In missing teens' case, prisoner release debate likely irrelevant

It’s not easy writing about the three missing teens, as very little is known right now, and it's possible that the circumstances will change by the time this article is published. Nonetheless, there are three insights which should probably be mentioned right now.

The first is actions taken against abductions. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon noted that in the past 18 months there had been 44 kidnapping attempts, and those are only the attempts the army knows about. The fact that all the attempts to kidnap soldiers failed means that the IDF was very efficient in its mission to prevent soldiers' abductions and succeeded in teaching them not to hitchhike.

In  light of this success, the lightheadedness of many citizens living in Judea and Samaria is difficult to comprehend. The three teens who were probably kidnapped left their yeshiva in order to hitchhike in the middle of the night. What are this educational institution's instructions about hitchhiking in general and at night in particular?

It seems that the heads of the community and the principals of its educational institutions are paying too little attention to this concrete danger. This stems from a type of self-confidence combined with a worldview that because this is our land, we should not be afraid and defend ourselves.

This reminds me of the approach in several Judea and Samaria communities which refused at the time to erect a fence around their community, as this demonstrates weakness.

The second insight is the wrong impression that because of our (exaggerated) concern for human life, we rush to free terrorists in exchange for the release of a kidnapped soldier or civilian… Read more.