By Judy Lash Balint
JERUSALEM–Very distressing to see the singing and dancing going on at the Shalit tent outside Netanyahu’s office a few blocks away from here as the announcement that Israel had agreed to release more than a thousand terrorists, including hundreds who were serving life sentences for terror attacks such as the Sbarro carnage in Jerusalem in August 2001.
The partying is pretty obscene given what is inevitably coming down the pike…Rejoicing that Gilad’s name will forever be linked with the next terror attack??
What are the chances that we’ll see another family sitting in exactly the same position as the Shalits a year from now, now that all these murderers will be running around free..what exactly is the deterrent now against more of the same Hamas war crimes??
Sure enough, this morning Hamas’ Khalid Mashal “promised” his people that this would not be their last effort to “liberate” all their prisoners–well there’s a real surprise! I was actually surprised that Reshet Bet carried it on their broadcast…
An unimaginable ordeal is almost over for the devastated Shalits whose lives will never be the same…but save a bit of sympathy for the Cohens, Levys, Ohayons, Goldbergs etc who will be sitting in the same chairs over the next few years.
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Balint is a freelance writer based in Jerusalem, whose stories are filed on her website, Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times. She may be contacted at judy.balint@sdjewishworld.com