Q&A: Your Considerations in Opposing a Hostage Deal
Your Considerations in Opposing a Hostage Deal
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I saw that you wrote that, from your perspective, the consideration of future danger involved in releasing terrorists is not a factor in your opposition to the deal.
I wanted to ask: why not? And in addition, what is the consideration, from your perspective, for opposing it?
Answer
If you saw that, then you could also see my explanations there. Hamas remaining in place is an outcome that we must not accept.
Discussion on Answer
Hamas remaining is not a doubtful future danger but a certainty. And not a danger to individuals, but to the public.
And releasing thousands of terrorists is not a danger to the public? And according to the law of large numbers, there is certainty here too.
The law of large numbers says that individual people will be harmed, not the public. We’re talking about a tiny chance that any one of us will be harmed, as against the certainty that the hostages will be harmed now.
But even if Hamas remains, the chance that any one of us will be harmed by it is tiny.
In other words, how is Hamas remaining in power different from releasing thousands of terrorists?
I don’t understand what isn’t clear here. I explained that when Hamas remains, this is harm to the public and not to isolated individuals. Therefore the probability of one of us being harmed is irrelevant.
Public harm means that parts of our country are under threat and it’s impossible to live there normally. That the army is on constant alert, and keeps going out again and again on operations.
But Hamas remaining is also a future danger, and according to your approach that is not a consideration when weighed against certain rescue in the present.