Israel's two largest Hebrew daily newspapers have come out against freeing Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for planning terrorist attacks against Israelis. He is considered the most popular figure in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and several Israeli politicians have backed freeing him.
Maariv stated in an editorial that releasing him is "a gamble not worth taking [because] Barghouti cannot bring about the fall of Hamas in Gaza or save Fatah from disintegration, nor would he be more compromising than Abu Mazen."
Yediot Aharanot editorialized, "Ministers and [Knesset Members] are calling for the release of senior Fatah member Marwan Barghouti," but his victims "all have families, names and faces."