I don't think anyone who has seen it can forget the haunting images of the lynching of IDF soldiers Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) on October 12, 2000. Now, due to a civil lawsuit filed by their families, information has become public about the lynching that was not previously known.
Yedioth Aharonoth has published transcripts of the terrorists' interrogations, and they show utter barbarism and contempt for human life. There's a summary of the interrogations here.
But first, let's go to the videotape.
Ra'ad A-Sheikh, a Ramallah cop spotted a red Ford Sierra approaching
the station. He asked the soldiers what they were doing in the city.
"They told me they lost their way and they need to get to Beth-El,"
he said. Beth-El is close to Ramallah and is home to several central
army bases in control of the Judea and Samaria region.
"I led the soldiers into the police station, after the crowds outside the station began pressuring me," he claimed.
The terrorist cop took the soldiers to the second floor of the
station. "I took a length of iron pipe - about 25 centimeters or so -
and went into the room where there were two reservists."
"I saw the soldier was alive and on his feet. I went over to the
Russian soldier, and beat him with the tube I was holding in my hands. I
then punched him in the head until the soldier began making gurgling
noises."
PA policeman Tariq Tabesh also participated in the murder. "I saw a
soldier on the floor, laying facedown, crying and saying things in
Hebrew that I couldn't understand," he told investigators. "I hit him on
the back three times."
Salha told investigators that he entered the fray after seeing a car
with an Israeli license plate parked outside the police station. Israeli
cars bear yellow license plates; PA cars bear white plates.
Salha alleged that the crowd encouraged him to enter the station. "I
saw an Israeli soldier laying there, on his stomach," he stated.
"I approached him and I saw a knife in his back right shoulder," he
continued. "I took the knife from the back of the soldier and stabbed
him in the back two or three times, and left the knife in his back.
Others in the room continued to hit the soldier in the legs."
"After stabbing the soldier, I put my hand over his mouth to strangle
him. I saw that my hands were stained with blood and my shirt covered
in blood at the bottom, then went to the window and I waved my hands to
people in the yard," he recounted.
"Then I returned from the window and saw the other soldier lying on his stomach in one corner of the room."
Let's keep this in perspective: Ari Shavit is one of the very few sane opinion writers at Haaretz. If I'd seen something like this from Gideon Levy or Aluf Benn, I would have put the flying pig graphic on the top. Still, I find it a refreshing surprise that words like these made it into the Haaretz opinion pages without being written by Moshe Arens....
Many in the West and Israel despise Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. But what’s happening in Syria proves the validity of
Netanyahu’s warning that the greatest danger to world peace in the 21st
century is the combination of unconventionalweapons and unconventional regimes. Lunatics really are insane. Barbarians are really barbaric. Huns will be Huns.
Those
who act mercifully toward Huns bear direct responsibility for the fact
that nuclear weapons are being built in Iran, chemical weapons are being
used in Syria and doomsday weapons threaten the future of the Middle
East. Those who underestimate the inherent danger of the Huns bear
direct responsibility for the deaths of today’s victims, the Syrians,
and tomorrow’s victims, the Israelis, Europeans and Americans.
It’s
time to break free of the moral relativism, multicultural hypocrisy and
political correctness that prevent us from seeing our evil neighborhood
as it really is. A terrible warning siren is being sounded in Damascus.
Do we hear it? Does the world hear it?
Given the possibility, does anyone really believe that the 'moderate' 'Palestinian Authority' would behave any differently than Assad? If you do, then recall this incident, which happened seven years after the Oslo accords were signed:
On October 12, 2000, two non-combatant Israeli reservists (serving as
drivers), Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami, mistakenly passed an
Israeli checkpoint and entered Ramallah. Reaching a Palestinian
Authority roadblock, where previously Israeli soldiers were turned back,
the reservists were detained by PA policeman and taken to the local
police station. Hearing rumors that idf soldiers were in the building, a
crowd of more than 1,000 Palestinians gathered at the station, calling
for the death of the Israelis. Soon after, Palestinian rioters stormed
the building, beating and stabbing the soldiers to death. At this point,
a Palestinian (later identified as Aziz Salha), appeared at the police
station window, displaying his blood-stained hands to the crowd, which
erupted into cheers. One of the soldier's bodies was then thrown out the
window and stamped and beaten by the enraged mob. Soon after, the mob
dragged the two mutilated bodies to Al-Manara Square in the city center
as the crowd began an impromptu victory celebration.
