A summary of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s statement of surrender. “PM Olmert Plans to Release 250 Fatah Terrorists From Jail,” by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz for the INN :
Addressing his remarks to the PA Arabs, Prime Minister Olmert said that Israel is just as sensitive to the issue of its kidnapped soldiers as the residents of the PA are to the issue of their relatives serving time in Israeli jails.
Olmert compares a kidnapped soldier to jailed Jihadists. The only difference in Olmert’s world is that the Jihadists are set free to terrorize, while the kidnapped waste away in the hell of Gaza.
Prime Minister Olmert then announced, “Out of sensitivity to the matter of the prisoners, I decided today to bring before the government of Israel a decision according to which we will release 250 prisoners, members of Fatah, without blood on their hands, and who will commit themselves to refrain from further involvement in terrorism. I do this because I understand the importance of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.”
Who is going to guarantee the commitment? Abbas? He just merged the murderous al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade into his own security force! And that force is about to increase by 250 members.
He added that the intended mass prisoner release had another purpose, as well: “It is important that every Palestinian knows that whoever is prepared to have peaceful and conciliatory relations with us will receive our hand outstretched in peace.”
What every Palestinian knows now more than ever is that terror pays. I would paraphrase Olmert’s statement as follows: “It is important that every Palestinian knows that as long as the terror continues, you will receive our arms outstretched in surrender.”
In addition, Olmert promised to transfer withheld tax revenues to the PA, to make “meaningful” improvement in the freedom of movement of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria, and to renew commercial ties with that population.
More money for terror. More money to line the pockets of the corrupt Fatah leadership.
Israel will not cut basic supplies to Gaza, either, the Prime Minister avowed, saying, “We will not punish the Gaza population for the actions of the Hamas leaders.”
Why punish the population who brought Hamas to power? Did the US support the German population during WWII? Israel supplies Gaza with water and electricity, while it hastily turns off service to Israelis who are suffering economic distress due to the effects of terror. Qassam-besieged Sderot still has not received the proper protection promised by the government so long ago. Residents of the north still do not have the adequate bomb shelters promised by the government so long ago.
What is important to the Olmert government is that Gazans are taken care of. But why? Israel disengaged. Let Egypt feed them. Let Egypt supply them with water and electricity.
According to Prime Minister Olmert, the new Abbas- and Fatah-led government of the PA “recognizes Israel’s right to exist,” accepts the “two states for two peoples” solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, “opposes terrorism,” and “includes no representatives of terrorist organizations.”
Fatah’s response? “Al Aqsa Brigades spokesperson urges Palestinians to support resistance,” from Ma’an News Agency:
Gaza – Ma’an – Spokesman for Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Brigades, Abu Fuad, on Monday urged the Palestinian people to support the “choice of resistance”.
In a press statement made in Gaza he said “the Israeli policies will be frustrated on the rock of the steadfastness of the people, as before. We confirmed that we are putting the issue of the prisoners at the top of our priorities”.
He urged the Palestinian leaders to move immediately to “expose the Israeli position and the barbaric way they are treating the Palestinian people.” He also urged “the Arab League and the Islamic organizations to take a step forward, act in more responsible way and support the Palestinian people.”
So much for Olmert’s goodwill gestures.
According to “Olmert agrees to free Palestinians” in Al Jazeera, the 250 acts of treason committed by Olmert will result in”¦..nothing!
But the “goodwill” measure will not help increase Abbas’s popularity across factional divides because Ehud Olmert said the prisoners had to be members of Abbas’s Fatah faction.
They also had to be “without blood on their hands” and willing to renounce terrorism.
The Arab media is already planting the seeds to negate the “goodwill gesture.”
Olmert released 250 Jihadists and all he well get in return is a demand for more. And terror, of course. All the while Gilad Shalit still sits in Gaza.
In “MK Ahmed Tibi embraces Ehud Olmert’s Sharm statements” in the Jerusalem Post, we find two noteworthy responses from Israel’s right:
MK Zvi Hendel of NU\NRP said that “Olmert continues to gallop at breakneck speed towards the precipice of a destroyed path and the annihilation of Israel’s might. If the prisoners who are to be released were imprisoned subsequent to the Oslo accords then what has changed? Hendel asked, and answered that “Then too we said that Fatah was peace-loving and that we should caress them and hug them, and yet they committed crimes against the citizens of Israel. Every minute that goes by with this man (Olmert) still in power intensifies the danger to Israel.”
MK Arye Eldad, another member of Hendel’s party, said that “Irrespective of the practical failure of the Sharm summit for furthering peace in the Middle East, Olmert was forced into the Pavlovian response of releasing prisoners and rewarding terror.”
At least some people get it. It’s treason.
Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.