The Netanyahu PR strategy of combining the release of 26 Palestinian murderers from prison with new housing construction in Judea and Samaria—some of it outside the “cluster of settlements”—is meeting resistance inside his coalition government, in addition to the cold reception of the leftist and Arab opposition parties.
Minister of Science and Technology Yaakov Perry, a former head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said on Friday night that “this is an erroneous move, which only hurts the bereaved families. What good would this construction do them?”
Of course, to use that logic, Israel should not act at all against terrorism, because nothing it would do could possibly bring back the Jewish victims.
Regarding the American attempt to reach a breakthrough in the negotiations, Perry described the effort as “unprecedented.” He hinted at the possibility that Israel would have to evacuate between 15 and 25 percent of the Jews residing in Judea and Samaria. That’s roughly between 100 and 150 thousand Jews.
If you’re a betting person, put your money in moving companies…
Perry suggested the construction effort, which he objects to in the first place, should be focused on those settlement clusters in the lucky 75% of the land.
Efficient and compassionate.
Perry was the head of Israel’s internal security, from 1988 to 1994, the years of the first Intifada—which he failed to predict and failed to suppress. He also failed to prevent the Oslo deal, when leftist Israeli politicians were meeting, unauthorized, in secret with enemy agents against state law.
Perry’s claim to fame before his appointment to the top job was that, as the service’s coordinator he provided aid to then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan when the latter conducted illegal archaeological digs in Judea and Samaria, robbing the state and the Jewish nation of rare treasures.
Part of his military service was as trumpet player in the IDF Orchestra.
Unlike the previous two groups of prisoners, these men all have Jewish blood on their hands, some from a distance, others stood there and relished the sight of their dying victims—mostly civilians, many of them mothers with their children.
The release has been postponed to Monday, for some unknown reason—on a request by the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking to the organization Stand with Us, which opposes the delegitimization of Israel abroad, Perry said letting go of the killers is “painful to the entire Israeli society, and to me, personally. but because of the opportunity to proceed towards a historic move, we accepted the position of some government ministers.”
Perry, who is part of the limited group of ministers dealing with terrorist prisoner releases, was probably referring to Netanyahu, who preferred to accept releases that coincided with construction, rather than again freeze construction in Judea and Samaria.