RELEASING MURDERERS - 

After speaking to some Members of Knesset and other Israeli officials, it seems that the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as a good faith gesture toward the Palestinian Authority before they would return to the negotiating table was sadly the best of the worst choices Israel was forced to take action upon.

The question is how and why does Israel end up in these untenable positions time and again or why do they allow themselves to be maneuvered by the international community into these absurd circumstances.

Of course it is both horrible and intolerable that families of those killed and badly wounded by terrorists now in prison have to watch as those who killed their loved ones return home and be received as heroes in wild and jubilant celebration. If this absurd process goes forward, and at least 26 convicted terrorists may be released by the time you read this, perhaps Secretary of State John Kerry whose foreign policy initiatives are failing everywhere can at least prevail on the Palestinians not to hurt the families further with those celebrations. It is unlikely that he will attempt to do that and if he were inclined to do so it is unlikely that he would be successful in typical Kerry fashion.

The problem with the prisoner release and why these types of activities are a constant bane to Israel is twofold. To Israel the underlying premise is this absurd notion of what has become a corrupted and distorted version of “good faith gestures” to the Palestinian Authority as a way to induce them to sit at the negotiating table with Israel.

That may be how Israel views the situation. To the Arab world and to a great extent to the United States, the release of murderers is a tacit acknowledgement on Israel’s part that the murders committed by these savages was to an extent warranted due to the prolonged occupation and oppression committed by Israel against the Palestinian population in the territories. The sad and hurtful part of this thought process is that unrelenting ambitious politicians like Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads up Israel’s negotiating team, sees matters in a similar vein.

On Tuesday the Israel Supreme Court rejected a petition to stop the release of the murderer. The court refuses to get involved in muddled and murky backroom deals that are made to facilitate the political or negotiating process. These are not easy decisions for anyone to make and while they are certainly hurtful to thousands of individuals there is also a crazy wisdom to the thought process. You can rest assured that neither Prime Minister Netanyahu nor Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon are concerned about the welfare of the murderers.

On Tuesday following the relection of their petition by the court, Meir Indor of the Almagor Terror Victims Organization said: “Today the Supreme Court shut its doors to Jewish bereaved families and terror victims — something it never does to any Palestinian, from interfering with the construction of the security fence at a cost of hundreds of millions of shekels, all the way to terrorists’ demands to put an end to the use of physical pressure in interrogations and to the IDF’s ‘neighbor procedure.’ The Supreme Court has effectively erased the standing of the victims and instead spread its wings over the terrorists, who from this point on can keep demanding the release of more and more murderers.

“This is a sad day for the bereaved families and for Israeli society, and a day of victory for the terrorist groups and their supporters. Mahmoud Abbas now has a green light to demand that further batches of murderers be released from prison, without any legal obstacles.

“The bereaved families see that the prime minister’s brand of immoral politics has made its way into the halls of the Supreme Court.

“In the absence of sense or morality on the part of the prime minister and the court, we look for hope to the 80% of Israelis who oppose the neutering of the Israeli justice system.”

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