If these terrorists want to be hungry, let them be hungry - by Stephen M. Flatow

...And what is it that these imprisoned mass murderers are threatening to do if their demands are not met? They’re threatening to get really, really hungry.

Stephen M. Flatow..
JNS.org..
21 April '17..

Guess what the hunger-striking Palestinian terrorists are demanding?

Satellite television, air conditioners and admission to an Israeli university. I’m not kidding.

According to the Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa, satellite TV, air conditioning and admission to Israel’s Open University are on the list of 10 demands that the current hunger-strikers have presented to Israeli authorities.

The people whom these prisoners murdered are not enjoying such perks. My daughter Alisa was a Brandeis University student when she and eight other bus passengers were murdered by some of these hunger-striking prisoners. Alisa can’t study at her university. Her killers don’t deserve that privilege, either.

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Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Imprisoned terrorists, cell phones and foreign aid: an update

...Karake's change of job title is a necessary part of the transparent ruse by which the PA pretends not to be paying its terrorists from foreign aid. And the providers of that foreign pretend to believe that their money goes nowhere near those Barghoutis and Tamimis,

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
01 June '15..

This is a follow-up to our post ["31-May-15: Lights, camera, action, terror"] of a few hours ago. Stuart Winer, writing on the Times of Israel site, says that the government approved a legislative bill today defining the steps that the Israel Prison Service can take to prevent prisoners - and in particular prisoners like Barghouti about whom we wrote today - from using cell phones.

The new bill classifies access to cell phones for prisoners based on the crimes of which they are convicted, and in particular if they are terror- or security-related offenses... [It] noted that in recent years jailed terrorists have become increasingly more involved in efforts to direct and promote attacks against Israel, including kidnappings... The bill [is] sponsored by [newly appointed] Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked [Times of Israel, today]

There's unfortunately no mention of the propaganda value that brand-name terrorists like Barghouti can tap into once they are able to speak to the outside world or send out photos of themselves, as happened last week (and as we discussed here). We hope the government committee understands the importance of that aspect.

The report adds that Barghouti is now in solitary confinement. What's more, Issa Karake, a PA figure, is quoted saying the convicted killer has "begun a hunger strike in protest".

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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Promoting Christian solidarity with unrepentant murderers: where's the outrage?

...Semantics aside, one has to wonder at an international association of churches that looks at the devastation overtaking the Christian communities of the Middle East and concludes that the one problem deserving of the bulk of their attention and resources is the one involving the Jews.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
17 April '14..

We're flabbergasted at the news that the World Council of Churches went public today with a statement of solidarity with what it calls "some 5000 Palestinian men, women and children, languishing in Israeli jails".

The WCC's chief executive, Olav Fykse Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran, is quoted in its press release saying that the members for whom he speaks

"are called to pray for, visit, and tend to the needs of all prisoners, no matter the reason for their detention. For Israel and Palestine, prisoners have taken on even greater significance than in the past. We were disappointed when the government of Israel cancelled the scheduled release of prisoners who have been in Israeli jails even before the Oslo Agreement of 1993...

The announcement goes on to invite "the churches in the Holy Land to remember Palestinian prisoners through prayers and acts of solidarity that restore to them their freedom with justice and dignity”.

WCC is a roof body that purports to speak for the world's major protestant churches. Here's where they list their members. In Australia, they include the Anglican, Churches of Christ and Uniting Church in Australia. In the UK, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church in Wales, the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church of Wales and others. In the United States, they include the Quakers, the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and many others. That's a lot of worshipers. Do they know how their religious faith is being exploited by a small coterie of self-perpetuating, Geneva-based bureaucrats?

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
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Another Palestinian Arab hero of sterling character

...It is a shame that Barghouti is starving himself to death. He deserves a much more painful demise. Luckily, the media has grown tired of the prisoner hunger strikes (especially when none of them ever seem to actually die, since these are "modified" hunger strikes, whatever that means) and no one really cares any more about these publicity stunts.

