Back in jail: A rest after the re-arrest
Regarding “Last two escaped prisoners arrested in Jenin, ending manhunt” (September 19), I have nothing but admiration for all involved in finding and recapturing the murderers and returning them to the Gilboa prison. Thank God none of the brave soldiers who extricated the convicts from Jenin were hurt in the extremely dangerous operation.
The prison system dropped the ball big time on this one, but luckily, the army had their back.
DAVID RUBIN
Jerusalem
Amotz Asa-El (“Catch me if you can,” September 17) is not incorrect. A head – and perhaps more than one – will likely roll as a result of the escape of the six security prisoners from the Gilboa penitentiary. Needless to say, Commissioner Katy Perry, as the Prison Service Commissioner, will certainly be on the short list, but my guess is that once a deep dive into the circumstances that allowed this national embarrassment is conducted, others will likely be found to be more than worthy of sharing culpability. Those six prisoners who made it beyond the prison walls took advantage of structural, administrative and security flaws, and, yes please advise Asa-El that this is the stuff that Hollywood blockbusters and John Grisham bestsellers are derived from.
Odd that the esteemed columnist made no reference to the iconic film The Great Escape as a possible template for the Gilboa breakout. The prisoners in that film, World War II Allied POWs, are obviously not in any way comparable to the local infamous six, but the logistics of the escape are remarkably similar. I’m curious as to how the escapees evaded detection. The film’s POWs, too, had no laid-out game plan in place in the event they made it out of the camp. While the film portrayed the escape as an uneven success – some made it to freedom, others didn’t – we can all be gratified that the six Gilboa convicts are now back where they rightfully belong.
What is truly remarkable is that a low-tech prison escape was pulled off in a digital age. I admit that it is somewhat comforting to know that human ingenuity can, from time to time, outwit even state-of-the-art hardware and software. Perry must find a more dependable surveillance system and hope the commission of inquiry doesn’t learn that the screens the prison relies on for security were being used for playing solitaire. Or for watching Prison Break on Netflix.
BARRY NEWMAN
Ginot Shomron
The escape of maximum security prisoners from Gilboa Prison showed the incredible incompetence of the Prison Service, IDF, Shabak and all the security services that have spent an inordinate amount of time and public money while attempting to recapture the escapees. In “Much worse than Chelm” (September 17), David Weinberg shows just how irresponsible the political echelons and the state organization have been and this bodes ill for the country.
Unfortunately, this incompetence and irresponsibility extend to all levels of society, in particular those pertaining to government and quasi-government organizations. Prime recent examples include:
• Lack of prevention of entry of helium to Gaza from Israel – used as a lighter-than-air gas to carry incendiary balloons to burn forests, fields in our South.
• Leakage from a major petroleum product pipeline from Ashdod to Haifa, causing a major environmental disaster as the differential inflow from source to recipient was not continually monitored (“800 tons of soil removed after leak found in Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline,” August 30)
• The uncoordinated simultaneous roadwork on three major north-south roads in the Center, causing tremendous delays.
• A Postal Service so inefficient that is so slovenly that not only does it not deliver small parcels but it issues in the same post both the first and second notifications for the same item awaiting collection.
• The failure to reinstate goods transport by rail from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, resulting in the roads to Jerusalem being clogged with slow and overloaded heavy goods traffic, plus heavy road surface wear requiring constant rectification.
• Failure to restrict heavy goods traffic on the roads to non-rush hour periods such as during the night.
Sometimes we make Chelm look competent.
DR COLIN LECI
Jerusalem
Two-states-of-the-art
I wish to congratulate Gershon Baskin (“A US step to save the two-state solution,” September 17) on his enlightened proposal to save the floundering two-state solution to the Middle East problem: “My answer is American recognition of the State of Palestine.”
