Michael Boyden Israel is holding the bodies of five Palestinians, who were killed in an underground tunnel that they were building in order to infiltrate our villages and kibbutzim for the purpose of murdering and taking hostage innocent, unarmed men, women and children living close to the Gaza Strip. Most of us would not shed a…
This position strikes me as utterly idiotic in the sense that it perpetuates the notion that even if Israel’s extremely brutal enemies violate all the rules of decency, humanity, and international law, the Jewish state should still behave in a model fashion and hold its obligations even if the other side never has, never does and never will. Wrong. Very wrong. You don’t reform a rabid dog that bites you by giving him rewards. On the contrary, you hit it hard and you deprive it of any rewards, or else it will have no incentive to change its behavior. Let’s introduce instead the good old rule of reciprocity. It goes like this: Israel as a matter of principle always scrupulously follows and applies its legal and moral obligations. Hamas never does. So when Hamas violates the rules, Israel does the same to Hamas, and more (e.g. cut off electricity, stop the relief convoys). So in this case, Israel is more than justified to keep the bodies of the killed terrorists and demand they be exchanged for the two Israelis Hamas holds, as well as the unreturned remains of Israeli soldiers. When you deal with a rabid dog, you don’t pet him on the head. Instead, you clobber it. To follow the author’s suggested response would be the summum of stupidity.