‘A waiting room until they can attack us again’: The ceasefire deal tearing Israel apart

KATZRIN, Israel – While all of Israel is celebrating the return of three girl hostages from 471 days of Hamas nightmare, some are struggling with deep concern over the U.S.-brokered deal that forced Israel to pay a heavy price for their release, leaving Israeli society broken and divided.

This divide was evident as people took to the streets. On Saturday night, hours before the deal was to take effect, thousands of Israelis protested across the country. Protesters in Jerusalem demanded a comprehensive agreement that would free all the captives at once, rather than in stages, to avert the risk that some of the 98 hostages could be left behind throughout the multi-stage deal.

At the same time, thousands gathered on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, where families of hostages spoke. This protest has been held weekly and is highly critical of the Netanyahu-led coalition, blaming them for not cutting a deal earlier.

The ceasefire deal contains three phases, the first of which is a temporary ceasefire in which 33 hostages are to be released in a staggered fashion, with hostages in the “humanitarian” category being released first – women, children, and wounded or sick hostages.

Hamas has pledged to release 33 hostages in the 42-day first phase of the deal. Most but not all of them are believed to be alive. In exchange, Israel will hand over up to 1,904 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including several serving multiple life sentences for deadly terrorist attacks and murders. Four more women hostages are supposed to be released by Saturday.

Some of these Palestinian murderers will be released into Gaza, where they will undoubtedly enter the ranks of Hamas as honored heroes. Others will be released into Samaria, where they will return to their previous career of murdering Jews. Israel used to have a strict policy of not negotiating with terrorists, leading to such endeavors as the rescue of 102 hostages from the Entebbe Airport in 1976. But that policy was changed, culminating in the deal that exchanged more than 1,000 Palestinian terrorists for one IDF soldier, Gilad Schalit, in 2011.

In a recent study, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar presented data to the ministers in the security cabinet, stating that “82% of those released in the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 returned to terrorism” and that 15% of them carried out attacks themselves after their release in the deal, or planned the attacks.

One of those terrorists released in the Schalit deal was Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct. 7 attack.

Bar also told the cabinet the current release of terrorists is expected to increase the motivation to carry out attacks in Judea and Samaria.

Israelis are painfully aware of this reality. In a poll aired Friday on the Kan public broadcaster, 65% of the Israeli public expressed support for the first phase of the deal, which will see the release of 33 hostages over six weeks. Only 55% of voters support adhering to the terms of the deal through all three phases, which would require Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire at the end of the second phase.

However, 46% of coalition voters told Kan that Israel should resume fighting in Gaza after the first phase.

The social divide is also expressed in politics. The Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party led by Itamar Ben Gvir broke from the coalition due to criticism of the ceasefire deal. The Religious Zionism party led by Bezalel Smotrich threatened to leave the coalition, leaving the future of the government in doubt.

Even if all of the elements on the Israeli side coalesce in support of the ceasefire, it could also implode from the side of the Palestinians. The current agreement calls for the dismantling of Hamas, one of the stated goals of Israel’s war in Gaza. Hamas leaders have rejected this aspect of the ceasefire agreement. Despite Hamas’ brutal rule, the terrorist organization remains popular in Gaza and Samaria; more so in the latter case than the official Palestinian Authority.

The deal also threatens to separate Israel and the U.S. While Trump threatened there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by his inauguration, it was his negotiator, Steve Witkoff, who engineered the terms that favored Hamas and threatened to leave the terrorist group in power, falling far short of the promised retribution.

Trump and his team seem to be sending mixed signals regarding whether they’d support Israel continuing the war in Gaza until Hamas is entirely eliminated. During a call last week, Trump reportedly told Netanyahu to “keep doing what you have to do” but added, “This has to end. We want it to end.”

Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said last week the U.S. would back Israel if it needs to re-enter Gaza. But two days later, he reportedly told a group of hostage families that the incoming administration would make sure that all three phases of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement were implemented.

