Really, Bibi?

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Writing on Bloomberg, Jeffrey Goldberg makes two strong points about Israel’s agreement to release 104 prisoners as part of the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Of the Palestinian reaction to the development, he writes: “In other parts of the world, the release of child-murderers from prison wouldn’t be considered a moment of national celebration.”

But Goldberg also points out that the prisoner release would never have happened had the Israeli government simply agreed to a freeze on settlement building. It was only because Netanyahu refused a freeze that the prisoner release was put onto the table.

I’m amazed that Bibi would rather release terrorists – including child murderers, a killer of a Holocaust survivor, bus bombers, and a rapist – than put a freeze on settlement building while peace talks are conducted.

Is it his own intransigence on settlements, or because the settlement movement has him over a barrel?

In one camp we have a leader who demands child murderers be released from jail. In the other, we have a leader who would rather release those murderers than put a pause on some houses being built. And each leader’s groupies swear robotically that the entire problem is the other side.

Hardly bodes well for progress, does it? Stranger things have happened though…

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