MARK SILVERBERG
August 7, 2013
On July 28th8, Israel's Ministry of Justice disclosed the names
of Palestinian terrorists who will be released over the next nine months
as the price Washington is demanding from the Israelis to entice the
Palestinian Authority to rejoin the talks they've been boycotting for
the past four and a half years. Failure to have done so would have
resulted in a serious diplomatic crisis between Israel and the U.S.
Nevertheless, Israeli opposition to the release and especially to U.S.
pressure on Israel to force that release is growing.
According to
Israel Hayom, Times of Israel and
Ynet News,
among the 104 Palestinian terrorists scheduled to be released are Issa
Abed Rabo, convicted of the murder of Revital Seri and Ron Levy near the
Cremisan Valley in October 1984; Mohamed Dawd from Kalkilya who threw a
Molotov cocktail at a car in 1987 killing Ofra and Tal Moses; Jumaa
Adem and Mahmoud Kharbish who hurled a firebomb at a bus in the Jordan
Valley in 1988 in an attack that left five dead including Rachel Weiss
and her three children and a soldier David Dolorosa who tried to save
the four; Jamal Muhsan from Jenin stabbed Shlomo Yehia, 76, in Kadima in
1991; Mahmoud Moamed who murdered Israel Prize Laureate Menahem Stern
in the Valley of the Cross in 1989 and Mahmoud Issa who led the terror
cell that kidnapped and murdered Border Guard officer Nissim Toledano in
June 1993.
Israeli Arab citizens who are to be part of the prisoner release
include Agbariya Hassan Mohammed, Agbariya Mustafa Mohammed Yehieh,
Jabarin Mohammed Tawfik Suliman Yosef and Agbariya Hassan Mahmoud
Ibrahim - members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who infiltrated an army
base in 1992, murdering three soldiers; Fatah members Younis Abdel Latif
Abdel Kader Maher and Younis Younis Fadel Fadel Karim who kidnapped
Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg and murdered him; Al-Khatib Abdallah
Kaid Bashir, a member of Fatah Force 17 who murdered Israeli civilian
Chaim Hai Haktouk; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
members Abu Moch Ibrahim, Biadsa Abdel Razak Ahmed Ibrahim, Dakah Nimer
Assad Walid and Abu Moch Hamdoun Mohammed Rushdi who kidnapped and
executed Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam; Daagna Nofel Mohammed Mahmoud of
the PFLP who initiated and planned the murder of Israeli civilian Sarah
Sharon, and Hamas member Baroud Ahmed Mohamed Fares who stabbed an
Israeli civilian to death.
There is no doubt that the pending release of Palestinian terrorists
with Israeli blood on their hands constitutes a capitulation to American
pressure. Netanyahu claims to have had little choice given the
strategic and security-related considerations presented to him - the
most important of which, according to rumor, seem related to U.S.
undertakings to support an Israeli air strike against Iran's nuclear
reactors - a promise of questionable value given that the Obama
administration continues to pass on Iran's nuclear "red lines" and sees
Iran's new President, Hasan Rouhani as a "moderate"- the same man
who two days before he officially took office described Israel as a
"wound on the body of the Islamic world that must be removed".
But realistically, how can anyone compel the release of convicted
terrorists in return for the start of negotiations that are certain to
fail? Is Secretary of State Kerry so fanatically committed to the "peace
process" that he is oblivious to the Middle East realities unfolding
before his eyes?
What is being done to restore Israeli confidence that has been trampled both by the Second
Intifada and by thousands of missiles that fell on Israel after it withdrew from Gaza in 2005?
What is being done to stop Palestinians incitement to hatred and
martyrdom emanating from their mosques, their media and their
educational system?
What is being done to counter Palestinian efforts to demonize and
delegitimize Israel at the UN and in international courts, their naming
of kindergartens, schools, summer camps, streets, squares, community
centers and sporting events after terrorists, their using maps of
Israel's internationally recognized borders, plus Gaza and the West Bank
- all emblazoned with the Arabic letters for "Palestine", their
murderous violence directed towards religious minorities - especially
Christians, their desecration of Jewish holy sites like the Cave of the
Patriarchs, and their continuing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic programs,
songs and "music videos" as documented by Palestine Media Watch and the
Middle East Media Research Institute?
Why must Israel (the only true democracy in the Middle East) place
itself in peril for U.S. fantasies that have no chance of success?
Would America ever do what it is forcing Israel to do? Would the
U.S. ever think of releasing any of those convicted and currently
serving long jail sentences for involvement in the 9/11 attacks or any
other terrorist assault on the United States and its citizens? How can
we, as Americans, morally justify demanding that Israel do what we
ourselves would never do?
So what exactly does the U.S. administration hope to achieve in return for forcing this release?
After all, the maximum Netanyahu can offer is far less than
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will accept. The
U.S. administration is more than aware that Palestinian parades in
Judea, Samaria and Gaza will be held in honor of these murderers,
flowers will be thrown at the bus carrying them home, poems will be
written about their "glorious" exploits, horns will honk, cars will
trail streamers behind them, and a "national day of celebration" will be
held. Given all this, it should be abundantly clear to the U.S. that
the Palestinians cannot be trusted if they revere terrorists as heroes
because they have murdered Israelis. Peace is not possible with a
society that sanctifies death and that fact alone symbolizes the
unbridgeable gap that separates Israel from its enemies.
