Dr Hagai Ben-Artzi is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law. And he is deeply critical of the deal Netanyahu has agreed to with Hamas, believing that the exchange of nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners, 250 of whom are convicted murderers serving life sentences, for 20 Israeli hostages, will only lead in the future to hundreds or thousands of Israeli victims of those prisoners being freed today.
More on Ben-Artzi’s scathing remarks can be found here: “Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi: We are signing off on the next massacre and kidnappings,” by Uzi Baruch, Israel National News, October 9, 2025:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, spoke in the Arutz Sheva – Israel National News studio Thursday, offering scathing criticism and dire warnings regarding Israel’s agreement with Hamas.
When asked if he also feels a sense of joy at the news, Ben-Artzi replied: “There is always joy. I rejoiced when the three soldiers were freed in the Jibril Deal, and I rejoiced when Gilad Shalit returned. But at the time, even back then and even more so today, I knew that with our own hands we were signing the next kidnapping, the next massacre, and the next murders.”
Ben-Artzi noted that when he opposed the Shalit deal in 2011 and was labeled a “spoilsport,” he never imagined that its price would ultimately be “around two thousand dead and murdered, and thousands more wounded. And even now, we cannot fathom the scale of the next disaster we are signing onto at this very moment. We don’t yet see the faces or the names, the towns and the homes — but for me, it’s already real. For forty years already, I’ve fought against the moral abomination of releasing terrorists.”…
How many Israelis will be murdered in the future by the prisoners who are to be freed on Sunday? One thousand? Two thousand? Many more, one can be sure, than the 20 Israeli hostages who will be freed.
“[US] President [Donald] gave us the right solution immediately after taking office – ‘conquer and we’ll start a process of emigration.’ But because of our hostage psychosis, we wanted another ten or twenty hostages freed and lost the chance for a strategic solution. The only solution is removing the refugees. If they are not removed, they’ll march on Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be’er Sheva, because in 1948 they were expelled from there. Now that they’re in tents, they have nowhere to return to — and what will the State of Israel do when faced with them?”
He also cited Supreme Court rulings that prohibit firing on civilians—something, he said, that would prevent Israel from responding to a mass civilian march from Gaza….
But the Israeli Supreme Court did not prohibit non-lethal methods of crowd control, including tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, and smoke bombs. What the Supreme Court had in mind were domestic protesters holding demonstrations. A mass march by millions of Arabs from outside Israel, hoping to storm into Israel to physically claim their “right of return” is something else; it’s a quasi-military act, and should those non-lethal weapons be insufficient to stop the marchers, only then should the IDF use live fire, including live fire directed at their lower legs, in order to inhibit their moving, should tear gas, rubber bullets, tasers, and smoke bombs not be enough.
Ben-Artzi was virtually alone among prominent Israelis in opposing the 2011 trade of 1,014 imprisoned terrorists for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. But his Cassandra-like warnings then proved prescient: many of those freed went on to kill more than a thousand Israelis. And just one of them, Yahya Sinwar, was the mastermind of the Hamas atrocities carried out on October 7, 2023. He recognizes the deep relief felt by the hostage families, and all Israelis, upon learning that all 20 of the hostages not murdered by Hamas in captivity would be coming home. But he also knows the terrible future price that Israelis will pay for this trade of hundreds of murderers for 20 innocent civilians. Ben-Artzi wants Israelis to know the real price of this Phase One of the deal. And once they realize its cost, they should be far less enthusiastic about agreeing to Phase Two of the agreement, which Hamas has already been demanding be modified so that the terror group can keep some, though not all, of its weapons.
Huh?!? says
Sadly, it is obvious that Gaza will re-group and, at some point, attack Isreal again. The jihadists will be constantly planning under the table. Isreal must continue to harden itself. Isreal will survive until the end of days. The God of Moses says so.
OLD GUY says
I’m sure that the plan to continue the attacks on Israel is already in the works. Islam is the great deceiver and terrorist.
Mike says
wake up. This is all the plan either Hama follows to deal or it exposes the truth that no matter what Hama has no intension to honor and peace deal
this will expose them as frauds to the world
other Arab nations know the truth
now the world will see the truth
wake up to the plan of exposure
Mike says
since Iran has been invited it will expose Iran as well
Taffy says
This is a restatement of the obvious! The only thing that made it newsworthy is it involved the prime minister’s brother-in-law.
While the plight of the hostages is at the forefront, the number of future Israeli lives that Israel will be sacrificing by this “deal” will swamp the number of hostages held by Hamas by fifty-fold.
The correct way for Israel to have waged this war would have been to siege Gaza from the get-go, destroying all electric distribution, water works, fuel depots food stores, etc., and continuously bomb until real famine set in.p and the enemy is hungry, thirsty and sleep deprived. Then come in with the army and clean up.
For those of you that do not know it, google “Trolly Problem” and read the Wiki article.
