In a 7-3 vote, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation has passed a bill on that aims to effectively block any resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians by forbidding the release of prisoners convicted of murder.
The bill’s language restricts the power of the government to pardon people convicted of murder, and was touted by Jewish Home MPs as a “significant deterrence to terrorism.”
The appendix to the bill explicitly states that the purpose of the bill is to prevent prisoner swaps or other diplomatic overtures with the Palestinians. The last round of peace talks ended in late March when Israel reneged on a prisoner release.
Since all of the efforts to restart talks center on the idea of finally following through on such releases, the bill is an effort to preclude that, though since it would only impact new convictions, and not those done before the bill’s passage, it doesn’t completely block that possibility.
One good thing…Israel's rightwing politicians will be the downfall of Israel…just as the American rightwing nuts will be the downfall of the American Experiment. THey are both well on their way to success…both countries are dysfunctional beyond expectations.
Israel *IS* dysfunctional. Disclaimer: I am American, and I was raised as a Jewish woman. I am not atheist. Israel's enemies need only wait a little longer, as there are profound social and political fissures in Israel. Many Jews in the rest of the world seem equally misguided, to put it politely.
Ironically, I sense that the (significantly sized) Jewish population in Iran might be the happiest, in terms of being accepted and participating appropriately in non-religious community life (no outsize presence relative to overall population), despite the Muslim theocracy in Iran! Iraq was hospitable to its Jewish citizens too, before and even in the early days of Saddam Hussein.
I have no idea what is going on, geo-politically. So little makes sense to me, neither logically, nor in historical context. I think the press corps in the US is terrified, rather than willingly complicit. I find myself reading blogs written by women who were Libyan loyalists, and thinking, "Finally, something makes sense to me!"
terrified of…what? They don't really work for a living. Very few of them do any real journalism though almost all of them will most likely refer to themselves as journalists. Not one of the stenographers will do anything that might jeopardize their jobs, not even for "The Story of the Century". They're paid well to repeat what they are told to say. What could they possibly be terrified of?
If they don't do exactly as told, they get investigated, e.g. the Associated Press.
Good, now that is settled, no release of Jonathan Pollard. Two can play that game.