Mossad head urges security cabinet to back deal: This is a moral debt we must pay
Mossad chief David Barnea urged security cabinet members during their meeting earlier today to back the hostage release and ceasefire deal currently on the table.
“We must pay this moral debt. This deal is ethically and morally the right thing to do. It is a humane deal. It includes mechanisms that will ensure our security,” Barnea said, according to Channel 12.
Hebrew media reports that Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar told the security cabinet that 82 percent of the 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners released in the 2011 Israel-Hamas deal to free captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit returned to terror activity.
Twelve percent of those former prisoners actively participated in terror attacks after their release, and even over 50% of the prisoners released abroad returned to terror activity.
Bar said Hamas will use the ceasefire to rebuild its governing and military capabilities and that the deal will likely further weaken the PA.
Despite all of that, the security chiefs stressed that they adamantly back the agreement, insisting that Israel is prepared to deal with the security consequences.
They also argue that Hamas has an interest in abiding by the terms of the first phase in order to reach the second where it will be able to secure the release of far more prisoners in exchange for the remaining living Israeli hostages.
“The IDF knows how to return fighting with massive strength if necessary,” Channel 12 quotes IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi as having said.