Tamir Pardo
© Moti MilrodMossad Chief Tamir Pardo.
Ten days ago, at a security cabinet meeting, Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo outlined a scenario spookily similar to the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens missing since Thursday night.

The meeting dealt with the report of the Shamgar Committee on prisoner exchanges and on the Habayit Hayehudi bill that prohibits granting pardons to terrorists.

Pardo, along with other defense establishment officials present, tried to convince the ministers not to advance the bill. He was against it because it would limit the government's room for maneuver in future abduction cases, would keep its hands tied, and prevent it from considering other solutions for dealing with a potential crisis.

Pardo gave as an example the kidnapping of the 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria by the militant group Boko Haram. He addressed Economy Minister Nafatali Bennett, whose party promoted the bill, and used it to draw a comparison of something that could happen in Israel in the future.

"What will you do if in a week three 14-year-old girls will be kidnapped from one of the settlements?," he asked. "Will you say there is a law, and we don't release terrorists?"

Pardo did not convince the ministers, however. At the cabinet meeting three days later, the appeal of Science and Technology Minister Jacob Perry was rejected and the bill passed to a Knesset vote. By Wednesday, the bill passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset.