29-May-13: Letting Arab terrorists go free: A cultural value in their society but why do others indulge them?

Murderers released: Cultural affirmation, strategic victory

A couple of days ago, we wrote here ["27-May-13: Quote of the week: Abduct hostages? That's not the Palestinian Arab way, except when it is"] about some of the absurdities that result when Palestinian Arab leaders get the opportunity to be heard in a foreign language. The urge, for people like Mahmoud Abbas who holds tenaciously to the four-year term of his presidency of the Palestinian Authority more than eight years later, to say something politically correct to an English- or other-speaking audience, knowing he will get virtually zero pushback from his Arabic-speaking constituents, must be overwhelming. How else to understand the silliness he put in front of the World Economic Forum conference earlier this week?

But this time, someone was listening and has pushed back. The extremist ideologues of Hamas, the other Palestinian authority, know what foolishness Abbas is capable of saying, and they want to have nothing to do with it. Whatever we can say (and there is much we can say) about the hideousness of the Hamas child-killers and messianic zealots, they say what they think and they think what they say.

This is from a person calling himself Abu Ubaida (plainly not his real name). Using a favored Islamist outlet (it's called Facebook) and quoted by Times of Israel in English translation, he says this in the name of the employer for whom he spokespersons, the so-called Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas:

The kidnapping of IDF soldiers is at the heart of Palestinian culture. Those who refuse to abduct Zionist soldiers renounce the pain and suffering of thousands of prisoners yearning for freedom. Operations to capture enemy soldiers and trade them for our heroic prisoners are at the heart of our people’s culture, and are a source of pride for them and their resistance. 

It's worth contemplating the triumphalism of Hamas - the segment of the Palestinian Arabs who ought to be listened to because they play much simpler politics than such sophisticates as Abbas and his chief 'negotiator' Saeeb Erekat - on this subject. Pressing for the release of convicted and imprisoned terrorists, by hook, crook or atrocity, is at the heart of their blood-drenched campaign of terrorist warfare, and it has brought them the results they covet. They say it and they deserve to be believed. So do such fellow travelers of the weapons-bearing terrorists as the editors of the London-based Alquds Al Araby, the perch of one of the BBC's favourite analysts on all things Arab [we offer some background on him here]. The paper reminded Abbas and its readers this week in an editorial after the Abbas speech:

“Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas... said that settlers and Israeli soldiers are not kidnapped, referring to the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Gaza Strip. President Abbas forgets that this kidnapping brought about the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, a large number of whom belong to Fatah.”

It's clear to us why those who openly embrace the deliberate, unapologetic murder of women and children advocate the measures that will lead to more terrorist releases. It makes perfect sense, given their goals and values. But we admit to being pained by those who seem to believe in higher principles while doing exactly the same.