For years, Israel has been taken advantage of in terms of the exchange of prisoners and fallen soldiers. When it managed to strike an agreement, the country had to pay an incredibly high price in exchange. When it put down its foot and resisted, it got a much more sensible deal.

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The death of Jenin terrorist Daoud Zubeidi is an opportunity to change the rules of the game and turn the blackmailers into blackmailees.

True, a funeral has been held for Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in 2014 during Operation Protective Edge, although his remains are held by Hamas. True, Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, who fell in the same battle, has been declared an IDF casualty whose burial place is unknown, although the presumption is that his remains are also held by the terror group, along with two other captive Israeli citizens.

During Protective Edge, the IDF tried to learn from the mistakes it made after the abduction of soldiers Sgt. Eldad Regev and Sgt. Ehud Goldwasser, who were abducted by Hezbollah in 2006, by promptly declaring both Goldin and Shaul casualties, hoping it would aid them in negotiations. But Israel released the bodies of terrorists and detainees caught during the operation too early, giving up the leverage it could have used against Hamas.

The redemption of captives is not a modern matter for the Jewish people, and it has been discussed in the Mishnah, which says that "we do not ransom captives for more than they are worth." Meaning that the conditions for the release of a captive must be reasonable.

Here is where it gets complicated. What is considered "reasonable"? Does it make a difference whether the soldier is dead or alive? The equation is complicated not only due to an halachic aspect (aspect of Jewish law) but also due to social and state responsibility. At what point can the state say that the price for the exchange is too high?

In 1978, Israeli soldier Abraham Avram was released in exchange for 76 terrorists, including Rima Tannous, who several years earlier helped hijack the Sabena Flight 571.

Similarly, in 1997, the body of fallen IDF soldier Itamar Ilya was released in exchange for a dozen Palestinian terrorists, including Hadi Nasrallah, the son of Hezbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

In 2004, the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Omar Sawaid, and Benyamin Avraham, who were killed and abducted in a Hezbollah attack on Mount Dov, were returned to Israel along with Elhanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli civilian held by Hezbollah, in exchange for 400 terrorists and another 35 additional prisoners, among them Abdel Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, who had at one point held missing IAF navigator Ron Arad.

Four years later, Israel received the bodies of fallen soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser in exchange for the murderer Samir Kuntar, who in 1979 took part in an attack in Nahariya in which three members of the Haran family and a policeman, Eliyahu Shachar, were murdered. Together with Kuntar, Israel also released four other prisoners and the bodies of 199 enemy fighters.

And perhaps most famously, in 2011, Gilad Shalit was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners after more than five years in captivity by Hamas. Several years earlier, Israel also released two dozen terrorists in exchange for a video showing Shalit.

Do you see the pattern? The enemy has leverage – women, terrorists hailed as heroes, family members of prisoners. Meanwhile, Israel seems to not use any of its cards.

Again and again, it released terrorists and symbols of Palestinian heroism too early. Perhaps it is not pleasant to go from being the one who is taken advantage of to the one who takes advantage of another, but Israeli leadership and society must understand that more of the same will not bring about a change. We have an opportunity to change the rules of the game. We should hold on to Zabeidi's body, and from now on, to the body of every valuable terrorist.

The time has come to let the other side know that we will no longer tolerate being blackmailed, for releasing the body too early would undermine the very goal our soldiers were sent to battle: to fortify state security.

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Accusations of voter suppression in the lead-up to the US elections and of voter fraud since then have led some Americans to express concern about the nature of their democracy.

Yet the instability that the United States is experiencing is not that unique; it's similar to what many European countries, Israel and Lebanon have been going through in the aftermath of their somewhat inconclusive elections.

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Explanations for this "new normal" have included everything from economic woes to immigration from countries without democratic traditions, to COVID-19, to social media and to the natural ideological bubbles that many find hard to escape. Whatever the cause of the above, if democracy wants to thrive, it must renew itself and adapt to the conditions of 2020.

About a decade ago, Belgium operated without an elected government for nearly 500 days, due to simmering ethnic tension. More recently, Brexit has toppled governments and led to multiple elections. Italy continues to suffer from political instability.

In 2017, France went through two rounds of elections, as neither President Emmanuel Macron nor challenger Marine Le Pen garnered 50 percent of the vote. In Spain, four elections were held within four years.

