Yes, you can make a change ** Several years ago before I entered public life I, like many others, was frustrated about the fact that Israel releases terrorists. I could not understand why Israel would do something so immoral. ** As a child, I grew up on stories like Operation Thunderbolt/Entebbe/Yonatan, the Sabena flight, the Savoy hotel and kidnapping of Syrian officers to release soldiers and civilians. As a fighter, I remember Sayeret Matkal’s attempt at releasing Nachshon Wachsman z”l. Nir Poraz, a year above me in the unit, was killed in that mission. The State of Israel had a simple rule: We do not negotiate with terrorists. ** Somehow, over the last thirty years Israeli governments have deteriorated, step by step, into the abyss of shame. It started out as a terrorist for a soldier. Then: Hundreds of terrorists for a soldier. Then: Hundreds of terrorists in exchange for a soldiers body. Then: Hundreds of terrorists in exchange for nothing. ** It was determined that there is nothing to be done. That “this is the way it goes”. The Netanyahu government established a special committee to examine the issue (Shamgar Commission) but shelved the results. Yes. That is the way it goes. ** Now we begin to reverse the trend. A month ago, hours before reaching an agreement on releasing Israeli Arab terrorists, I released a statement that I would withdraw Bayit Yehudi from the government if Israeli citizen terrorists are released. This involved a real risk of leaving the government, and we were prepared to pay that price. Following our move, the deal to release murderers with Israeli citizenship prevented. ** Today, we went a step further: The government passed a decision to support a law that would allow imprisonment with a life sentence without parole. Despite the strong objections of certain factions in the government - it passed. ** This is a huge lesson for me – when we are determined and right, we can change the trajectory of the entire country. Politics can be a wonderful thing that can be used to fix the state. ** I do not know what the meaning of new politics is, and I have never used this term. For me, politics is public power that is promoting proper values. Today we have shown how political means can be used for good for the people of Israel. ** This is just the beginning. The proposed law would only apply to murderers who have not yet been sentenced. We still need to apply it to the terrorists who are residents of Judea and Samaria. There are more clauses I would like to add as well. ** However, we are not that far away from the day where we can say: The Israeli government will not release terrorist murderers.
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 21:10:39 +0000
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