Let's go to the videotape.
If Shavit is hinting that we should be wary of the fact that the 'Palestinians' aren't looking for peace with us, then we really have made some progress. But if the 'Palestinians' are to continue being given a pass because they 'only' want to murder Jews, then we haven't learned anything from what happened in Damascus on Wednesday.
The Shin Bethas broken up the beautiful downtown Ramallah branch of Hamas and has arrested its 30 members. As a bonus, it turns out that two of them were participants in the lynching of two IDF reservists (pictured above) in October 2000.
The men set up a
headquarters for Hamas in the West Bank city traditionally seen as a
Fatah stronghold, and operated in the areas of the Binyamin region of
the West Bank, according to security forces.
"During questioning
of suspects by the Shin Bet, it emerged that the headquarters sought to
renew Hamas's activities and rebuilt the organization in the Ramallah
area… ahead of the future elections in the Palestinian Authority"
security forces said.
The Shin Bet identified Murad Muhammad
Khaled Abu Baha as the head of the cell, naming several regional
subordinates. Maher Ayoub Abd Dalashiya was named as the alleged money
man.
A man named Matzav Muhammad Ahmed Sarur was responsible for recruiting students, security forces added.
The
recruitment drive involved the setting up of Hamas student cells in
West Bank universities, in the Ramallah and Abu Dis areas.
Hamas
transferred large funds through student bodies, and some of the money
was earmarked for Hamas prisoners and their families, according to the
Shin Bet.
The suspects also tried to set up student cells in Hebron and Bethlehem, though those efforts were interrupted by the arrests.
...
Two of the suspects confessed to taking part in the
October 2000 lynch of two IDF reservists who mistakenly entered Ramallah
and were beaten to death by a frenzied Palestinian mob.
And you still wonder why almost no Jews in this country want to turn control of Judea and Samaria over to the 'Palestinian Authority'?
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Wednesday, August 15.
1) The Washington Post surpasses the New York Times
Thirty years ago if you asked me, I would have said that the editorial position of the New York Times was more sympathetic to Israel than that of the Washington Post. Things have changed a lot. Yesterday's New York Times editoiral, Israel and Iran was neatly summed up by Jonathan Schanzer:
It's wrong to talk about pre-empting someone threatening to shoot you when you can still try to reason with him.
In other words, the Times was arguing that Israel is a greater threat to the stability of the Middle East by even thinking of responding militarily to the Iranian threat, than Iran itself is.
THE UNITED NATIONS Security Council has repeatedly voted for sanctions to deter Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany have devoted years of diplomacy to slowing Iran’s quest for an atomic bomb. The hints from Israel of impatience with all this, and a desire for a military strike, are growing. All of which makes it passing strange that Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, might appear in Tehran to attend the conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, which opens Aug. 26. Already, the street lamps are being painted and hotels prepared for the arrival of heads of state as the Islamic republic thumbs its nose at Western sanctions and isolation. Iran is taking over chairmanship of the movement for the next three years. ... Perhaps Mr. Ban entertains a hope that he can single-handedly persuade Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to end their quest for nuclear weapons. That assumes that the United Nations leader has more clout than anyone else who has tried. We’re told that Mr. Ban sees this as a crucial moment for a diplomatic last-ditch effort. But it doesn’t seem even remotely likely to succeed.
There are no illusions here, except, perhaps, that the U.N. and its Secretary General are relevant. But the editors of the Washington Post understand who presents a threat to the Middle East and that the likelihood that further negotiations will help is remote.
2) Making excuses
Last week it was reported that two men were arrested for their role in the 2000 lynching of two soldiers in Ramallah.