The recent hostage deal was especially painful for Israelis whose loved ones were murdered by terrorists. Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife, Lucy, and his two daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in April of 2023. The IDF found and killed their three killers, members of Hamas, in a shootout in Shechem (Nablus). Rabbi Dee was critical of the recent deal, explaining that it violated Jewish law.

“While every Jew is relieved to see the return of our hostages, the idea of exchanging them for thousands of terrorists is strictly against Jewish law,” he said. “The Rabbis of the Talmud gave two reasons why it is forbidden for a Jewish state to pay excessively for redeeming hostages: either because it would encourage further hostages to be taken or because it would exact a price higher than the state could afford.”

“Sadly, from recent experience, namely the exchange of 1,000 terrorists for one soldier in 2011, we see that both reasons are valid. Not only did the previous deal encourage 250 hostages to be taken, but the leader of the attack on Oct. 7, Sinwar, was one of those released 14 years ago. Indeed, the price we are paying is dangerously high, and the ideal method of returning the hostages remains in defeating the enemy, once and for all until they surrender both themselves and the hostages.”

A similar view was held by Avi Abelow, whose lifelong friend, Ari Fuld, was murdered by a 17-year-old Hamas terrorist in 2018. Ari’s murderer is one of the prisoners being released in the deal, so Abelow understands how the ceasefire deal is dividing Israeli society.

“We are all struggling,” Abelow said. “Israelis are struggling to deal with two contradictory emotions. One is the emotion of happiness on the release of some of our hostages. On the other hand, we are all dealing with anger and fear of the repercussions of this deal. Everybody knows these terrorists are going to go back and kill more people… we just wish the deal would have been much better and not one that rewarded terrorism.”

Abelow has experienced the loss of a loved one and understands the pain.

“It is horrifying that any family of a victim of terrorism has to live knowing that the monsters who murdered their loved ones are now free,” Abelow said. “But even more horrifying is that now, every person in Israeli society has to live, knowing there are thousands of murderers walking the streets who come from a society which teaches them from the cradle to murder Jews.”

“But not just Israelis,” Abelow warned. “These Islamist terrorists are now able to run all over the world and kill any freedom-loving person, motivated by their genocidal Islamic jihadist ideology and a hatred for Western society. This empowers the thousands of Islamist believers who live in America and Britain and France and Germany and Australia.”

Abelow acknowledges the decision faced by the Israeli government was incredibly difficult, forcing them into a deal with the devil. Ironically, he suggested that Israel was forced to make concessions at Trump’s bidding they would not have made for Biden.

“It’s always been easier for Netanyahu to say no to blatantly anti-Israel policies from the Democrats than to Republican policies, where they couch it as being friends of Israel,” Abelow said. “And it’s even harder to say no to Trump because of his personality. It seems that Netanyahu’s goal was just to start Trump’s presidency on the right foot because we believe that so much good will come out of this administration.

“This is a terrible deal, but I’d rather get started with Trump on the right foot. Netanyahu did what Trump wanted and gave him a big win to begin his second term. So it’ll be easy to accomplish everything else we need to in the long term.

“The fact that we’re even in this situation, that we’re being forced to make a deal, highlights the immorality of the Western world today, which cared more about the rights of supposed noncombatants in Gaza, than rescuing innocent people kidnapped from their homes or a music festival after their families and friends were massacred in cold blood.”

Abelow related his experience as an IDF soldier in the Golani Brigade.

“We were taught that after an engagement, after you shot the enemy, even if you thought you had killed them, you make sure they are dead, shooting them again before you advance,” Abelow said. “The most dangerous thing you can do is to move forward and leave an enemy soldier behind you who can jump up and kill you.”

“This is what Israel is doing by releasing terrorists with blood on their hands; we are allowing the enemy to come up behind us and attack us again. Terrorists with blood on their hands should not be kept in prison. It just becomes a waiting room until they can attack us again.

“Israel should be implementing the death penalty for terrorists who we know have murdered. These are not cases in which the truth is unknown, for which there is no video or hundreds of witnesses. These are animals who not only confessed but who shouted their crimes from the rooftops and were proud that they murdered Jews. The death penalty could not be more appropriate.”