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If Israel reinstates the death penalty, it will betray Jewish values — and Jewish history
The Knesset is considering a bill that would instate the death penalty as a punishment for convicted terrorists in Israel. Passing it would be an enormous mistake.
Allowing executions in the Jewish state — the justice system of which has, since 1954, only issued that punishment to Adolf Eichmann — would only give fodder to Israel’s enemies. Right now, Israel stands apart in the Middle East for its abolishment of the death penalty. Hamas regularly executes Palestinians in Gaza, extrajudicially and otherwise. A court operating under Yemen’s Houthi rebels recently sentenced 17 people to death for allegedly spying on behalf of Israel and others. Iran, which has carried out death sentences against Jews, has executed more than 1,500 people in 2025 alone.
Which means that if Israel violates its moral obligations and ethical standards by undoing its historic commitment to not inflicting the one punishment that can never be undone, it will be giving its enemies a gift.
First, changing the justice system to allow for the death penalty would provide Hamas terrorists incarcerated in Israel with a new platform for their message. Hamas could proclaim them to be martyred heroes — a new layer of disingenuous but effective propaganda.
Terrorists such as the perpetrators of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre often believe that their spirits will receive rewards upon their physical death. Within that framework, lifetime incarceration is a far harsher punishment, and therefore a more effective one. Plus, the notion that executing terrorists will prevent future hostage-taking for prisoner swaps is shaky. Hamas’ relationship with Israel has long been defined by retaliatory action, which means that the state killing of Hamas prisoners is likely to lead to Hamas reciprocally executing future Israeli hostages and “collaborators.” The endless cycle of violence will continue.
And since Israel seeks to be a transparent democracy that follows the rule of law, particularly within its judiciary, a legal death sentencing scheme also would prove costly in terms of public perception.
Israel’s reputation as a bastion of moral clarity in the Middle East has dramatically changed in the more than two years since the Oct. 7 attack. The devastation of the war in Gaza, and of increasing violence in the West Bank, has led to a substantial drop in positive perceptions of Israel worldwide. And while the Israeli judiciary has long been one of the country’s most trusted institutions, the deleterious effects of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-war proposals for a judicial overhaul mean it is no longer held in the same high regard, in Israel or the rest of the world, as it once was.
This bill has already advanced past a first reading in the Knesset. Moving it any further toward becoming law would only hasten the decline of Israel’s image.
Some of those who have argued in favor of the bill have invoked the fallacy of “deterrence.” Shin Bet security service Chief David Zini even told the Security Cabinet that enacting the death penalty for terrorists who kill Israelis would help prevent future attacks.
That statement doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Recent studies have concluded that when it comes to deterrence, there is no demonstrable link between the presence or absence of the death penalty and murder rates.
But the most profound reason to reject this bill comes from our own painful history as a people. Many Jews, including myself, have long objected to the death penalty in part because of the shadow of the Holocaust.
We believe, in the words of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, that “death is not the answer.” By the end of his life, Wiesel publicly said that he saw no possible exceptions to this rule:“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory, I oppose the death penalty in all forms,” he said. “I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.”
In this light, it is particularly troubling that the Israeli bill proposes using lethal injection against convicted terrorists. That method of capital punishment is a direct Nazi legacy, first implemented in human history by the Third Reich as part of their infamous Aktion T4 protocol, used to kill people deemed “unworthy of life.” Dr. Karl Brandt, Adolf Hitler’s personal physician, devised the program.
In the wake of the Holocaust and the unparalleled horrors of the 20th century, more than 70% of the nations of the world have recognized the inviolability of the human right to life, and have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.
21st-century Judaism must reflect this evolution, and Israel must never cross this moral Rubicon.
The post If Israel reinstates the death penalty, it will betray Jewish values — and Jewish history appeared first on The Forward.
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Israeli High-Tech Funding Rises to Nearly $16 Billion in 2025, Report Says
A NVIDIA logo appears in this illustration taken Aug. 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Israeli high–tech companies raised $15.6 billion in private funding in 2025, up from $12.2 billion in 2024, Startup Nation Central said in a report on Monday citing preliminary data.
The tech sector, regarded as one of the largest in the world, accounts for about 20% of GDP, 15% of jobs and more than half of Israeli exports.
It has proved resilient, despite the war in Gaza, which began in 2023, when total funding was $10 billion.
Global giants, such as Nvidia, in 2025 said they would increase their physical and talent presence in Israel.
The number of funding deals, at 717, was the lowest in the last decade, but the deals were higher value. The median private deal, SNC said, reached a record $10 million – up 67% over 2024.
The year 2025 “was not about a return to business as usual; it was a pivot toward high-conviction maturity,” said Avi Hasson, CEO of SNC.
M&A activity reached a record $74.3 billion in value, spread over 150 deals, the data showed.
It was led by Alphabet’s $32 billion purchase of cyber firm Wiz and Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion acquisition of cyber rival CyberArk.
SNC said the level of M&A in Israel reflected multi-nationals’ efforts “to secure critical innovation.”
“These companies are effectively turning to Israeli startups into their next generation of R&D engines, laying the groundwork for additional acquisitions,” it said.
Funding for tech startups in 2024 was led by $5.2 billion for mid-stage rounds, followed by early-stage investments of $3.9 billion and $2.5 billion for later stages, SNC said.
A number of Israeli companies went public, raising more than $10 billion.
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Turkey Claims Kurdish-Led SDF Does Not Intend to Advance Integration With Syrian State
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
The Kurdish–led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria appear to have no intention of honoring a commitment to integrate into the state‘s armed forces by a year-end deadline, Turkey‘s foreign minister claimed on Monday.
