We would all rejoice to see the Oct. 7 terrorists hanging from power poles in the Gaza Strip. However, having captured them, we are obligated to bring them to trial. That said, there were more respectful ways to summon soldiers for questioning.
The terrorists who murdered, raped, beheaded, desecrated bodies, gouged out babies' eyes, severed women's breasts, and burned people alive deserve death. Most Israeli citizens would be glad to see them lifeless, swinging from power poles in the streets of Gaza as a deterrent. Since Oct. 7, we've harbored intense feelings of rage, pain, frustration, and vengeance, perhaps unparalleled in our collective experience since the Holocaust.
However, it is the state – not the mob, no matter how justifiably angry – that is authorized to hold these new Nazis accountable. Even after the original Nazis, it was the State of Israel that pursued justice. One of them, Adolf Eichmann, was tried here and executed. But he wasn't killed by his unfortunate victims or their families. The state carried out the sentence only after his guilt was proven in court. It wasn't the mob that took justice into its own hands, but the state.
The State of Israel, and only the State of Israel, can eliminate terrorists and mass murderers without trial, during and between wars. This was the case with Ahmed Yassin, Mohammed Deif, and Ayman Nofal – and hopefully, it will be the case with Yahya Sinwar. They and their subordinates participated in or initiated the massacre of Jews in southern Israel, unparalleled since the Holocaust in both scale and cruelty. Their hands are stained with Jewish blood. Only the authorized decision-makers have the right and duty to eliminate them, and even then, only after receiving approval from professional legal authorities, as is customary.
It's understandable why protesters at Sde Teiman lost their cool on Monday. The attempt to arrest soldiers suspected of abusing one of the terrorists was carried out, at least based on the images we saw, by masked military police investigators, as if they were arresting the most wanted terror suspect in a Jenin refugee camp. This is not how you treat soldiers entrusted with guarding the worst of our murderers during wartime. Even if they erred, there were far quieter and more respectful ways to summon them for questioning. However, the military prosecution had no choice but to open an investigation given the materials and suspicions presented to them.
If the allegations of sexual abuse prove to be true, it cannot be ignored. Not out of concern for the suffering of any particular terrorist, but because after we've captured and imprisoned these inhuman creatures instead of eliminating them on the battlefield, we must try them according to Israeli law. We must ensure their conviction and, in the process, present their crimes and atrocities to the world, just as was done with the Nazis at Nuremberg, or with Eichmann in Jerusalem in the 1960s.
Until then, it's advisable to rotate the guards at the Sde Teiman detention facility more frequently and maintain human dignity in front of the terrorists, even though they lost theirs long ago. Simultaneously, legal proceedings against the terrorists should be expedited and indictments filed, even if we ultimately have to hand them over to Hamas in exchange for our hostages. Until then, the world must hear detailed accounts of their crimes and listen to testimonies from massacre survivors. We can already start looking for the "Gideon Hausner" of our time, a professional prosecutor and skilled orator who will know how to convey the trial of these new Nazis and their accomplices to the entire "enlightened" world in a live broadcast.
