in the future.
“The conditions themselves will cause many more casualties. For Gilad Shalit, they made a deal, and there was a lot of pressure to make it. Thank G-d we got him back but we paid with hundreds of other losses and in fact, the current war is the result of that deal,” Aumann emphasized.
He noted that “what’s especially infuriating are the signs that we see on the streets. What is this question: ‘If it were your father?’ The state has to care not only about a specific father but for all our fathers and children. Not only for the hostages.”
Asked what the correct thing to do at the moment, he said: “We have to embrace the hostages’ families, care for them, console them, love, and embrace them, but we cannot sacrifice ten times more abductees for those who were already abducted. Game theory is based on an incentive. We want to give the other players incentives to do what’s good for us. Here we’re giving the other side incentives to do what’s bad for us.”
Prof. Aumann also called for the Jews to resettle in Gaza. “The disengagement caused October 7th. It didn’t happen in Judea and Samaria because we’re there. The IDF is in Judea and Samaria because there are communities there. The best way to stay safe is to resettle in the area.”
Asked if the time has come for the Prime Minister to resign, he answered: “I think the war is successful but I really don’t understand what Netanyahu is doing. I don’t understand what’s happening in Gaza, we don’t control the place, rather we attack and return, and Hamas still rules there.”
This article was originally published in Israel National News-Arutz Sheva and can be viewed here.