Observation: Proof of Life as a Prerequisite for Any Deal - Israel Should
Only Value Living Hostages
Dr. Aaron Lerner, 20 November 2023

Back on 16 July 2008, the Government of Israel treated the Israeli public as
if we were idiots, subjecting us to a media spectacle with the "breaking
news" as, surprise surprise, we saw two coffins on our television screens
instead of a living Goldwasser and Regev. The cabinet knew Goldwasser and
Regev were dead when they approved a deal which included the release of live
Hezbollah and other terrorists in exchange for their bodies. After all, the
Chief Rabbi of the IDF had already ruled that Goldwasser's wife could
remarry. However, the fiction that Goldwasser and Regev might still be alive
made it easier for the cabinet to approve the deal.

Since then, I think we have all become older and wiser.

Let's respect each other for a moment and speak the truth about the
situation today:

Every hostage-taker has a smartphone in his pocket. As both Paltel and
Jawwal reported on their X accounts, the cellphone network in the Gaza Strip
is working, thanks to the fuel UNRWA forwarded to them.

Any idiot can turn off their smartphone's geotagging feature to take a proof
of life photograph of the hostage they are holding and forward it to a third
party, who then forwards it on.

Hamas doesn't need to physically scour any area within the Gaza Strip to
ostensibly find hostages held by other elements. Everyone knows everyone,
and assembling a list and then annotating that list with agreed-upon proof
of life photographic evidence is a task that can be completed in a matter of
hours, with the terrorists "letting their fingers do the walking".

Any ceasefire endangers the lives of our soldiers now fighting in the Gaza
Strip.

The LIVES of our soldiers now in the Gaza Strip are worth more than any
number of the DEAD BODIES of hostages.

So, the conclusion is obvious: proof of life is a prerequisite for any deal,
and only hostages documented as alive now are relevant.

The sooner this policy is embraced and proclaimed by everyone, the more
likely we can achieve results without needlessly endangering our soldiers in
the Gaza Strip.
________________________________________
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il