Garbanzo Toons

How Israel Should Negotiate with the Palestinians

According to this article:

Israel's public security minister, Avi Dichter, suggested Friday that Israel is ready to cut a deal that would fall short of a direct prisoner swap.

Dichter said Israel could free some Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture after Shalit is released and Hamas stops rocket attacks on Israel.

If there is calm, "Israel will need to, after some time, release prisoners as a reciprocal gesture," Dichter said. "Israel knows how to do this. Israel has done this more than once in the past."

He was referring to previous prisoner swaps — usually in deals that freed far more Palestinians than Israelis. Privately, Israeli officials have said they did not rule out talks in Shalit's case, either.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has won Israeli assurances that it would reciprocate for Shalit's release by freeing some prisoners, as well as Hamas politicians it has rounded up in recent days.

Officials close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later said Dichter's statement did not reflect the views of the government and that Israel insists on the soldier's unconditional release. However, the government did not issue a formal statement distancing itself from the minister.

Israel does not want to be seen as cutting a deal with Hamas militants, but also does not seem to have a way to free the soldier by force.

Now, I'm not a diplomat or a politician, but over the years I've noticed that even when Israel wins, they give in to international pressure to show restraint to the Islamic losers. Even when they have to go against their own best interest. They've traded hundreds of Palestinian terrorists and criminals for Israeli corpses. They've signed treaties with known liars. They've traded land for - for - for nothing. They hoped for peace, but got terrorism in return.

By now they should have learned that negotiating with Palestinians only leads to misery and lots of bloodshed.

With that in mind, here is what Israel should offer: The terrorists release Gilad Shalit alive and unharmed. They stop all forms of terrorism; rockets, homicide bombers, gunmen, everything, forever. Stop with the hudna crap. It's either peace or war. In return, the IDF will leave Gaza. That's simple enough for everyone to understand. If they refuse, Israel will visit death and destruction on all Palestinian leaders, their supporters, and unfortunately, their human shields.

This may seem harsh, but only if Israel negotiates from a position of overwhelming strength will they get the Palestinian's attention.

They should also ignore anything coming out of the U.N. They're not to be trusted. Ever.

Labels: Israel, Palestinians

posted by Harry @ 5:16 PM