Justice Minister Tzipi Livni wears two additional hats which, in the context of this story give her the ability to kill a Jewish Home initiative that on its face appears rather reasonable. MK Orit Struk has offered the bill for deliberation at the ministerial committee on legislation. The gist of it is:
No prisoner with blood on his hands may be released as part of the political process.
On its face, the new law would free future prime ministers from the insanity of the Gilad Shalit campaign, when the government capitulated to the mob and let go of prisoners who were responsible, altogether, for the murder of some 600 Jewish victims, men, women and children – in return for an Israeli hostage.
As has become evident, the Israeli capitulation, spearheaded by Netanyahu, has encouraged the other side to invest millions in new attempts to kidnap Israelis – including, most notably, digging up “terror tunnels” equipped with tracks for the quick removal of abducted Israelis back into Gaza.
Having a law on the books that prohibits this shameful negotiations with terrorists, and nipping in the bud any future attempt to release deadly prisoners back into the wild, makes perfect sense to anyone who gives half a hoot about the victims of Arab murderers. But the new bill will not even be discussed in today’s meeting of the ministerial legislation committee, much less be offered to the Knesset at large.
Remember the two additional hats worn by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni? well, one of them is of chief Israeli negotiator to the peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. As part of these talks, Israel has already let go of several hundred Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were nearing their release date anyway, others who have been diagnosed with a variety of illnesses.
Now, as part of the Tzipi Livni-Saeb Erakat negotiations, Israel is expected to release 32 veteran prisoners this coming Tuesday. The names of the 32 long-term prisoners will be announced today, Sunday, so that anyone opposing their release will have about 24 hours to research how much Jewish blood is dripping from their hands, demonstrate late Monday night in front of this or that official government building and the killers go free. Nice, clean, efficient.
So Tzipi Livni needs a law that says she can’t do that like she needs a hole in the head. But you can’t say “hole in the head” in Israel, because it sounds like a call to murder – Tzipi’s number 2 in the Movement (HaTnuah in Hebrew), Minister Amir (looking through the capped binoculars) Peretz, has been suggesting that there’s a quick and slippery slope between some 17-year-old in some moshav up north spitting on MK Elazar Stern and the wholesale assassinations of Tzipi Livni, Stern, and, possibly, himself, Peretz.
If you don’t know it already, what Peretz is doing is milking the Yitzhak Rabin hysteria cow for all the sour milk it would give. And around this time of the year, when Israel’s left commemorates the Rabin assassination on the Hebrew date, then on the general calendar date, and then on all the dates in between, the art of Rabinizing absolutely every expression that challenges the left is blossoming. The logic goes: you object to the peace process – Yigal Amir objected to the peace process – Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin – you are an assassin.
Of course, Amir Peretz is more likely to be the victim of mischief, because of the capped binoculars…
On with our Israeli Political Science 101 lecture this morning: so you’ve seen already how Tzipi Livni has a clear conflict of interest when it comes to the new legislation regarding the release of killer Arabs. What you didn’t know, possibly, was that her third hat is that of Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation. Meaning that she decides which legislation should be entertained by the committee and hence by the Knesset, and which legislation should never see the light of day.