By Ted Belman
Arnold Roth, who lost his daughter, Malki, in a terror attack in Jerusalem and who blogs at This ongoing War, had this to say about the prisoner release.
The reason why Israel agreed to free the 104, and in fact has already set loose 52, depends on whom you want to believe.
- Israel says it was to prod the Arab side into resuming the diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. [“28-Oct-13: It’s official: 26 more convicted killers to be handed over to PA and Hamas“] And having agreed back in June, its revised position in October (see here) was “promises must be kept“.
- The PA [see “25-Aug-13: Wake up call for those who thought the terrorists are walking free for peace“] says the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails was unrelated to the launching of the peace talks. Abbas has repeated this mantra over and again. Evidently it’s important to him.
- The Israeli media from one end to the other of the political spectrum say what Israelis know: it’s all about pressure from the US.
- And the US State Department says: “19-Aug-13: Is the US State Department breaching its own policy on Palestinian Arab terrorists?“] it’s an Israeli decision, taken entirely by Israel and essentially not a matter on which the State Department has a view. As we also noted here [“14-Aug-13: Making ‘peace’ by celebrating the murders of children and of Holocaust survivors“] the US says it respects “the exclusive right of the Israeli government to make these decisions”. Its spokesperson said “Israel alone made the decision to release the prisoners“.
- To further emphasize this, the State Department says it officially has no opinion as to whether those 104 killers of elderly pensioners, Holocaust survivors, US citizens, women, children, fellow Arabs are (a) freedom fighters, (b) political prisoners or (c) terrorists. We’re beyond being astounded by this instance of State Department disingenuousness. It distresses us almost as much as the silence of Americans who know about it and do nothing. We’re particularly bothered, as we have written in this blog over and again, by the studied know-nothingness on this matter of the US Secretary of State’s Deputy Spokesperson, Marie Harf.
Now hold all those thoughts.This afternoon (Friday) the Times of Israel is running a front-page story by Ilan Ben Zion, its news editor, in whichNabil Shaath, a perennial PA insider (with the personal wealth to prove it), Fatah Central Committee Member, and “close advisor” of PA president Mahmoud Abbas. The headline:Palestinian official says peace talks already failed | Fatah bigwig says if it weren’t for Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli jails, PA would have ended talks already [Times of Israel, today]Shaath, who ought to be believed, firmly sticks a pin in the balloon of the hope addicts: “We are committed to negotiations for a nine-month period and are waiting until all 104 prisoners are released” he declares, at the same time helpfully clarifying that
if it weren’t for the release of prisoners, which has been conducted in stages over the course of the negotiations, the Palestinians would have already terminated the talks and sought statehood recognition with UN bodies… The Palestinian Authority has refrained from abandoning the US-brokered peace talks and “breaking the dishes” because of the remaining Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. “But I don’t think there’s much more to be done with the present Israeli government’s policies,” he said.In light of this unusually candid admission from the highest level of the Palestinian Arab kleptocracy, those who executed master terrorist Yasser Arafat’s last will and testament and who have presided over the relentless descent of the PA to its current depths, we are left with this one question:
What kind of self-respecting Israeli political leadership would play along with a charade that calls for the release of yet another tranche of convicted, unrepentant murderers in the coming days when the serial promoters and glorifiers of terrorism (meaning the PA leadership) explicitly put the lie to the basis on which those releases – comprehensively rejected by the Israeli public – are carried out?We are among the few writers who have publicized the extent of the support Israelis give to our government’s strategy of freeing convicted killers. Readers who can give a hand in letting more people know about this will earn our enduring gratitude. Here are some links to get started: “28-Jul-13: Releasing unrepentant killers: a massive 9.4% of Israelis are in favor“. And “6-Aug-13: Scale of Israeli public’s rejection of terrorist deal far greater than most reports disclose“.
Now if Israel wasn’t being forced to make this deal, the only reason they may have made the deal is to forestall the PA going to international bodies like the UN and the ICC.
YOu’re right Dove. It’s useless to release the terrorists anyway since the Palestinians will never agree to a peace deal. They never have and they never will for the reasons I indicated above, and from the experience of what they were offered in the past and turned down. However, I stick to the fact that the USA is the world’s biggest hypocrite by not releasing Pollard now that it got caught spying on its friends.
@ Buzz of the Orient:
They should release him anyway – NO EXCHANGE by releasing 104 blood thirsty scum. UNBELIEVABLE!! G-d help us! I could never imagine myself saying yes to such a thing under ANY circumstances. It’s like unleashing Satan on us!!! How cruel!!