The Austrian government was led by a group of non-elected government experts for several months. And in the Middle East, many consider Lebanon a democracy, despite the challenges it suffers from instability, largely due to the overwhelming influence of Hezbollah.

These issues are also apparent in Israel, where after three rounds of elections, a multi-party, "unity" government has been formed. But it, too, is struggling to make decisions, just like the Israeli public. The public sees the government becoming crippled and the country paralyzed.

In retrospect, it is possible to point to a number of events and ideas that have led to this culture of indecision. First, the economic crisis of 2008 left scars on the United States and Europe that are still visible today. Fear of a similar catastrophe largely undermined the economic dream of the European Union. At the end of the day, people are less concerned about global trends than they are about the financial stability of their own country, city and family.

The second point is related to the demographic issue. The wars that broke out in the Middle East, the rise of ISIS and the killing that erupted in the Middle East and Africa led to a rise in human migration that has not been seen since World War II. This has had many consequences. The arrival of foreigners directly impacts separatism and the sense of nationalism. Yet there is also an instinct to be compassionate and help the vulnerable, while on the other hand there remains a concern that foreigners will take jobs and damage one's society.

The third point to consider is the mainstream media, social media, and the need for instant gratification. For years people were accustomed to media outlets that merely reported the news. They did not present half-baked stories that were presented in tweet form before the details were properly vetted to enable a story to go live ahead of the closure of a news cycle. There was barely a need for "fact-checkers."

Today, social media can be more influential than traditional media, as the boundaries between them have been broken. Those who surf and scroll no longer know what is true and what has been falsified.

The public is exposed to a confusing array of real news and fake news, real data and fake data. Not surprisingly, the pseudo-anonymity of social media discourse has become extreme. It has crushed one's ability to be attentive to the other side – to the claims and the needs of those with whom one disagrees.

Social media networks have become a place of strife and collision, where there are no police to separate the hawks. The social-media titans ended up intervening in the closing days of the US election, which only heightened the polarization. This is evident in the frantic hours bleeding into days during which Americans have been and are still waiting for the final results.

The challenge of balancing democracy with 21st-century instant media is something the United States and much of the Western world continues to struggle with. How can we improve the conversation? How can we encourage different groups to work together? How can we foster collaboration and respect dissention?

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If we do not wake up now, our liberal democratic ideals may disappear before our eyes, despite the fact that we face worldwide challenges – such as global warming and the coronavirus pandemic – and geopolitical ones involving Iran, China and North Korea.

If the condition of elections and governments throughout the world has taught us anything, it is that we must change the way we talk about them.

Now is the time to make our discourse great again.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that "noise kills thought."

We are in a period with much coronavirus-related noise. Yet as the world remains focused on fighting the pandemic, we would be compounding the tragedy by not effectively preparing and planning for what comes next.

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Regardless of where you are in the world, much of that conversation focuses on protocols designed to keep the public healthy, restarting the economy and modifying regulations that arouse the public's confidence. In other words, the emphasis is on trying to arrive at the "new normal."

In Israel, however, there is another issue that is never far removed from our minds: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And while we are Zooming and quarantining – or even baking sourdough bread – much has transpired on that front that never really broke through the noise. Nevertheless, regional developments over the past few months have created an immense opportunity that must be seized.

The Abraham Accords was actually the one thing that did manage to break through the noise – at least temporarily. Yet too many believe that it was just the latest publicity stunt of a reality-TV star turned president trying to win re-election. While the treaty is applauded by many, most did not appreciate how it will affect not only the three signatories – Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – but what impact it will have on the entire Middle East and beyond.

For one thing, the Gulf state (in addition to Sudan, the most recent country to agree to normalization with Israel, and Oman, reportedly soon to follow suit) are publicly looking at Israel through an entirely different perspective. Critics of the accord complained that it did not address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though this may be true in a direct sense, the peace agreements will dramatically recalibrate the diplomatic approach towards resolving the conflict.

Just last week, Israel advanced a record amount of residential construction throughout Judea and Samaria. And while the typical anti-Israel NGOs condemned the news, the expected amplification by international actors didn't really materialize, as Israel's Gulf allies silently endorsed it.

European and other critics of Israel are recognizing that it will only become more difficult to condemn the Jewish state without the support of Israel's new-found allies. And they are looking to strengthen their ties with Israel, not create immediate conflict.

