Attempts by leftists to whitewash the murder by a terrorist of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan by portraying it as a “criminal act” do a disservice to the terrorist, said MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi). As a terrorist, Shaked said, the murderer has a better chance of going free sooner as part of a swap between terror groups and Israel for a future kidnapped IDF soldier, or in a deal where terrorists are freed as part of an Israeli “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority.
Hazan was abducted Friday and murdered in Samaria by an Arab terrorist, with the terrorist's motive said by IDF officials to be a plan by the terrorist, Nadal Amar, to trade Hazan's body for the freedom of his brother, a Fatah terrorist who has been in jail in Israel for the last ten years. The soldier went missing Friday, and after a Shabak investigation soldiers descended on the home of Nadal in the village of Bayt Amin, near Kalkilya.
What remains unclear are the circumstances under which Hazan agreed to acconpany Nadal to Bayt Amin, where the murder took place. The two had worked together at a restaurant in Bat Yam, and Hazan met Nadal in the Jewish town of Shaare Tikvah, from where both proceeded to Nadal's village, where Israeli officials said that the IDF soldier was killed immediately.
Shaked cited a report on the murder by the left-wing Ha'aretz newspaper, which she saidimplied that Hazan was killed in a criminal act, which the paper did not specify. But if the purpose of Ha'aretz was to lessen the responsibility of the PA and imply that it was not involved in terror, she said sardonically, the paper was not doing Nadal any favors.
“He's better off being called a terrorist, because he'll get out of prison faster,” she retorted.
“The government's recent policy of releasing terrorists wholesale has brought us to a difficult situation where a single terrorist can bring the state down to its knees. Were it not for the quick action by the Shabak we would have had another Gilad Shalit situation on our hands, with the terrorist making all sorts of demands for the return of Hazan. But the fact that the Shabak succeeded in finding Hazan's body this time is no guarantee for future situations,” she added.