@ dove:
It should have been a deal – Release Pollard as an inducement for Israel to release prisoners. Such unbelievabe hypocrisy from a country that has been caught spying on all its allies and own people refusing to release a person who has been punished far greater than anyone ever to have been convicted of such a crime.
I don’t understand how Israeli officals could allow themselves to be forced to release prisoners. It makes a laughing stalk out of us. Just say NO. They have no faith. Would any other country on this earth be idiotic enough to release their WORST prisoners? What do they think the rest of the world would of done? I think this is ONE time they would not have refuted it. The majority of Jews will never understand and that is why we MUST stand up and fight back.
Happy Chanakah! May we still have joy admist the terror and rededicate ourselves to get the job done!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gmbUwHkyzM8
Death Penalty for acts of terrorism leading to or causing death.
The Family house of any terrorist shall be destroyed.
IL is giving in into West pressure (otherwise called BLACKMAIL).
Strangely enough every PM from the middle or the right is forced to give in. What other possibility is there than blackmail. Now it is possible that the IL left has the means to blackmail the rest of the country!
Instead of imprisoning large numbers of Arabs, which always leaves Israel open to diplomatic blackmail which seems to work every time, two substitute approaches should be used.
1) Armed terrorists attacking Jewish targets should be shot dead on the spot and should not be taken prisoner, unless they are specifically wanted for interrogation. In the latter case, once these prisoners are under control of Israel’s intelligence forces, they should be pumped full of whatever chemical combinations are used to extract information from otherwise unwilling captives. Next, their terrorist gang chiefs should be sent information that their captured soldier ratted them out. Finally, after the desired information has been obtained from the otherwise unwilling informer, he or she should be released to the custody of whichever Arab would be most likely to cut his or her throat.
2) For engaging in lesser offenses for which they would ordinarily be imprisoned for a long time, the offending Arab and his family should be expelled across one of Israel’s international borders and their property confiscated.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I wouldn’t trust the Palestinians to keep to a deal even if they signed one. I feel the same way about Iran. It is permitted to reneg on written agreements since Mohammud renegged on one. I copied this from a comment I made on another social news site:
C’mon – Netayahu is far worse than a kapo! They had no choice but to sacrifice some Jews in order to try to save the rest. At least they were trying to save some Jews under German compulsion.
In complete contrast, Netanyahu has legitimized the right of the Arabs to murder in cold blood by demonstrating they don’t have to pay the price for taking a Jewish life. And he has obtained no real quid pro quo from the Palestinian Arabs in exchange for subverting justice!
I consider the man who aids and bets in the shedding of blood as guilty as the man who does shed blood! The enormity of Netanyahu’s sin is only compounded by the fact he had the free will to say “NO” to the bargain with the devil but chose to do the exact opposite!
The Palestinian Arabs will be perfectly happy to drag out the pretend talks if only Israel keeps its part of the deal going despite all the evidence the other side is not interested in peace. What we have learned is the high moral costs and feelings of betrayal inflicted upon the families of Israel’s terror victims has been incalculable and its brought Israel no closer to attaining real peace with the Arabs.
Good can never come from doing evil!
Of course Israel was pressured, but not just by Obama-Kerry but also by anti-Israel realities.
Beleaguered by so many domestic and foreign policy failures, Obama set his sights again on trying to force either a TSS deal or even some kind of deal that faintly resembled a TSS or part thereof as a means to declare a foreign policy success that elevated his statesmanship status on the world stage.
Kerry made that objective his own pet project. To that end, Kerry had to force Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, if that project was to have any chance of succeeding.
Presumably the release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners was the price Abbas demanded, so Kerry had to seize on that demand of Israel.
Kerry however, spoke the truth to Israel that if she did not accede to this Palestinian demand, Israel would only further isolate herself from the world community and international anti-Israel sentiment would be further fueled, with the result that the Palestinians would go again before the UN, UNESCO, the ICC or whatever other UN body that it took to get recognition of their statehood status including all rights thereto pertaining that the UN or its agencies would go along with.
What is particularly galling about Kerry’s advice to Israel is that he in effect is blaming Israel for international anti-Israel sentiment and her isolation in the international community.
Netanyahu as galled as he no doubt was by Kerry’s demands and explanations therefore, knew Kerry spoke the truth and Israel had little choice but to bend under the Obama-Kerry pressure.
What Netanyahu did accomplish by bending to Obama-Kerry was he entered into direct negotiations he had to know would likely go nowhere, but at least he forestalled the Palestinians going to the UN and its various agencies to get their demands satisfied without having to give up anything to Israel.