Israel Matzav: An act of staggering stupidity

An act of staggering stupidity

David Keyes discusses a trade that took place two weeks ago that has not gotten enough attention.

An act of staggering stupidity and jaw-dropping moral vapidity is the only way to describe Israel’s release of 20 Palestinian prisoners — 14 of whom are guilty of attempted murder — in exchange for a proof-of-life video of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Any child would recognize the perversity of freeing 14 would-be murderers in return for a videotape. And yet Israeli leaders have taken pride in this supposedly humane decision. What utter nonsense. Exchanging terrorists for a videotape is not kindness — it is cruelty. Not only because it provides perfect incentive for future kidnappings, but also because released terrorists so often return to terrorize and kill again.

You will pardon me if this sounds personal. It is. On September 8, 2003, I sat in Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem for several hours with friends. Twenty-four hours later, a suicide bomber walked in and blew himself up, killing seven civilians. I was down the street when the roar of the bomb shook the ground beneath me. I will never forget that moment. The bomber, Ramez Sali Abu Salim, had been released by Israel just seven months earlier. One of the key planners of the attack, Louei Raad Barghouti, had been freed in August 2003.

Let's stop right there.

Two of the people killed in that terror attack were Dr. David Appelbaum and his daughter Navah HY"D (may God avenge their blood). Dr. Appelbaum, who was a contemporary of Mrs. Carl's brother at the Skokie yeshiva outside of Chicago, founded the specialty of emergency medicine, ran the emergency room at Shaare Zedek hospital and founded a chain of emergency clinics in and around Jerusalem called Terem.

Navah was an elementary school classmate of my eldest daughter. Navah was to be married the next night.

The pain of the Shalit family is unimaginable, but that is no excuse for freeing more than a dozen attempted murderers. It is a statistical fact that more families will lose their sons and daughters because of this decision.

Indeed.

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: An act of staggering stupidity