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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Frimet Roth</title>
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		<title>Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere: A Mother’s Plea</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frimet-roth/injustice-anywhere-is-a-threat-to-justice-everywhere-a-mothers-plea/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=injustice-anywhere-is-a-threat-to-justice-everywhere-a-mothers-plea</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/frimet-roth/injustice-anywhere-is-a-threat-to-justice-everywhere-a-mothers-plea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:55:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frimet Roth]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Netanyahu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prisoner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[release]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sbarro]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorist]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=222474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The immorality of releasing Palestinian murderers from prison. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/F131028YS45-e1383004378639-635x357.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-222475" alt="F131028YS45-e1383004378639-635x357" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/F131028YS45-e1383004378639-635x357-450x313.jpg" width="315" height="219" /></a>One oppressively hot August morning, my daughter Malki set off with her best friend Michal to decorate with welcome signs the bedroom of another friend returning from vacation.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Afterward, Malki called me to say that she and Michal were heading to the city center. There she would catch a bus to a summer camp counselors&#8217; meeting in another Jerusalem suburb. &#8220;I love you&#8221; we told each other – as we usually ended our conversations. It promised to be a day of giving and sharing like every day was for Malki.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Thirteen years later, I still love her and pine for her dreadfully. But now, the only way for me to express that is to seek justice for her murder. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Because that same hot August morning another young woman, Ahlam Tamimi, set off on a very different type of mission. A twenty year old self-described journalism student, she took two weapons &#8211; a 10 kg. bomb and an eager suicide bomber. They proceeded to the Sbarro pizza restaurant which Tamimi had scouted days earlier. Jewish women and children frequent it at lunchtime and Tamimi liked that. As this embodiment of evil would later brag, she hungered for child victims and the more the better.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Malki and Michal had detoured from their intended route to eat there too. They were among the fifteen men, women and children who perished in the explosion.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Today, Malki and Michal lie buried side by side, while their murderer, who smiled happily to learn her tally of dead children, is free and thriving in Jordan. She frequently travels in the Arab world to incite adoring crowds to follow in her footsteps. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In my country, my husband and I are not welcome to decry this. Parents of murdered children are hailed as heroes when they declare that they want the murderer to go unpunished. Whether for the sake of a prisoner “swap,” to prolong the negotiations with the PA or, as the cliche goes, “to promote peace.” Waiving our right to justice is considered the noble, patriotic thing to do. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Our quest for justice, for a life sentence for Tamimi – there is no capital punishment here – has invited accusations that we are merely vengeful.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Yet nothing will convince us that freeing murderers is an acceptable, integral part of any peace process.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Malki’s murderer was released in October 2011, the beneficiary of </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/2011/10/19-oct-11-haaretz-shalit-prisoner-swap.html">another terrorists-walk-free deal</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. Some would say we should have learned to live with that reality.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Yet, with each release of terrorist murderers &#8211; tried, convicted and unrepentant &#8211; my government thrusts a fresh dagger into my heart and conveys the message again and again: &#8220;Your child was not </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">really</i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> murdered. And your child&#8217;s killer does not </span><i style="line-height: 1.5em;">really </i><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">deserve to be punished.&#8221; </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">True, my leaders have been subjected to inordinate pressure to free terrorist murderers from the West, and in particular, from the US. Threats and rewards have been dangled before prime minister Bibi Netanyahu to elicit from him a travesty of justice that they themselves would never consider.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">We saw that hypocrisy in sharp relief when terrorists who had not even been tried yet but were strongly suspected of murders of American soldiers were recently released from Afghani prisons. The United States government was outraged. The US embassy criticized the releases as &#8220;</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://kabul.usembassy.gov/st-021314.html">deeply regrettable</a>,&#8221;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> a move that could lead to further violence in Afghanistan. The US military in Afghanistan </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/13/afghanistan-releases-65-accused-militants-despite-american-protest/">warned</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> that “release of these dangerous individuals poses a threat to U.S., Coalition and Afghan National Security Forces, as well as the Afghan population”.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It is a tight spot into which our prime minister has been rammed. Still, that is a lame excuse for releasing murderers imprisoned in Israel. Netanyahu holds the keys to their cells and the decision to use them is his and his alone. For a politician who has cast himself as a tough talker, Netanyahu has, in this instance, chosen the softest route available.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But it was a carefully-made choice.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He is a seasoned and savvy politician who knows his constituency well. In both the left and the right camps, these releases are &#8216;acceptable&#8217;. Terrorists are deemed currency for him to dole out whenever he sees fit. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Unspecified calculations, secret strategies, and the deepest wisdom have been attributed to Netanyahu by his supporters to rationalize his odious actions. And so it has been left predominantly to the victims themselves to take up the fight. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It has been a fruitless challenge.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Our prime minister has neither deigned to meet with any of us nor even to respond to our written pleas, although he did say publicly in 2011 that he had sent all of us personal letters of explanation. Surprisingly none of those personal letters ever reached any of us.