| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Pope calls for an immediate end to the barbarity in Palestine. | |
| Posted by: | Steven Rose | |
| Date/Time: | 26/07/25 00:54:00 |
| I hadn’t heard about the ‘Hannibal Directive’ (it sounds like the title of an action film) until you mentioned it about a year ago, Ed, so I looked it up. The directive was a secret order to prevent the abduction of Israeli soldiers, if necessary by firing on the vehicles in which they were being taken away, even at the risk of harming the soldiers themselves. The aim of this order was to deter abduction by making it clear to the kidnappers that a) they would die in the attempt and b) they would never succeed in taking a hostage. The directive was revoked in 2016. It was undoubtedly a horrific measure but it is similar in some ways to the policy of the American government that they won’t negotiate with terrorists. That is to say, they are prepared to to allow hostages to be killed rather than make concessions to terrorists which will lead to further hostage-taking in the future. |