17-Apr-12: Turns out the terrorists freed for Shalit are still doing terrorism. Who would have thought it?

Freed from Israeli prison: 1,027 committed terrorists

The release of the young kidnapped Israeli Gilad Shalit in October 2011 was expensive in ways that, we are convinced, most people still do not understand.

One aspect of the price, related to the fact that 1,027 terrorists went free, is that no meaningful sanctions were put into the transaction against the possibility that one or two of these murderers and thugs might, against every expectation, continue their terrorist career path.

Naturally, there is now abundant evidence that Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the numerous other terror groups have absorbed the newly-freed men and woman and put them back to work, doing what they know best: destroying the lives of civilians - both on the Israeli side and on their own.

The Israeli security service (the Shin Bet) announced today that it had arrested two more Palestinian Arab terrorists from among those who walked free in the Shalit transaction. The freshly incarcerated men are said to have been engaging in terrorist activities.

• Daud Isa Daud Halu (Ynet calls him Dawd Chilu; the Israel Prison Service listed him last year as דאוד חלו עיסא דאוד), now 21, was convicted in an Israeli military court last month of attempting to trade in military equipment, starting a month after his release in the second of the two Shalit tranches. Having previously been sentenced to 40 months of penal servitude, he has now been sentenced to go back to prison for 44 months. 
• Omar Abu Snina (that's what Haaretz calls him today but in the October prisoner list he appears as Umar Hamdan Taha Abu Asnina, prisoner number 316) from Hebron. He was deported to the Gaza Strip when he was set loose in October and promptly began recruiting people in the West Bank's Palestinian Arab settlements. The goal was to kidnap Israelis and get some benefit: trade them for more imprisoned terrorists, perhaps, or just hold them or kill them. The media reports do not provide much detail. Our records show (and for some reason, the newspapers are failing to say this) that Abu Snina (aka Abu Asnina) earned those two life sentences for murder and attempted murder plus assorted weapons offences. Once out, he updated himself technologically and took to using computer flash memory devices to record, and then distribute via his family, detailed instructions on how to carry out kidnappings, a sort of Dummy's Guide for Abduction-Minded Terrorists. Ynet says the Shin Bet somehow got the card and revealed some of the guidelines: Hostages are to be visited once a week at least, and given food and water; They are to be "hidden in a house, a farm or a work place; weapons and explosives need to be obtained one way or another "in a careful manner".

Haaretz counts eight Shalit-round terrorists (so far) who have so far been apprehended this year for their renewed terrorism. We also know, from a report yesterday, that Hamas is devoting serious money to finance the lifestyles and - it stands to reason - the renewed careers of the recycled terrorist thugs. It is a certainty that many more are doing and planning terror.

There are probably those who still believe the mass release of terrorists will bring peace closer, sooner, faster. Or that the ends (the release of Gilad) somehow justify the means. For us, we've stopped trying to argue with them. The Shalit transaction, as we have said widely, publicly and repeatedly, was a disaster and will surely lead to more terrorist actions, more tragic deaths and much, much less peace.