Those Who Are About to Pay the Price
Nadav Ha'etzni
Ma'ariv (Saturday supplement) 05.01.2007

In 1988 the Israeli government released Yiad Sawalha from Israeli prison as a good will gesture for Arafat's government despite his having been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering alleged collaborators with Israel. Between his release and his target-killing by the IDF in 2002, he participated in killing and wounding several people, such as Zion Agmon, Adi Dahan, Elico Timsit, and 14 more Israelis injured in the Megiddo Junction bus bombing and here.

He was also responsible for murdering 14 other Israelis in the Karkur junction bus bombing.

Nasser Abu-Hamiyad, a Fatah member, was released as part of the Oslo agreement, despite having been sentenced to several life terms in prison. I met with Abu-Hamiyad in the mid '90's, following his release. I found a totally remorseless cold blooded murderer. To say nothing of a message of peace or hope. Indeed, shortly after his release, he was back in the business of butchering Israelis: shooting at Israeli cars, participation in the Ramallah lynch, responsible for killing a policewoman and wounding ten people in the Neveh-Yaakov (a Jerusalem suburb) bombing. In March 2002, together with Marwan Barghouti, the lefties' darling, he masterminded the Sea Food Market restaurant carnage in Tel Aviv. Among the victims - two dead: Eliahu Dahan and Yossi Havi - and 31 wounded. Barghouti was convicted for nine counts of murder, Abu-Hamiyad for seven life terms plus 50 years. Both of them are up for release under the prisoner exchange deal concocted by Ehud Olmert.

Similar to Sawalha and Abu-Hamiyad, thousands of convicted terrorists and murderers have been released under different deals since 1985. They were set free without the benefit of any kind of reasonable legal procedure. Their release was part of "good will gestures" extended by the Israeli leadership to the Palestinian terrorist organization, or part of sloppy exchange deals for the return of kidnapped Israelis or dead soldiers. We were told that releasing terrorists would bring about peace and security, strengthen our peace partners, and mainly save lives. Except that following their release, most terrorists resumed their criminal activities and went back to killing and wounding Israelis. At least half of those released under the Jibril deal returned to the killing fields".
According to the Jibril deal, 1,150 of the most dangerous murderers were released from Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured during the (first) Lebanon war. The Israeli government was duly warned about the unbearable blood price about to be paid, but the pressure was overwhelming. Indeed, without delay, those who had just regained their freedom proceeded to establish the new terror infrastructure that brought about the second intifadah.
Indirectly, this exchange deal cost us dearly – the Palestinian uprising. But the really unbearable price was paid by the victims and their families: all the terrorists released under this agreement were directly responsible for murdering and maiming hundreds, perhaps thousands of Israelis.
One of those terrorists, Jihad Alamrin of Gaza, was serving a life sentence when he was deported to Jordan, as part of the exchange deal. There, instead of rotting away in a jail cell, he founded the Islamic Jihad gangs which he dispatched to perform endless terror attacks. He returned to Gaza in 1996 only to be appointed senior officer in Arafat's own army. His task was to organize terrorist groups – thus he founded the Al-Aksa martyrs brigades. Among his victims – first sergeant Asher Zaguri and first sergeant Moshe Peled. The trail of murders he was responsible for since 1985 came to an end in 2002, when the IDF target killed him. Meantime, Alamrin alone was responsible for the deaths of many more soldiers than the three released under the Jibril deal.
Therefore, I find it very hard to understand the terminology favored by the government officials and senior journalists at the present time. More obscure dealings meant to bring about more dangerous actions are presented as "optimistic". Details concerning such wheelings and dealings are called "progress". Optimism and progress for whom? Certainly not for those who are about to pay the price – those who already count as dead men walking in our midst thanks to the intended deal. Certainly not for the rule of the law, which is just about to be wiped out.
Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levi once wrote: "This is not the first time that certain signed agreements force State of Israel to release terrorists responsible for sowing death and destruction in our midst. In the wake of each and every release of this kind, the hearts of many tremble with anticipation that, at long last, one may see the desired change and those pardoned would not resume their terrorist ways, and that perhaps they might even serve as good will ambassadors who might spread the idea of peaceful co-existence. Yet I believe there is no need to define this hope, or better said delusion, as totally unfounded."
Except that the Supreme Court as well as the Israeli public are jointly responsible for the victims to come. So far, the Supreme Court has not blocked such release deals, while the Israeli public turns a blind eye to the criminal activities planned by the government. The reports about the monster about to be released have not caused even the tiniest protest, to say nothing of a hunger strike. This silence will exact a heavy personal price from thousands of people, while all of us will lose more and more of our ability to carry on and preserve our society and our country.

This is 19-year-old David Biri. He was the first victim of the second intifadah. I work with one of his aunts, I know his parents and some of his cousins and uncles. My spouse works with his father and one of his uncles and knows most of his family. In this country, surrounded by genocidal maniacs, what happened is that he stepped out of his vehicle to help a family wounded in a terrorist attack, and was killed by the second charge, denotated on purpose by the rabid terrorists who were lying low and waiting for their next victim. He was just another IDF soldier who did not live to celebrate his 20th birthday.