Odd, isn't it, that Israel is expected to agree to insanely uneven conditions to satisfy the demands of the observant world, which sees a country surrounded by enemies, but feels the standards it imposes upon Israel must be realized, while giving little thought to her future imperilment as a result of bowing to international pressures.
Got all those homicidal maniacs in prison so they can't handily go out and resume their terror activities? What's a few less in prison; give them up, to be nice. Of course there are so many of them - the Arab communities from which these psychopathic tendencies seem to flow like water give reason to apprehend and incarcerate so many determined jihadists - why not think in terms of freeing hundreds?
And for that, what do you get? Well, not an awful lot. The hope, faint though it is, to be able to trade hundreds of die-hard fanatics for a half-dead prisoner, for a few corpses, dead soldiers held as collateral. What other societies could breed such sly and implacable enemies who realize how sacred life is to their adversary while themselves boasting life is expendable for the noble cause of extirpating an enemy from sacred soil?
The Arab male psyche is vastly different than most in the West can comprehend. Sympathy, the ability to look at another and imagine their personal pain does not move them. Empathy and human kindness eludes the basic instinct to strike one's enemy, and strike hard so there is no return. To compromise is not in the cards, and those who see fit to give quarter have no honour.
Thus, if a government relents in the hopes of furnishing cause for conciliation and agreement it is seen to be weak, ready to fall into the hands of the aggressor. So if prisoners are released there is no reason to be grateful to an enemy who, by releasing them, demonstrates not courage but fear. And the consequence of that release is to give encouragement to those taken prisoner to recommence their deadly attacks as though nothing intervened.
Take the words of Shmuel Medad, the founder of Honenu, an Israeli political movement, as one who should know: "We are against the release of any Arab terrorists from Israeli prison. This includes the four Jordanian murderers who were freed this week, and the 250 whom Prime Minister Olmert is planning to release as a 'gesture' to Abu Mazen, and the hundreds or more that Israel may soon give in exchange for Gilad Shalit. The release of terrorists is a sign of weakness, adds experienced terrorists to the war effort against us, and is a dangerous precedent that encourages more terrorism and kidnappings."
Fatah and Hamas, two of a kind, although implacable enemies whose enmity toward one another amply demonstrates the Arab tradition of clan and tribal strife - suspicion, anger, revenge and murder - enjoy their game of holding out the tantalizing possibility of releasing one single kidnapped soldier in exchange for hundreds of terrorist-prisoner releases, yet happy to renege, knowing they have the upper hand.
When a country and its people value life to the core, demonstrate a collective desperation to save a single life, while its adversaries are ready to sacrifice as many lives as need be to make their point, it results in an unequal game, where those who value death, martyrdom and conquest have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It is only a determined and life-affirming country whose social history has been so obscenely deleterious to survival that can surmount these moral and practical difficulties. Israelis know well with whom they are dealing. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert knows, and publicly stated that the release of 250 terrorists will not move Hamas and Hezbollah to free the IDF hostages they hold.
Instead, he considers this to be a good-will gesture in support of Palestinian Authority Chairman, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas's new government. "I have come to the conclusion that releasing the prisoners will not affect the chances of bringing Gilad Shalit, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser home."
This is a realistic truth, in view of past prisoner exchanges and the deep cynicism that is a feature of holding peace talks with Palestinian leaders. And one hopes that Mr. Olmert's desperation does not border on the delusional. One wonders when 'good-will' gestures have ever benefited Israel when dealing with the politicians who purport to represent the needs and the future of ordinary Palestinians.
Submit to one demand by the Palestinians, and this is not recognized by them as co-operation in the hopes that it will lead to opportunities for reconciliation. Instead, giving agreement to one demand invariably, inevitably, leads to additional and greater demands. PA Chairman Abbas now plans on encouraging Israel to refrain from imprisoning additional known terrorists. And why should he not?
When Hamas was slaughtering Fatah militias in Gaza on its way to capturing the Gaza Strip as its confirmed territory, Israeli soldiers were lending themselves to the humanitarian concerns of saving the lives of fleeing Fatah members. Faced with the dilemma of arresting the Fatah militia desperate to escape the murderous Hamas militias, or permitting them entry to the West Bank, they succumbed to the latter choice.
Now officials in the 'new' Fatah PA government are working to persuade Israel to discontinue hunting down known PA-Fatah-affiliated terrorists in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. And promising what exactly in return? The moratorium implemented, they reason, to assist in the establishment of the PA's security plans designed to give Fatah an upper hand as the legitimate governing body of the PA, leaving Israel little choice but to agree with the devil it knows.
Should this meet with the success of the plans of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to strengthen internal PA security by successfully collecting weapons from the populace at large, it may result in some hopeful conclusions. As a start. Leading, dare one hope, to the collection of weapons and unlikely pacification of Fatah-affiliated terrorists still happy to lob Kassam rockets over the border into Israel.
Labels: Middle East, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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