Elder of Ziyon..
06 August '13..




From Ma'an:

The Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs on Tuesday warned of possible deaths among hunger-striking prisoners and highlighted that their health had seriously deteriorated.

Issa Qaraqe said any tragic results at this stage would result in serious escalation amid prisoners and lead to negative consequences which could affect US efforts to restart peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.

Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer from the ministry of prisoners’ affairs, who visited the Jordanian hunger striker Abdullah Barghouthi in hospital, confirmed he was in real danger after 95 days on hunger strike.

According to al-Khatib, Barghouthi “can’t feel his left hand and can’t stand up.”

He also suffers from spells of dizziness, she added, highlighting that he also has symptoms of kidney and liver troubles and could face kidney failure if he continues with the strike.

Barghouthi has already lost 30 kilograms, according to al-Khatib quoting his doctors.

He has been hospitalized at Haemek Medical Center in Afula in northern Israel since shortly after he started a hunger strike on May 2.

Al-Khatib had noted earlier that he was chained to his hospital bed by his legs and his left hand.

Poor Abdallah Bargouthi! He must be a good guy for the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs to be so concerned for his well-being.

An earlier Ma'an article, from July 20, gives slightly more details:

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out!.

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The Hunger Games of Abdullah Barghouti

...His mission, his passion, was "to kill as many Israelis as possible". That ought to be on people's minds when the debate over how to think about the hunger-striking terrorist prisoners reaches the mainstream media's headlines as it soon will. The imperative to understand this needs to extend in all directions - even into the lofty heights of the executive leadership suite at the League of Arab States.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
10 July '13..

Trust us on this: being the parents of a child who was murdered changes the way you look at things.

Others might glance at a report quoting this political figure or that official, but that lens of bereavement and the immense frustration and anger that accompanies it tends to make you look a little more deeply than others do.

The secretary general of the Arab League probably makes headlines whenever he issues a public pronouncement. Without wanting to be unkind, we don't really care that much what he says or thinks under normal circumstances, and the feeling is probably mutual. Naturally, we respect and defend his right to speak in the name of the people who appointed him, but Nabeel Elaraby's views are background noise so far as we're concerned. For the record, he's a professional diplomat who served as Egypt's Foreign Minister of Egypt for four months in 2011 and before that was his country's ambassador in New Delhi between 1981 and 1983. A lawyer, he has an Egyptian law school degree as well as a Masters in Law from NYU.

This morning, we noticed that he has some things to say that actually do intrude into matters about which we take a personal interest. Speaking about a group of convicted practitioners of terror who are serving long prison sentences in Israel, the jurist/politician is quoted yesterday (Tuesday) saying that he is

following with concern the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners who entered indefinite food strike under very serious health conditions, especially the captive, Abdullah Barghouti, who entered into a dangerous condition due to his continued food strike since last May... Elaraby called on the international community to put an end to arrogance of the Israelis who use violence against the Palestinian prisoners [Emirates News Agency/WAM]

In the name of the Arab League, this senior figure launches into an appeal to "the international community, particularly the United Nations, the International Committee of Red Cross and human rights organization [sic]" to get involved and to "save the lives" of the terrorists who are refusing to eat and "to stop the inhumane practices against them".

It's significant that the hungry terrorists are not named by Mr Elaraby except for one of them: Barghouti. (We have the other names here.)

Let's give him the benefit of the doubt: Mr Elaraby may have said the things he said because his Arab League secretariat aides failed to give him a proper briefing ahead of his speech. So we will try to help. And we plan to send this posting to his office by mail right after it goes up on our site.

We have written about this dedicated killer several times in this blog. Most people who speak about him seem to know next to nothing factual, so allow us to share some basics.

Start with this: the judges who sentenced him expressed regret that condemning Abdullah Barghouti to the death penalty was not an option available to them.

