(IsraelNN.com) The cabinet decided on Sunday to authorize the release of 250 terrorist prisoners from Israel's jails, as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. In statements to the media, both the extra-parliamentary Women In Green organization and the Likud's Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction linked the decision with the Mumbai Massacre perpetrated by Muslim terrorists last week.

Women In Green said that the "criminal and murderous terror attack [in Mumbai] by Islamic terrorists against non-Muslims, Jews and non-Jews alike, should have made the government of Israel understand that time has come to finally start fighting against Arab Islamic terror from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria, instead of capitulating to terror and rewarding it. But instead, to our shame, shock and horror, the government of Israel decided this morning to release another 250 terrorists as a 'goodwill gesture' to the mass murderer Abu Mazen (the terrorist name for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas)."

That decision, Women In Green said, "is a spit in the face of victims of Arab terror in general and of the latest Mumbai victims in particular."

Jewish Concessions Feed Global Terror
A Manhigut Yehudit spokesman took the theme further and claimed, "The fact that the government in the Jewish homeland releases terrorists as a 'goodwill gesture', only empowers the terrorists and makes citizens of free countries worldwide susceptible. Olmert’s actions clearly create a situation that could precipitate more attacks globally."  

The policies of Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other Israeli leaders, according to the Manhigut Yehudit statement, have "only lead to dead and maimed Jews, and the loss in the belief of the justness of our cause by Jews, in Israel and worldwide. [Manhigut Yehudit faction leader Moshe] Feiglin is the only leader in Israel who has a cogent platform that is in tandem with the stated American goal of fighting and defeating terror."

Reflecting on past Israeli concessionist policies, Manhigut Yehudit said, "Oslo resulted in thousands murdered throughout Israel, and suicide bombers then made their way next to US soil on 9/11. The United States would never adopt a land for peace platform on its own homeland to appease al-Qaeda. Why should Israel?"

Response: Build!
Women In Green added that the appropriate response to Islamic terrorism and the government's policies is "to show the terrorists that the People [of Israel] will not be scared off and will continue to be proud Jews in the Land of Israel, will continue to settle it, build in it and expand in it."

The non-governmental organization called on Israelis to join the people defending the rights of Jews to live in the Peace House in Hevron, where Israeli authorities intend to forcibly evict the building's residents despite the absence of any legal resolution mandating their removal.