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The media have played no small part in pressuring Israel. We have all been subjected to sob-stories about ex- prisoners who either maintain their innocence or their rehabilitation to garner favor. Gullible journalists like the New York Times&#8217; Jodi Rudoren are ready willing and able to oblige with sympathetic pieces. Her most recent specimen, “</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/world/middleeast/remaking-a-life-after-years-in-an-israeli-prison.html">Remaking a Life After Years in an Israeli Prison</a>,<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">” was particularly abhorrent.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Where are the pieces about the terrorists like Ahlam Tamimi who declare “</span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" href="http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/2011/11/17-nov-11-monster-walks-streets-and-she.html">I have no regrets</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">” and who return to terrorism &#8211; as nearly 50% of them do? </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Many families of victims are incensed, pained and fearful of the consequences these releases entail. Some of us have noted that the conduct of the PA, of its chief Mahmoud Abbas and of the entire Palestinian people does not justify a gesture of this sort. They have pointed out that the celebrations and glory that are lavished on released murderers contradict their claims of a desire for peace and rejection of terrorism. They remind us of the high rate of recidivism.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But those are not the strongest arguments.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There is really only one constant, immutable, irrefutable flaw in these releases. </span><b style="line-height: 1.5em;">They are unjust</b><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. Plain and simple: undeniably unjust. They isolate one category of murders from the rest and declare them less significant, less tragic, less criminal, less intolerable.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Justice, as we all know, is blind. Or at least it should be. It should be blind to the race, religion, creed and gender of both the murderer and his victim. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">These releases contravene a basic tenet of any democratic state. It is time for Netanyahu to regain his moral compass, turn back the clock, and reinstate the inviolability of Israel’s judiciary.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This time, Netanyahu needs to show some spine and say ‘no’ to the impending prisoner release.</span></p>
<p><em>Frimet Roth, a native New Yorker, is a freelance writer in Jerusalem. Her daughter Malki was murdered at the age of 15 in the Sbarro restaurant bombing in 2001. With her husband Arnold, she founded the Malki Foundation (<a href="http://www.malkifoundation.org/">www.malkifoundation.org</a>) in their daughter&#8217;s name. It provides concrete support for Israeli families of all faiths who care at home for a special-needs child. The title of this op-ed is derived from Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.</em></p>
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		<title>The Tragic Fight for Gilad Shalit</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/frimet-roth/the-tragic-fight-for-gilad-shalit/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-tragic-fight-for-gilad-shalit</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jun 2011 04:12:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Frimet Roth]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=95564</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why has Israel persistently pursued the suicidal release of hardened murderers in order to bring him home?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/shalit5.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-95631" title="shalit5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/shalit5.jpg" alt="" width="553" height="369" /></a></p>
<p>There are myriad reasonable paths available for securing the freedom of Gilad Shalit, kidnapped and held by Hamas five years ago. So why has Israel persistently pursued the suicidal release of hardened murderers in order to bring him home?</p>
<p>Senior PA officials <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4078080,00.html">revealed last week </a>that an agreement between Hamas and Israel on a mass Palestinian prisoner release is imminent. We have PM Netanyahu’s serial bungled handling of Shalit’s captivity to thank for this sorry state of affairs.</p>
<p>Many opportunities presented themselves for pressuring Hamas to free Shalit without the disastrous return of convicted mass murderers to Hamas. Netanyahu caved-in on each occasion.</p>
<p>One confounding example is his recent payment of tax revenues to the PA.  In response to the PA&#8217;s unity deal with Hamas, Netanyahu initially withheld those funds, totaling $100 million, from the PA for two weeks.</p>
<p>The Shalit family urged Netanyahu to remain firm and freeze that money until Shalit&#8217;s return. Yet their call won no support from the Israeli media; their desperate lone voice went unheeded. Under pressure from the West, and from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,  Netanyahu capitulated and transferred the funds to the PA.</p>
<p>The Shalit’s push for a prolonged revenue freeze aimed to hurt the perpetrators of Shalit&#8217;s kidnapping: Hamas and its new accomplice, the Palestinian Authority. Clearly, if the PA has genuinely reunited with Hamas terrorists, it now shares responsibility for all of Hamas&#8217; actions, including, of course, the Shalit kidnapping.</p>
<p>As Noam Shalit said: “Today, after the reconciliation deal… the PA is actually responsible for the kidnapped Israeli soldier held by his captors, who are also part of the new government set to be formed.”</p>
<p>After the release of the funds, Shalit noted: “Unfortunately we received no explanation of why the tax funds were transferred to the PA given these facts.”</p>
<p>Of course not. There was no rational explanation.</p>
<p>In return for the transfer of funds, Israel received &#8211; in the words of Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz &#8211; “reassurances and clarifications that the money would not find its way to terrorists’ hands…”</p>
<p>Whom was he kidding? Those commitments come from the same Fatah and PLO people who promised that they would never join forces with the terror organization, Hamas.</p>
<p>Despite this, and throwing all caution to the wind, Israel has gone ahead and transferred the funds to the PA while failing to implement any mechanism for tracking the transferred funds.</p>
<p>After the confounding release of those tax revenues, Noam and Aviva Shalit turned to the US for help. They called on Congress to halt its financial assistance to the PA in the wake of its union with Hamas, until his son’s release. Since Fatah and Hamas have agreed to form a unity government, the letter argued, the PA can no longer disclaim responsibility for Gilad’s fate, and the threat of losing Washington’s annual $400 million donation might encourage it to take action. They even pleaded directly with Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to halt that funding.</p>
<p>The Shalits reminded the two US legislators that under the Rome Statute of the International Court 1998, it is a war crime to hold someone hostage.</p>
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