Public Security Minister (Likud) Gilad Erdan has expressed his opposition to the release of terrorists to bring captive Israelis home. Erdan is aware that with the lifting of the ban on Avraham Mengistu and an unnamed Israeli Bedouin being held in Gaza and amid ongoing efforts to bring home the bodies of Lt. Hadar Goldin and Sgt. Oron Shaul for kvura in Israel, there may be calls for another prisoner exchange deal.

Erdan insists we must learn the lessons of the “previous deal”, referring to Israel’s release of over 1,000 terrorists to bring Gilad Shalit home. Many of the terrorists released in that deal have returned to their acts of terrorism including fatal attacks. Some are sitting in Israeli prisons again after being taken into custody following their return to terrorism.

“Israel must do everything possible to pressure Hamas into releasing the two Israelis” stated the minister, who is clearly opposed to future prisoner swaps with the Hamas regime. He also calls for changing the current situation in which imprisoned terrorists are earning academic degrees whiles earning sentences in Israeli prisons.

Erdan is a member of the Security Cabinet and he told the press ‘It would have been fitting for members of the Security Cabinet to have been informed of the matter. Would it have changed the outcome? I do not think so. This comes from a place of discretion in order to prevent Hamas from exerting additional pressure on the government”.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been coming under mounting pressure from members of the Security Cabinet, which has not convened since the swearing in of the current administration. It is opined that after being pressured to include Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in the Security Cabinet by the Bayit Yehudi party during coalition negotiations, Mr. Netanyahu is not convening the security forum.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)