I can easily alleviate the fears of skeptics who doubt whether the newly recognized State of Palestine could be trusted to be peaceful by pointing to the 1993 Oslo Accords. These Accords were accompanied by a letter by Yasser Arafat which stated that “The PLO commits itself… to a peaceful resolution of the conflict and declares that all outstanding issues will be resolved through negotiations. The PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence.” As is well known, Yasser Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, have faithfully honored this commitment. In fact, not a single Israeli citizen has been killed or injured by Palestinians since 1993.
Moreover, as soon as the Israeli army left the Gaza Strip in 1995, Hamas established a thriving democracy there and immediately recognized Israel’s right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish People. In the last 26 years, not a single missile has been fired from Gaza into Israel. Hamas even built tunnels to help Gazan tourists visit Israel.
I pray that the new Israeli government will have the far-sightedness to encourage the US to accept Baskin’s proposal, an act that will finally bring peace and security to our troubled land.
PROF. NATHAN AVIEZER
Petah Tikva
Baskin has it all wrong, recommending a tired, unworkable and unfair solution that will irreparably harm and endanger Israel.
There is no need for the Palestinians to have “two states.” Rather, the first Palestinian state (of Jordan) on the East Bank should unify with the second PA “state” in Area A on the West Bank. This would reestablish the pre-1967 solution – with modifications – that worked so well for the Palestinians until they waged a war of extermination against Israel and when they lost, dreamed up the idea to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by creating an independent Palestinian state in Judea/Samaria and Gaza.
Fortunately, Israel – from within the narrow indefensible pre-1967 Auschwitz lines – survived destruction and even regained parts of its indigenous homeland, which it should never again surrender – and certainly not for a false peace.
The last thing America should do is to foment further turmoil and reward the aggressors by willy-nilly recognizing a new state, as wished for by Baskin.
HADAS HERMAN
Jerusalem
May I remind Gershon Baskin what antisemitism is?
The widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition states that if Jews are treated differently than anyone else, that is antisemitism. Criticism of Israel or Canada is legitimate. Treating Israel more harshly than you would Canada is not.
To claim Israel commits human-rights abuses, builds illegal settlements and practices apartheid (as Baskin claims) is antisemitic, whether spoken out of ignorance or malice.
I would also remind Baskin that the reason Israel rules over Palestinian Arabs is that the Arabs waged a war of genocide against Israel in 1948, rather than share the land with the Jews.
He may remember that in 1945, when the allies defeated Germany, they divided the country into four and tried and hung its leaders. Considering normal wartime practices, such as Egypt and Transjordan’s ethnic cleansing of the Jews under their control, Palestinian Arabs were generously treated.
LEN BENNETT
Ottawa, Canada
Shortly after the lesson of the disaster in Afghanistan, rooted in foolish and fruitless attempts to build a nation from the top down, Gershon Baskin is advocating that the US recognize a State of Palestine. This despite the fact that the Palestinian Arabs don’t want a state of their own, and have proven that any territory they control becomes a failed enterprise and a breeding ground for terrorism.
They have proven that they don’t want a state of their own because they have turned down multiple generous offers of peace and their own state – from before Israel’s rebirth to the recent Peace to Prosperity plan. This is because all such plans would have required them to coexist peacefully with Israel, something that their founding documents abjure. The 1964 Palestinian National Covenant’s provisions calling for Israel’s destruction have never been amended or annulled with the formal procedures prescribed by that document for doing so. Article 7 of the Hamas Charter frankly calls for the deaths of all Jews worldwide.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how little the Palestinian Arabs have accomplished in the way of building the societal institutions to prepare for viable statehood. The Palestinian Authority is a corrupt kleptocracy encouraging terrorism. It survives only on the financial opiate of foreign aid, while misappropriating that aid to incentivize and reward murderous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Their leadership insists that any PA-run state will accept no Palestinian Arab “refugees” and generations of descendants whatsoever, upwards of five million of whom must instead be accommodated in Israel, thus ending Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. The Gaza Strip is run by genocidal Hamas terrorists whose main use for the civilian population there is as cannon fodder and human shields.
Every square foot of territory ceded to either Palestinian Arab regime has been used to launch terrorist attacks on Israel. US recognition of a Palestinian State at this inappropriate time would only contribute to the creation on Israel’s shrunken borders of another Libya, Syria, or Afghanistan – a failed state exporting terrorism and death.