The suspects were apprehended in June as part of a larger operation against Hamas terror cells operating in Ramallah and the Binyamin region. It was following their arrest that the two men confessed to taking part in the barbaric murders nearly 12 years ago. “We notified the families of the victims about the arrests after the investigation, and before publication of it. We acted with sensitivity,” said police spokesman Dudi Asraf. Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz had mistakenly reached a Palestinian checkpoint in October of 2000 and were subsequently taken to the Ramallah police station. As word spread around the city that Israelis were being held inside the station, a mob approached and proceeded to engage in what British photographer Mark Seager said “was murder of the most barbaric kind.”
Since these two confessed, presumably this is the first time they were apprehended and neither is the member of the gang who was released as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange last October. Remarkably relatives of Nurzhitz (Norzich) made Aliyah as a response to his brutal murder.
At the time of the lynching, the late Scott Shuger wrote an excellent analysis of the press coverage, Making Excuses for Ramallah.
All this points to the trouble newspapers have with two key ideas. First, their dedication to objectivity commits them to fairness, and second, if a newspaper is going to be fair, then every news story in it must be fair. These principles are subtly false. True objectivity entails being fair in the way you conceive stories and execute them. That is, you should ensure that all the players are given a chance to explain themselves, but having done that, if you discover that someone's action can't be explained away, that some violent act in the story really is worse than some other, it's wrong to add or spin material in order to smooth everything out again. When a story turns out not to have two sides, it's the antithesis of objectivity to supply both. A newspaper achieves fairness by a sustained effort over time at seeking out all sides and aspects of a subject. But on any given day an honest effort at fairness may result in a news story in which one side is right and the other wrong. Thinking a balanced paper is built out of only balanced news stories is like thinking a round house is built out of round bricks.
Part of a growing cadre of what are known as lone soldiers, they left behind parents, girlfriends, cars and stuffed animals to become infantrymen, intelligence officers, paratroopers and pilots in a formerly foreign land. All told, according to a military spokeswoman, Israel has enlisted 8,217 men and women from other countries since 2009, 1,661 of them from the United States, second only to Russia’s 1,685. They receive a host of special benefits: three times the typical soldier’s salary, a personal day off each month, a free flight home and vouchers for holiday meals. But with few exceptions for dual citizens from certain countries, they serve side by side in even elite combat units with native Israelis drafted out of high school. “Their motivation is often way higher than the average Israeli,” said Col. Shuli Ayal, who oversees the lone-soldier program. “They want to make their service as meaningful as possible.”
Aside from a paragraph about Israel's "identity crisis," this is an excellent overview of those who choose to make Aliyah.
4) Morsi's motivations
Thomas Friedman tweeted a recommendation of Hussein Ibish's analysis of Mohammed Morsi's dismissals of top Egyptian military officials. Though Ibish mostly seems to cast the struggle between Morsi and the old order, he concludes:
Assuming that the military and, for the meanwhile, the courts, allow Morsy's decisions to go effectively unchallenged, Egypt, in effect, has a new dictator, albeit an elected one. Beyond the urgent need of restoring legislative authority through new elections, the power struggle in Egypt will increasingly focus on the crafting of the new constitution, which will either produce a system that involves real checks and balances or which consolidates yet another system in which the presidency wholly dominates the political system.
It would seem that the latter possibility is more likely.
Meryl Yourish looks at the evidence and sees a cynical ploy:
What I’m thinking is that Morsi has to be seen as harsh on Gaza–for now. Sixteen Egyptian soldiers were murdered as they sat down to their break-fast meal during Ramadan. The Egyptian populace is furious. So Morsi has found a scapegoat (the generals), shut down the Rafah crossing because the jihadis got help from there, and now is going to play a waiting game. When the furor dies down, look for Rafah to reopen and Hamas to become in good odor again. What I see is something I don’t like at all. I see Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood laying the groundwork for a war with Israel. They are going to try to get Israel to agree to let them have more and more militarization of the Sinai, which would be yet another border that Israel would have to defend if things come to war. And let’s face it: It’s not a stretch to think that the MB was somehow involved with the terror attack. It was going against Israel, after all, and all of the jihadis have shown that they don’t care if they murder their own on the way to murdering Jews. We’re all “infidels,” after all.
