An Israeli spokesperson was forced to shoot down an incredibly dumb accusation.
Sky News’ Kay Burley interviewed Israeli spokesman Eylon Levy and addressed the pause in hostilities as part of a deal to exchange 50 hostages held by Hamas for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
“I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning. He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release, as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said that it will release,” Burley began.
The interview then took a bizarre turn as she continued, “And he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that ‘Does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are not valued as highly as Israeli lives?’”
As Burley spoke, Levy understandably declined to hide his sense of bewilderment, before shooting back, “That is an astonishing accusation!”
“If we could release one prisoner for every one hostage, we would obviously do that. We’re operating in horrific circumstances. We’re not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands. We are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks,” he continued.
Watch the video below:
The first question that left me speechless (but only for a second): pic.twitter.com/P4Bh0SKtl9
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 23, 2023
Finally, Levy added:
“Notice the question of proportionality doesn’t interest Palestinian supporters when they’re able to get more of their prisoners out. But really, it is outrageous to suggest that the fact that we are willing to release prisoners who are convicted of terrorism offenses, more of them than we are getting our own innocent children back, somehow suggests that we don’t care about Palestinian lives? Really, that’s a disgusting accusation.”
Whoever that hostage negotiator is, please ensure they are not actively on the job.
It is outrageous to think Israel would simply trade 100 more people, who as Levy noted are convicted of terrorist-related crimes, than it is getting back because of some lesser value placed on Palestinian lives.
It goes against pretty much every tenet of what most people in the public would think of as a good deal in such a situation, where Israel could if it wanted to wipe Gaza off the map. This deal is not as though Israel is negotiating from a position of weakness militarily. Israel is not the one begging for a cease-fire.
The reason the deal is so lopsided is Israel is dealing with brutal terrorists who don’t value life and who have been holding women and children hostage for more than a month, and it wants to get them back as soon as possible. If it wanted to, it could continue its operations in Gaza and try to recover the hostages militarily, though that carries a higher risk of fatalities.
As if we needed more evidence of the blatant anti-Israel bias among so many in the media, Israel can’t even do a deal to recover hostages without accusations it values Palestinian lives less.
