Jerusalem – In his quest to persuade the cabinet to accept the Gilad Shalit deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers he had no choice but to go through with the deal and solve a problem inherited from the previous government.
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For more than four hours the cabinet discussed the deal until Netanyahu achieved a large majority. During the meeting, all of Israel’s security chiefs and almost every minister spoke.
“It is true that there are no promises that the prisoners released will not return to terror, but they are already leading terror activities from their prison cells,” Netanyahu told the cabinet.
“There are some countries that don’t hold negotiations with kidnappers, and we can discuss this policy going forward, but in this particular case, this is something that we inherited from the previous government, and we do not have a choice.”
Netanyahu did not mention former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by name but placed the blame on him in a roundabout way. “This is a reality that was forced upon us from the moment the former government engaged in negotiations with Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
“We could not pay the price, but if we want Gilad to come home, there is no other choice,” the prime minister said, adding that “in any case the deal is not the same as the original one drafted by Hamas.”
Olmert and Bibi are cowards.
Olmert sold Israel down the drain – the same as the Democrats did to America
Bibi you gonna live to regret this stupid decision. It will cost a lot of Jewish Blood, Israel should hunt down the leaders of Hamas and eliminate one by one.
My heart is bleeding seeing you Bibi being a coward think of Yoni who was a hero, do you want to go down in History as having jewish blood on your hand? Do NOT do thi deal.
Hiding behind Ohmert is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. Netanyahu has fundamentally rejected many of the prior government’s positions on the peace process, settlements and dozens of other positions. He has no legal or moral obligation to “accept” the framework of a deal negotiated by the prior goverment yet he whines “I had not choice”. What a shanda.
Olmert and Bibi are cowards.My heart is bleeding seeing you Bibi being a coward think of Yoni who was a hero, do you want to go down in History as having jewish blood on your hand? Do NOT do thi deal.e has no legal or moral obligation to “accept” the framework of a deal negotiated by the prior goverment yet he whines “I had not choice”. What a shanda.
I think they should adopt a law in Israel that terrorists who are convicted of murder, should get the death penalty, and it should be carried out. You would have solved two problems at once. No. 1 there will be no prisoners to swap, No.2 you wont have a situation of terrorists organising terror attacks from the confines of an Israel prison cell.
I thank the Almighty G-d for making this the year many Jewish prisoners are being released. Think of the Bachurim jailed in Japan. Now this! Soon Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin! Please Hashem! Please!
The Mhara”m Rottenberg A prominent “Rishon” was kidnapped and a large sum of ransom money was requested for his release and he gave a Psak that they shouldn’t give the money since it was a much higher amount than the usual ransom asked at that time and it would cause more kidnappings and he was actually Nifter in captivity. So this current deal is not so simple according to Halacha.
Bibi is like my wife
Allways finds whom to blame for everything
The one thing that most of the above commentators don’t get is what Shalit is to the average Israeli – their own boys. Of course strategically it’s a terrible move. But there is no way to weigh the grave security risk against the return of our boy. Anyone who has a clear-cut position is an arrogant fool. The only point I would make is that Israel should, at the time of the swap, announce a new no-nonsense policy for dealing with terrorists.
I have a far better idea, give Hamas Olmert, Barak, and Netanyahu in exchange for Shalit. Oh, and if i could Obama and Bill Clinton also
Shooting one terrorist per hour would result in Hamas doing awful things to Shalit in retaliation, chas vechololo, . A no no.
What gets me is how a terrorist in jail can direct activities outside.
Is a jail a hotel with secretarial services for the inmates?
Who is getting bribed to allow ‘comforts’ to the jailed terrorists?
from now on take no prisoners – just bodies.
This prisoner swap shows how ineffective the shin bet really is – Gilad Shalit is under their nose and they can’t find him nor the people that captured him.
Wow Israel really has their act together….
Wow. Remind me again of why a lot of people on here stuck UP for Bibi & complained about Obama? (lol)
Seems to me OUR President deals w\terrorists in a much more efficient manner!
Just sayin!
‘It is ok because they anyways direct it from their cells’
….. ???!!!! !!!!
he learned to shift the blame from Barry Soetoro, I hope he didn’t learn anything else from him. Barak learned how to apologize from Soetoro