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The Obama administration has a very different message for the government in Jerusalem

...Of course, someone jeering at a politician and disrupting his address is hardly in and of itself an extraordinary event. But what made the incident so compelling was that it highlighted the dissonance between American policy on handling terror suspects and the policy it demands of Israel...In other words, America continues to hold in detention those it suspects of being involved in terror, even as it asks Israel to release those tried and convicted of murdering the innocent.

Michael Freund..
michaelfreund.org..
09 July '13..

Six weeks ago, a remarkable scene played out at the US National Defense University in Washington.

In the middle of President Barack Obama's much-anticipated speech on US counterterrorism policy, a protester from a far-left group interrupted the commander in chief and repeatedly heckled him, calling for the immediate release of terror suspects being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

Clearly perturbed, Obama attempted to silence the troublemaker while sticking to his remarks, in which he sought to emphasize that only after a case by case review would the US release detainees who had been cleared of terrorist involvement.

Of course, someone jeering at a politician and disrupting his address is hardly in and of itself an extraordinary event. But what made the incident so compelling was that it highlighted the dissonance between American policy on handling terror suspects and the policy it demands of Israel.

After all, within a few weeks of Obama's speech, US Secretary of State John Kerry was back in the Middle East for yet another visit, reportedly pressing Israel to free over 100 convicted Palestinian terrorists in line with demands made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In other words, America continues to hold in detention those it suspects of being involved in terror, even as it asks Israel to release those tried and convicted of murdering the innocent.

This is sheer, unabashed hypocrisy, which has unfortunately typified Washington's policy. Put simply, there is a stark and appalling double standard at work.

Take for example the Obama administration's efforts to launch peace talks with the Taliban and the Afghan government. Despite its intense desire to find a diplomatic solution to the Afghan conflict, Washington has repeatedly rejected the Taliban's insistence that it free captured members of the movement as a precondition to talks.

As The Washington Times reported on June 18, "The Taliban ditched US-led efforts to make peace in March 2012, citing the Obama administration's inaction on its demand to release five high-value Taliban detainees from the US military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

And last month it was reported that the US had turned down similar Taliban demands in the run-up to the opening of official negotiations.

So while it steadfastly refuses to set terrorists free as a gesture to start talks, Washington nonetheless expects Israel to do just that. And what makes this particularly reprehensible is that Obama and Kerry appear to be going along with Abbas's demand that Israel release 103 Palestinians serving time for crimes and terrorist acts committed prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords, most of whom have blood on their hands.

In parts of the Arab world 66 acts of murder make a hero

From prison, Barghouti has done an exemplary job of reminding anyone listening of the bestiality that underpins his psychopathic nature. 66 innocent people killed? Not enough. In 2006, in the intimate setting of a quiet interview beamed throughout the world by CBS television's '60 Minutes' program, Barghouti famously said "I feel bad because the number is only 66. This is the answer you want to hear? Yes, I feel bad because I want more."

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
01 July '13..

The Jordanian parliament is so keen to have Palestinian terrorists freed from Israeli prisons where some of them are serving multiple life-terms for hideous atrocities that they are seeking to expel Israel's ambassador and cancel the Israel/Jordan peace treaty if they can't get their way.

A report posted on a Jordanian government website last night (Sunday) says they are demanding that Israel

respect the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and to respond to the Jordanian demands and release all Jordanian prisoners. They stressed that "soft diplomacy" with Israel can not solve the issue of prisoners, therefore, the government is required to use all political and legal papers its has to ensure the release of the prisoners.

The notion that Israel must "release all Jordanian prisoners" because of "the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty" is nonsense. No such obligation has ever existed: not legally, not morally, not diplomatically. We are aware that the notorious "chief negotiator" for one of the two Palestinian Arab statelets, Saeb Erekat, claims it does. But as IMRA explains here, he achieves this only by twisting the plain words of the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum which in reality says something quite different.

So whom are the Jordanians so keen to free? Well, it's a long list, but it includes the man sentenced to the longest term of anyone in the Israeli prison system.

