In releasing 200 Palestinian terrorists, including murderers, Olmert is not just abasing himself before Abbas.  He's testing the waters for his big legacy to Israel.

It’s a mistake to think that the Olmert government’s mass release of terrorists, including some involved in murder, is simply an exercise in supine toadying to Abu Whatsisname.  For Olmert, Barak and Tzipi Livni, this was a test case.  Could they get the Israeli public and professional opinion in the security establishment to overlook the release of murderers?
Olmert's prisoner release passed with barely a public murmer.

The security establishment was divided in its opinion.  That was sufficient for Olmert to ram the decision through.  With the security establishment diffident on the issue, the public protest was limited to those who assume—correctly—that releasing terrorists encourages terror rather than peace.  The release passed with barely a public murmur.

This means that Olmert has been entirely successful and is now well placed to grant his most enduring legacy to the Israeli people:  Marwan Barghouti.

The situation resembles nothing so much as 1993.

In 1993 the PLO was on its last legs.  It had lost credibility with its own people, who realized that PLO was in no position to defend them against policies like that of the Shamir government, which initiated (under the aegis of Ariel Sharon) the construction of 10,000 housing units in Judaea and Samaria.  Hoed up in Tunis, having been chased out of Beirut a decade earlier by the IDF, the PLO had lost much of its international legitimacy as well.  It was almost dead.
Olmert has been entirely successful and is now well placed to grant his most enduring legacy to the Israeli people: Marwan Barghouti.

Then along came Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and plucked defeat from the jaws of victory.  Pursuing the will-o’the-wisp of peace, they more or less resurrected the PLO and Yasser Arafat from the dead and gave them weapons and a state in the heart of the Land of Israel.  The rest has been written in Jewish blood from that day to this. 

It has taken fifteen years for the peace virus to run its course in the Israeli body politic.  Today, two-thirds of the public does not believe peace is possible.  It has no faith in its government.  For its part the PLO is once again moribund.  It, too, no longer has any credibility with its public.  It is corrupt and, like its leader, totally ineffective.  For the first time in fifteen years, the Israeli public has a chance to redress the errors of the past and take a new course, encouraging as many Palestinians as possible to leave the mess that is Palestine and take up new lives elsewhere.

Once again, Israel’s leaders are about to prove their own people’s worst enemies.  Olmert’s parting gift to the people he has misruled will be the release of the murderer, Marwan Barghouti.  Barghouti is a terrorist.  He will do his best to destroy Israel.  His best is likely to be very good, because he is a charismatic, effective and ruthless leader in the mold of his master, Arafat.  He stands a good chance of uniting the divided Palestinian people and forging them once again into an effective political weapon against Israel.  Sophisticated in the use of the media, Barghouti will be very good at garnering international support as well.  The clock will be set back 15 years, and another generation of Israeli children, like my children, may grow up under the shadow of terror.
Barghouti is a terrorist. He will do his best to destroy Israel. His best is likely to be very good

I have little doubt that part of the reason why Israel’s security services failed to oppose the release of Palestinian murderers in an effective manner is because they, too, realize that what really is at stake is the release of Marwan Barghouti.  Barghouti is not only an effective Palestinian leader in the mold of Arafat; he is also the new messiah of the Israeli left.  He’s someone we can sign an agreement with!  In their heart of hearts, members of Israel’s political elite, to whom some leaders of the security establishment must belong, have to believe in a new Palestinian messiah for Israel.  What else do they have to believe in?

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In reaction to some of the talkbacks to my previous blog, I spoke to Baruch Gordon of the A7 staff about censorship on the site.  Gordon was frank:  There is a censorship policy.  Gordon claims it has nothing to do with talkbackers’ opinions of blogs.  The policy is:  No Christian missionary messages; no abuse of talmidei chachamim; no use of the term “Nazi” or threats of violence against public figures.  The first two I believe are entirely consonant with the spirit of Arutz 7.  The second two are necessary to prevent the website from being shut down by the authorities who shut down the radio station.  Gordon said that the editorial staff was considering posting its censorship policy in public, and I urged him to do so swiftly.

For myself, I have no idea how to edit talkbackers’ responses and feel no need to learn.  If I were to edit talkbacks, I would adopt Gordon’s policy regarding the “Nazi” epithet, and threats of violence against any Jew, not just leaders, both of which I consider morally repugnant.  However enabling the writer of a blog to edit his talkbacks vouchsafes him a dangerous power I’d rather not possess.  Let Gordon do it. 

I am made extremely uncomfortable by abuse, even mild abuse, between talkbackers on the site.  If a talkbacker can, however, by his or her comments, make me look foolish, I probably deserve to be shown up for a fool.