Soccer Dad

Disturbing the peace process

Apparently Ariel Sharon is disturbing the peace process:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) accused the Palestinians of doing little to combat "terror", adding a note of discord to an otherwise positive atmosphere ahead of next week's peace summit.
"The Palestinian side hasn't done a thing except to deploy its forces in Gaza before taking significant steps in the war on terror," Sharon said in a telephone conversation with his Norwegian counterpart Kjell Magne Bondevik, details of which were released by his office.

So Sharon's statement, not Palestinian non-compliance is the problem.
In a related note the planned Israeli release of 900 convicts is apparently not enough:

The prisoner issue is one of the most emotionally charged on the Israeli-Palestinian agenda, and a large-scale release would boost Abbas' efforts to negotiate an end to the armed Palestinian uprising.

Israel holds more than 7,000 Palestinians prisoners, many of them arrested in the current round of fighting.

Palestinian officials have complained that Israel's decision to release 900 prisoners is insufficient. They are pushing for the immediate release of some 400 prisoners convicted before 1993, when Israel and the PLO signed a mutual recognition agreement.

Hisham Abdel Razek, Palestinian Cabinet minister in charge of prisoner issues, said that if Israel does not ease its criteria, it could hurt Abbas.

Yes it's emotionally charge. But does it help the cause of peace?
IMRA tells us:

Israel Radio defense correspondent Carmella Menashe reported this morning that there is wall-to-wall opposition in the Shabak (ISS) to large prisoner releases.

Opposition includes not only the senior officials but also the people working in the field.

The Shabak officials cite two major consequences of the release program:

A decline in deterrence: terrorists considering action will assume that if they are caught that they can expect to be released in a future round of releases rather than remain behind bars.
A significant increase in skill level of the terrorists in the field: the terrorists receive considerable training from their colleagues during the course of their time in prison in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks. Israel's experience with past releases is that the released terrorists substantially strengthened and improved the ability of the terror groups they returned to carry out attacks against Israel.

The Shabak officials warn that the release would mean that the Herculean efforts of the Shabak to capture the terrorists would be for naught and suggest that Israel wait to see what happens with PA compliance before taking this step.

The reason that prisoner releases are so important is because they're part of the Palestinian effort to whitewash their crimes against Israel. So they say that these releases are important. Israel then is in a quandary. Oppose the releases and oppose "peace." Or give in.
Another possibility would be for Israel document how many released terrorists returned to terror. Alas it seems that Israel's main consideration is to avoid being seen as obstinate, regardless of the conseqences.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at February 7, 2005 4:13 AM