Why Are Israel’s Deals to Exchange Hostages so Lopsided?

Donniel Hartman interviewed on From NPR's "Consider This"
Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute and holds the Kaufman Family Chair in Jewish Philosophy. He is author of the Boundaries of Judaism and Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself. His latest book, who are the Jews and Who Can We Become, was a 2023 Jewish Book Council Award Finalist. Donniel is also the host of the award-winning podcast For Heaven’s Sake, together with his colleague Yossi

“Today an Israeli delegation traveled to Cairo to hash out details for a second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages – and Israel said it would free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Some of the Palestinian prisoners released were convicted of serious crimes.”

Why does Israel continue accepting seemingly lopsided deals?

Listen to the full story on Consider This from NPR

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