New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) opposes appeasing Palestinian leader and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) by releasing 900 Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli prisons.
The history of Arab prisoner releases by Israelis show that significant numbers of them return to commit terrorist acts against Jews. Former Prime Minister and present Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week, “I do not believe that Israel must give something. The Palestinians must give something. They are the side that transgressed. They are the side that tried with the force of terror to advance the terrible results that they sought. First I would prefer to see results. A truce can be…a time out between two offenses of terrorism. If Abu Mazen and his regime begin dismantling the terror organizations, confiscate their weapons and stop the poisonous incitement against Israel, then we’ll know we are in the right direction.”
ZOA President Morton A. Klein said, “It seems Israel has still not learned that concessions to an unreformed PA regime only encourages more demands and more terror. If Abbas were really serious about peace with Israel, he wouldn’t want terrorists released. He would fear that they could perpetrate acts that would harm real peace negotiations.
“In fact, Abbas should be working to capture and arrest more Palestinian Arab terrorists and put them in prison to send a message that violence against Israel won’t be tolerated. Such a policy would increase the likelihood of peace.. Instead, Abbas states he ‘will never lift a gun against his own Palestinian citizens.’ But, Mr. Abbas, that’s what every police force in the world does. They use guns against their fellow citizens who are criminals or murderers. Until Mr. Abbas finally fulfills the Oslo promises of 11 years ago and the Road Map promises of two years ago by dismantling and disarming the terrorist groups, arresting the terrorists, closing the bomb factories and ending the incitement in the media, schools and mosques, peace will remain elusive.
“We urge Israel and the U.S. to rethink the wisdom of this concessionary policy. We should heed Winston Churchill words, “Those who appease the crocodile will be eaten last.”