Former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard suggested that Israel should have forced the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be quiet, even suggesting imprisonment as a means to curb public pressure in negotiating deals with the terror group. During an online discussion with Rabbi David Bar-Hayim of the Shilo Institute aired on Israel’s Channel 14, Pollard expressed his harsh stance. “When we declared war, the first thing that the government should have done was to declare a state of national emergency and told all of the hostage families, ‘You will keep your mouths shut, or we will shut them for you. You will not interfere in the management of this war. You will not be used by the international community or by our own leftists, who managed the Shalit deal, as a weapon against us,’” he declared. This remark refers to the contentious 2011 deal where Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists in exchange for a single kidnapped IDF soldier. One of the released terrorist was Yahye Sinway, the current chief of Hamas in Gaza who masterminded the Simchas Torah massacre. Pollard, who spent decades in a U.S. prison for espionage before being released by former President Donald Trump and relocating to Israel, further added, “And if that means imprisoning, to silence certain members of hostages’ families, then so be it. We’re in a state of war.” His criticisms extended to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for endorsing a new hostage deal this week. Pollard also voiced his disappointment with the far-right Religious Zionism party, which supported the agreement, stating he will not vote for them again. Expanding on his views, Pollard condemned the public display of kidnapped Israelis. “I was dead-set against turning all these posters out, the kidnapped, with all these pictures of these poor people that were kidnapped. Why? Because each one of them was a poison dart at our ability to wage total war against our enemies.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)