feeding the prisoners

Ynet this morning published the menu of meals served to Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails. This refers to Hamas terrorists who had taken part in the Nochba force that perpetrated the invasion and massacre on October 7 2023, some of whom were later captured and taken prisoner (ie I do not know if Hamas prisoners or other Arab terrorists in jail receive the same meals).

Breakfast: tea, vegedtables, sliced bread, jelly/chocolate spread and white soft cheese (gvina levana), cottage

lunch: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Shabbos: a meat main dish, side of rice/potato/couscous, vegetables

Monday, Thursday, Friday: cooked veggie/legumes dish, rice

bread

Dinner: vegetables, sliced bread, rice/falafel, tehina/hummus/beans/tuna

sometimes eggs

This does not sound too extravagant or luxurious but the publication of this menu made people very angry. Hamas is holding our people hostage for some 90 days by now and all they get is half a piece of pita a day with some dirty water. The Thai hostage that was released testified he ate tissues to ward of the feelings of hunger. They are starving our people and we give their people 3 good full meals a day? Cut it down! 2 meals a day! 1 meal a day! just a piece of pita! no meat at all! etc

I dont disagree with the sentiment at all. The only difference being that they are a terrorist group and abide by no international agreements and conventions and commit war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity, while Israel is a democracy and an "enlightened" country, whatever that means, and we cannot behave like a terrorist group but must adhere to the rules we have agreed to play by (which itself may be why Israel and the other Western countries have such a difficult time dealing with these terror groups - they resort to doing whatever they think will inflict the most harm while we treat them with kids gloves). I definitely wish we could treat them the way they treat us.

Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, tweeted a statement when this was publicized saying that whoever ignores my explicit instructions to stop serving types of meat meals to the murderous Nochba terrorists and gives them full rich meat meals like what has been presented, while our hostages are in Gaza eating half a pita daily - is not worthy of continuing even one more day in the job. We must have reforms in the prison services.

I dont think this is the major issue with this tweet but if Ben Gvir is going to call for not feeding prisoners properly he is going to bring ruin on Israel. Ben Gvir is a minister in the government of Israel. A senior minister. The minister responsible for this realm. Ben Gvir is not a private citizen with no influence who can talk until he is blue in the face and burn out all his frustrations and anger by saying how we should starve the Hamas prisoners like they are starving Israeli hostages. Ben Gvir is a minister and for him to call for breaking international conventions and agreements is very bad for Israel.

As I mentioned, I dont think that is the biggest issue with the tweet. The bigger issue is how Ben Gvir seems surprised by the information. He does not seem to know what is happening with these terrorists and is only finding out from the newspaper article. He thought he told them to feed them gruel and finds out this morning they are actually getting falafel and kebab! I dont know if he has a way to enforce the various policies he announces every now and then, considering they sometimes violate international agreements, but if he does, maybe instead of just signing a paper he should also go check and see what is actually happening under his authority. That's why he needs to fire (not extend) the head of the prison services? Maybe. But maybe he can also do things without firing people. At least know what is happening. He seemed blindsided by this.

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