Gershon Baskin
Appearances
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
The wall in Gershon Baskin's office is covered with framed certificates. In the middle, there's a letter from the prime minister. It says, thank you once again. He never thanked me, but to thank you once again. Baskin is an Israeli peace activist. In 2011, he used his Palestinian contacts to help the Israeli government free a soldier named Gilad Shalit.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Militants from the Palestinian group Hamas had taken him hostage five years earlier. The prime minister's letter is dated eight days after Shalit's release. And it thanks Baskin on behalf of the Israeli government. Benjamin Netanyahu's government at the time agreed to exchange Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. One of them was named Yahya Sinwar. He later became the leader of Hamas in Gaza.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
The October 2023 massacre that he masterminded and the ensuing war with Israel killed around 1,800 Israelis and 47,000 Palestinians. Hamas also took more than 250 hostages. I wonder if you have any regrets about the Shalit deal?
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
His condition would have deteriorated quickly, Baskin believes. Gilad Shalit wasn't the first Israeli exchanged for a large number of prisoners. Soldiers and civilians captured by militant groups in Lebanon have also been freed for hundreds of detainees. And POW exchanges during the Arab-Israeli wars were often similarly lopsided. In the current conflict, Israel has many bargaining chips.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
There are nearly 10,000 Palestinians in custody in Israel and the West Bank, many held without charge. That's not to say Israel's government wants to do the deals in this way, says Baskin.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
But there are a couple of problems with one for one. It's long been a Palestinian goal to free as many of their prisoners in Israeli jails as possible, and the families of Israeli hostages want them out as fast as possible. In this country, which relies on a people's army, there's a social contract.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Sons and daughters are drafted, and if they're captured, the government vows it will bring them back through force or diplomacy. But for many Israelis, this hostage crisis presents a wrenching dilemma. Some are worried the exchanges will incentivize future hostage-taking. Some government ministers say fighting Hamas is the priority.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
And families rallying in the streets for a deal to bring their loved ones home have been smeared as disloyal, says Baskin.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Actually, Hamas is almost universally loathed in Israel. But polls show overwhelming support for this deal. For many, it's as much about redeeming the hostages as it is about preserving one of Israel's core values. Rabbi Daniil Hartman flips through a text by the medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides, and he reads a tract.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, which advocates for democracy and pluralism in Israel. Taking Jews captive, he says, has been a problem for more than 2,000 years. It's often been done to convert them out of their faith, and Hartman says, also for ransom. It's another reason the ethic of redemption is so strong in Israel.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
It's a self-evident truth that we do not leave our people behind. Human life, above all else, a group of protesters chant outside the defense ministry. There have been protests like this one throughout the war, accusing the government of abandoning the hostages.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
But even those who favor the hostage-for-prisoner swaps say it's been hard to watch people walk free after they've been convicted in Israeli courts of murder. A number of them were serving life terms for shootings and suicide bombings in buses, cafes, restaurants, and other places around the country going back decades.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Some Israeli lawmakers want to prevent future swaps by making terrorism subject to capital punishment. It was abolished back in the 1950s for murder convictions. Hartman says it won't work.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
Because, he says, though it may seem like a vulnerability, upholding a value like this one is a source of strength. Spanish-speaking journalists join a Zoom call with a Mexican-born Israeli who was held hostage by Hamas. It's not easy for Ilana Grichewski to remain composed as she recalls the torment she went through at the hands of her captors.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
They broke my collarbone, destroyed my jaw, burned my leg, and my hip is broken. She says they also told her she would have to marry them and bear their children. But she knew it would end. In November 2023, she and more than 100 other hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees. I never lost hope that they would do everything to bring me back, she says.
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Why are Israel's deals to exchange hostages so lopsided?
It's something that, if you lose it, you don't survive. Jerome Sokolovsky, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
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Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
With the lack of political leadership of Hamas in Gaza, only military leaders of Hamas are left in Gaza today. And they are not necessarily taking orders from the Hamas leadership outside. We're putting the hostages in direct danger. They have threatened to execute them. They could be killed by Israeli bombing.