Israel Matzav

Olmert wants to release terrorists with blood on their hands

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert has yet another problem. Two weeks ago at the Sharm Summit, he volunteered to release 250 'Palestinian' prisoners terrorists to try to strengthen 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen. Olmert said that he would not release terrorists with 'blood on their hands' and in fact, he might even have difficulty getting his cabinet to agree to release terrorists with blood on their hands.

Olmert's new problem is that among the 10,000 or so Palestinian terrorists being held in Israeli jails, the only ones who aren't actually terrorists are petty thieves. And releasing them won't help Abu Mazen. So guess what Olmert is preparing to do: He's preparing to release terrorists with blood on their hands:

Releasing minor prisoners would not strengthen Abbas on the Palestinian street and could be "counterproductive," while changing the criteria could cause Olmert coalition difficulties. As a result, the security agencies are continuing to comb through the prisoners' lists, and Olmert is beginning to prepare the ground for possibly relaxing the "blood on their hands" criteria.

To do this, Olmert will have to convince the "security minded" ministers in Kadima who might opposes such a move, such as Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter.

Olmert's plan to release four Jordanian murderers who have been in Israeli jails for seventeen years has also hit a minor snag:

Three of the prisoners, Jordanian National Guardsmen, infiltrated from Jordan on November 8, 1990, and killed Capt. (res.) Yehuda Lifshitz, 27, an economics student at Tel Aviv University from Ra'anana, in a firefight with his patrol near the village of Ouja, north of Jericho.

Five days later, an Islamic Jihad infiltrator crossed the border, entered an IDF outpost on the Jordan River and killed St.-Sgt. (res.) Pinhas Levy, 37, from Givon Hahadasha.

Olmert read out letters in the cabinet from the families of the two men opposing the transfer of the Jordanians. At least one of the families has expressed an intention to petition the High Court of Justice to block the move.

Cabinet sources said that one of the considerations behind transferring the men was to prevent them from being included in any future prisoner release or swap - such as the gesture to be made to Abbas or a possible swap for kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit. Olmert, according to the sources, did not want Hamas to be able to "take credit" for the transfer, as Hizbullah did when prime minister Ariel Sharon released a number of Jordanian prisoners in the deal for Elhanan Tannenbaum, held in Lebanon, in 2004.

Jordan has been pushing for the transfer of the four prisoners for years, saying they were the only Jordanians held by Israel who were arrested before the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty of 1994.

The cabinet voted 16-4 to release the four terrorists to Jordan (three Shas ministers 'got religion' and voted against as did one minister from Yisrael Beteinu but not party leader Avigdor Lieberman). And I would be shocked if the High Court challenge succeeded.

But think about it: How would you feel if your child had God forbid been murdered and the government was going to let the murderer out of jail?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:43 PM