For the umpteenth time I’m blogging that I am in favor the death penalty, capital punishment for Arab terrorists who murder and attempt to murder Jews. I don’t believe in giving them “second chances.” If we had that in our Israeli Laws, then there wouldn’t be this horrendously dangerous and weakening situation of convicted Arab terrorist murderers being released.
Israel names 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in 48 hours
All were convicted of murder, including brutal killings such as 1990 Rosh Hashanah lynch of IDF reservist in Gaza; 21 inmates are from West Bank, 5 from Gaza.
I also must say “I told you so” to all of those who voted not only the ruling Likud-Beitenu but for Naftali Bennett’s NRP aka Jewish Home Party. For as many elections as I’ve been blogging, such as all of those Knesset elections in the past decade plus, I’ve warned everyone who reads my blog that the Likud isn’t a reliably Right party and that all parties in the coalition must obey coalition discipline and even ministers don’t have a say/vote in policy decisions.
When I got home from work yesterday afternoon and turned on the news I kept hearing the top Likud ministers chastising Bennett and his MKs for publicly voicing their opposition to government policy. This was all so easy to predict. The Likud is correct in complaining about Bennett. Bennett signed a contract to abide by government decisions.
A Cabinet committee unsurprisingly defeated on Sunday a motion by the Jewish Home to propose a bill that would prevent the government from freeing heavy-duty terrorists. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted 8-5 against the proposal, with Likud, Yesh Atid and Livni’s HaTunah party minsters opposing it and Jewish Home and Yisrael Beiteinu ministers voting for it. With Justice Minister Tzipi Livni heading the committee, the bill had no chance. Click here to understand how she wears three hats, all of them oversized. Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, a senior Likud member and a close aide to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, characteristically played the role of a sore winner and told Jewish Home Minister Uri Orbach, “If you don’t like it, you can resign.” Sa’ar berated the Jewish Home for daring to propose a bill that would have gone against government policy. Livni was even cruder with her snipe that the government does not act on the orders “of the rabbis in the West Bank.” (Read more in Jewish Home Punched Out in Losing Bid to Keep Terrorists Jailed)
The decisions aren’t made by polling all coalition MKs, or even all of the government ministers. This is nothing new, nor was it a secret before the elections and coalition negotiations. Not to bore you, but I did post that innumerable times. It doesn’t matter or help or change things that Moshe Feiglin is now a Likud MK or that Tzippi Hotobelli is Deputy Minister of Transportation and Road Safety and NRP’s Bennett is in the cabinet. They have absolutely no influence. Their job, paid job, is to back Bibi’s government.
And please don’t try your scare-mongering on me claiming that it would be worse if Tsippi Livni or another Leftist was Prime Minister. I’ve been observing Israeli governments and politics for almost half a century, and I’ve seen the Likud in all positions and guises. Israel’s only Land withdrawals, Sinai and Disengagement, were under Likud Governments. The Left wouldn’t dare with a strong Right opposition. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is always best when pushed to the wall. That’s where I want him, not in power.
The present Israeli Government is promoting policies far to the Left, and that’s the truth.
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