Prisoner Release

Israeli government authorities are adamant; they will not surrender West Bank settlements to the satisfaction of the Palestinians, nor do they intend to pass on authorizing the increase of new homes to be built in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Under pressure from Washington and John Kerry, President Obama's new peripatetic, sunnily energetic Secretary of State, there had to be some token of 'goodwill' extended to the Palestinian Authority to entice them back to bargaining, and shutting down new-home building was not the one.

Despite President Mahmoud Abbas's continued insistence that no talks would be forthcoming without the cessation of new settlement building. Of course, when Israel had agreed to put a halt to the building plans on an earlier occasion that hiatus did not result in a resumption of peace talks, either. On the other hand, threats to cut off needed operational funding for the nascent Palestinian state-in-waiting represented a powerful persuasive. And since the government of Israel, in response to its existential need and its peoples' outcry wants desperately to achieve a peace agreement something had to give.

Give seasoned murderers back their freedom. Seen as a preferential choice to additional building permits for settlements. All those thousands of Palestinian prisoners that have been returned in exchange for a Jewish body, dead or alive, as a symbol of 'goodwill'. What goodwill is there toward those whose purpose is to maim, to incite terror, to kill and achieve revenge, martyrdom and celebrity in this life and the next?

To witness with bitterness the ceremonial elevation to hero-status of those who have massacred women and children in public squares, on buses, in cafes and malls, walk unscathed in 'exchanges' to provide 'goodwill', as the Palestinian Authority and Fatah name them as heroes of the Resistance. And name squares and streets and public monuments in their honour. This, then is the good faith evinced by the Palestinian Authority claiming to be prepared to live side by side in sovereign states.

Of course there had been in the past ample opportunity for peace to have been achieved. For trade-offs of substance to be agreed upon, for borders to be set, and for restitution to be given in exchange for 'return', for carving out parts of each side's territory so that Palestinians and Jews would reside within their very own borders. And the thorny issue of Jerusalem settled, though it would take a true Solomonic solution to achieve.

Behind all the discussions, the cross-table bargaining, one internationally respected peace negotiator for the Palestinians, Dr. Saeb Erekat. Dr. Erekat cut his teeth on negotiating for none other than Yasser Arafat in 2000 at Camp David, and a year later in Taba. This distinguished diplomat, also a member of the Palestinian parliament, earned a doctorate in Peace and Conflict Studies at Bradford University in England. What greater credentials could be accrued to the man's reputation?

Well, perhaps coming even marginally close up to closure on this vital issue that the Middle East and the international community has focused on so intensely over the past 60 years. That would do it. He may feel pretty good about extracting the concession of freeing 104 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli incarceration as penalty for violent criminal acts, but his elation is not shared by Israelis who view it dishearteningly.

"Let my hand be cut off should I vote in favour of releasing terrorists" -- no other country would ever agree "to release murderers as a gift", said Naftali Bennett, Israeli minister of trade, and head of the Jewish Home Party. As for the minister of transport, Israel Katz, another parliamentarian who voted against the freeing of Palestinian prisoners: "I am against releasing murderous terrorists. It encourages terror."

Just so.

But speak to Dr. Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, and you hear that the release is one that is long overdue. And with its effective results, he would work for the freedom of all "our political prisoners". Dr. Erekat is credited with accusing Israel of killing 500 Palestinian civilians in the 2002 IDF attack on the Jenin refugee camp, identified as a base for terrorists. An ensuing United Nations investigation reached the conclusion that 52 Palestinians had died, most of them combatants.

Among the dead were 23 Israeli soldiers. And although Dr. Erekat was denounced for his chicanery of truly disgusting proportions all was forgiven; his status as an eminent peacemaker remained sturdily in place. He was chief Palestinian negotiator during the creation of the Oslo Accord, deputy head of the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid Conference, and signed up later for the 2007 Annapolis Conference.

And he's back in the game for the current Kerry Round.

As observed by the deputy defence minister of Israel, chair of the Likud Party's central Committee, Danny Danon, Dr. Erekat has taken part in endless talks with Israeli counterparts, despite which he "has not brought the Palestinians even one inch closer to peaceful existence with Israel."  "Lunacy" is how Mr. Danon speaks of the most recent prisoner release.