I don't really get it. It was difficult enough to come to terms with the deal to release 1,027 Palestinian terrorists, some of whom were responsible for extremely grisly murders of Israelis, and now we are considering releasing more?
Mahmoud Abbas announced the other day that he expects Israel to now release several hundred, up to 2000, more Palestinian prisoners, from the Fatah organization, being held in Israeli jails. he claims that former prime minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to such a release that would be coordinated after the release of Gilad Shalit, though it was, so he claims, specifically requested to be kept secret at the time, so as "not to harm negotiations" for Shalit's release.
And Israel is actually considering agreeing to this demand as a goodwill gesture. I am not sure what kind of goodwill we are trying to engender, as Abbas has been refusing to sit with us and negotiate ever since Netanyahu took office, despite construction freezes and other goodwill gestures. What will another goodwill gesture get us?
All we are doing is raising the price of Gilad Shalit from 1027 to 1527 or 2027 or whatever the final number will be. For no real point or gain. "Strengthen Abbas", "Strengthen Fatah", "Strengthen the PA", yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah - we have heard it all already, we have tried it all already, and none of it has ever advanced us to anything closer to peace. At least, for now, most of the cabinet is opposed to the idea.
This seems to be part of the perpetual naivety that says that Abbas is a "moderate" so-called Palestinian which means that Israel has to strengthen him every chance it gets to ensure that he isn't replaced by someone who constantly calls for the destruction of Israel like, well like he does I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe way it is presented is that we weakened Abbas in the deal since it was all about Chamas, so now we need to prop him up by releasing his guys. We did not release Barghouti as part of the deal as was originally discussed...Maybe we'll do it now for free?
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