Even Israel's historic public deliberations on applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria did not terminate the Abraham Accords. Significantly, the reported agreement that Israel would delay such application was not included in any of the formal normalization agreements. And as these countries are introduced to an Israel without the filter of the Palestinian Authority, they are more likely to view Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria as positive, especially if it can follow US President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" plan that they have embraced.

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This is why we can expect that Israel will soon be advancing plans to develop industrial parks in Judea and Samaria where Israelis and Palestinians will be able to work side by side (as tens of thousands already do). This is likely to be greeted with even stronger affirmation among Israel's new allies, who have prioritized economic coexistence as a pretense to diplomatic breakthroughs.

Israel's efforts to increase economic opportunity based on coexistence is likely to attract investors from these Gulf states, and enable Israel to enhance infrastructure development, and eliminate the feeling among many Palestinians that they have no realistic path towards prosperity. It may be a slightly different future from the one that Palestinians had anticipated, but it will take shape as they adjust to the reality that their future is tied more to Israel and the Gulf than to the P.A. leadership that has dominated their lives for so long.

For some time now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to accept funds collected by the Israel Tax Authority. Donor countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others, have significantly reduced aid to the Palestinians. The PA Finance Ministry recently announced that international aid has shrunk by no less than 81%.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in recent months has met with senior PA officials, has sponsored reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, and has transferred funds to the PA Erdoğan's Turkey is fully supportive of Hamas and its extremist positions. The emerging reality is that our Palestinian neighbors, who remain in economic distress, are now receiving funds from a highly radical and impulsive autocrat. Once the COVID-19 crisis has ended, the above could lead to a third intifada.

The State of Israel must decide that it will not let the "noise" of the coronavirus "kill its thought" and determine its actions. Israel must attract international investors from our new friends in the Gulf, as well as from the United States and other of our allies, to develop industrial areas that will enhance and connect the Israeli-Palestinian economies.

If we want security, peace, good neighborly relations and a secure future for Israel, then we must invest in Judea and Samaria. It is time to build an economic axis that will put bread on the tables of ordinary Palestinians, who will choose to put down their guns and go to work.

Regardless of what happens on Election Day in the United States, there is a genuine opportunity to build on the momentum of the Abraham Accords and on the American administration's maximum pressure on Iran and the PA. If we don't, disaster may lie ahead. Israel, thus, has no choice but to rise above the noise of COVID-19 and plan how best to leverage the opportunities provided by Trump's policies.

The stakes are too high to do otherwise.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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Still, 53 years ago, immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War, the biggest of them did: Shilo and Beit El, Efrat and Kfar Etzion, the Jewish quarter in Hebron, Maaleh Adumim, Itamar, Elkana, and more.

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The patch back to Judea and Samaria and renewed building there was not an easy one. Not everyone shared our dream. The entire time, there were calls to evacuate us, stop our budgets, gather us into settlement blocs. Construction freezes were forced on us, and we were seen as an obstacle to peace. Now, after years of battles and a sword hanging over our heads, we have a rare opportunity to secure an insurance policy for our existence.

We must not forget that what exists was, until not long ago, in doubt, and didn't even have the widespread public support it does now. It seems as if the Trump peace plan acknowledges the reality that has been created, in which settlements have become an anchor of peace, from shopping and manufacturing centers to joint struggles for the environment.

Now, at a time when we have a broad unity government, and the biggest superpower in the world is backing us, we have a chance to ensure that we can pass on to the generations to come at least what we have built thus far. It is in Israel's interest to implement the "deal of the century." We are part of the state. Israel wants to seek an end to the conflict, Israel needs diplomatic support, and Israel needs broad-based agreement.

The Land of Israel is important, and the Jewish people are no less important. Settlement is important, as is maintaining Israel's international standing. We are at a watershed decision moment that will affect the future. I am asking to ensure that tomorrow will include nothing less than what exists today. That is why we need to adopt the Trump plan and apply sovereignty. 

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In that week, people have proclaimed him and his team anything and everything from the Messiah to Judas. The truth is he and his team are neither. President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner and Ambassador David Friedman are loyal patriots to the United States and the greatest friends Israel has ever had in the White House.

