Let’s free all prisoners

Op-ed: No need to risk our troops in operations to nab terrorists who will be freed later

Adi Mintz|Published: 10.16.11 , 11:45

I propose a simple idea that is commensurate with the Israeli psyche: The State of Israel shall release all 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held in our jails, including the murderers. Anyone who took part in nabbing the killers and risked their lives while detaining terrorists can breathe a sigh of relief now. No more. IDF troops and Shin Bet agents shall no longer have to risk their lives in pursuing terrorists. It will simply be unnecessary.

The Shin Bet can be cut back. It will continue to engage in counter-terror operations: Identifying explosive labs, neutralizing terrorists en route to carry out an attack, and possibly surgical strikes (should Obama and Goldstone permit it.) Yet the Shin Bet will no longer have to engage in locating and detaining the killers. We would also be able to spare our army commanders the festive trips to the parents of victims in order to inform them that the person who killed their loved one was nabbed; the same murderer who will be released after completing a university degree in prison.

Shalit Swap

Victims murdered again

Kobi Kimchi

Op-ed: Son of terror victim says Shalit deal boosts terrorists, hurts terror fatalities again

Victims murdered again

A former Golani commander wrote over the weekend about leading an operation where he jeopardized his soldiers in order to nab a top terrorist. The commander wrote that he was proud to have risked his fighters’ lives because they detained a terrorist now used to secure Gilad’s release. Dear commander, let’s spare human life and put an end to the mad cycle of terrorist arrests, the abduction of troops, and the release of killers.

This solution shall have a positive effect on the state budget. Holding the terrorists in prison produces an immense economic burden on Israeli society, and now the demands for “social justice” will finally be offered a supplement of billions of shekels per year.

Next Gilad Shalit

The big loser would of course be the Open University, which receives hundreds of new prisoner students every year, teaches them, and grants them degrees. There are some PhD students already among the prisoners, yet the mechanism that would allow them to become professors has not yet been developed. This idea, which I’ve been entertaining for a while now, would finally be ready for implementation in the days after Gilad Shalit’s release.

Mass murderer Khaled Mashaal delivered a long speech Tuesday evening that was simultaneously translated by Israeli media outlets (there is no doubt this night marked our media’s “finest hour.”) In his speech he informed all the 8,000 killers still in prison that they shall soon be released as well. He knows what he’s talking about – he did not utter the explicit words, but look around you and you shall see the next Gilad Shalit.

Can anyone around here imagine an Israeli prime minister with a spine who would be able to face the next captive’s family? Let’s take preventative action; we shall surprise terrorist leaders and release them ourselves.

Let’s spare ourselves the abduction of the next Gilad Shalit. We shall also save human lives. After all, it is not always possible to nab captives alive, and at times soldiers are killed during the attempt, as happened in Gilad’s case. Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who were abducted to Lebanon, were also killed during the abduction attempt. Isn’t it a pity to waste human lives? If there are no terrorists in jail, there would be no need to kidnap soldiers.

By the way, while at it we can also significantly cut back our military. We already have a separation fence which protects us against terrorist infiltration, and we have the terrorist army (known as Dayton’s forces) that “safeguards us” (the Judea and Samaria Battalion Commander already begged Congress to keep funding the dressed up killers and was even interviewed on the subject by the New York Times.) We have Arrow missiles that protect us against ballistic missiles, and we also have Iron Dome, which protects us against rockets.

Yet what will happen once they kidnap a soldier and demand east Jerusalem’s liberation in return?