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
What do the Palestinian prisoner release demands really mean?
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
June 29, 2007 Bookmark to del.icio.us
"Moderate" Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas wants Israel to release Palestinian murders.
"Moderate" Abbas doesn't just want Israel to free those who engaged in terror against the Jewish State before Oslo. He wants Israel to free such murderers as "moderate" Marwan Barghoutti, who between peace confabs with Israeli leftists during the heydays of Oslo managed to find the time to direct the murder of Israelis.
In point of fact, the "moderate" Palestinians don't draw any line when it comes to the release of terrorists.
As far as they are concerned, a Palestinian who murders an Israeli a minute ago should also be released.
And a Palestinian who murders an Israeli next week should also get a free pass.
Contrast this attitude with Jordan's.
Seventeen years ago four Jordanians were captured after killing two Israeli soldiers.
They have been serving life sentences in Israeli prisons ever since.
Seventeen years ago.
That's ages before Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan.
But the Hashemite royal family isn't asking for Israel to free these murderers.
They asked Israel to transfer the four murderers to a Jordanian prison to make it easier for their families to visit them.
What a contrast.
The Palestinian "moderates" consider anyone who murders an Israeli to be a hero. They are worthy of emulation. Freeing them unconditionally is a priority.
The Jordanians have no qualms applying Israeli prison sentences to Jordanian citizens -- even a life sentence on a Jordanian who was a minor at the time of the crime.
The attitude of the Palestinians towards the punishment of terrorists is a litmus test of their seriousness.
As long as they cannot draw the line on violence against Israel and accept the incarceration of those who engage in terror, they aren't looking for Israeli "peace partners".
They are looking for "peace patsies".
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