I Object.

Tomorrow, Hamas will begin to release 50 hostages in exchange for 150 convicted terrorists held by Israel.

I will not be celebrating.

I am old enough to remember when Gilad Shalit was released on October 18, 2011, in exchange for over a thousand terrorists, including Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks and head of Hamas in Gaza.

I draw a straight line from October 18, 2011, to October 7, 2023. Not only did the release of a thousand terrorists change the security situation, but Hamas realized that kidnapping civilians resulted in Israel’s capitulation. With Qatari, Iranian, U.S., and world funding, Hamas set to work planning the October 7 attacks.

I am old enough to remember when Israel left Gaza on September 12, 2005. The public pressure resulted in Israel evicting 9,000 Jews living in Gaza and relocating them to caravan camps. I remember the shrill promises that Gazans would live side-by-side in peace if only they had their own state governed solely by Palestinians (of course, like other Arab countries: No Jews Allowed). So many of us believed it.

I draw a straight line from September 12, 2005, to October 7, 2023.

After each international-brokered deal, the politicians get a photo op and the citizens of Israel get more terrorist attacks. The Oslo Accords gave us the First Intifada and suicide bombings in Jerusalem pizza shops. The Camp David Accords gave us the Second Intifada. The disengagement from Gaza gave us war in 2012, 2014, thousands of rockets, stabbings, shootings, and ultimately, October 7, 2023.

In our lifetime we have not witnessed such gut-wrenching brutality as we saw on October 7. Hamas fighters executed teenagers, and Gazan civilians picked up shovels, backhoes, and knives to hack children to death in their beds.

How are we negotiating with these people?

As Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel, as Israeli women and children are rotting in Hamas captivity, dying by the day, as Hezbollah is attacking from the north, and Yemen Houthi militias are firing rockets into Israel and hijacking boats, Israel and the U.S. are negotiating.

Have we lost our mind?

Would the U.S. have negotiated with Al Qaeda after 9/11? The Japanese after Pearl Harbor?

Our tradition teaches us that one human life is worth more than anything. But, this ceasefire cheapens the blood already spilled and jeopardizes the lives of many future Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel has lost deterrence, as evidenced by October 7 and Hezbollah’s attacks in the north. Negotiating a release of hostages in a 1:3 exchange further emboldens those who thirst for Jewish blood.

As Iranian Ayatolla Khamenei said this morning, “The Zionists’ failure in Gaza is also the failure of the US & Western countries. The world is watching how despite all the support of the US & the West, a regime with sophisticated military capabilities & equipment has failed to overcome an opponent that lacks such equipment.”

He is right. While the world is watching, Israel spent more time trying to show how they are minimizing civilian casualties, providing humanitarian aid, including fuel (which has been documented to have been taken by Hamas), and tried to show the world the terror infrastructure in hospitals and schools.

No one cares. Hamas publishes fake casualty numbers and the media runs with it. Videos from Syria masquerade as Gaza. The evidence for supporting Israel is overwhelming and people still march against Israel. There is no more righteous war that the war against Hamas and yet, the criticism of Israel and Jew hatred is at an all-time high.

Deterrence has been lost. Unless it is regained as the allies did in Mosul against ISIS, there will be much more killing and death in the future.

I love Israel. I fought as an IDF soldier, and I planned to bring my kids and grandkids to visit Israel. However, the decision Israel is taking now will result in good feelings in the short term and more death and killing in the long term.

I object.