The other day a friend of mine said “your blog is really interesting…but don’t you think calling it Fresno Zionism turns off a lot of possible readers?”
That’s the idea, of course. Not to turn off possible readers, that is, but to take ownership of the concept of Zionism from those who use it as a term of abuse.
Israeli Arab Knesset member Azmi Bishara caused an uproar last September when he visited Lebanon and Syria at the end of the war and made anti-Israel statements:
Hizbullah’s resistance to Israel has “lifted the spirit of the Arab people,” Balad MKs Azmi Bishara, Jamal Zahalka and Wasal Taha told the [Lebanese] prime minister.
[In Syria,] Bishara expressed support for Syria’s struggle to free “occupied Arab land” and praised Syrian support for “resistance to the occupation.” — JPost
Bishara’s visit was probably illegal, since the Knesset passed a law in 2002 forbidding such visits to enemy nations, after a previous Bishara trip. Now there have been suggestions that Bishara will be prosecuted, and he has left the country, possibly to seek asylum somewhere else.
The list of prisoners that Hamas wants Israel to free in return for Gilad Shalit cannot be accepted. It includes convicted mass murders, the leader of a faction that murdered an Israeli cabinet minister, etc. One specimen is Abdullah Barghouti, who is serving 67 consecutive life sentences for building the bombs that killed 66 and wounded 500 in a series of bombings (details in YNet, Notorious Palestinian prisoners demanded in Shalit exchange).
As I’ve said before, the Israeli government is incapable of playing chess better than a five-year old, since it is always surprised by the next move of its opponents. Who did they think would be on the list, traffic violators? Are not Palestinian and Arab demands always outrageous?
The function of negotiations for the Palestinians and Arabs in this conflict is not to achieve peace, not to reach compromises, not to solve problems. The function is to humiliate, to pocket concessions and move world opinion about where the center lies. Then the terrorism starts again (or never stops) to bring forth another round of ‘negotiation’ in which what was previously unthinkable becomes possible and what was unacceptable becomes a given.
Israel should treat proposals like this list with the contempt they deserve. The question should not be “what will Israel give to get Shalit back?” but rather “what will happen to the Palestinians if Shalit is not returned quickly and in good shape?”
Technorati Tags: Israel, Shalit, Palestinian prisoners
Will Israel free multiple murderer Marwan Barghouti?
Israel is reviewing a list of hundreds of Palestinians prisoners that captors of an Israeli soldier want to release, an official and media reports said Sunday.
There were conflicting reports on Cpl. Gilad Shalit’s captors’ demands. Some said the list contained close to 500 names, while others said there were over 1,000. A Palestinian close to the negotiations was told that among those on the list is a popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five consecutive life terms for his role in shooting attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk. — Al-Bawaba (Jordan)
Unfortunately, reason tells us that if a man like Barghouti can be released, then Israel cannot hold anyone. All that’s necessary is for the terrorists to snatch a soldier, or anyone else, off the street.
As I’ve written before, one way to stop this would be to institute and carry out the death penalty for murder with terrorist motives.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Marwan Barghouti, Gilad Shalit
The Canadian citizenship and immigration department has refused an application for refugee status filed by an Israeli citizen.