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Refusal to release Pollard causes stalemate in talks to return Abbas to table

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Observation..
28 June '13..

Ma'an, the independent Palestinian news agency, reported this morning that secret talks are being held over the release of pre-Oslo prisoners. PA head Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that 107 Palestinians detained before the Oslo agreement must be released before the PLO will return to negotiations with Israel.

First a technical note: when PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Ma'an the release of prisoners detained before 1993 was part of the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh memorandum and that Israel was obliged to abide by it he was a barefaced liar. And I say bareface liar because, unlike some of his Israeli counterparts, Erekat actually knows the text of the 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh memorandum, and that document in no way obligates Israel to release those prisoners.

If Israel releases these terrorists it is because it decided to do it - not because it is obligated to.

Now let's set the stage:

Here we are with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry going on and on about how important and critical it is for Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table and how we Israelis have to make sacrifices.

And he is pushing us to release the 107 terrorists who carried out crimes against Israel more than two decades ago that were so despicable that they are still in prison today.

So here is the simple question: if U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his boss President Obama genuinely believe that the talks are important, why aren't they willing to make a "sacrifice" themselves?

On Trip #5 Will Kerry Also Be Pushing to Release Terrorists?

P. David Hornik..
FrontPageMag.com..
24 June '13..

Two months ago I reported here that Secretary of State John Kerry was—in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon terror attack—pressuring Israel to release heinous terrorists from prison.

The rationale: such a release was being demanded by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, and would get him to resume peace negotiations with Israel after stonewalling them for four years.

It was reported at the time that the Israeli government was against the idea.

Kerry is set to return to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in late June—his fifth visit since taking office—for yet another round of trying to wheedle and propitiate Abbas into consenting to negotiate with Israel.

And again—at least according to some worried Israeli Knesset members—releasing terrorists may be on the agenda.

On Sunday Israel National News reported that

The Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset…has sprung into action with a new proposal aimed at ending the phenomenon of prime ministers releasing terrorists from prison as a “goodwill gesture.”

…The new proposal comes as rumors abound that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to release roughly 100 terrorists as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Since Israeli prisoner releases have to be approved by the president—currently Shimon Peres—the proposal would deny the president the right to do so except in cases of early releases for humanitarian reasons or releases as part of swaps for captive Israelis.

Remorseless killer of 66 innocents is called 'administrative detainee' and 'captive'. Surprised?

Here's our real concern: how are those traditional sources of limitless empathy for the downtrodden among the murdering class going to respond?

We published this image when a previous hunger strike by terrorists was in the headlines in 2012. We drew a red box around the posters that carry the face of the mass murderer Abdullah Barghouti. But no mainstream news agency even mentioned the way the convicted killer's face was being promoted. For them, the terrorist murderer of 66 innocents was just another prisoner, an administrative detainee.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
21 June '13..

We just came across a report published four days ago under the title "12 prisoners in Israeli jails launch open hunger strike" which spins even further the issue we covered here yesterday (see "20-Jun-13: Abdullah Barghouti, terrorist, bomb-maker, killer of 66 innocents, has some demands")

Gaza: 12 prisoners in Israeli jails including five Jordanians launched an open-ended hunger strike, Prisoners Club(PC) said on Monday. Ten of the hunger striker detainees are protesting administrative detention; among them are five Jordanian and they are: Abdallah Al-Barghouti,Munir Merei, Alaa Hammad, Mohammed Al-Remawi, Hamza Al-Dabbas and other five. There are also two detainees; Husam Matar who continues hunger strike to be identified as a prisoner of war, and Ghassan Olyan who protest being re-arrested after he was released in the swap deal in exchange of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. [Al-Ray]

There's evidently a serious effort underway to further sanitize the repulsive Abdullah Barghouti. They write the name differently from the way most English-speakers would, but that's trivial. Calling him a "Jordanian" "administrative" detainee is not. The remorse-free Kuwaiti psychopath, about whom we have written numerous times, is an admitted mass murderer, convicted on his own confession of 66 acts of homicide, including the murder of our fifteen year-old daughter Malki. In which upside-down world does this qualify him as administrative or a detainee? He is serving 67 life terms behind bars in an Israeli prison.

