The Israeli government’s decision to make significant concessions to Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was blackmail. If someone kidnaps your child and you “agree” to pay a ransom to get her back, would you call that a deal? Of course not. Kidnapping was a crime. And the outrageous demands were a further crime.

So the proper explanation for what happened is that Israel pressured The United States capitulated to Hamas’s illegal and outrageous demands as the only way to save the lives of kidnapped infants, mothers, and other innocent, mostly civilians., hostage. (Related: New government report details sexual assault, branding and starvation of hostages by brutal Hamas terrorists)

This was not the result of a negotiation between equals. If an armed robber puts a gun to your head and says, “Your money or your life,” your decision to hand over the money probably isn’t a deal. Nor should any forced deals agreed to by Israel be considered a deal. So stop using that word.

When a terrorist group If you “negotiate” with democracy, democracy will always have the upper hand. Terrorists are not bound by morality, law, or truth. They can murder at will, rape at will, torture at will, and threaten to do worse. On the other hand, a democracy must abide by the rule of law and listen to the complaints of hostage families. The results of this effort were bad for Israel’s security, but good for the surviving hostages and their families. In a moral democracy that values ​​the immediate saving of lives of known people over the future deaths of imaginary people whose identities are unknown, the heart rules the brain. This trade-off is as understandable as it is compassionate, even if it is unconvincing as policy.

Terrorism could be stopped if all democracies adopted a policy of never negotiating with terrorists. But terrorism and hostage have become the main tactics of the world’s worst people, as every country follows the demands of kidnappers and extortionists. And the rest of us are accomplices.

Particularly complicit are Hamas supporters with blood on their hands shouting intifada and revolution on university campuses. International organizations such as the International Criminal Court, which treats Israel and Hamas equally, are also weighing in. These terrorist sponsors encouraged Hamas to hold out for several months, believing that their support would pressure Israel into making further concessions. (Related: Alan Dershowitz: Pro-Hamas protests on elite university campuses could take an even darker turn)

The students of terrorism, the university students who encourage Hamas to continue its murderous activities, must be held accountable for their complicity in evil. They may have the same First Amendment rights as Jews, but they should be treated with the same contempt that Nazis, the KKK, and supporters of racist violence are treated. The First Amendment does not give them the right to be employed by a decent employer.

The First Amendment gives employers the power to refuse to associate with supporters of Nazism, Hamas terrorism, and other evil groups. American law criminalizes material support for designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Morality, as distinct from law, states that providing material, political, economic, or demonstrative support to terrorist groups like Hamas should be considered immoral. However, the Democratic presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate prompted People need to listen to the message of these protesters. They would never say that about protesters who support the lynching of black people or the rape of women. But Hamas lynches Jews and rapes Jewish women. There is no moral difference.

Of the 98 hostages, Hamas took control of the 98 hostages with the knowledge that what they extorted from Israel in exchange for their release would jeopardize Israel’s security in the future, potentially costing many more innocent lives. Let’s welcome the news that perhaps 33 people have been released and some of them may be alive.

And let’s hold Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support the brutal terrorists responsible for all the deaths in the Gaza Strip.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, and author, most recently, of The War on the Jews: How to End Hamas’s Barbarism. He is a Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and host of the podcast “The Dershow.”

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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