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Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
The night before the first three women hostages were
released, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the nation. Attempting to placate
a nation appalled at the prospect of another terrorist release, the prime
minister made a promise [emphasis added]. “We have established that terrorists
who have killed will not be released to Judea and Samaria; they will
be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and we also decided in the cabinet on
a very significant reinforcement of our forces in Judea and Samaria to protect
our citizens,” said Bibi.
Because we have been lied to before, we didn’t really
believe this declaration. But it didn’t much matter. The only difference
between a terrorist who has killed and one who hasn’t, is that in the first
instance, the victims died, and in the second, they lived. That is why the
distinction isn’t much comfort to the 5,700 or so Jewish residents of Beit El. Of
the first 200 terrorists released in this deal, 114 of them were sent
to Ramallah, adjacent to Beit El.
One woman in my town of Efrat heard that a further 22 terrorists
“who have not killed” were released to Hebron, quite close to us. I asked how
she knows this, since everything about the mass terrorist release has been
cloaked in mystery. It turns out her son’s friend is serving there. He said he
would have been safer in Gaza.
In truth, there is a general air of despondency here. Many assume
that what we hear about the terrorist release is not true, or at least not the whole truth, because so
little information filters down to the common man that it makes us suspicious. Others are more pragmatic. “I'm
not sure it's a ‘lie’ as much as politics and hands tied and deals behind the
scenes,” says Chani Ugowitz of Efrat.
Be that as it may, the lack of information has created an
air of distrust. Victim families directly affected by the release have yet to
be contacted by the government. Those of us who live in close proximity to
locations where terrorists will now roam free, have not been briefed.
“This is a crazy complicated situation. I am so against this "deal"/ blackmail but know so many people that are going with it because they feel we had no choice. We tried the other way and it didn't work. I don't know. Makes me mad, scared, and sad,” says Ugowitz.
“It’s incredibly painful,” said another Efrat friend, Rachel
Schwartz, “Statistically, half of those will do another terror attack. 170 out
of 200 hundred that were released had life sentences. Varda, it is so
incredibly painful. I can’t stand it.”
I had heard the same figure regarding terrorist recidivism.
But it seems this figure has been updated. Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Morris
Hirsch formerly of the Military Prosecutor’s Office, writes that [emphasis
added], “[As] part of the cabinet discussion
going into approving the deal, the head of the Shin Bet noted that 82% of
those released in the Shalit deal returned to terrorism.”
In the frightening
Hebrew-language article, Without
you knowing: This is how Israeli terrorists will be released back to the
country, Hirsch shares a further, little known but profoundly disturbing
fact, “The list of terrorists who will be released as part of the deal includes
no less than 73 terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship or residency. This
means they will be released back to the country.”
“Of that list, 21
terrorists are serving life sentences – that is, murderers. Of these, eight
terrorists are to be released to Israel (within the 1949 armistice lines),
while the rest are to be deported, although at this stage it is not clear
where,” writes Hirsch. “Five of the eight are affiliated with Hamas and the
rest with Fatah. All eight were arrested between 2001 and 2003, during the
terror attacks initiated by the PA, starting in September 2000.”
All in all, of the 73
Israeli terrorists to be released from prison, 45 will be released into Israel,
writes Hirsch, “while the remaining 28 terrorists will be deported abroad,
either temporarily (3 terrorists) or permanently (25 terrorists).”
We may not know nearly enough about the terms of this deal but one thing seems certain, exactly none of the terrorists slated for release will be deported to America. President Trump wants Americans to feel safe. He doesn’t want any more innocents killed, people like Jocelyn Nungary and Riley Laken. So Mr. Trump is having these criminal elements deported. He doesn’t want them in his country.
“And there they are deporting murderers and criminals,” said Chani Ugowitz of the new administration, “while forcing us to take them to our streets with our children.
“I've gotten very harsh in my views since the war and I don't like it but I don't like how the other side has pushed me to think in an "us or them" mentality. There is no partner on the other side of the negotiation table so it becomes blackmail on their end and force on ours.”
Then too, what does it say about Israel that we’re freeing murderers into the wind? Whatever it was that was held over Bibi’s head to agree to this deal, it’s hard to hear that it was worth letting these murderers roam loose. Why would anyone even ask us to do so?
