JPOST reports that a second government Minister has come out in favour of releasing Barghouti.
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“If we want to blunt Hamas’ capabilities … and if we ultimately want a civil rather than a religious government like those taking shape across the Arab world, we have to make a contribution,“
So says Environment Minister Gideon Ezra, former deputy head of the Shin Bet and previously Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor).
Previously Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the release of Barghouti was “not on the agenda.”
I am not so sure.
Hamas has demanded a large-scale prisoner release, including Barghouti, in exchange for Cpl. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas-linked militants in June.
As you well know, Israel is going to be engaged in a terrible war soon. What we don’t need are leaders coming out of prison for capital crimes and leading our enemies against us.
Should evidence of this occuring, hundreds of thousands should turn turn out to the streets in mass with anger in their breast, making that day the last of Olmert and Co. I’m not suggesting an overthrow of the government, but if it happened, who am I to say it was wrong.
Re: Greenberg’s comment, it is foolishly suggested that supporting the more transparent and arguably less corrupt Hamas would be to support more “extreme” Islamists, a Shia swath (not that Hamas is Shia, but that Iran supports it) comprising the nuke-bound, Mahdi-awaiting Iran, maybe Iraq, Syria, maybe Lebanon, and Iran-influenced Hamas. The 80-85% Sunni Muslim global ummah, particularly Israel’s neighbors, are falsely portrayed as more moderate–it’s not clear whether leaders really believe this “moderate” vs “extremist” delusion or are just promoting it for so-called “pragmatic” reasons (oil, help with Iraq, etc). Time to stop the appeasement. Releasing Barghouti, besides being immoral, just seems counterproductive, something that could yield a released Shalit, but also encourage the kidnapping of others. Better deadlock than movement in the wrong direction.
Aside from the general folly of releasing Arab terrorists, being that they dependably resume murdering people, has anyone come up with a rationale for preferring that the falsely moderate Fatah be in power rather than the more honest Hamas?