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Let's remember where we were as recently as December 2016. We were abandoned at the UN and were dictated the terms of a UN/EU style peace plan from then-Secretary of State John Kerry. That was certainly a low point in international relations for our great state of Israel.

Since that point our Kinneret (The Sea of Galilee) has nearly filled up – we haven't figured out how to thank Trump/Kushner/Friedman for that yet, but if we could, we would.

We have become energy independent in no small part because of our partnership with an American company, Noble Energy, in a deal brokered with Jordan and Egypt that could NOT have been possible without the tireless assistance of the United States.

The president and his team recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moved their embassy there, got out of the Iran deal, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, stopped funding UNWRA, declared settlements were not illegal, etc, etc, etc.

Then the president presented his Vision for Peace for the region. Let's understand what is in the vision and the importance of working in lockstep with the administration to achieve our goals.

1. Security:  This plan is not based upon hope or faith like the terribly flawed Iran deal. Rather, it is based upon enhancing Israeli security control and responsibility throughout all phases of this vision's implementation. At no time, let us repeat that, at no time does Israel's security posture weaken, it only strengthens. For this fact alone we should be eternally grateful to this administration, which understands that Israel is not the source of strife in the Middle East. We are the one bastion of stability and anything that hurts our stability will have a catastrophic domino effect on the entire region.
2. Jewish homes: This administration has been clear, one cannot "Judaize" Judea. Our roots and our homeland are quite literally in the name. Each and every Jewish home and their environs will eventually become part of civilian Israel. This means being able to build throughout Judea and Samaria like Jaffa and Haifa, like Tel Aviv and Bet Shemesh.
3. Jerusalem will be considered by the greatest power on earth undivided and eternal as the capital of Israel. This has been something we have been yearning for, for literally 2000 years, and it is coming to fruition.
4. Everyone is aware of the reality on the ground here: Our neighbors are not ready for peace. They may never be ready for peace. Each and every day we wake up and we pray three times a day for peace, we strive for peace, but we will not die for peace. This vision changes the entire paradigm of how the world looks at this supposed conflict. Instead of asking (demanding) that we take more risks for a peace that will probably never mature, this administration has been extremely clear through its vision for peace, that peace will come if, and only if, our neighbors make dramatic changes. In order to achieve peace, they must demonstrate that they will stop acting like Iran and begin acting like Canada. If, and only, if they cross these hurdles (of which we are highly doubtful they will ever achieve) then we can negotiate with them. To be clear: We want peace, we have always wanted peace and this is the only vision that actually acknowledges what it will take to get peace, no matter how difficult it is to imagine occurring.

In the week since this vision has been released, most of the world has declared that this is something serious to be considered and negotiated on its platform. There are notable groups included in those in support, throughout Europe and Middle East, and even more noticeable are those against Iran, Hamas, the PA.

Do you know why the Gulf countries expressed support for this vision? Do you know why the prime minister was welcomed regally to Uganda and met with the new leader of Sudan?

We are a cutting edge 21^st-century regional power, that is true, but we have two secret weapons. One is G-d and the other one is our special and unique relationship with the US. Everyone around the world wants a piece of each. To hear people, regardless of rank and station, complain about the difference of opinion over timing for recognition is not only embarrassing, it is shameful.

This vision was presented as a vision, not a forced plan.  If our country chooses in the future to enter into negotiation based on this basis of the vision, we should not interfere.

But while the Palestinians cry hysterically, let it not be our camp that looks and sounds unhinged – let us set an example for the entire country. We the undersigned will work to get a government that will maximize the opportunities presented by this vision while safeguarding against those who will take this vision and use it as a platform to weaken us in every which way.

We pray every day for peace and know it will only come when we are strong on our own, and the world sees no daylight between Israel and the US. This vision accomplishes all of this and more. Thank you Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for forging such a strong and strategic relationship with President Trump, Jared Kushner and Ambassador Friedman –  the best friends we have ever had.

Oded Revivi is the Mayor of Efrat
Eli Shaviro is the Mayor of Ariel
Benny Kashriel is the Mayor of Maale Adumim
Asaf Minter is the Mayor of Elkana
Igal Lahav is the Mayor of Karnei Shomron
Shy Rosenzweig is the Mayor of Alfei Menashe
Nir Bartal is the Mayor of Oranit

The post An open letter from Judea and Samaria mayors appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.