Israel Matzav

Netanyahu: No terrorist release without 'clear benefit' to Israel

Prime Minister Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud ministers on Sunday that Israel will not release any more terrorists without a 'clear benefit.'

Speaking at a meeting of Likud ministers, Netanyahu said that Israel would not make a deal to free the prisoners "without a clear benefit for Israel in return." He acknowledged that negotiations to come to an agreement could potentially "blow up." 

Israel said it  is willing to release a fourth batch of convicted Palestinian terrorists, but not if the Palestinians say that they will end the negotiations directly after the release, a highly-placed Israeli official said Saturday night.

The official, familiar with the negotiations, said “Israel wants to see the continuation of the peace talks with the Palestinians, and is willing to implement the fourth release of convicted terrorists. But the Palestinians are making that very difficult when they say that immediately following the release, they will end the talks.”

...

An Israeli official said that the Palestinians also did not live up to their commitments under the framework, including to engage in serious and good faith negotiations.  

Meanwhile, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is trying to get Fatah Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti onto the list of terrorists to be released. Barghouti is serving five life sentences for murder.

The wife of Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas’s Fatah party who is serving five life sentences for planning numerous terror attacks against Israelis, stated Sunday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is campaigning for the terrorist's release. 

Barghouti has been named as a possible successor for Abbas, who is under increasing pressure in the political sphere to both sign an agreement with Israel and ascertain Palestinian nationalist rights.

Barghouti is one of the PA's most dangerous terrorists, according to experts, and he has threatened Israel with a third intifada, albeit an unarmed one from his jail cell. He declared that “would not give up and I claim that the right of return is a sacred right of the Palestinians.”

Someone please find Netanyahu's backbone quickly so that there will actually be a chance that he sticks to that demand.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, gestures, Marwan Barghouti, Middle East peace process, Palestinian terrorists, unilateral concessions

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:45 AM