Justice and the Release of Terrorists

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Justice is no longer at home in Israel, and if it is not restored, the Jews will lose this land.

Aside from very rare exceptions, justice is trampled when Israeli prime ministers release Arab terrorists. Prima facie, this is not only a violation of Jewish law; it is also a violation of international law, as brilliantly demonstrated by Purdue University professor of political science and international law Rene Louis Beres. Terrorists must be punished.

Arab terrorists have murdered or maimed thousands of Jewish men, women, and children. Yet thousands of these terrorists have been released by Israeli prime ministers, including Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert. Many of the released terrorists have predictably gone on to murder more Jews. Although there may be exceptional occasions when it would not be inconsistent with Jewish law and justice to release terrorists to save Jewish lives, such occasions should be distinguished from the release of terrorists as a “good will” or “confidence-building” gesture in the so-called peace process. The latter is yielding to evil. It is also a fraud, confirmed year after year since Oslo 1993, a fraud perpetrated by Israeli prime ministers trapped in a labyrinth of their own making.

These prime ministers have betrayed our Jewish dead. They have betrayed the soldiers who died fighting in the cause of Israel. They have sold their moral judgment to evil-doers like Yasser Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas.

By releasing terrorists and even murderers, Israeli prime ministers have murdered the sense of justice, and justice is being buried in the process . What is the significance of this state of affairs?

To the extent that justice has been murdered in Israel, then to that extent Israel is forfeiting its right to exist. This axiomatic principle takes precedence over any other consideration. Right-minded people will accomplish nothing until they restore the sense of justice in this country. But to do this they must arouse the moral outrage and condemn those who have murdered justice by releasing Arab murderers. One should not be polite in this matter. Those who release terrorists are themselves prima facie criminals, in some cases accessories to murder.

Releasing Arab terrorists as a “good will measure” is not only immoral; it is an act of stupidity bordering on madness, and madness—triggered either by cowardice and perverse cleverness—seems to have invaded Israel’s political echelon.

If, God-forbid, your loved-ones are murdered by a released Arab terrorist who had previously been given an M-16 rifle under orders of the Minister of Defense as directed by the Prime Minister, then the two are accomplices to murder. The Prime Minister may say: “I was adhering to the terms of the Oslo agreement and acting for the sake of peace.” But no agreement that rewards terrorists is valid.

Besides, it was evident from the outset, except to fools, that Yasser Arafat did not want peace. He even declared, “For us, peace means the destruction of Israel!”

So what shall we think of prime ministers that consorted with this villain or Mahmoud Abbas? What shall we think of those that foisted the “peace process” on the people of Israel—have lied to them again and again over the past 18 years about this peace process? Is it not obvious that these prime ministers lacked the wisdom and courage to deal effectively with Israel’s enemies? Did not the Prophet Isaiah say: “I will give children to be your rulers”?

So what should right-minded people say and do when their prime ministers mislead and betray them? What should right-minded people say and do when their prime ministers talk peace and arm the enemies of peace? What should they say and do if, for example, prime minister Netanyahu may release Arab terrorists to induce Abbas to return to the “negotiating table”—although, bear in mind that that the release of terrorists may be crafted to occur some period after the resumption of negotiations to mislead the public!

First, every critic and protester of the Oslo “peace process” should ask: “Does my criticism or protest go to the heart of the matter? Does it vividly expose and denounce those who have betrayed our dead? Does it admonish our people that justice has been murdered by six Israeli prime ministers, and that justice must be restored in the Land of Israel if we are not to be expelled from this land by our ever-encroaching enemies?”

Second, the critics and protesters should ask: “What enables these prime ministers and members of their cabinet to gain and remain in power despite their timidity and incompetence? Is there something fundamentally wrong with Israel’s system of education—some teaching or doctrine like moral relativism that erodes the sense of justice?”

Third, the critics and protesters should ask: “Is there something wrong with Israel’s system of governance, something that undermines personal accountability and the rule of law?”

Finally, the critics and protesters should ask: “Was the State of Israel, notwithstanding its great accomplishments, ill-designed both from an institutional and Jewish perspective? Were the political Zionists that established this state lacking vital aspects of political wisdom? And if this is the case—and despite the present turmoil—should we not begin to think about reconstructing the State of Israel using time-tested political principles?”

One last word. Justice is not only a moral virtue. Justice requires a proper distribution of power between governors and the governed.

As I have elsewhere shown, Israel’s system of governance has effectively disempowered the people of Israel, who have had nothing to say about releasing Arab terrorists and murderers. Israel’s ruling elites have thus been able to ignore the will of the people with impunity and to murder justice in the process.◘

___________

For more by the writer, whose expertise is “how to make Israel more democratic by Jewish principles, and how to make Israel more Jewish by democratic principles", see Israel-America Renaissance Institute www.I-ari.org