'Palestinians' want Barghouti, Saadat released for Shalit
Among the Saadat, as you may recall, is the leader of the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,' which assassinated Zeevi in 2001. Saadat was jailed along with the other assassins in a prison that was monitored by Britain and the US, until he was captured in an Israeli raid on the prison in March 2006 when it was rumored that they would be released. Israel's leftist attorney general Manny Mazouz has concluded that there is not enough evidence to try Saadat for the murder.
The 'Palestinians' are also reportedly demanding the release of Hassam Salameh and Fuad Shubaki. Salameh planned a series of suicide terror attacks in 1996 (bus bombings that cost Shimon Peres the May 1996 election) and Shubaki was the mastermind of the Karine A weapons ship that Israel caught in January 2002.
My guess is that despite the government's rejection of the earlier deal in September (which I linked above), they are much more likely to take this deal because Olmert is desperate for something to improve his 2% approval rating.
I'd like to repeat what I said about this a month ago:
The latest estimate I have heard would have Israel release 1000-1400 'prisoners' in exchange for Shalit. But the real measure of how much Shalit will cost is not in how many 'prisoners' are released but in how many Israelis are murdered as a result. It will be several years before we can intelligently answer that question.P.S. Today, a 'Palestinian' woman who was released from a jail a few months ago after a similar offense, tried to stab soldiers at the Kalandiya checkpoint outside Jerusalem.
One of the three commandments a Jew cannot violate to save his own life is murder. The Gemara sums this up succinctly by saying, "why do you think your blood is redder than his?" On the other hand, our Rabbis teach that when a border area is attacked on the Sabbath, we are allowed to violate the Sabbath to repel the attack, because otherwise the entire country could be in danger. When the IDF went into Gaza after Shalit and Lebanon after Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, I viewed those as border attacks (which they were) and felt that it was worth risking soldiers' lives to try to rescue Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev. Soldiers are equipped and prepared for danger, and while obviously soldiers sometimes are killed (over 150 died in this past summer's fiascoes) or wounded, at least they can defend themselves. Besides, the failure to respond to the kidnappings, would have invited more kidnappings. An individual citizen has no defense against suicide bombers. Because of that, releasing potential suicide bombers in exchange for Gilad Shalit is morally wrong. His blood is no redder than that of the hundreds of potential Israeli victims who may die as a result of his release.
Almagor has found that most released terrorists return to terrorism after their release "leading to a price in human life many times greater than the grave difficulties faced by a given individual family."
In summary, I must endorse Almagor's conclusions:We therefore call upon the Israeli public not to be led astray by word games that make light of the terrorists' murderous intentions, and not to comfort ourselves with the hope that the next attack won't hit us or those close to us. We, victims of terrorism, know from our own bitter experience that for us, these were false illusions. As soon as the Tenenbaum exchange was completed, Hizbullah began planning its next kidnapping - the results of which we all experienced in the war last summer. We call upon the public to totally oppose these vain and lethal exchanges, despite the emotional difficulties.I could not agree more.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:54 PM
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