Turkey views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organization and has warned of military action if the group does not honor the agreement.
Last week, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF, but that its patience was running out.
‘NO INTENTION’
“We see the SDF has no intention to make too much of an advance [toward integration],” Fidan said on Monday in Damascus after talks between a high-level Turkish delegation and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, and others.
“The SDF is running some of its operations in coordination with Israel, [and this] is actually a major obstacle to ongoing negotiations with Damascus,” he said.
The visit to Syria’s capital by the Turkish officials, who included Turkey‘s defense minister and intelligence chief, came amid efforts by Syrian, SDF, and US officials to show some progress with the deal.
Turkey has accused the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline and Israel of resorting to “destabilizing” policies in Syria and of causing security risks in the country’s south.
There was no immediate comment on Fidan’s remarks from the SDF or Israel.
Ankara says the SDF presence along its southern borders poses a security threat to both Turkey and Syria, and that the Damascus government must address this. It has said any integration must ensure the SDF is disbanded – in line with a disarmament process between outlawed Kurdish PKK militants and the Turkish state – and its chain of command broken.
DAMASCUS MAKES NEW PROPOSAL TO SDF
Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganizing the group’s roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.
Shibani said Damascus did not see “any initiative or serious will” from the SDF to implement the agreement but had recently proposed to the Syrian Kurds another way to advance the process.
“We received a response yesterday and this response is currently being studied,” he said.
Turkey has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past.
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Homemade Bombs Thrown Before Bondi Mass Shooting, but Failed to Detonate, Police Tell Court
A CCTV footage shows Naveed Akram and his father, Sajid Akram, both suspects in the shooting attack during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, carrying items wrapped in blankets, while exiting 103 Brighton Avenue, Campsie, New South Wales, Australia, in this still image taken from a court document released on Dec. 22, 2025. Photo: NSW Police/Handout via REUTERS
Australian police say homemade pipe and tennis ball bombs were thrown at a crowd at Bondi Beach before a mass shooting but failed to detonate, according to court documents released on Monday.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured in the mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi on Dec. 14. The attack has shocked the nation and sparked calls for tougher gun laws and heightened efforts to stop antisemitism.
One of the alleged gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead by police, owned six firearms. His 24-year-old son Naveed Akram has been charged with 59 offenses, including murder and terrorism, according to police.
The alleged gunmen had planned the attack for several months and visited the Bondi beachside park for reconnaissance two days prior, said a police fact sheet released by the court.
Pictures included in the police report showed the father and son allegedly training with firearms in an isolated rural part of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state which includes Sydney.
Police found a video taken in October on one of the gunmen’s mobile phone showing them sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State flag and making statements in English about their reasons for the attack, while condemning the acts of Zionists.
Just after 2:00 am (1500 GMT) on the day of the attack, the men were captured on CCTV video carrying long and bulky items wrapped in blankets from a short-stay rental house in the suburb of Campsie to a car, said the police report.
They later drove to Bondi around 5:00 pm (0800GMT).
Police believe the items wrapped in the blankets were two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle, three pipe bombs, a tennis ball bomb, and a large improvised explosive device.
Police allege the men threw the pipe bombs and tennis ball bomb at the crowd in the Bondi park before they began shooting, but the explosive devices did not detonate, according to the statement tendered to the court.
Police said that they later found 3D printed parts for a shotgun component at the Campsie house, bomb making equipment, and copies of the Quran.
TOUGH NEW GUN LAWS
The parliament of New South Wales state was recalled on Monday to vote on proposed new laws that would impose major curbs on firearm ownership, ban the display of terror symbols, and restrict protests, following the mass shooting.
The state legislation would cap the number of firearms a person can own at four, or up to 10 for certain groups, such as farmers.
Although Australia has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world after a 1996 shooting that killed 35 people, the Bondi shooting has highlighted what authorities say are gaps.
In New South Wales, there are more than 70 people in the state who own more than 100 guns, a police firearms registry shows. One license holder has 298 guns.
The proposed legislation would also give police more powers to remove face coverings during protests or rallies. The state government has vowed to ban the chant “globalize the intifada” which it says encourages violence against Jews and Israelis worldwide.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told reporters outside parliament that he expected opposition to the legislation, which includes restrictions on public assemblies in the aftermath of a terrorism event, but said it was needed to keep the community safe.
“We have got a responsibility to knit together our community that comes from different races and religions and places from all over the world. We can do it in a peaceful way,” he said.
‘I AM SORRY’ PRIME MINISTER SAYS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has faced mounting criticism from opponents who argue his government has not done enough to curb a rise in antisemitism. He was booed by sections of the crowd during a memorial event in Bondi attended by tens of thousands of people on Sunday, one week after the shooting.
A poll conducted for the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper among 1,010 voters released on Monday found Albanese’s approval rating slumped 15 points to -9 from +6 at the beginning of December, the lowest since his resounding election win in May.
Albanese on Monday said he understood that some of the anger in the Jewish community in the aftermath of the attack was directed toward him and pleaded for national unity.
“As prime minister I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I am prime minister and I am sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Albanese’s government says it has consistently denounced antisemitism and highlighted legislation passed over the last two years to criminalize hate speech and doxxing. It also expelled Iran’s ambassador earlier this year after accusing Tehran of directing antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
Further measures to stop hate speech proposed by Albanese’s government on Monday include a new offence of adults seeking to influence and radicalize children.
Authorities on Monday started clearing flowers, candles, letters, and other items placed by the public at Bondi Beach.
The tributes would be preserved for display at the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Australian Jewish Historical Society, authorities said.
Thirteen people remain in hospital, including four in critical but stable condition, health officials said.