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Bomb-maker Abdullah Barghouti, terrorist, killer of 66 innocents, has some demands

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
20 June '13..

The Palestinian Arab news agency Ma'an News is reporting that a terrorist, currently serving 67 life terms for his central role in a series of hate-based mass murders, has announced some new demands which he and his lawyer are directing at the government that convicted and imprisoned him.

Abdallah Barghouthi on hunger strike until transfer to Jordan | Published yesterday (updated) 19/06/2013 19:04 | RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Jordanian citizen imprisoned in Israel will not end his hunger strike until he transferred to a Jordanian prison, a lawyer said Thursday. Abdallah Barghouthi, who was transferred to the Haemek Medical Center in Afula in northern Israel, has been on hunger strike since May 2. Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer for the PA Detainee Affairs Ministry, visited Barghouthi and said he was chained to his hospital bed by his legs and his left hand. Prison guards have turned Barghouthi's hospital room "into a kitchen" to harass him, al-Khatib said. They also provoke him by having noisy gatherings in his room. Barghouthi told the lawyer he felt isolated from the world as he is not allowed to receive newspapers or listen to news bulletins. In May, Barghouthi, 41, was taken to the al-Jalameh prison for four days where he was interrogated about his hunger strike, a lawyer from the Addameer prisoner rights organization said. A Palestinian [sic] with Jordanian citizenship, Barghouthi is demanding his release from Israeli prison to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Jordanian jail, under the Wadi Araba agreement between Jordan and Israel. Barghouthi is also demanding that Israel disclose the whereabouts of 20 missing Jordanian prisoners, he told Addameer lawyer Faris Ziyad. Further, he is calling on Israel to remove the bodies of Palestinians who died in Israeli custody from nameless graves. Barghouthi is serving 67 life terms, the highest sentence ever handed down by an Israeli military court. He has been detained since March 2003. A Hamas leader, Barghouthi was convicted of involvement in multiple attacks in Israel.

We almost have sympathy for the people who write the Ma'an news reports. They describe how he is harassed, chained, feels isolated, detained and convicted of involvement in multiple somethings. But Ma'an's editors know that both Hamas and the morally-bankrupt Palestinian Authority of the non-moderate Mahmoud Abbas routinely and publicly call this Barghouti a hero. They bestow honors on him and on his family.

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(+Video) PA TV - Terrorist murderers brought "honor" and "pride" to "all humanity"

Prisoner Faraj Al-Rimawi beat an 84 year-old man to death with a hoe. Prisoner Faiz Abu Ali killed a taxi driver. Both were praised as "heroes" on PA TV. (June 19, 2013)

Itamar Marcus/Nan Jacques Zilberdik..
Palestinian Media Watch..
19 June '13..

One of the conditions set by the Palestinian Authority to return to negotiations with Israel is that Israel release all Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

Palestinian Media Watch documents that the PA as policy honors all prisoners imprisoned for terror crimes against Israel. Recently, official PA TV chose to glorify two such "pre-Oslo" terrorists, both of whom murdered innocent Israeli civilians. The PA TV host of the program dedicated to prisoners Link in a Chain stated that both murderers had brought "honor" and "pride" "to all humanity."

Faraj Saleh Abdallah Al-Rimahi, who is serving a life sentence for beating an 84 year-old Israeli to death with a hoe in 1992, was coined a "giant hero" by the PA TV host. The host continued:

"Our hero, Faraj Al-Rimahi, is still writing the finest epics of endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice..."

