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The lesson for captive transactions: act quickly and discreetly Israel today

2021-02-18T21:52:25.883Z


| Security Gaza is not Syria and Yahya Sinwar is not Bashar Assad, but the conclusion is the same: in order to succeed in such deals, it is advisable to act quickly. This is true of civilians, and true of soldiers Contra border crossing // Photo: Eyal Margolin, Ginny The deal to repatriate the young Israeli woman who crossed into Syrian territory was supposed to end well tonight upon her return to Israel,


Gaza is not Syria and Yahya Sinwar is not Bashar Assad, but the conclusion is the same: in order to succeed in such deals, it is advisable to act quickly.

This is true of civilians, and true of soldiers

  • Contra border crossing // Photo: Eyal Margolin, Ginny

The deal to repatriate the young Israeli woman who crossed into Syrian territory was supposed to end well tonight upon her return to Israel, but it could easily have ended differently.

One does not have to sail in the imagination to understand what would have happened if it had fallen into the hands of slightly less disciplined elements from the Syrian army, some of whom are active in the border area.

From the moment she was captured, and held by the authorities, her condition was good (relative to the Syrian prison).

The quick negotiations that opened in her case also ensured that she would not be harmed, certainly when those who conducted it were senior Russian government officials. Their involvement also helped ensure that the price paid for her was quite reasonable: a male and female prisoner who was imprisoned in Syria in Israeli territory in the Golan Heights. about two weeks ago.

After landing in Israel, the young woman is expected to undergo a brief interrogation, in order to understand the circumstances in which she crossed the border and the way in which she did so.

As far as is known, this is not the first time she has tried to move to foreign territory, but her success this time is worrying because she reveals a loophole in border protection.

An elaborate fence was erected on the Israel-Syria border last decade, after hundreds of Palestinians living in Syrian refugee camps managed to enter Israeli territory at the beginning of the 2011 Syrian civil war.

The new fence is supposed to be an impassable obstacle, and it was indeed so in this case as well: the young woman did not cross it, but crossed to Syria where there is no fence.

This requires the IDF to now examine whether improvements need to be made to the barrier along the border, while at the same time finding out how the observations and radars in the sector did not detect crossing the border, and possibly making changes to their deployment to prevent attempts to challenge this array from the opposite direction.

And while the public attention was on the Damascus-Moscow-Ben Gurion Airport route, waiting for the young woman to return, her heart was in Gaza. For six and a half years, Avra ​​Mengistu has been languishing there in Gaza prison, with Hisham a-Sayed crossing the Gaza Strip a year later. Luck: Israel failed to deal with Hamas with the same discretion and efficiency, and failed to bring them home quickly.

The opposite is true: Hamas thought it was a bonanza, and tried to maximize the price.

He demanded for them mountains and hills - the worst of the security prisoners imprisoned in Israel.

Efforts to persuade that it was a humanitarian matter were to no avail;

Hamas has made it clear that it will return them - and with them the bodies of IDF casualties Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul who were killed in Operation Eitan - only as part of a broad, expensive deal.

Gaza is not Syria and Yahya Sinwar is not Bashar Assad, but the lesson is the same: in order to succeed in such deals, it is desirable to act quickly.

With each passing day the parties fortify their positions, and it is much more difficult to reach an agreement.

This is true of civilians, and true of soldiers.

Israel lost Ron Arad because it delayed, and could have released Gilad Shalit years before returning at a price similar to the one it finally paid.

And another word about discretion: the secret meeting convened by the government was obligatory, because by law its approval was required for any prisoner release deal.

But the chatter of many of the ministers - which has led to a wave of baseless rumors - is astonishing and worrying time and time again.

With all due respect to the election period and the desire to tell the guys, there are more important things.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-02-18

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