The right approach is not to take this rash step advocated by Baskin, and instead encourage any positive, peace-oriented steps taken by Palestinian Arabs with additional economic opportunities while vigorously fighting their terrorism and rejection of Israel’s right to exist. If they ever renounce their endless jihad against Israel’s existence, agree to peacefully coexist, and build up viable, functional, and humane societal institutions and practices, the question of statehood for them can be reopened. This is not that time.
DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF, PH.D.
Williamsville, New York
The big chill
In “Bennett, it is time to freeze West Bank Settlements” (September 17), Dan Perry makes a number of errors. We’ll start with his claim that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the obstacle to peace between Israel and the Arab inhabitants of Yehuda/Shomron. Since there hasn’t been peace since at least 1967 and Bennett has been prime minister only for a few months, a thinking person might realize that he certainly isn’t the only obstacle.
Perry insists that Israel has to initiate the peace process, presumably from the widespread but erroneous belief that the “stronger” party has to make offers to the “weaker” party. I wish someone would explain that to me. The “weaker” party has the most to gain, so why not put the onus on them for the failure?
In our case, there has never been a serious offer made by the Arab inhabitants of Yehuda-Shomron in the last 75 years. When the Israeli government under Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak made significant offers they were rejected and led to the murderous Second Intifada. Therefore, why shouldn’t Israel now wait for an Arab leader to make a serious proposal and make its response to that?
As to his proposition of a building freeze by the Israelis, how does he ignore the freeze imposed at the request of then-president Barack Obama, which produced no positive result at all? What’s the point of repeating what has already proven to be a failure?
He and others of his beliefs ignore facts. Among others, they keep on saying that Arabs choose their leaders. A glance at the leadership structure in the Arab culture shows democracy is not the method of choice for selecting leaders. How many sheiks, muhktars and other tribal leaders were elected democratically?
Perry should restudy the Israeli-Arab situation in Yehuda-Shomron and, after seeing the error of his ways, reassess his positions and, possibly, apologize to Bennett and the government of the State of Israel.
HAIM SHALOM SNYDER
Petah Tikva
The West is not the best
Moshe Dann in “Islamic terror and the age of the Holocaust” (September 19) is right that the genocide that befell Jews remains an event that defies comprehension. However, his assertion that all conflicts that marred modern history are Islamist in nature cannot remain unchallenged. The wars in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Libya were all led by the West to steal natural resources and sow the seeds of divisions and animosities, based on a forged dossier and allegations of weapons of mass destruction never found.
The Middle East is the cradle of religions and civilizations. People of diverse religions and ethnicities lived in harmonious coexistence unparalleled in history until Western meddling and intervention disrupted this. Let us hope that one day we will reap the fruits of peace and expunge the evils of hatred and intolerance.
DR MUNJED FARID AL QUTOB
London-United Kingdom
Yom Kippur road kill
Regarding “12-year-old boy riding bicycle on highway on Yom Kippur killed by passing vehicle” (September 17), tragedies like this will continue to happen as long as the police and courts have such a lackadaisical attitude toward road safety, and we refer to these events as “accidents.” How was a twice-convicted drunk driver allowed to be anywhere near a vehicle? Or was he “salt of the earth,” no prior fatalities, kibbutznik, or “not paying attention,” as if these are excuses. If driving is essential to one’s livelihood, then it’s time to learn to drive safely. Even minor infractions such as failure to indicate when changing lanes must be punished (proportionately) to instill courteousness and discipline in drivers.
What happened was not an “accident.” An accident is a rockslide, or earthquake. If one cannot control a one-ton-plus metal object with a powerful engine, then don’t drive. When driving, one must focus 100%. Slow down – a minute longer won’t affect your life. Tell the kids to zip it, no phones, no nail-painting (all near misses for me). And if you cause damage or injury, do not shirk your responsibility.
KOBI SIMPSON-LAVYRehovot