JERUSALEM – December 24, 2025 – Middle East Forum (MEF) Executive Director Gregg Roman testified before the Israeli Knesset yesterday, calling on the government to end negotiations with terrorist organizations for hostages and adopt what he termed “The Carthage Doctrine,” a policy extending the logic of Israel’s Hannibal Directive from preventing capture to annihilating the captors.
The name invokes the fate of Carthage, home of the general Hannibal, which Rome destroyed utterly after determining that coexistence was impossible. Just as the Hannibal Directive sought to deny terrorists the strategic value of a captured soldier, the Carthage Doctrine would deny them the strategic value of hostage-taking entirely - by guaranteeing organizational destruction rather than negotiated release.
“Citizens serve; the state promises to bring them home—through rescue or negotiation at any price.”
“The social contract must evolve,” Roman told lawmakers. “The state’s promise cannot remain ‘we will trade for you.’ It must become ‘we will destroy those who capture you.’”
Roman’s testimony drew on MEF’s extensive public advocacy against hostage diplomacy, citing the strategic consequences of asymmetrical prisoner exchanges. He noted that 180 Israelis have been killed by terrorists freed in exchanges since 2000, and that Yahya Sinwar—architect of the October 7, 2023 massacre—was himself released in the 2011 Shalit deal after spending 22 years in Israeli prison.
“Every exchange we celebrate today signs the death warrant for tomorrow’s victims,” Roman said. “The terrorists we release today are the Sinwars of 2035.”
Roman called on the Israeli Cabinet to adopt a resolution declaring that Israel will no longer negotiate with terrorist organizations for hostages, instead employing all necessary force to rescue citizens and exact existential consequences on organizations that take them.
The testimony represents the culmination of MEF’s sustained campaign to reshape Israel’s approach to hostage crises. In recent months, MEF has published a series of analyses warning against the strategic costs of hostage diplomacy:
“Every young man and woman who puts on the uniform does so with an unspoken understanding: the state will move heaven and earth to bring them home.”
- “Israel’s Hostages Come Home, but At What Price?” examined the dangers of the recent Gaza hostage deal.
- “Why Israel Must Never Negotiate for Hostages Again” argued that the state’s covenant with its soldiers must shift from retrieval through concession to deterrence through decisive action.
- “Peace Deal Phase One: Hostages to Come Home” analyzed the framework agreement and its strategic implications.
- “The Victory After Victory: Israel’s Imperative for Renewal” outlined the broader victory doctrine that must guide Israeli policy.
- “No Mercy, No Exceptions: How to Pry Americans from Hamas’s Grasp” addressed U.S. policy on American hostages held by terrorist organizations.
“History will judge Israel not by how many hostages we recovered through negotiation,” Roman concluded in his Knesset address, “but by whether we found the courage to end the hostage cycle permanently.”
The Middle East Forum, a nonprofit organization, promotes American interests in the region and protects Western civilization from Islamism. MEF accomplishes its mission through intellectual and activist efforts. Subscribe to the MEF mailing list here.
For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
