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Ministers Sa’ar and Landver to vote in favor of freeing 104 convicts, ensuring cabinet approval of controversial move; terror victims’ families protest outside PMO
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| Israelis rallying against a planned prisoner release with fake blood on their hands Sunday. (photo credit: Flash90) |
The cabinet met late into Sunday afternoon to debate releasing security prisoners as part of the restart of peace talks with the Palestinians, but a majority for the controversial move was guaranteed with the announcement that ministers Gideon Sa’ar (Likud) and Sofa Landver (Yisrael Beytenu) would support it.
Earlier, Education Minister Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) and Homefront Defense Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) unexpectedly announced that they planned to vote against the motion, though Piron’s party colleagues were subsequently trying to change his mind.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the commencement of the meeting in order to take time to convince his Likud party ministers to back up his proposal for the release of 104 mainly Palestinian prisoners jailed since before the 1993 Oslo Accords. Netanyahu invited Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen to brief the ministers on the security ramifications of approving the release, reiterating that decisions regarding the release of Arab-Israeli prisoners would be brought before the cabinet and that any “provocation” would lead to the halt of further planned releases.
Crucially, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he would back the move “with a heavy heart,” though he would oppose freeing pre-Oslo Israeli Arab convicts since, he said, the Palestinian leadership did not represent them. Ya’alon has opposed prisoner releases in the past, and his security credentials — he is a former chief of staff of the IDF — may ease the worries of some ministers who are hesitatant to vote with Netanyahu.
“I believe that renewing the diplomatic process is important for Israel, both in order to bring an end to the conflict and in light of the complex realities in our region, primarily the security challenges from Iran and Syria,” said Netanyahu at the start of the meeting, stressing that “this is not an easy day for me.” He added: “Any agreement that will be reached through negotiations, will be brought before the public in a referendum. It is important that on such critical decisions, every citizen gets to weigh in directly.”
The cabinet subsequently approved a bill mandating a referendum for any accord involving Israel relinquishing sovereign territory.
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| Israel's ministers attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister offices in Jerusalem, on Sunday, July 28 (photo credit: Kobi Gideon / GPO/Flash90) |
With Piron wavering, Yesh Atid’s other ministers and Hatnua’s two were planning to vote for the releases. In the Likud, Netanyahu will obviously vote in favor, as will those ministers who are politically dependent on Netanyahu for their positions, including Minister of Intelligence, International Relations and Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz and most likely also Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat.
Sa’ar and Water and Energy Minister Silvan Shalom were set to support the release, or at least to be willing to grudgingly vote in favor in order to permit Netanyahu to move ahead with the American-brokered peace talks.
Firmly on the “no” side are the Jewish Home’s three ministers — party head Naftali Bennett, Housing Minister Uri Ariel and Pensioners Affairs Minister Uri Orbach — and Likud’s Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz. Katz on Sunday morning called the prisoner releases “a mistake.”
Yisrael Beytenu’s four ministers were granted the right to vote as they see fit by party leader Avigdor Liberman. While Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch is expected to vote in favor, it is likely that Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir and Tourism Minister Uzi Landau will vote against.
While waiting for the meeting to begin, Bennett spoke to families of terror victims who were staging a demonstration against the decision outside the prime minister’s office.
“Releasing murderers brings a lot of bereavement and it is a mark of disgrace against Israel. Anyone on the other side [the Palestinians] who today calls for the release of murderers and burners of children and women, does not deserve to be called a partner,’ said Bennett.
Bennett told the families to keep their heads held high. “Terrorists need to be wiped out, not released. We will vote against releasing murderers,” he promised.
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| Relatives of Israelis killed in terror attacks hold up signs as they demonstrate outside the prime minister’s office as the Cabinet votes on Netanyahu’s proposal to free 104 prisoners as a good will gesture to the Palestinians, on Sunday, July 28 (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) |
Finance Minister Yair Lapid said ahead of the meeting that while he was saddened by the decision to release murderers, it was necessary in order to give peace a chance.
“This is not a happy day for the State of Israel. These people should rot in prison all of their lives, but we need to do what is possible in order to start the peace process,” said Lapid.
A new appointment that Netanyahu hopes will prevent future cabinet squabbles was announced Sunday. Minister of Science and Technology Yaakov Peri will be joining the inner cabinet committee set up to select which prisoners will go free and oversee the implementation. Peri, a former Shin Bet head who belongs to the centrist Yesh Atid party, will join Netanyau, Ya’alon, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Aharonovitch on the committee.
The addition of Peri is meant to ensure Netanyahu a majority in the event that Ya’alon and Aharonovitch were to decide to torpedo aspects of the deal.
Opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich on Sunday urged the ministers to vote in favor of the releases. “It is a difficult and painful decision, first and foremost to the victim’s families, but it will not damage Israel’s national fortitude and instead will enable the jump-starting of the negotiations,” said Labor chair Yachimovich. “The prime minister must stop being led by the extremist elements of his cabinet.”
Netanyahu reportedly promised US Secretary of State John Kerry that the decision to release the 104 long-term prisoners would go through. On Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the Palestinian public that it could expect a “pleasant surprise” on Sunday.
The prisoners are set to be freed in four phases over the next nine months, as Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, set to resume in Washington on Tuesday, progress.
On Saturday, Netanyahu called the decision “extremely difficult,” saying it “pains the bereaved families [of the victims], it pains the entire Israeli public and it pains me very much. It clashes with a foundational value — justice.”
The letter continued: “Our best response to the loathsome murderers who tried to terrorize us into submission is that in the decades that they sat in prison, we built a state to be proud of.”
Shortly after his announcement, families of Israeli terror victims came out strongly against Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s decision constituted “surrender,” the families from the Almagor terror victims’ association said in a harshly worded statement. “Again it seems that the prime minister is falling apart and can’t withstand pressure at the difficult moment.”
The families alleged that Israel was being “pressed again into failed negotiation” because of the personal ambitions of US President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry.
They said that Netanyahu had issued “repeated assurances” that Israel would not be releasing terrorists and had rebuffed with “various evasions” their requests that he meet with them. source
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With 'heavy heart' Israel set to free more terrorists
Sunday, July 28, 2013 | Connie Fieraru
"From time to time, prime ministers are called on to make decisions that go against public opinion – when the matter is important for the country." These were the words of the opening paragraph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s open letter to the Israeli public concerning the release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners as a precondition for resuming peace negotiations.
Netanyhau has agreed to release 104 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners arrested before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. Why? Because the Palestinian Authority told US Secretary of State John Kerry that that it would not attend resumed peace talks in Washington this week unless this pre-condition was met.
A "reluctant" decision on Netanyahu’s part, he states in his letter that it was one of pain not only for the nation but also for him (having lost his brother to terrorism 37 years ago), and that the decision made "collides with the incomparably important value of justice."
As expected, the decision was met with frustration by much of the Israeli public, especially those who have lost family members to terrorist activity and those who continue to fight against it today. Dozens of families protested against the prisoner release by protesting outside the Prime Minister's Residence as Netanyahu and his cabinet were voting on the measure.
“We have enough pain and loss. We will not agree that more and more families will be forced to join the ranks of the bereaved families and victims of terrorism,” they said.
Many more were embittered by what was termed an act of cowardice after Netanyahu issued "repeated assurances" that Israel would not free terrorists as a precondition to talks.
Within his own government, Netanyahu faced stiff opposition. "You kill terrorists, you don't free them," insisted Trade Minister Naftali Bennett.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin, echoing the views of many of his colleagues, added: "Experience has taught us that every prisoner release encourages terror, and has never brought peace. It informs the next generation of terrorists that someone will work to release them. All the democracies in the world have learned this lesson. They don’t release terrorists even in exchange for captured citizens. They won’t even negotiate."
Returning to this paradox of "justice," it appears that when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict the definition of the term has yet to be understood.
As Rabbi Eliezer Weiss questioned, “Why does the Weisenthal Center track down Nazis who murdered Jews, while here we have Muslim Nazis who murdered Jews, who spilled blood as if it were water, who burned a mother and three children and an unborn baby alive – and they are released? Is there a difference between them and the Nazis criminals?”
Rabbi Eliezer’s wife and three children were burned to death in a fire bomb attack 22 years ago. Their murderer is set to be released.
Many Israeli lawmakers were left questioning the morality and motive behind such a move, with some questioning, given a similar situation, would America loose the jailed murderers of its citizens?
As MK Motti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) made clear, "Negotiations based on releasing killers have nothing to do with peace, or security, or morality, or truth."
In the words of those that have been exposed to the outcome of terrorist activity, "The murderers of our loved ones have faces and names, they are not numbers. They cannot hide behind long lists and government meetings." Unfortunately it seems that this lack of sensitivity has become reality, and justice somehow dissipates into the milieu of political diplomacy and efforts of "peace."
The release of prisoners is set to take place in four phases over the next 9 months. These are the profiles of some of the prisoners that will be among those freed:
- Issa Abed Rabbo, jailed October 1984: Attacked a young couple near the Cremisan Monastery south of Jerusalem. Later revealed to the police that he had tied the couples' hands, blindfolded them with rags, and executed them at point blank range.
- Muhammad Tus, jailed October 1985: Member of a south Hebron terror cell that carried out five bus attacks, killing Zalman Avolnik, Michal Cohen, Meir Ben Yair, Edna Harari and Motti Swisa.
