It Wasn't a Deal – It Was a Crime

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21320/hamas-deal-crime

by Alan M. Dershowitz
January 17, 2025 at 5:00 am

• The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a "deal." It was an extortion.... The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.

• When a terrorist group "negotiates" with a democracy, it always has the upper hand. The terrorists are not constrained by morality, law or truth. They can murder at will, rape at will, torture at will and threaten to do worse. The democracy, on the other hand, must comply with the rules of law and must listen to the pleas of the hostage families.

• Especially complicit, with blood on their hands, are supporters of Hamas on university campuses who chant for intifada and revolution. Also complicit are international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, that treat Israel and Hamas as equals.

• [L]et us put the blame for ALL the deaths in Gaza where it belongs: on Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support murderous terrorists.