Israel Matzav

Jodi loves terrorists

Jodi Rudoren writes an incredible puff piece humanizing a 'Palestinian' murderer who was released as part of the 'peace talks.' The terrorist murdered a 72-year old Holocaust survivor in cold blood in 1993. A few highlights and comments.

Demonized as terrorists by Israelis and lionized as freedom fighters by Palestinians, prisoners like Mr. Salah have become a flash point in the troubled peace talks, whose continuation hinges on whether a promised fourth group is let go in the coming days. Amid the charged debate, these middle-aged men — 69 of them convicted of murder, 54 escaping life sentences — have begun to rebuild disrupted lives. They are earning their first driver’s licenses, leveraging $50,000 grants from the Palestinian Authority to build apartments or start businesses, searching for wives and struggling to start families.

Mr. Salah was flush with more than $100,000 saved from the Palestinian Authority’s monthly payments to prisoners’ families. He remodeled and refurnished his mother’s home. He bulldozed the rocky slope out back and built a 2,400-square-foot pen for livestock. He invested in a Nablus money-changing storefront in December, and, last month, bought his first car, a silver 2007 Kia Pride.

But he still wakes at 5 a.m., as he had to for the prison count. He makes coffee in an electric kettle like the one he had in his cell. The day before his wedding, Mr. Salah and one of his brothers got threatening phone calls from a man who gave his name as Moshe and spoke in Hebrew.

“He told me, ‘I will kill him, kill his wife, and shoot you and all his family,’ ” said the brother, Muhammad. “He told me, ‘I know where you live, in Burqa, and Burqa is next to Sebastia.’ ”

If Charles Manson is ever released from prison, will the Times do a story about his difficulties in adjusting to life outside prison?  With the Times, one can never be 100% sure, but somehow I doubt it.

Hearing about Mr. Salah’s new life was unsettling for Ms. Harris [the daughter of Salah's victim, 72-year old Israel Tenenbaum HY"D - May God Avenge his blood. CiJ], who is 56 and works as a special-education teacher. “If he was an anonymous character, it would be easier,” she said.

But while most Israelis — and certainly most victims’ relatives — oppose the prisoner releases, Ms. Harris said of her family, “If it advances the peace process, we all support even the release of this murderer.”

And it's this kind of insanity that drives just enough of a wedge in Israeli society to allow terrorists to be released. You're willing to let your father's murderer be released if it 'advances the peace process' - whatever that means.  I haven't seen anything that advanced the 'peace process' - certainly not in the last 20 years. Why do we continue to fool ourselves?

The only good news here is that Salah - who is still only 47 - says he won't participate in the next intifada.

“I’m away from the conflict now,” he said. “I’ve paid the tax in full. If tomorrow there is a third intifada, I’ll sit on this couch, and watch it on TV.”

Let's see if he sticks to that one.

Releasing terrorists from prison is insane. Even if they don't go back to their former lives, the message being sent to future generations of terrorists is not one that Israel can abide.

And as to the Times, it's long past time for them to stop lionizing murderers.

Labels: gestures, Jodi Rudoren, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, unilateral concessions

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:12 PM