- Fayez Hour, jailed November 1985: Killed two Israelis in the Gaza Strip and planned to assassinate former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir whilst in jail.
- Mohammed Daoud, jailed December 1987: Hurled a Molotov cocktail (firebomb) at a Jewish vehicle, killing a mother and her young son.
- Jomaa Adam and Mahmoud Harbish, jailed October 1988: Attacked an Israeli passenger bus north of Jericho with Molotov cocktails, killing Rachel Weiss and her three young children, as well as soldier David Delarossa, who attempted to rescue the other victims.
- Nihad Jundiyeh, jailed July 1989: Murdered Israeli contractor Zalman Shlein.
Many other prisoners on the release list carried out attacks against IDF soldiers.
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If Palestinians really want peace, why demand terrorist release?
Sunday, July 28, 2013 | Ryan Jones
It would seem counterproductive to achieving a genuine peace to set free those who had so brutally done all they could to ensure peace found no footing.
And yet, the Palestinian Authority last week was adamant it would not rejoin US-backed peace talks with Israel until the latter agreed to loose 104 terrorists jailed for either murdering or attempting to murder Israeli Jews.
Under normal circumstances, such a demand would leave those on the losing end of that equation scratching their heads.
"It's hard for many Israelis to grasp why their partners for peace demand that the murderers of children be freed," wrote Avi Mayer, the Jewish Agency's director of new media, on his Twitter account.
But after nearly two decades of a failed peace process, most Israelis know better. They know the Palestinian leadership isn't looking for a genuine peace. They know that Mahmoud Abbas and his PLO remain dedicated to the movement's founding principles of never accepting Israel and working continuously, through any means, to bring about the eventual demise of the "Zionist entity."
So, why does Israel continue to play this game? Why is it that every few years Israel repeats what it knows is the wasted gesture of setting free blood-soaked killers?
Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar had the answer at Sunday's cabinet meeting, where he passionately argued in favor of the prisoner release despite admitting nothing good could come of it.
"I don't believe we can get a peace agreement with the Palestinians, but I want to preserve Israel's international standing," Saar was quoted as saying by Ha'aretz reporter Barak Ravid. The minister continued: "If we don't vote for the prisoner release our last few friends around the world might not support us anymore in the UN."
Sadly, this is the kind of groveling to which Israel's leaders have been reduced.
As with every previous release of jailed terrorists, this will send a clear message that even the most savage acts of violence against even the most innocent of Israelis will not earn one lasting punishment, but rather a hero's status. And terrorists will be emboldened to continue on their destructive path. And peace will remain elusive. source
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PA TV song calls to attack Israel, the "snake's head," with the rifle
"With the rifle we will impose our new life... Oh Palestinians, I want to go... and with you attack the snake's head"
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
A song demonizing Israel and calling for violence is currently being rebroadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV Live. The song demonizes Israel as "the snake's head" that kills Palestinians, and adds that by using "the rifle we will impose our new life" on Israel.
Click to view
Palestinian Media Watch has documented the ongoing PA policy of demonizing Israel and glorifying violence.
Since 2011, PA TV has broadcast at least 4 different versions of the song. This version currently being rebroadcast is a performance at a Fatah event in 2011 in front of senior PA and Fatah officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Another version includes visuals of Palestinian terrorists in training. The two other versions are performed by different singers.
The following is the text of the song performed in front of the PA and Fatah leadership:
Click to view
Palestinian Media Watch has documented the ongoing PA policy of demonizing Israel and glorifying violence.
Since 2011, PA TV has broadcast at least 4 different versions of the song. This version currently being rebroadcast is a performance at a Fatah event in 2011 in front of senior PA and Fatah officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Another version includes visuals of Palestinian terrorists in training. The two other versions are performed by different singers.
The following is the text of the song performed in front of the PA and Fatah leadership:
"Oh Palestinians, the revolution is certain,
with the rifle we will impose our new life.
Oh Palestinians, [the Zionist] shot you with the rifle,
the Zionists are killing your doves in your sacred area.
Oh Palestinians, I want to go and be with you.
Fire is in my hands, and with you attack the snake's head (Israel)."
[Official PA TV and Official PA TV LIVE, 2011 -2013, numerous times]
The following PA leaders are in the audience:
Sultan Abu Al-Einein - Advisor to Mahmoud Abbas
Abbas Zaki - Member of the Fatah Central Committee
Hanan Ashrawi - PLO Executive Committee member
Abd Al-Rahim Maluh - Member of the PLO Executive Committee
Mahmoud Abbas was also present at the event sitting near the other PA leaders.
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