Q&A: Executing Security Prisoners to Reduce Incentive for Kidnapping
Executing Security Prisoners to Reduce Incentive for Kidnapping
Question
For some time now there has been discussion about a law imposing the death penalty on terrorists. Execution is seen as a punishment, and the question is whether it is moral, whether it is effective, whether it will deter and help in the long run, or not.
Without getting into those questions, I thought that if we had executed the terrorists in prison, Hamas would have had less motivation to carry out the raid on the last holiday. A central motive in their raid was to kidnap civilians as a bargaining chip to secure the return of their prisoners.
Maybe, as part of drawing lessons, after the war ends and the negotiations are over, the death-penalty law should be brought back for discussion?
(At the moment I certainly would not suggest doing this, for fear that they would take revenge on the hostages.)
Answer
I think this argument comes up quite often in the discussion. I am not sufficiently familiar with the reality on the ground to express an opinion. It is clear that there is no problem at all with killing anyone who belongs to Hamas. The only question is a practical one.