HOW MANY OF THE RELEASED PALESTINIAN TERRORIST MURDERERS ARE ALREADY PLANNING TO RESUME THEIR BARBARIC VOCATION, AND HOW MANY JEWISH VICTIMS WILL PAY THE PRICE OF THEIR RELEASE FROM ISRAELI PRISONS?

A tentative start to a tentative peace

The hostage release does not come without conditions, and the cessation of fighting does not come without risks. We have been here before. 

 

By Mel Pearlman 

 

JNS

Oct 13, 2025 

 

 

Released Israeli hostage Evyatar David reacts upon arriving at Beilinson Hospital in the Rabin Medical Centre in Petah Tikva in central Israel on October 13, 2025

In a video clip released by Hamas in August, an emaciated Evyatar David is pictured being forced to dig his own grave in a tunnel in Gaza

 

It’s been just a few hours since the 20 living hostages have been returned to Israel after two years of being held in the tunnels of the Gaza Strip, and the wait now begins for the remains of the 28 souls who were murdered by their captors. Along with my co-religionists in the Diaspora and the citizens of Israel, I am elated about our hostages coming home and momentarily dreaming that some kind of peace in the Middle East may finally be at hand.

But I know better than to allow my dream to prevail over common sense. There is an old expression, “If you read the fine print of a contract before you sign it, you get an education; if you don’t read the fine print, you get an experience.” I fear Israel and the Jewish people are about to get an experience.

The hostage release doesn’t come without conditions, and the cessation of fighting does not come without risks. We have been here before and should be prepared for what is likely to come once again. Are we about to reinvent the wheel—or worse, are we about to reinflate a flat tire?

 

Freed Palestinian prisoners released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, gesture, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025

 

How many hundreds of well-fed, healthy convicted terrorist murderers is Israel exchanging for 20 half-starved, physically life-threatened hostages and 28 murdered individuals? How many of these murderers are already planning to resume their barbaric vocation, and how many Jewish victims will pay the price of their release from Israeli prisons? How many young men and women from the Israel Defense Forces will die or be maimed to bring these recidivist terrorists back to justice?

The peace agreement reportedly calls for the voluntary disarmament and exile of all Hamas fighters and the surrender of all weapons, including rockets and launchers. Since all of Gaza City and the many miles of tunnels below the city streets have not yet been cleared of terrorists by the IDF, how can we be assured that all terrorist infrastructure and personnel will have been neutralized? 

Does Israel seriously believe that the liars and propagandists of Hamas and their Palestinian supporters will actually live up to the terms of any such agreement, given their history of deceit and deception?

The alleged agreement also calls for an interim committee of international technocrats to administer the territory and oversee the beginnings of reconstruction. This postwar arrangement will involve the political and diplomatic involvement, if not the actual presence on the ground, of representatives from several Arab and Western European countries, all of whom have already recognized an illusory Palestinian state. What could possibly go wrong with this scenario?

While the Trump administration has allegedly promised Israel security control over all of Gaza as part of the agreement, it is conditioned on Israel agreeing to withdraw its forces to a perimeter that does not fully enclose the entire Gaza Strip.

As the originator and sponsor of this ceasefire proposal, the United States anticipates playing the primary role in overseeing the subsequent phases of the agreement once the terrorist-inmates/hostage exchange is completed.

This raises serious operational questions as to Israel’s ability to act expeditiously, if at all, and deploy IDF forces in Gaza to thwart any military violations of the agreement.

What are the proposed rules of military engagement? In Lebanon, Israel has military superiority over the Lebanese Armed Forces and the remnants of a defeated Hezbollah, and can assert its authority and take immediate action when a ceasefire violation occurs.

With many international players intending to be involved in post-war Gaza, the situation will be more complicated. Will the IDF now have to obtain its marching orders from Washington for permission to act instead of from Jerusalem?

In the final analysis, it was the barbaric attack on Israel two years ago that provoked Jerusalem’s justified response and continues to require Israel’s military superiority over its enemies. It has not, however, contributed one iota to solving the problems of the Middle East. 

True and long-lasting peace can only come to the Middle East when the Muslim world rids itself of radical Islam and recognizes, respects and accepts the Jewish people as indigenous to the region, and a people that have legitimately returned from exile to their biblical home in the Land of Israel.