Alleged Deal Would Mean More Jews Will Be Murdered and Kidnapped; a Hamas Victory and Resurgence
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein issued the following statement:
ZOA is appalled at recent reports regarding a final draft hostage deal’s alleged terms – which, according to reports today (see, e.g., here and here), appear to include:
- A 42-day-long “first stage” in which Israel would withdraw from specific areas of Gaza, and increase humanitarian aid (which Hamas seizes and sells for huge profits to fund terror). The first stage apparently includes withdrawing from northern Gaza – which will be immediately repopulated with a million Gazans and will make it impossible to finish removing Hamas terrorists from these areas, and close to impossible to rescue or militarily pressure Hamas to release the remaining two-thirds of the hostages. Thus, Hamas obtains almost all of what it wants in the first stage!
- Only 33 of the currently held 98 hostages/dead hostages would be released in the 42-day-long first stage. Hamas reportedly still refuses to reveal which of the 33 hostages are alive. Israel could be trading live murderers for dead hostage bodies. Moreover, in the absence of a guarantee as to which hostages are alive and will be released alive, Hamas could murder more of, or even all the live hostages before returning them to Israel. (Incidentally, the number of first stage hostages was previously 34, but the IDF recovered the dead body of one of the hostages on the list from a tunnel a few days ago.)
- The remaining 65 hostages (or their bodies) would still remain in Hamas’ cruel captivity, to be tortured, starved or murdered, until some unspecified time after the conclusion of “second stage” negotiations. Second stage negotiations won’t even start for 16 days into the first stage. Meanwhile, Israeli hostage rescue operations would become virtually impossible due to Israel’s withdrawals from large swaths of Gaza.
- The release of 50 Palestinian Arab terrorists serving life sentences. These are essentially convicted murderers with Jewish blood on their hands who are likely to murder Jews again.
- It is unclear whether even more convicted murderers will be released as the result of second or third stage negotiations. Notably, Palestinian Prisoners Club head Qadura Fares stated yesterday that he expected that the deal would include the release of 3,000 unrepentant Palestinian Arab terrorists; including 48 recidivist terrorists who returned to terrorism after being released in the Gilad Shalit deal (and will likely return to terrorism again); and 200 Palestinian Arab terrorists serving life sentences for perpetrating or attempting multiple murders of Jews and Americans.
- The release of thousands of Palestinian Arab terrorists at a ratio of 50 female Palestinian Arab terrorists for 1 Israeli female soldier (or possibly, her dead body) – and a yet-to-be-negotiated (likely worse) ratio of Arab terrorists for each Israeli male soldier.
- Israel’s full withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor. (Israeli control of Philadelphi is needed to stop smuggling of arms and terrorists into Gaza via Egypt.) This will enable Hamas to survive, regroup and strike again.
All the hostages should be released unconditionally now. Period.
The reported final draft deal would be a huge mistake. It would mean that many more innocent Jews will be murdered and kidnapped by these released terrorists. It would mean more October 7ths. It would be an Israeli surrender, and a victory for the Hamas and Palestinian Authority terrorists – after hundreds of precious Israeli soldiers fell in battle, and thousands were wounded and crippled, to try to prevent future October 7ths.
No responsible Israeli government should agree to such a dangerous surrender deal. Didn’t the government learn from the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal, in which Israel received one Israeli hostage for releasing 1,027 Palestinian Arab terrorists (including October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar) who were collectively responsible for killing 569 Israelis? The Shalit deal resulted in October 7, numerous other terror attacks, the murders of more than 2,000 innocent Jews and the maiming of many thousands of innocent Jews and others.
Similarly, no responsible U.S. administration – the current one or the upcoming one – should promote such a draft deal. Especially now. We are only one week away from an administration which we have long hoped will stop tying Israel’s hands from attaining victory over the terror groups that endanger Israeli and American lives.
ZOA is also concerned about a Reuters report that, according to an unnamed official, President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has been pushing the Israeli delegation in Doha to finalize an agreement. If this report is true, it is deeply alarming. All pressures should be on Hamas to release the hostages. We need to give Hamas hell for failing to release the hostages – not Israel.
The reported final draft deal would be the equivalent of the United States releasing terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar – who just murdered 14 innocent people and injured 35 in New Orleans; and the convicted terrorists who perpetrated 9/11, the Fort Hood massacre, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Times Square pipe bombing, the Boston Marathon bombing; plus numerous additional terrorists like them.
Some hostage families have spoken out against this dangerous draft deal. Tzvika Mor, whose 23-year-old son Eitan remains captive in Gaza, told JNS that he opposes the draft deal because:
“First, it doesn’t bring back all the hostages. The majority of the captives stay there. And not only that, but Hamas also receives what is most important to it at the start [in the first phase of the agreement], and that is the return of Gazans to the northern Strip. A million Gazans are supposed to return to the northern Strip. This means that we can’t continue fighting there to put military pressure and return the remaining hostages.”
Hamas is going to regroup in Gaza and again jeopardize the security of the State of Israel. We demand to stop the talks with Hamas and fight. Now that Trump has entered, we have all the international legitimacy; we demand deterrence, determination and victory.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich correctly stated that the emerging deal would be a “catastrophe for Israel’s national security,” and courageously vowed that his party “will not be part of a surrender deal that will include the release of arch-terrorists, stopping the war, and dissolve its achievements that were bought with much blood, and the abandonment of many hostages. Now is the time to continue at full strength, conquer and clean the entire Strip, finally take from Hamas the control of the humanitarian aid, and open the gates of hell on Gaza, until the complete surrender of Hamas and the return of all of the hostages.”
ZOA also agrees with Israeli Minister of Settlement Affairs Orit Strock’s following statement opposing the deal, as described by Qadura Fares yesterday:
“Releasing hundreds of murderous terrorists, with blood on their hands? This is a deal that rewards terrorism and is a victory for Hamas. We are fighting the war in Gaza with tied hands, with many restrictions imposed on us. We are waiting for the moment we can change our approach in the war in Gaza, and that will happen in a week and a day.
I’m sure that President Trump certainly does not want such a terrible deal as the one on the table to be recorded with his name. I am sure he does not want it noted that Gaza returns to being a threat to Israel, that the effort to clean the Strip is going down the drain, and that many Israeli soldiers will pay with their lives for withdrawing from Gaza, and that hundreds of murderous terrorists will be like gas on a fire and ignite terrorism in Judea and Samaria and worldwide. I am sure that if President Trump thinks deeply, he would not want a victory of the axis of evil over the free world in his name and will not support a deal that rewards murderous terrorism.”