Michael Oren: Latest Israel-Hamas Hostage Exchange Is ‘Excruciating for Israelis’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
LLENAS: “So there you have it, the latest hostage exchange, three Israelis including an Israel American for 369 Palestinian prisoners including 36 individuals who were on — who were serving life sentences for acts of terrorism. One of those individuals, one of those terrorists killed 12 Israelis linked to the deaths of 12 Israelis. You’ve been critical of this ceasefire in that you have voiced your concern that this could, in fact, empower Hamas in some way. What do you make of this latest prisoner exchange and where the negotiations are right now?”
OREN: “Well, it’s excruciating, Bryan. It’s excruciating for Israelis. On one hand, there’s the joy of the reunion of these three hostages with their families. Interestingly one American-Israeli, another Russian-Israeli, and another Argentinean-Israeli, this really shows the international scope of this. On the other hand, we are releasing these 369 terrorists who have blood on their hands, and we know from previous exchanges that about 80% of them go back to committing terror. The former head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, had been released in an earlier exchange. We know that and they’ll go on to kill more Israelis. And also Hamas, if we move into a second phase of the ceasefire, Hamas will basically regain control of the Gaza Strip and prepare the next October 7th, because its leaders say they will keep on mounting attacks against Israel until Israel is destroyed. At the end of the day, Israeli society is a unique society, and this is the price that Israelis are willing to pay to get these hostages home, but we alsp understand the severity of the price.”