“How depressing that monsters like these are the price of getting innocent
Israelis freed from the Hamas underworld,” remarked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old terror
victim Malki Roth, murdered in a pizzeria. “and that there's no one so monstrous that Israel
would keep him or her in prison if the blackmail demands were perceived as
warranting an even more painful surrender.”
Meantime, outside of Israel, Jews are giving Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff multiple ovations (!) for forcing Israel into accepting Biden’s May horrific deal. Yet he managed to get not a single American hostage released.
What then, was the point?
I wonder if President Trump is aware that among the terrorists
released or slated for release in this deal, are many who were convicted of
murdering Americans. JD Vance begged us Israeli Americans to vote for Trump, and
we did. Now we wonder at the betrayal of American Israeli victims of terror
whose murderers we were leaned on to release.
Why was Israel pressed into this deal now, when we were ahead of the game, when we were winning, when we were no longer between a rock and a hard place because it was no longer Joe Biden threatening us, slow-walking arms, and supplying the enemy with cash dollars? Trump had won and could now push Hamas into releasing the captives with just a few threatening words. Why then force Israel to release murderers from Israeli jails into the wild?
Will we ever know why we were compelled by Trump to sign a bad deal months after it had been rejected? Or why not one American hostage has yet been released since this ceasefire was
implemented. As of this writing, Keith Siegel is not to be released in this
latest batch of hostages, and we know he is fast fading. Emily Damari was so worried about Siegel that she offered to switch places and let him go first. Hamas refused.
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| Keith Siegel, an dual American citizen held captive in Gaza |
So we watch as no Americans are released, but the murderers of Americans like Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who were blown up in the Hillel Café on the night before what would have been Nava’s wedding are going free in this “deal.”
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| Dr. David Applebaum, Nava Applebaum, murdered at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem |
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| Member of the cell that killed them, released or about to be. |
The same is true of the murderer of American citizen Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan, who were on their way to spend Shabbat with their family when their murderer stoned their car with boulders.
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| Asher and Yonatan Palmer, murdered when their car was stoned while driving to family for Shabbat |
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| On the list of terrorists demanded by Hamas |
Ditto the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, an American killed by a child terrorist in 2016 while shopping at a supermarket.
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| Out or about to be out and free as birds. |
It was that last name that grabbed at my throat, as I finished scanning a new list of the terrorists to be released, this time in English, from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). It was just before Shabbat, and I had to shut down my computer, but I remembered that one. I never could get Tuvia Yanai Weissman out of my mind, because of the photo that circulated of him with his young wife and infant son. He had such a beautiful baby face, and his wife’s face was so full of joy and light. How awful to lose her young husband with whom she was clearly smitten. I mentioned Tuvia at the Shabbat table, and my youngest son told me that Weissman’s wife is his friend’s sister.
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| Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a dual American citizen, murdered in a supermarket. |
Every Israeli has multiple connections to multiple terror victims. Connections upon connections upon connections. That’s the way it is.
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| Ari Fuld, dual American citizen, murdered while talking to his wife on the phone |
I wonder: does President Trump feel a connection to the American
victims whose murderers are now being set free in this deal we were compelled by
his man Witkoff, to sign?
Why don’t we hear President Trump threatening Hamas
if they don’t release Keith Siegel, now?
Why don’t we hear Witkoff saying to Hamas, “No. You can’t have the terrorists who killed American citizens. You can’t have the murderers of Americans Marla Bennett and Ben Blustein, exchange students killed in the Hebrew University Cafeteria,” or “No. You can’t have the terrorist who killed American citizen Ari Fuld while he was standing outside a supermarket talking on the phone with his wife,” or “No. You can’t have the murderers of David and Nava Applebaum, or the murderers of Asher and Yonatan Palmer. You can’t have the murderers of Tuvia Yanai Weissman.”
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| Ben Blustein, American exchange student |
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| Marla Bennett, American exchange student, who along with Ben was murdered in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus |
Instead, we hear none of this. We hear people say things
like, “What if it were your family members being held in Gaza?” as if those of
us who feel as I do, that this “deal” is a horrible, unjust, and dangerous
thing, are heartless.
But two things can be true at once. We are joyous at the release of each
hostage, and sick at the release of murderers of loved ones we tracked down, caught,
and jailed. Where is the justice for the victims?
How do you think their families feel?
And how would you feel if you lived in Beit El, and 114 murderers had just been released next door to your home?
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