Weekly Commentary: Palestinian demands to free terrorists - the failed
litmus test

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 1 October 2009

If a Palestinian gunman was captured tonight as he was murdering an Israeli
family what would "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas like Israel to with him?

Transfer him to a Palestinian prison to serve his sentence?

No.

Transfer him to the Palestinian Authority to be tried and punished?

No.

How about banish him from the country?

No.

Then what does "moderate" Abbas demand that Israel do with a Palestinian
gunman captured as he was murdering an Israeli family?

Release him.

That's right.

And for a hero's welcome.

This is a fundamental problem.

Because when Palestinian "moderates" want Israel to release all Palestinian
terrorists regardless of when they committed their crimes, they are
effectively saying that no Palestinian commitment is binding. - including
the very anchor commitment of Oslo to abandon violence.

In the heady early days of Oslo when some leading Israeli Leftists argued
for the release of terrorists with "blood on their hands", the debate was
over murderers serving time for pre-Oslo crimes. Post Oslo crime was just
that: crime.

But not in the eyes of the Palestinian "moderates".

For these "moderate" Palestinians, terrorists aren't guilty of murder - at
most they are guilty of bad PR for the cause.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il