9-Oct-13: Murdering terrorists will be freed by Israel... just slower than US and PA now demand

Please visit the Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice blog

An important, though hardly prominent, Haaretz news report this morning ["Netanyahu rejects Palestinian, U.S. request to bring forward next round of prisoner release"] seems to present the prime minister in a way that shows his toughness and determination. That's evidently a positioning that serves the interests of the some Israeli news editors for the moment. (We see now that Times of Israel has a similar report up with a very similar choice of headline: "Netanyahu rejects Palestinian, American call for early prisoner release".)

In reality, the story is about a craven bending to the will of others and an abandonment of principles and integrity. The last thing it represents is some sort of impliedly courageous move against powerful opponents.

What's being reported today is that the Netanyahu government is going to stick to the plan it announced three months ago [we wrote about it then: 27-Jul-13: Aghast] to free yet another hundred or so convicted Palestinian Arab murderers and terrorists.

In a blog posting some weeks after the original announcement ["7-Aug-13: Political prisoners, political media"], we wrote here that:

We make no secret of our fury about the announced release from Israeli prisons of convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists and assorted other killers. In agreeing last month to free about a hundred of them, the Netanyahu government (which freed 1,027 other terrorists in 2011) has done something unconscionable and misconceived, something that is opposed by the vast majority of Israelis and by many observers from beyond. It will come, we believe, to be recognized as a cause of sorrow for generations to come. 

Today's report confirms that this wholesale throwing open of the prison cells is, indeed, being done at the behest of the Obama administration, and it's going ahead "as scheduled" even in the face of the unambiguous rise in the rate of terror attacks directed against Israelis in recent weeks. 

The letter of pained objection we and several other Israeli terror victim families sent to both Netanyahu's office and to US Secretary of State John Kerry remains ignored and unanswered.

A few minutes ago, we posted this on the Times of Israel website as a comment to its report (and we have failed, but will keep trying, to post the same text on the Haaretz page - UPDATE: it's posted there now): 

Israelis, those who vote in elections, who form the democratic foundation that empowers men like Netanyahu to speak for someone other than their own wives and children, have been polled only once, to the best of my knowledge, and opposed this free-the-killers deal by more than ten to one. To whose guns is Netanyahu sticking?
And where in all this analysis are the victim families, those citizens of Israel who are entitled to know the law and justice system is respected by the political echelon. This nasty, humiliating and self-defeating deal flies in the face of justice. It ignores the voices of the victims. Who gave any politician, including Netanyahu, that right?

Mr Netanyahu, we don't expect that, after so many disappointments dished out to us, you or any of your staff will see a reason to respond. But for the record, we can be reached at thisongoingwar@gmail.com