In meeting Haniyeh at the Brotherhood’s new headquarters’ building, the Brotherhood’s leader Muhammad al-Badi, said that Hamas had been a role model for the Brotherhood. While this might be mere flattery it might be noted that Hamas first won an election, then went into a coalition with a “more moderate” partner (Fatah), and then staged a coup to seize complete power. That’s an interesting precedent for Badi to cite. Haniyeh described Hamas as the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood. Referring to their alliance Haniyeh said, “Our presence with the Brotherhood threatens the Israeli entity.” It certainly does since Hamas will enjoy the Brotherhood’s full support in its anti-Israel activities including the use of violence and, probably, in the event of any future war with Israel. Since the Brotherhood will be the main party in parliament that also expresses Egyptian policy, however circumscribed it might be by the army and by a non-Brotherhood president. Of course, there might be a Brotherhood president, too.
(At the time the Brotherhood claimed that it would be fielding a presidential candidate.)
Elder of Ziyon finds support for this view of things.
According to multiple articles, Tantawi said that he had evidence that the militants who were attacking Egyptian soldiers and others in the Sinai came from Gaza, and he insisted that the Rafah crossing be closed once and for all because of the magnitude of the threat to Egyptian national security. Morsi, who had made promises to Hamas to enlarge the Rafah crossing, responded that Palestinian Arabs would never accept such a closure.
This would support the view that Morsi's declared closure is a temporary measure.
Morsi's move against Egypt's military leadership seems to be a way of solidifying the Muslim Brotherhood's hold on Egypt and its relationship with Hamas.
General Security Service captures Ramallah lynchers
The Shin Bet General Security Service has captured two 'Palestinians' who have confessed to lynching two IDF soldiers in a Ramallah police station in October 2000.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Judea and Samaria district police arrested two men who confessed to taking part in the brutal October 2000 lynch of two IDF soldiers, security forces announced Thursday.
The arrests came after the Shin Bet and police uncovered an extensive Hamas terror structure in Ramallah and the Binyamin region, and arrested other suspects along with the two men.
In June, security forces arrested the Palestinian security suspects, some of whom formed a Hamas field command in that region of the West Bank, police said.
Two of those questioned confessed to being involved in the beating to death of IDF reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz at the PA Ramallah police station, where the two were taken after getting lost.
The two suspects were charged at the Judea Military Court on August 5, police added.
I'm glad they captured them, but does anyone out there really believe that they won't be released in some future 'prisoner exchange'?
Al-Guardian has removed its mask and disclosed itself to be completely anti-Semitic. This was published in Wednesday's editions (Hat Tip: Red Tulips).
All this, I fear, is simply an indication of how inured the world has become to the obscene idea that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives. Netanyahu argues that he acted because he values Shalit's life so greatly.
Yet who is surprised really, to learn that Netanyahu sees one Israeli's freedom as a fair exchange for the freedom of so many Palestinians? Likewise, Hamas wished to use their human bargaining chip to gain release for as many Palestinians as they could. They don't have much to bargain with.
At the same time, however, there is something abject in their eagerness to accept a transfer that tacitly acknowledges what so many Zionists believe – that the lives of the chosen are of hugely greater consequence than those of their unfortunate neighbours.
No one here was happy with the exchange ratio of the terrorists for Gilad deal. If it had been one-to-one, I doubt anyone who would have objected too strenuously to the identity of the one that we released.
But look at that miserable excuse for a human being with the bloody hands in the photo. He was one of the terrorists released this past week. Does anyone really believe that his life is worth as much as the life of an IDF soldier? I don't. By his actions he has deprived himself of the right to be counted among human beings. 1,000 of him are not worth the life of one IDF soldier.
As to the Guardian, as usual, they are beneath contempt.
Here's a video about some of the 'Palestinian heroes' who were released as part of the terrorists for Gilad trade on Tuesday.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: The Beguiling Avigayil - daughter #1, child #1). A transcript follows and I will have a comment after that.
The Palestinians are celebrating! They are getting 1027 of their heroes in a prisoners swap. Who are these heroes? Who are these brave "freedom fighters" and why where they in prison for the first place?
Walid Anjas, was sentenced to 36 life imprisonments for taking the lives of 36 people in 2002 in three separate terrorist attacks at the "Moment" bar in Jerusalem, at a students' restaurant in the Hebrew University and a night club in Rishon Le-Tzion city. All of his victims were innocent civilians, many of them teenagers. Anjas spent 8 years in jail before being released. The Judge wrote in his verdict that "whoever puts all of his efforts in taking the lives of women, men and children with no compassion, does not deserve to be among human beings".
Abdel-hadi Ganaim was sentenced to 16 life imprisonments, after killing 16 bus passengers by high jacking the bus and driving it off a cliff on July 1989.
Hossam Badran was sentenced to17 years in prison for his responsibility for the massacres that took place between 2001 and 2002 at the Tel Aviv Dolphinarium night club, at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, at the Matza Restaurant in Haifa and at the Park Hotel in Netanya (during the Passover celebration), killing entire families.
Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced for 16 life imprisonments for her responsibility to the murder of 16 people, among them children and babies at the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem in August 2001. In 2006 she claimed she would have murdered again if had the chance.
Amana Muna was sentenced for life imprisonment after using an Internet chat to tempt 16-year-old Ofir Rahum to come from Ashkelon to Ramallah, where he was ambushed and shot to death (January 2001).
Aziz Zalha was sentenced to 40 years in prison for brutally murdering two Israeli reserve soldiers who on 2000 got lost on their way and accidently arrived in Ramallah. Zalha became famous worldwide when he waved his bloody hands through the window of the building where the murder took place. In his verdict the Judges stated, that this incident revealed human nature in its lowest form. Neither a glimpse of compassion, a bit of humaneness, nor a trace of mercy could be found that day in Ramallah.
Each one of them will be welcomed with ceremonies, flowers, celebrations... Streets will be named after them... These are the Palestinian heroes...
Note that it's not just Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas who are celebrating the terrorists' release. The first celebration was being run by 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Monday, October 17.
1) She keeps the home fires burning
The LA Times has a touching story about Raeda Omjamal, who awaits the return of her husband Rawhi Mushtaha, one of the 1027 prisoners whom Israel plans to release in the deal to gain the release of hostage, Gilad Shalit.
Omjamal was 23 years old, a freshly transplanted Palestinian refugee from Jordan who only met her husband two months before their wedding. The had another six months after the marriage.Now, at 47, Omjamal is preparing to welcome her husband back home after seeing him only once during 24 years of incarceration. Though they exchanged occasional messages and letters through attorneys, personal visits were mostly prohibited.Today, the young, bearded fighter she married in 1988 is a gray-haired, wrinkled stranger. Asked how it will feel to live in the same house again, she laughed and turned red, noticeable even though a pale green veil covering most of her face.
Worst of all was this sentence:
Israel called him a murderer for his role in helping to run Hamas' military operations.
He was involved in an organization that murdered (Palestinians) and was convicted. The New York Times in Israel Releases Names of 477 Prisoners to Be Freed in Tradeis a little less sentimental and doesn't spend time on Omjamal's sentimental regrets:
The list includes Rawhi Mushtaha and Yehya Sinwar, two founders of Al Majd, a forerunner of Hamas’s military wing. Al Majd killed Palestinian collaborators, cracked down on behavior regarded as immoral and gathered weapons. Both were arrested in early 1988, less than two months after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising and the formal creation of Hamas by Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Mr. Mushtaha, 52, was serving four life sentences for murder through an act of terror, military exercises, manslaughter and incitement. His wife, Raeda, wearing a full face niqab veil, confirmed Sunday that her husband was a founder of Al Majd. Asked if he regretted his actions she said, “No.” Speaking from her Gaza City home, she continued: “Rawhi is with Hamas until we restore all our Islamic holy places and the return of refugees. Our method and path is resistance. We will not lay down weapons, because resistance is a legitimate right for any people fighting for their freedom.”
Interesting statement about that lack of regret. I couldn't find this elsewhere, so I have to (regretably) use Al Jazeera as a source. What is one of the terms of release?
"They will have to sign a declaration that he or she will not be involved in terrorist activities any more, but after that, there is no monitoring," Emi Talmor, director of the Israeli justice ministry's pardons department, told Al Jazeera.
That quote - if it accurately conveys Mushtaha's feelings - would be a repudiation of that declaration wouldn't it? (I've been informed that the declaration is a formality; with no legal significance. The Al Jazeera article is interesting in that it says that the released terrorists will be monitored. Will Israel take any action if they travel to a prohibited area?) The New York Times associates Mushtaha with Al Majd, effectively acknowledging his guilt and not just attributing it to an Israeli declaration. For a description of what Mushtaha did, here's a 1993 op-ed from the New York Times, The Hamas way of death. Israel found a training tape of Hamas, and the New York Times thought it was newsworthy enough to publish.
At first, every collaborator denies his crimes. So we start off by showing the collaborator the testimony against him. We tell him that he still has a chance to serve his people, even in the last moment of his life, by confessing and giving us the information we need.We say that we know his repentance is sincere and that he has been a victim. That kind of talk is convincing. Most of them confess after that. Others hold out; in those cases, we apply pressure, both psychological and physical. Then the holdouts confess as well.Only one collaborator has ever been executed without an interrogation. In that case, the collaborator had been seen working for the Border Guard since before the intifada, and he himself confessed his involvement to a friend, who disclosed the information to us. In addition, three members of his network of collaborators told us that he had caused their isqat. With this much evidence, there was no need to interrogate him. But we are very careful to avoid wrongful executions. In every case, our principle is the same: the accused should be interrogated until he himself confesses his crimes.
So anyone who became "inconvenient" could be denounced for helping Israel and then judged and executed.
2) Blood on his hands
There was an expression that Israel would not release terrorists with "blood on their hands." It was a figure of speech, meaning that at one point Israel would never free any terrorists who had actually killed Israelis. That line has long ago been crossed, and given that the sentences Israel is ending early add up to thousands of years, quite a few murderers are being freed in order to free Gilad Shalit. But according to Ynet, Israel will be releasing the terrorist who literally had blood on his hands. (h/t Baltimore Jewish Life)
"On the one hand, the bereaved brother says, the family is happy for the parents and siblings who will see their son Gilad Shalit come home. "On the other hand, our family is angry that nobody cared about our sensitivity. No one (in the government) experienced our pain," he said. The painful monologue above belongs to Michael Norzich, brother of Vadim, who was murdered by a mob in Ramallah in the year 2000. Michael said that no one called to tell him that one of the murderers of his brother is included in the list of 477 prisoners who will be released as part of the first phase of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal. Abed Alaziz Salaha, who was photographed in the horrific photo with his hands covered with blood in what has become the symbol of the second intifada, was sentenced to life in prison but is expected to be released on Tuesday.
As more and more families discover that the murderers of their loved ones are being released, more people are becoming upset about the terrorists for Gilad trade. Here are two more examples.
"What they did to us is like a slap in the face. We need to hear about the terrorist who killed our daughter being released from the media? Everyone is happy and dancing in our blood and with all due respect to Gilad's smiling mother, there are hundreds of parents whose heart is bleeding today."
Harsh words from Haim Karisi who lost his daughter Yasmin in the Azor Junction terror attack 11 years ago. On Sunday he was finding it hard to bear the insult as he discovered that Khalil Mohammed Abu Ulbah, the murderer who cost him his daughter, was one of the 477 prisoners set to be released in the first phase of the Shalit deal.
Abu Ulbah was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences following the February 14 terror attack in 2001 in which he used a bus to run over a group of female soldiers near the Azor Junction. Eight died in the attack and 26 were wounded. Yasmin Karisi was one of those who did not survive.
"We sent our girl to the army, just like they sent Gilad. My girl never made it back and today I feel humiliated, what did we ask for? For them to show a little sensitivity? Cooperation?
