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Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses a Jewish Agency Assembly in Jerusalem, June 26, 2007. Photo by Michal Fattal/Flash90.
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| By Israel Insider staff June 26, 2007 |
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Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu slammed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to release 250 Fatah prisoners as part of his effort to shore up Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"This is a wrong, harmful message that will not strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It will only weaken it," stated Netanyahu Tuesday, in a speech to the Jewish Agency Assembly.
"Abu Mazen [Abbas] will be hurt by such a decision," continued Netanyahu. "Giving them guns and releasing their prisoners is a big mistake."
Olmert announced Monday at the end of the four-way summit with Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II that he would ask the cabinet for approval to release 250 Fatah-affiliated prisoners.
"As a gesture of goodwill toward the Palestinians, I will bring before the Israeli cabinet at its next meeting a proposal to free 250 Fatah prisoners who do not have blood on their hands, after they sign a commitment not to return to violence," Olmert said.
Netanyahu spoke disapprovingly of releasing prisoners, but also said that "respected" the issue of Gilad Shalit as a sensitive subject.
"For us, releasing prisoners would be crossing a red line. We must remember there are prices we can pay and prices we cannot afford to pay," he stated.
Netanyahu also charged that the government was "acting in a damaging way and has proved its lack of expertise," and said that Likud would not join the coalition.
NU/NRP Chairman Benny Elon also criticized Olmert's decision, saying "Peace is made with nations, not with gangsters of Hamas or Fatah."
Nissan Slomiansky (NU/NRP) spoke along the same lines with equal censure.
"Olmert has turned Abu Mazen into someone more saintly than the pope, while, at the same time, Fatah is responsible for dispatching suicide bombers to Israel," he said. |
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