Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. imra@netvision.net.il
Flexible thinking about "blood on their hands"
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
April 10, 2007 Bookmark to del.icio.us
Remarks by members of the ruling coalition in Israel regarding the need for "flexible thinking" and "case-by-case" examination of Palestinians being held by Israel with "blood on their hands" raises the possibility that literally all terrorists may be released.
Terrorists who planned and ordered "successful" attacks could be released because, technically, they do not have "blood on their hands" because they did not personally either pull the trigger or blow up the bomb -- the operation was only "successful" because other Palestinians executed their orders. Supporters of such an approach can always note that many of the personalities in the PA today also have "blood on their hands" for ordering "successful" attacks in the past.
Since many of the attacks involved suicide bombings, the terrorists who actually executed the attack are frequently not alive.
Terrorists who executed "successful" attacks could be released because they were following the orders of others and were under various forms of duress to complete their missions (it is possible to concoct all kinds of explanations that failing to carry out the orders would have had dire consequences for their families).
Please note that the term "successful" attack is emphasized here because it has been a consistent policy of Israel that someone who plans and executes an attack that fails to succeed does not have "blood on his hands" and thus qualifies for release in prisoner release deals.
Thus someone involved in an attack that was designed to murder scores of Israelis qualifies for release under what cynics term the "if at first you don't succeed try, try again" principle.
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