 |
Convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists prematurely freed from prison on August 13, 2013 are greeted by admirers [Image Source] |
A version of this article by Frimet Roth appears as an op ed in Times of Israel today.
The
latest terror attack struck as I pondered my daughter’s birthday.
It falls on November 27. For the past 13 years, marking that day has been a
real challenge for me. The grief it arouses is overshadowed only by that of
August 9, the day Malki died in
the Sbarro massacre of 2001. Her murderer, AhlamTamimi, a Hamas operative who primed, escorted, instructed and armed her
accomplice, a young man called Al-Masri, with ten kilo of explosives, has been
free since 2011. Prime Minister Netanyahu released her in the Shalit Deal of
2011.
As in
the past, a few reminders about the workings of terrorism, painfully familiar
to me, will be my commemoration of Malki’s birthday.
Much has
been written about the new religious character that Palestinian terror has
supposedly acquired. In an article about the Har Nof synagogue attack, Isabel
Kirschner and Jodi Rudoren of the NYTimes wrote:
Others around the world condemned the attack and the rising religious dimension of the spate of violence, which has been attributed mainly to a struggle over the very site the victims were praying toward.
 |
Convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists prematurely freed from prison on October 18, 2011 are greeted by admirers [Image Source] |
The
truth is that religious Jews have always been our
enemies’ prime targets. Malki’s murderer told journalists that when she met her
accomplice, the human bomb, in advance of their joint mission, he told her that
he yearned to murder religious Jews.
Tamimi said she assured Al-Masri that the target she had selected would satisfy
his wishes.
For, as she later recounted, she had scouted the city thoroughly
and found an eatery frequented almost exclusively by religious Jerusalemites:
fourteen of the fifteen men, women and children slaughtered in the Sbarrorestaurant that day were religious.
There
is another facet to the current spate of violence that has been overlooked or
ignored: Mr. Netanyahu’s contribution to it.
Naturally,
he has spoken forcefully about the need for global denunciation of recent
terror attacks. He has pointed an accusatory finger at those he believes
guilty of incitement. He ordered the demolition of the homes of the latest
perpetrators – the Har Nof killers.
According
to his office, he also “directed that enforcement
against those who incite toward terrorist attacks be significantly increased.” That
statement referred to “the series of additional decisions that have
been made to strengthen security throughout the country,” whatever
they may be. [Boston Globe/New York Times,
November 18, 2014]
But
all this is too little, too vague and too late.
 |
Convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists prematurely freed from prison on August 14, 2013 are greeted by admirers [Image Source] |
Mr. Netanyahu has already
done irreparable damage during his tenure. His band-aid treatments are futile
because terrorism has been on the rise ever since he freed hundreds of
murderers in the Shalit Deal. [“Israel and Hamas Agree to Swap Prisoners for Soldier”,
NY Times, October 11, 2011]
Until
recently most of their attempts at fresh acts of terror were foiled. But we
have been descending headlong toward our current predicament ever since the
busloads of waving murderers left the prison grounds in October 2011 [photo].
The
Shalit Deal and Netanyahu’s subsequent releases
last year to “jump-start” talks with Mahmoud Abbas destroyed
the most effective deterrent we had. There is no more powerful impetus to
terrorism than the assurance that they will not be punished.
The
newly enacted law [here] purporting to prevent future releases of
terrorist murderers is riddled with loopholes.
- First, it is not retroactive. If Netanyahu wishes, currently imprisoned murderers could well be freed.
- Second, it relates only to “murder under extraordinarily severe circumstances” when the convicting judge categorizes it as such.
- And third, it can be entirely by-passed via a Presidential pardon. (Another law introduced just months ago would strip the president of this power with regard to political deals but has not been enacted.),
- Finally, even these most “extraordinarily severe circumstance” murderers – whoever these may be – will be eligible to appear before the release committee after only 15 years’ imprisonment. That committee can choose to reduce their sentence to 40 years. So a future mass-murdering terrorist, akin to my Malki’s murderer, could conceivably be free, without any swaps or deals, after 40 years!
 |
Convicted Palestinian Arab terrorists prematurely freed from prison on December 31, 2013 are greeted by admirers [Image Source] The man with arms raised is Jamal Abu Jamal, a clansman of the two murdering Abu Jamal axe-men responsible for the slaughter in a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18, 2014. Freed 10 months ago, this Abu Jamal was re-arrested for terrorism offences in the first half of November 2014 [source] |
Economy
Minister Naftali Bennett was far from accurate when he boasted of this new law: “Terrorists should die in prison,
and now that will be the case.”
Mr.
Netanyahu’s serial releases have also sent a resounding message to the world:
In Israel, terrorists with blood on their hands are not “real” murderers. Here,
their sentences are not binding like those of “real” murderers. Here they are
not punished as severely as “real” murderers are.
That
message, conveyed by Netanyhau’s actions, rings truer and louder than any of
his pronouncements in the wake of the latest terror attacks.
No
matter how tough and stricken Netanyahu sounds and appears now, these emotions
wane fast for him. Soon, no doubt, any accomplices that may be arrested and
convicted of involvement in recent terror attacks will become political
currency for him. Or they may be traded along with hundreds of others for the
release of one Israeli – thanks to those generous loopholes in the new law.
Mr.
Netanyahu is confident we have forgotten his misdeeds and their effects. We
need to prove him wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment