While IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who is currently in Washington, DC is supporting a prisoner release deal between Israel and Hamas, hoping to bring Gilad Shalit home, ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) Director Yuval Diskin remains adamantly opposed.

Diskin’s opposition is two-fold, to the release of the terrorists and permitting them to return to their homes in Yehuda and Shomron. Diskin may be willing to exhibit additional flexibility if the terrorists were exiled to other countries or even Hamas-controlled Gaza, but he warns permitting them to return to PA (Palestinian Authority) autonomous areas throughout Yehuda and Shomron will significantly increase the dangers to Jewish residents of those areas.

Opponents to releasing any terrorists, led by bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered by terrorists, explain that terrorists released in recent exchanges have already struck again, claiming 180 innocent lives. They warn the release of hundreds of additional terrorists for Shalit will just signal the beginning of a new wave of terror.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)