Syria's Outcry Is Probably a Ruse

According to media reports, Damascus is fuming about a U.S. helicopter raid into Syrian territory that reportedly killed eight persons. Damascus sent an angry demarche to the U.S. embassy there and disinvited a senior U.S. diplomat for talks about advancing the peace process with Israel. Damascus also reportedly has closed American schools operating in Syria.

Publicly, for Arab audiences, Syria wants to assert its sovereignty and independence and appear at odds with a U.S. Administration very much disliked in the region. After high-level meetings in NY recently with senior U.S. diplomats, Damascus also wants to show itself as not as cozy with the Americans. However, privately, the Syrians probably are relieved by the U.S. attack, which killed al-Qaeda's senior planner in Syria. As was seen as recently as late September, Syria is one of al-Qaeda's growing targets. A suicide bombing in Damascus reportedly killed at least 17 and injured almost two dozen others, all civilians.

The Syrians should be more grateful that they have the U.S. military to help them confront radical Islamic terrorists taking root within Syrian borders. But to expect Syria to show appreciation and cooperation with the U.S. probably is way too much to ask.

New Twist to Palestinian Prisoner Releases

The Associated Press reported today that Israel has freed 24 Palestinian prisoners who are members of the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The Brigades draw their ranks from the Fatah movement. They initially were funded by Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat. Many serve in the PA's security forces and moonlight in the Brigades while off-duty. Most probably continue to receive not only salaries from the PA but funding for the anti-Israel activity to keep them happy and as tacit support for their activity.

The irony in the most recent release is that Israel reportedly has required that eight of the 24 return to prison each night at 9pm. I can just see it now -- the eight actually showing up each night, knocking on the prison door requesting to be let in. This is a wild expection and I hope the press will report on whether or not it actually happens.

Israel, once again, dupes itself into thinking that goodwill gestures such as this prisoner release will make the Palestinians take the decisions necessary to facilitate a lasting peace. Such moves actually embolden the Palestinians to continue to make insatiable demands, thereby postponing any possible peace.

A Better Deal Sought to Shalit

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot doesn't want to see the same kind of one-sided deal struck for the return of Gilad Shalit, held now for two years by Hamas in Gaza.

It says a deal like that recently struck with Hizballah will only encourage further attempts by terrorists to seize Israel soldiers, and that releasing terrorists in exchange for soldiers risks fresh attacks against Israeli civilians:

When we say that Gilad Shalit must be released at 'any price', we mean the entire price that we will pay. We will set murderers free. We will cause many of them to go back to killing us. We will give impetus to encouraging terrorism and we will go back to dying on buses, in malls and in communities on the periphery. This is as insane as it is immoral".

The editors suggest that "doing everything" means, "tightening the siege on the Gaza Strip" until, "they understand that Gilad Shalit is not a bargaining chip but a bone in the throat, not an asset but a liability". "Suddenly" the paper suggests, "it will dawn on them that we are not suckers but a country that gets nervous when one of its soldiers is alive in a hole in Gaza and they continue to play with us". The editors defend the foregoing as "The moral, security and logical step that must be taken on behalf of Gilad Shalit and us. It is less risky than releasing hundreds of murderers and it is more moral seven-fold". The paper avers that "If we do not change the rules of their brutal game, we will continue to be kidnapped and blackmailed. We must try and release Gilad Shalit at any price, but the price must be theirs".

(courtesy: Israel Government Press Office)

Release Terrorist Earned a Degree in Prison

Samir Kuntar, 45, the Lebanese terrorist who had been jailed 29 years in Israel for shooting dead an Israeli man in front of his four-year-old daughter and then killing the girl by crushing her head between a rock and the butt of his rifle, was freed today by Israel, along with four other terrorists, in return for two dead IDF soldiers.

The Associated Press reports that, while in Israeli prison, Kuntar learned Hebrew and earned a degree in sociology. It's remarkable that he had such opportunities in Israel. Certainly, he would never have had them while a terrorist in Lebanon.

Wouldn't it be great if Kuntar returned home and said to his countrymen, "You know, I am grateful to the Israelis for teaching me a foreign language and allowing me to learn and earn a degree. Those 29 years taught me that Israelis are humans, too, and we should respect them."

I know. Dream on.

Apparently, as recently as this year, Kuntar wrote to Hizballah leader Nasrallah and told him his place will be "at the battlefront." He has also said he will not apologize for his murderous actions and that "the struggle continues."

Israel-Hizballah "Prisoner Swap"

The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported on its front page that Hizballah and Israel "will swap prisoners" on Wednesday under a deal mediated by the United Nations.

At first read, most would agree this sounds like terrific news --and how good of the UN to help, right? -- but it is not. Perhaps for brevity, the Journal omitted the crucial fact that the two soldiers Israel is to receive from the deal are dead. Hizballah, on the other hand, will get five live "fighters," plus 199 bodies of Lebanese and Palestinian others, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.

For some Israelis, this is a victory, as Israel, once again, shows how much it values and respects human life by "bringing home" its dead soldiers, Goldwasser and Regev. Their families reportedly are thrilled at the deal and lobbied hard for it. I sympathize with what they are going through and probably would act similarly were I in their shoes, but their position nevertheless is selfish, for it puts at risk the security of Israel and lives of other IDF soldiers.

After celebrations in Lebanon wind down, Hizballah will get busy planning, if it is not already, its next cross-border ambush to seize a fresh batch of Israeli soldiers. If such "swaps" were unachieveable, Hizballah would not try to achieve them. Sure, