Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, previously counted among the toughest leaders in the civilized world, has become softer than the secretary general of the United Nations. Netanyahu recently ransomed a kidnapped Israeli soldier whom Hamas had held hostage since 2006. The price for Sgt. Gilad Shalit’s freedom? Israel will free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Many are hardened terrorists with Israeli and even American blood on their hands. This colossal breach of justice for these victims injects this toxic population back into society. Some of them almost certainly will express their gratitude with machine guns and dynamite.
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The first wave of 477 prisoners swapped for Shalit includes at least three terrorists who have slaughtered Americans.
Ahlam Tamimi conspired to attack a Sbarro restaurant on Aug. 9, 2001. This Jerusalem suicide bombing killed 15 — including Passaic, N.J.’s Shoshana Greenbaum, 31 — and wounded 130 more.
Now carefree in Jordan, despite 16 life sentences, Tamimi has no regrets.
“It was a calculated act, performed with conviction and faith in Allah,” she told a Hamas website. “Jihad warriors are always ready to die as martyrs, to be arrested — or to succeed. I managed to overcome the barrier of prison and was released. Why should I repent?”
Abd al-Hadi Rafa Ghanim of Islamic Jihad grabbed the wheel of a Jerusalem-bound bus and steered it into a ravine in 1989, killing eleven (including Philadelphia’s Rita Susan Levin, 39) and injuring 27. Ghanim was serving 16 life sentences.
Ibrahim Muhammad Yunus Dar Musa received 17 years for, among other things, helping to murder Detroit native Dr. David Applebaum, 51, and his daughter, Nava, 20, on her wedding eve. Five others were killed and at least 50 wounded in the Sept. 9, 2003, suicide bombing at Jerusalem’s Café Hillel.
Abd al-Aziz Yussuf Mustafa Salehi famously waved his bloody hands from the window of a Ramallah police station, in which he and other members of a mob fatally flogged and killed Israeli reservists Vadim Norzhich and Yosef Avrahami. These October 2000 murders earned Salehi a life sentence.
Maedh Waal Taleb Abu Sharakh, Majdi Muhammad Ahmed Amr, and Fadi Muhammad Ibrahim al-Jaaba of Hamas planned the March 5, 2003, suicide bombing of Haifa’s bus 37, killing 17 and wounding 53. These murderers received 19, 19, and 18 life sentences respectively.
Nasir Sami Abd al-Razzaq Ali al Nasser-Yataima planned the Passover 2002 suicide bombing that killed 30 and wounded 140 at Netanya’s Park Hotel, earning him 29 life terms, plus 20 years.
In addition to the 469 other prisoners released on October 18, Israel soon will free yet another 550 dangerous characters — all to rescue one Israeli soldier.
With all due respect and sympathy for Sergeant Shalit, this was a stupid, disproportionate, and likely deadly decision.
As Nadav Shragai wrote in Jerusalem Viewpoints, an estimated 50 percent of terrorists in previous Israeli prisoner swaps and “goodwill gestures” subsequently executed, plotted, or supported terror assaults. In fact, Israel previously had freed participants in the aforementioned Passover massacre and Café Hillel bombing. Israeli officials twice had discharged Ramez Sali Abu Salmim. He eventually blew himself up in Café Hillel.
In October 2010, the U.S.-Israeli Almagor Terror Victims Association counted at least 30 attacks involving Islamic extremists liberated by Israel’s government. Almagor reports that 177 people (pictured above) have been murdered, and many others injured, in attacks that Israel could have prevented simply by keeping these savages caged.
Hard and Harsh Mr. Murdock and you are likely right.
But the Israelis overwhelmingly supported this action.
They know future Israeli’s will die from the actions of these released prisoners but they have chosen to save the life of the known Gilad at the expense of future randomly anonymous Israelis.
They knew they could save a very specific life and they did. While indeed the wrong decision in cold analysis…it shows the humanity and warmth of the Israeli people and in that humanity there is strength.
This isn’t a quaint platitude…it’s the same strength that Marines show when they sacrifice themselves to bring back a fallen Marines body from the field of battle. It represents the spirit of a people accepting sacrifice to persevere as a people with dignity and humanity.
"....it shows the humanity and warmth of the Israeli people and in that humanity there is strength."
You know, it's funny the way you put that, I had the exact same reaction to this story. That's the very first thing that jumps out at me - their humanity. As it happens, I just rewatched "Sword of Gideon" on netflix last night. A dramatization of a different event, from quite a long time ago, but sort of speaks to what it is that you put your finger on here, as you watch the main character wrestle with the conflicts in his heart.
Not Hard OR Harsh, but appropriately reserved in the face of such foolishness. EVERY soldier in EVERY army enlists with the full knowledge that his life is nolonger his own and that he may be called to make the ultimate sacrifice. Comparing this foolishness with the gallantry of Marines hazarding their own lives to save one of their own is an insult to our great men and women.
Israel is foolishly following the Court of Image: they are naively hoping that by showing good will towards the terrorist, the terrorist's with stop seaking their destruction. This is a great victory for Islam and for all the haters of Israel.
The concept of multiple life sentences is utter nonsense and an affront to the memory of the victims: if you are convicted of willfully murdering another human being, or in this case MANY human beings, your life is forfeit and judgement should be swift and expedient. Master Murdock's plan is a brilliant solution to a simple problem.
There is no such thing as "foolish courage". There is Foolishness, and then there is Courage. The latter is the antithesis of the former. This logic that we must admire their "foolish courage" is the same dangerous logic that says "we must admire their conviction and commitment". If one where to begin to apply this flawed belief in their lives then they would have to admire the convictions of Hitler, Timothy McVeigh, and Anwar al-awlaki, men who put all of their physical strength into their ideology. Some things ARE Just Wrong.
Netanyahu has abdicated his right to public office. He trampled over the rights of millions of his constituents to preserve those of this 1 person for his own political gratification.
If the country cannot tolerate a single military casualty then they should just pack up and get out.
The 1027 should have been arrayed in lots of 100 against a wall and progressively shot in between demands for Shalit's release. When they ran out these murderers to execute, they could then start to barrage the rest of the murderers living in Gaza.
Israelis are fools if they think this is going to assist their cause. If islam is the inherent weakness of the arabs, the delusional desire that 'peace' is a possibility is the weakness of the Jews. They refuse to accept reality.
Benjamin Franklin said that repeating the same event over and over in the expectation of achieving a different result is a sign of insanity.
The question is whether Israeli insanity is something permanent or only temporary.
Ahlam Tamimi conspired to attack a Sbarro restaurant on Aug. 9, 2001. This Jerusalem suicide bombing killed 15 — including Passaic, N.J.’s Shoshana Greenbaum, 31 — and wounded 130 more.
