Canadian news media outlets have started trumpeting the long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. According to news reports, Hamas may release dozens of hostages in the first phase alone. While the deal does not free all the hostages being kept by Hamas for more than 15 months, it could potentially lead the way for more.
But beyond the positive elements, the deal has many downsides. Firstly, the deal is not a fair swap. Hamas isn’t freeing hostages out of the goodness of their heart. Under the deal’s current terms, Israel must release thirty to fifty Palestinian prisoners, many who are convicted murderers and who have blood on their hands, for each Israeli hostage, highlighting the extreme imbalance of the deal.
News outlets need to take an honest look at who’s being released on both sides. Because at its core, this deal equates toddlers, elderly civilians, and other innocent hostages held by Hamas with the convicted violent criminals, including terrorists, set to be released from Israeli prisons.
Indeed, Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023, was released in a 2011 hostage deal that freed over 1,000 prisoners. Many, including Sinwar, had been serving life sentences for murderous and genocidal attacks against Israelis.
In addition, only 33 out of 100 hostages held by Hamas are set to be released during the first phase, leaving the fate of the others still uncertain.
More egregiously, Hamas refuses to say which hostages are still alive. So while every hostage family prays this deal will reunite them with their loved one, many of those reunions will likely be tragic ones.
The uncomfortable yet undeniable truth is that in the Middle East, a rough neighbourhood, strength counts.
With the announcement of this ceasefire, Hamas immediately began declaring victory. Despite accusing Israel of committing genocide for well over a year, it suddenly transformed itself into a victor from a war that it started. Other terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and the Houthi group in Yemen may similarly be emboldened, along with their mutual sponsor and patron, the extremist regime in Iran.
After all, thanks to Hamas’ 2023 massacres, it was able to achieve some concessions.
With Middle Eastern governments rising and falling, a strong Israel could foster stability, especially if its Abraham Accords are expanded to other moderate Arab nations. But if Israel is seen as weak by Palestinians, it could send fault lines of instability throughout the region.
More seriously, giving into hostage demands sends a clear signal: Taking hostages works.
There are dozens of Israeli towns and villages just a heartbeat away from the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, or Lebanon. It would be simple to cross a border—perhaps under cover of rocket fire, as Hamas did on October 7, 2023—and kidnap another three, ten, a hundred, or more innocent men, women, and children. And then the bargaining will begin all over again.
There’s an entire generation of up-and-coming terrorists—no doubt some being released as part of this deal—who are watching and taking note.
So many lives could have been saved—on both sides—had Hamas put down its arms sooner and released the hostages, or not even started the war at all. But it chose to do so, knowing full well people would suffer and die on both sides. But apart from a brief ceasefire in November, 2023 that freed 105 hostages (and was ultimately broken by Hamas), Hamas has blockaded and lied and shifted its terms time and time again.
Inside Israel, some welcome the ceasefire deal, while others call for nothing less than total victory over the proudly genocidal Hamas terrorist group, recognizing that as long as Hamas continues to exist as a functioning force, more people on both sides will die. In its coverage of the ceasefire, the Canadian news media must never forget that Hamas was, and remains, the culprit behind all suffering over the last 15 months.