The U.S. cannot seem to understand that Abbas has no intention of
preparing his people for peace with Israel and nothing that happens in
Washington can or will change that. As Walter Russell Mead wrote
recently in
American Interest: "Signing a deal with the PA will
not stop rockets coming from Gaza, will not stop Palestinian exiles
from continuing a campaign of de-legitimization against Israel, will not
stop foreign powers like Iran supporting rejectionist factions of the
Palestinians with weapons, money and diplomatic cover, and will not end
Hezbollah's terror campaign against Israelis and Jews worldwide. Given
all that, it is hard for many Israelis to see enough benefit to justify
serious territorial concessions for a Potemkin peace."
The idea of releasing prisoners in the hope that the Palestinians
will be more merciful in their propaganda attacks will only result in an
increase in those attacks. For over twenty years, Israeli governments
have been freeing prisoners, providing jobs and allowing the flow of
goods and donations as goodwill gestures and confidence-building
efforts, with an organization that, to this day, has not bothered, even
for the sake of keeping up appearances, to change its Charter that does
not recognize Israel's right to exist. There is no Palestinian leader
today who would be willing to sign a peace deal with Israel unless it
includes Jerusalem and guarantees a complete right of return of millions
of Palestinian "refugees" to Israel proper, something which no Israeli
government would ever accept.
Moreover, the Palestinians have not declared any willingness to
recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state nor are they
prepared to recognize the legitimacy of any such state - no matter where
its borders are drawn. With PA leader Mahmoud Abbas sitting right next
to him as he spoke recently, the PA's Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud
el-Habash compared the decision of the PA leadership to negotiate with
Israel to the agreement of the Prophet Muhammad on a 10-year truce with
his Jewish rivals in the Quraish tribe of Mecca, known as the Treaty of
Hudaibiya, reached in the year 628 CE. The significance of the Treaty is
that Mohammad reneged on the promise and used the respite to build up
his forces and conquer the Quraish.
Habash's sermon mirrored the incendiary historical comparison made by
deceased PA President Yasser Arafat in a Johannesburg speech he
delivered on May 10th, 1994 when he compared the Oslo Accords to
Hudaibiya.
Fast forward to 2010 when a poll sponsored by
The Israeli Project found
most Palestinians refuse to accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish state
and while some accept the concept of two states, they regard it as a
first step toward one state ruled by Palestinians.
That is, there is absolutely no basis for the belief that yielding
the territory regained by Israel in the Six-Day War will pacify her Arab
neighbors. The Palestinians do not want peace with Israel. They have
never wanted peace with Israel, and there will be no peace with Israel
despite the charade in Washington, because they will accept nothing less
than the complete annihilation of Israel and the removal of every Jew
from what they regard as their land, notwithstanding any agreement
signed. The Palestinian definition of ending the conflict is simple:
They win.
Nevertheless, knowing in advance that this will be a costly lesson in
futility, Netanyahu agreed to negotiate with the PA because Israel
remains a besieged country and dependent on American support. As a
result, Israel will be told to make further concessions while getting
nothing in return from the Palestinians except more hollow promises,
another worthless agreement, more terror, and new threats of war.
The U.S. would never place itself in such peril, although it do not
seem to have any qualms in forcing Israel to do so as a means of
promoting its so-called "peace process". Instead of applauding Kerry's
success in forcing Netanyahu to take this step, this
administration should be ashamed given that this release is being forced
upon Israel by an American ally to further a process that even PA
officials admit is nothing more than a ruse rather than a genuine
pursuit of peace.
That makes it doubly disgraceful, and suggests that the true motive
behind this latest U.S. "peace effort" is to shore up this
administration's failed policies in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia and Yemen ...............
at Israel's expense.
The Palestinians now know that they need not kidnap Israeli soldiers
to obtain the release of future Palestinian terrorists by the "Zionist
entity". The U.S. will do it for them. What the Israelis should tell
Kerry and the Palestinians is that there will be no release until there
is an agreement satisfactory to Israel - an agreement that includes an
IDF presence in any future Palestinian state (however territorially
defined) to insure that it is truly demilitarized, an end to Palestinian
anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement (the details of which are set
out above), and unequivocal and universal Arab recognition of Israel's
right to exist as a Jewish state.
But don't wait for it. It's not going to happen any time soon.
Mark Silverberg is a foreign policy analyst for the Ariel Center for Policy Research (Israel).
He is a former member of the Canadian Justice Department, a past
Director of the Canadian Jewish Congress (Western Office) based in
Vancouver, a member of Hadassah's National Academic Advisory Board and a
Contributing Editor for Family Security Matters, Intellectual
Conservative and Israel National News (Arutz Sheva). He also served as a
Consultant to the Secretary General of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem
during the first Palestinian intifada. His book "The Quartermasters of
Terror: Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Jihad" and his articles have been archived under www. marksilverberg .com.
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