With Help From Major Itamar Ben David
By Justine Hemmestad
Eric Tucker, Zeke Miller, and Matthew Lee of the Associated Press report that at the end of 2022, Brittney Griner was brought back to America after a 10 month long detention in Russia - via a deal that depended on how willing Germany was to release a Russian who had murdered someone in cold blood, on German soil, only five months prior. That’s the deadly hitch. Tucker, Miller, and Lee further report that just like that deal, and all the prior prisoner swaps before it, the most recent deal with Russia required America and its allies to succumb to the high price of releasing hardened and murderous criminals who had already been convicted. America’s prior prisoner release deals exposed a willingness to free the worst of the worst - including a Taliban drug lord/arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who was released in one such deal. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan conceded of the deal last week,“It is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American.” Jason Rezian, a Washington Post columnist who was imprisoned in Iran before being released via a prisoner swap, says that, “hostage takers don’t return hostages for nothing…they do it because they see it as an opportunity.” Major Itamar Ben David of the IDF recently helped me to truly understand the repercussions of prisoner swaps. He said that Israel has also had these kinds of situations with Russia. Israeli-American Naama Issachar, eventually freed with the intervention of Putin himself, who wanted leverage concerning Jerusalem real estate, was detained in a “complete game -” as a political pawn. “It’s never a big win,” Ben David says in regard to those kinds of prisoner exchanges, echoing the sentiment of U.S. National Security Advisor Sullivan. It doesn’t matter which rogue country is in the talks. Ben David insists that rogue nation’s mind-set is simply, “We take innocent civilians and now you have to pay.” Prisoners such as these are essentially hostages. It’s the same for the terrorists. Ben David says, “You can’t negotiate better than the terrorists because they’re terrorists. You have to strike them so hard that they will reconsider their hostage tactic.” He says, “I can’t see any deal that will be considered by Israelis as a big win.” As a matter of fact, he can’t see how a politician could survive folding back from the southern part of Gaza - Rafah - even though the politician is under pressure to do so. He doesn’t even think the government can survive that. True that in diplomacy negotiating looks like a win, Ben David says, but it’s really a loss because the negotiators just postponed war - “and Israel will face a greater threat later.” Israel is well versed in fighting off terror. The first Israeli victim of terror was Rabbi Avraham Zoref, who had begun to rebuild a Jewish community, inclusive of a synagogue, in Jerusalem in the mid 19th Century (permitted by the Ottoman authorities at the time). In 1851, an Arab who opposed the Jewish community struck Zoref on the head with a sword, and Zoref later died. He is buried at the Mount of Olives, in a beautiful ancient Jewish-Roman tomb. Ben David asserts that since then, “We know what terror is, we know who the jihadists are and we have no illusions.” It may seem to Ameri- cans that terror is an Atlan- tic Ocean away, however a formulation that Ben David presents is well worth mind- ful consideration: “People who work in drug cartels on the southern border actual- ly have very close Iranian connections; they work with Hezaballa…first comes the smuggling of drugs, then the smuggling of weapons, then the smuggling of actual ter- rorists - very easy.” In fact, Florencia Montaru- li reports that, “‘Narco-ter- rorism’ is the broad term for drug trafficking activity that generates economic funds for - or otherwise benefits - terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. It mainly refers to the illegal cocaine trade. The Tri-Border area between Ar- gentina, Paraguay and Brazil is one of the hottest spots in the world for narco-terror- ism, but the same outfits are also deepening their ties with Mexico.” Journalist Raymundo Riva Palacio has revealed that the Mexican government has minimized Hezbollah’s pres- ence in Mexico. “The threat of an attack by Hezbollah against the United States has always been present,” says University of Texas scholar Daniel Valencia. “It has only become more realistic in these last ten years due to their spread of activity and influence in Latin America and Mexico. Their criminal activities and alliances with drug trafficking organizations such as Los Zetas illustrates a growing and dormant threat south of the border.” In fact, terrorists, who are “willing to sacrifice their own people in the hundreds of thousands,” actually have supporters all over the world, such as in colleges, the media, politicians, as well as activists - and the UN. Ben David also says, “the only way to deter jihadists is if you have a reliable threat that you will take over their land.” “The same [is true] with Lebanon,” he says. “In the days after October 7 the Army wanted to destroy Hez- balla’s military capabilities which would have left us in a much easier position against Gaza.” He believes that if Israel took border land when ene- mies attack, and actually an- nex the border, then jihadists wouldn’t dare attack again. But instead, he says that southern Lebanon is empty, just like northern Israel. I recognize Major Ben David’s urgency when he says, “If their [U.S. diplomats’] primary goal is to prevent American troops from [entering into] war, that’s exactly what this policy will lead to. [It will fail with] the European front as well, because instead of allowing the Ukranians to use sophisticated weaponry to crush the Russians, they want a bleeding tie (a war of attrition).” Ben David asserts that be- cause the U.S. doesn’t have an appetite for war, Israel is being forced into a virtual tie with its jihadist enemies - rather than allowing Israel to defeat Iran. Annihilating the source would actually stop war rather than prolong it, he assures. He knows, with all of his Army service backing him up, that the U.S. is “kicking the can down the road - just like Obama did with the JCPOA (the nuclear deal with Iran).” In that nuclear deal, Obama gave Iran 15 years. Ben David, who could never imagine his home being anywhere other than Israel, said of Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, “I want to live in Israel longer than 15 years, thank you very much. Who [does he think he is] to dictate what kind of threats we should live under.” He makes yet another urgent point when he says, “If Iran is emboldened, what pre- vents it from shooting at the American base in Qatar. Why wouldn’t they do it in order to convince the White House not to help Israel. America is triggering more war by trying to contain and de-escalate, when it’s actually making the situation worse.
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