Israel's Dignity Will Be Damaged, Hamas Will Be Crowned Winner, but the War Will End -
The terms of the emerging deal with Hamas are being presented by Israel as entailing a "painful price." It is based on the assumption that whatever is good for Hamas must be bad for Israel and whatever is bad for the Palestinians is good for us: a zero-sum game.
Israel has convinced itself that it must not sign a deal that would benefit Hamas in any way; it can only be harmful to Israel and can only exact a painful price.
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We should not accept these assumptions. There are elements of the deal that are good for both Israel and Hamas. The "price" is not always really a price at all. It is not always as painful as they want us to believe.
The freeing of Palestinian security prisoners and a cessation of the fighting will be to Hamas' benefit. Perhaps they will benefit Israel, too. In any event, the alternative will be a lot worse for Israel. Hamas will not free its hostages unconditionally, just as Israel does not free its prisoners without getting something in return, and it has thousands of those right now.
Israel taught the Palestinians that they can win the early release of their prisoners held by Israel only by exchanging them for hostages. By the way, both sides have hostages: Many of the Palestinian detainees were taken from their beds and have never stood trial.
Israeli prisons are bursting with security prisoners who, contrary to the way they are presented in the media's propaganda, are not all "terrorists with blood on their hands."
Among them are numerous political prisoners of a regime that prohibits Palestinians from any kind of organizational activity. Many others have been convicted of trivial offenses and sentenced to draconian punishments. If there is any more need to prove the existence of Israeli apartheid, it is the separate court systems for Jews and Palestinians.
In Israeli prisons, there are also despicable Palestinian murderers. But many have served their time and deserve to one day be let free, just like their fellow Jewish convicts. The release of elderly veterans of the Palestinian armed struggle will do no harm to Israel.
There are even those whose release will be to Israel's benefit, first and foremost Marwan Barghouti, but not only him. If Israel is seriously interested in finding a partner to change the reality of endless wars, he can be found behind Israeli bars. The next generation of Palestinian leaders is being held in Israeli prisons, from Megiddo to Nafha.
Liberation struggles throughout history, including that of the Jewish people, produced brave leaders who came out of the prisons of their conquerors. There will be grieving Jewish families who lost their loved one's years ago and do not want to see the killers released. That is understandable, but they certainly cannot be allowed to dictate what is in Israel's best interest.
Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti before appearing in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court in 2012.Credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters
The wisest course of action that Israel should have taken a long time ago was to voluntarily release the security prisoners as a gesture and not just as a concession in negotiations. But there is no chance of that happening – it is too smart. Freeing 1,500 prisoners, as Hamas is asking, is neither a disaster nor is it painful. It will bring the hostages home. Disaster and pain will only result if they are not rescued.
Nor would it be a disaster or painful to bring an end to this cursed war, during which Israel lost its humanity without achieving its goals from the indiscriminate killing and destruction, the likes of which have only been seen in the most brutal of wars.
Israel's dignity will indeed be damaged, Hamas will be crowned the winner of the war – a dubious winner but a winner nevertheless (except that it had already crowned itself such on October 7). Even if Benjamin Netanyahu's "total victory" were to be achieved, which will, of course, never happen, Hamas has won the war. Therefore, it is better to put an end to it.
We have to put aside the clichés and tired slogans Israelis have been fed and calmly consider important questions: Is the deal really that bad? In what way? Is there a better one?