The PA TV host referred to Ibrahim Faiz Abu Ali, who is serving a life sentence for murdering a 24 year-old Israeli taxi driver in 1992, as "the hero prisoner." The editors of the program also chose to include words of praise by the terrorist's mother:

"By Allah, he is good, good. Ibrahim is honorable and a man. He's never harmed his Muslim brother, never harmed a neighbor, never harmed any person..."

The great ideological and religious importance prisoners have

If Israel would like to end Arab terrorism, the way to do it is by removing the incentives, not by making it pay.

Arab child is inspired by his
‘heroes’, imprisoned terrorists (2009)

Fresnozionism.org..
11 June '13..

One of today’s PLO preconditions for negotiation with Israel — they change frequently — is for a release of “all Palestinian prisoners.” For example, the Times of Israel reported today that

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year offered to free 50 Palestinian security prisoners who have been held since before the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, in a bid to get Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come back to the peace table, The Times of Israel has learned.

However, Abbas rejected the offer.

Today, a senior Palestinian official told The Times of Israel, the Palestinians might agree to renew talks with Israel if Netanyahu releases all 107 of the pre-Oslo veterans still in jail, most of whom have blood on their hands.

The Prime Minister’s Office had no comment on the matter.

It’s important to understand that these demands are more than just an attempt by the PLO to get a concession from Israel without giving anything in return (although it is assuredly that).

Although the Arabs and their supporters will refer to these individuals as ‘political prisoners’, they have by and large been convicted of serious violent crimes, especially including murder. They are not imprisoned simply for their politics.

Unsurprising and “traditional” that freeing terrorists is seen as the way to propitiate Abbas

P. David Hornik..
frontpagemag.com..
26 April '13..



It may seem amazing, but in the wake of the Boston attack the Obama administration is pressuring Israel to free terrorists guilty of particularly heinous acts of murder.

On Wednesday the Knesset “discussed America’s demand that Israel release terrorists as a good will gesture to the Palestinian Authority.” The demand is part of intensive efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a peace settlement—efforts that are amazing in their own right considering that the Palestinian Authority has consistently shown for 20 years that it is incapable of accepting Israel and not interested in a state “living in peace” beside it.

Kerry—with Iran at the brink of a nuclear capability, Syria a maelstrom of clashing terror factions, Egypt close to economic collapse, and North Korea threatening nuclear aggression—has in recent weeks been meeting with PA president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Riyadh, Amman, and Istanbul.

Abbas’s preconditions for resuming negotiations are the same as they have been for years: Israel committing beforehand to a withdrawal to indefensible borders, prohibiting Jewish building in Judea, Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem, and releasing terrorists from prison. Israel is reportedly, at this point, rejecting all these demands.

The Obama administration is also “preparing a multi-billion dollar economic initiative that would bring international businesses and major infrastructure projects to the West Bank”—again, nothing essentially new but, rather, part of a 20-year tradition of Israeli, U.S., and European efforts to bribe the Palestinians into adopting Western norms and practices of peace, prosperity, and tolerance.

Meanwhile the terrorists the U.S. is pushing Israel to release include the killers of:

● Amnon Pomerantz, stoned by a mob in Gaza in 1990 and then burned to death in his car

● Yigal Vaknin, stabbed to death in an orchard in 1993

● Rachel Weiss and her three young sons Ephraim, Netanel, and Raphael, all burned to death in a firebomb attack on a bus in the Jordan Valley in 1988.

● Menachem Stern, a 64-year-old acclaimed historian stabbed to death in Jerusalem in 1989

Why convicted Palestinian Arab terrorist prisoners need to be set free - Three compelling reasons

From 2012 Palestinian Prisoners' Day: The prisoner in the
poster on theright is Abdullah Barghouti. See background here
and here about the man and his monstrous crimes [Image Source]

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
18 April '13..








