Save a Terrorists' Life?
Aron Moss
Question: I question the effectiveness of Israel's targeted killing of terrorist leaders. What if instead of killing them, Israel would capture them, show them compassion and rehabilitate them?
Response: There is an old Talmudic saying, “If you are compassionate to the cruel, you will be cruel to the compassionate.” The classic example of this was the biblical King Saul. He saved the life of his nemesis, King Agag, with disastrous results.
Israel was at war against its arch-enemy, Amalek. Saul's army was victorious over their viciously murderous rival, and Saul had the Amalekite king in his hands. Instead of killing him, Saul had mercy, and spared his life.
We could perhaps understand Saul's decision. Agag had lost the war. Why kill him? Yes, he is a mortal enemy. But he has surely learned his lesson. The war is over. Amalek is defeated. Why not be nice?
This was a deadly mistake.
Agag fathered a child who became the great-grandfather of an even bigger enemy: Haman, the evil minister who came this close to annihilating the entire Jewish people. All because of Saul's misplaced mercy.
Saul's mistake was corrected by his great-granddaughter, Queen Esther. She exposed Haman's evil plan and demanded that he be executed. Haman begged Esther for mercy. She refused. He was hanged, and his plot against the Jews was foiled.
Saul was kind to one cruel man, and he endangered the lives of millions. Esther was merciless to one cruel man, and she saved millions. When you placate evil, you embolden it. There is a place for compassion, but not toward mortal enemies. Kindness will be perceived as weakness, and love as naivete.
“The brain that Israel saved became the mastermind of the October 7 massacres”
In 2004, Israeli doctors removed a brain tumour from a jailed Palestinian terrorist. His life was saved, and he was later released, along with over a thousand other terrorists, in exchange for one Israeli hostage. The terrorist's name is Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza. The brain that Israel saved became the mastermind of the October 7 massacres.
For this sad conflict to end, we don't need the misplaced compassion of Saul, but the determined strength of Esther.