After Abu Ulbah's attack, all Gaza 'Palestinians' were banned from working in Israel. That ban remains in effect today. But his story and that of his victims is probably a lot less familiar to you than this next story will be.
"The government lied to all the bereaved families. They promised the bereaved parents that the terrorists would never get out. Ehud Barak made a personal promise to me that this terrorist would never see the light of day. I knew that day that he had lied to me. I told everyone that it was only a matter of time before the next deal. I saw the Goldwasser and Regev deal and I knew that it was only a matter of time before the murderers of my brother (are released)."
The painful monologue above belongs to Michael Norzich, brother of Vadim, who was murdered by a mob in Ramallah in the year 2000. Michael said that no one called to tell him that one of the murderers of his brother is included in the list of 477 prisoners who will be released as part of the first phase of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal.
Abed Alaziz Salaha, who was photographed in the horrific photo with his hands covered with blood in what has become the symbol of the second intifada, was sentenced to life in prison but is expected to be released on Tuesday.
"The pain is stronger today," Michael told Ynet. "Not because of the deal itself but because of the way it is carried out. It is not a deal but a major loss. It is a twisted deal. You don't release at any cost. There is a price. You cannot give it all."
...
Salaha, 30, from the village of Dir Jarid near Ramallah, was arrested in 2001 and admitted that he was part of the mob that stormed the police station, and that he strangled one of the soldiers while the others beat him.
When he saw that his hands were covered with the soldiers' blood, he went to the window to proudly show his hands to the mob below.
Yes, that's the infamous picture at the top of this post. That animal is just one of 477 going free to bring Gilad home.
I hope someone is happy about this.
UPDATE 10:56 PM
In case you have forgotten, here is part of the Italian television video of the Ramallah lynch with Hebrew narration.
Let's go to the videotape.
One of the things they say in the video is that it took SEVEN YEARS to catch the last perpetrator. How long has/will he serve in jail?
CBS News reporter Lara Logan was the story on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.
Let's go to the videotape.
Notice what she said set the crowd off? That they said she was an Israeli Jew. She described that as being like lighting a flame for them. What do you think these people - who have a peace treaty with us - would do to Israeli Jews if God forbid they were given a chance? Remember the Ramallah lynch? If they could have finished Logan - whom they believed to be an Israeli Jew - off that way they would have been pleased to do so.
So it was about Logan being a woman (and being blond) until they decided she was an Israeli Jew. Then it became about tearing her apart limb by limb just like those two Israeli soldiers. It was no longer about sex (if it ever was). It was about power. It was about tearing apart the infidel (Israeli) Jew. She is lucky to be alive.
Phyllis Chesler criticizes Logan for not referring to her tormentors once on the air as Muslims. Nor, writes Chesler, does she seem to blame them at all. In fact, Chesler finds Logan's description to be too politically correct.
With all due respect both for Logan’s terrible ordeal and for her choice to “break the silence,” how naive can she have been? How frightened is she still now? Does Logan fear she will lose her mainstream media credentials if she analyzes what happened to her in feminist and political terms?
I think she does. While she has told the truth about what happened to her, her careful, cautious, exceedingly politically correct presentation suggests that many hands were, once again, behind what she said and how she said it.
Logan was born in South Africa where the sexual violence against girls and women is extreme. She was born in Africa where gang-rape and rape have been employed not as a spoil of war but as a systematic weapon of war (think Rwanda, Darfur, Congo, Liberia). She is a reporter at a time in history when both infidel and Muslim women are routinely raped—then arrested for it, raped again by their jailers, then flogged, hung, or stoned for the crime of having been raped. Think Iran. Think Pakistan.
And finally, it is a well known fact that the male sexual harassment of women on the streets of Egypt is pandemic. One survey documented that 98% of infidel or foreign women and 88% of Egyptian women have been harassed on these mean streets. Thus, should women reporters not cover Muslim countries?
Guess what? Muslim men also rape Muslim and infidel boys as well as foreign male journalists whom they also torture and behead. (Think Daniel Pearl.) There is a long history of Muslim men kidnapping, enslaving, selling, branding, and castrating infidel men as well as selling infidel women as sex slaves.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