Yesterday was Palestinian Prisoners' Day:

Palestinians across the territories attended marches and rallies Wednesday as a show of solidarity with prisoners from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza held in Israeli facilities. Some 3,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails on Wednesday refused breakfast as part of a one-day hunger strike to mark Prisoners' Day, an Israeli prison official said. [Al Akhbar English, Beirut]

The number of Palestinian Arab prisoners in Israeli jails is estimated by the ultra-left Israeli political pressure group B’Tselem at 4,713. It's a number widely quoted in the media today. So too are the public events that were held to draw attention to the day.

Speaking of prisoner numbers, a different news report also from yesterday describes the close ties that bind prisoners from Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other splinter factions inside Israeli jails. Outside prison, they murder each other, but their shared hatred for everything Israeli ensures that they find a modus vivendi while serving their time. The article mentions in passing that out of the total population of incarcerated Palestinian Arab prisoners, no fewer than 2,325 have “blood on their hands” or were involved in acts of violence against Israeli soldiers. 550 of them are serving life terms; this is not for parking offences.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.

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Dear Harriet - They were convicted for their involvement in deadly terror attacks.

Adam Levick..
CiF Watch..
10 April '13..

Harriet Sherwood’s April 9 report, about recent efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, included several passages about concessions demanded of Israel by Mahmoud Abbas before he will agree to resume negotiations.

Ahead of a three-hour session with Kerry on Tuesday morning, Netanyahu stated that he was “determined not only to resume the peace process with the Palestinians, but to make a serious effort to end this conflict once and for all”.

But he has refused to meet the Palestinians’ key precondition of freezing settlement expansion, although it is thought that Israel may avoid announcing any new construction projects in the coming weeks.

The Palestinians also want the release of 123 political prisoners who have been in jail since before the Oslo accords were signed almost 20 years ago, and for Israel to present a map showing proposed borders. [emphasis added]

However, according to reports, most of the 123 Palestinians she’s alluding to (whose release Abbas has been demanding since last year), were convicted for their involvement in deadly terror attacks. Sherwood’s characterization of the 123 Palestinians as “political prisoners” – suggesting that they were imprisoned merely for their beliefs – is not true.

(Continue)

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He is about to throw a bottle of homemade napalm directly at you

Fresnozionism.org..
05 April 13..

Most ordinary Americans are sympathetic to Israel. This is actually surprising, when you consider what the media pushes at them, day after day. For example, this morning my local Fresno Bee newspaper contained part of an article from the NY Times headlined “Palestinians Erupt in anger at Israel,” which began like this:

JERUSALEM — Days before Secretary of State John Kerry’s return to the region, anger and defiance continued to flare across the West Bank on Thursday as Palestinians buried two teenagers killed by Israeli soldiers during protests triggered by the death of a prisoner with cancer while in Israeli custody. …

Clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths hurling stones and firebombs erupted there and in other West Bank locations for the third straight day, as Palestinian leaders accused Israel of escalating tensions in order to thwart Washington’s efforts.

“It seems that Israel wants to spark chaos in the Palestinian territories,” President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority told leaders of his Fatah faction at a meeting in Ramallah. “Israel on every occasion is using lethal force against peaceful young protesters, and peaceful demonstrations are being suppressed with the power of weapons. This is not acceptable at all.”

Although firebombs are mentioned, the Times article does not mention that the two “youths” (aged 17 and 18) who were killed were shot while throwing them at soldiers until the 17th paragraph. The excerpt in the Fresno Bee only included the first 8, so local readers did not get the benefit of even this:

The Israeli military said that the youths were hurling firebombs at an army post late Wednesday, and that soldiers responded with live fire; it is investigating the episode.

Here is another account of the incident, from Arutz Sheva, a right-wing Israeli source:

IDF soldiers opened fire on Wednesday night at two terrorists who approached an IDF position near the community of Einav in northern Samaria.

As the two terrorists approached the soldiers, they hurled a firebomb at them. The soldiers returned fire, killing one terrorist and wounding the other.

Personally, I prefer the second version. But even the first is better than the description of the “peaceful young protesters” presented by Mahmoud Abbas, which is all that Fresno Bee readers saw.