Death penalty for terrorists? My heart shouts yes, my head says wait

Since I was a child, I have supported the death penalty for terrorists. It was clear to me. Whoever rapes Jews should die. Whoever burns Jews should die. Whoever’s purpose in the world is to annihilate Jews certainly should die. And if “an eye for an eye,” then someone who already killed - of course they should be put to death.

This morning, while I sat on the balcony with a hot black coffee (don’t ask, that’s a story for another time), I saw on Amit Segal’s feed that “Degel HaTorah will vote against a law for the death penalty for terrorists, for fear of bloodshed.” Segal mentioned it briefly and didn’t explain.

At first I was surprised - what halachic problem could there be with executing terrorists? I, in my naive smallness, thought there could be no halachic problem in executing terrorists; I thought the concern would be unlawful killing. Of course later I was told the meaning was fear of pogroms and blood vengeance in response to Jews. For a moment I was reassured, but then I said to myself: what does that mean, that we’re supposed to count someone? Apologize because we carry out justice?

While I was thinking about it, images from October seventh ran through my mind like a film. Images you cannot erase. Unfortunately I was exposed and I saw too much. Whoever saw them knows the body cannot contain that level of rage. In that moment you want to grab a terrorist and kill him in cold blood. That’s instinct.

But I am no longer a child. And as such I know instinct is not always the compass.

So let’s breathe for a moment.

True, there are arguments in favor: justice, closure for families, a clear statement that our blood is not forfeit. Even deterrence - on paper that sounds reasonable.

But in the field? Terrorists are not afraid to die. On the contrary - they seek it. They are raised on it. For them, the death penalty is not a threat, it is a prize. It is their path to become “shaheeds,” heroes in their community, role models. There is no deterrent benefit from the death penalty; they go to murder Jews fully aware they will die. How many intifadas, attacks, and Octobers will it take to internalize that?

Their death produces more terrorists, not fewer.

There is also the security consideration. If one execution leads to new attacks, to pogroms, to more Jewish lives taken - does that make it worth it? Not certain. Justice should not fuel a cycle of revenge, but stop it.

I won’t get into the legal difficulties such a law could create if it discriminates against Jews or, God forbid, does not apply to them equally; there are also halachic reservations and so on.

Bottom line, it is not justice either; no human-devised punishment can answer the evil and cruelty of those murderers. What closure is there for mourners over the death of their loved ones when on the other side they hold celebrations for the shaheed killed by the Zionist enemy?

Does that mean we should pity them? Heaven forbid. We should make their lives hard, confiscate, imprison, isolate. Actual life imprisonment - no pardons, no privileges, no schooling; a cell, basic water and food - to keep them alive, suffering, cut off and waiting for the death that will redeem them.

The death penalty may satisfy the heart, but not the mind. It might give the national ego a boost, add a few Knesset seats to Ben-Gvir, but nothing more.

So yes - Hashem will avenge the blood of all those fallen in Israel’s wars and attacks. But we do not have to prove anything to anyone, not to the world, not to the terrorists. We have One who avenges for us, God of vengeance.