Israel Matzav

Oh my... LIVNI says we may not release terrorists

This is about as strong a warning as the 'Palestinians' are going to get that the handouts from Israel just might be over. Israel's 'chief negotiator,' Tzipi Livni said on Tuesday that there might not be a fourth terrorist release on the 29th of March unless there's a commitment from the 'Palestinians' that the 'negotiations' will continue beyond the end of April.

"There was never any automatic commitment to release prisoners unrelated to making progress in negotiations," Livni said in a speech in southern Israel that could complicate Washington's efforts to salvage peacemaking.

She was referring to Israel's agreement, as part of US efforts to revive Palestinian statehood talks frozen for three years, to free 104 inmates jailed for attacks, many of them deadly, against Israelis before a 1993 interim peace deal.

Israel has freed more than 70 of those prisoners since the negotiations resumed in July. But the talks have made little progress and Washington is trying to set guidelines to keep them going beyond the original April 29 target date for an accord.

US officials fear the negotiations could break down if Israel fails to free the final batch of prisoners. Palestinians regard brethren jailed by Israel as heroes in a quest for an independent state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Israel views them as terrorists.

"The key to the door for Palestinian prisoners is in Abu Mazen's hands," Livni said, using Abbas's nickname.

As you might recall, earlier this week, there was a report in the Arabic media that the 'Palestinians' wanted Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat released as a condition to continuing 'negotiations.'

Hmmm.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Ahmed Saadat, Barack Hussein Obama, John Kerry, Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian terrorists, Tzipi Livni, unilateral concessions

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:10 PM