It is a moral conundrum without a clear solution.
commonsense says
+100
John1 says
If the captured Hamas ‘soldiers’ accused of war crimes had been tried, convicted and executed like in Nuremberg after WWII, they would be going back to Gaza in body bags.
commonsense says
+100
Taffy says
Unfortunately, the only execution ever carried out in Israel was that of Adolf Eichmann. But, these terrorists are of the same mindset and those that killed by their terroristic actions should have been executed.
Walter Sieruk says
A person has to be hopefully unrealistic and even naively gullible to really believe that this Trump “peace deal” will create a genuine lasting peace in the Middle East. For the disingenuous and outright liars who are the chiefs of Hamas will only stay peaceful until they restore their weapons supplies in massive amounts, and then launch further murderous jihad attacks into Israel.
For that so called “peace deal” and the “ceasefire” that is part of it with the jihadist chiefs of the murderous jihad entity Hamas pretended to agree to is a deceptive Islamic hoax. Meaning nothing but a false and fake truce.
The reason why this is so because such a “ceasefire” would not really be agreed to is because it’s a ploy for Hamas to restore it loses by using that for Iran to resupply it with deadly weapons provided to it by Iran.
Those jihadists would only keep the terms of a ceasefire only as long as it would site them and no longer. Then those Muslim terrorists of Hamas will then break the “truce” and then launch more jihad missile attacks murdering the peaceful civilians of the State of Israel.
Likewise, the Muslim terrorists of Hamas will also sneak into Israel from Gaza and handheld weapons of death and inflect murderous jihad massacres on the Jewish people of Israel.
gravenimage says
+1
Walter Sieruk says
That so called “peace agreement” with those jihadist chiefs of the murderous jihad entity Hamas would agree for would be a hoax. Meaning nothing but a false and fake truce.
The reason why this is so because such a “ceasefire” would really be agreed to in order to allow Hamas to restore its loses by using that for Iran to resupply it with deadly weapons provided to it by Iran.
Those jihadists would only keep the terms of a ceasefire only as long as it would site them and no longer .Then those Muslim terrorists of Hamas will then break the “truce” and then launch more jihad missile attacks murdering the peaceful civilians of the State of Israel.
Likewise, the Muslim terrorists of Hamas would also sneak into Israel from Gaza, held weapons of death, and inflect murderous jihad massacres on the Jewish people of Israel.
Susie Strawberry says
What a great article thank you. This man is 100% accurate about what is to come and will come. He is also 100% accurate in his assertion of the only way to deal with muslims is to use deadly force with no exceptions. He must encourage his brother-in-law to immediately resign.
DENISE BUSHMIRE says
I totally agree. Hamas can not be trusted. This peace deal came about too easily. Unless there is more to this deal that was not disclosed. It’s only a matter of time for Hamas to kill more innocent Israelis.
Walter Sieruk says
The prisoner exchange was to lopsided and also to dangerous .Isreal receiving the few serving Israelis who the Muslim terrorists had kidnapped and not yet murmured for thousands of menacing malicious Hamas Muslims terrorists is an action by the Israeli government of desperation and folly.
Desperation in that Israel does need to have those peaceful surviving Israeli’s captives freed. Very understandably so.
Folly it is to release so many , unrepentant Muslim terrorists to further engage in future murderous and destructive jihad attacks,
Rick Gordon says
His predictions – based on history and observations from recent years are the most accurate ones today. Without a major infusion of international troops to hold back the militants – and a like investment in re-education of the youth – we will be doomed to a reoccurrence of October 7th within a decade.
R G says
Yes trading hostages for terrorists prisoners is a bad idea but unfortunately it should be pointed out Israel has been doing that for years. In fact that was one of the excuses the Obama administration made regarding the trade for Taliban Bowe Berghdal.
Brenrod says
The only ones celebrating are the hostage families. Every knowledgeable person, including Bibi, know that this “peace” won’t hold. The released terrorists should all be sent to Gaza so they can be dealt with later.
Madeline Brooks says
A “shameful capitulation” from a Biblical point of view, says Rabbi David Bar-Hayim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_FHHe-h16g
Myself, I keep wondering why the Nagasaki solution is not used on enemies even worse than the Japanese. But I understand that I am not supposed to say that.
gravenimage says
Netanyahu’s Brother-In-Law: It’s a Disastrous Deal
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Sadly, Dr Hagai Ben-Artzi is not wrong. Hamas is still in power in Gaza, and acknowledged to be so. They have already violated the ceasefire, trying to kidnap IDF members to hold hostage.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Dr Ben-Artzi is correct
For Israel, I do hope that Itamar Ben-Gvir succeeds Netanyahu as prime minister, and that too, sooner rather than later. Good as Bibi is, foreign leaders, particularly America’s, have too much practice pushing him around. Israel needs someone like a Menachem Begin or an Yitzhak Shamir, and the only one I see remotely resembling that is Ben-Gvir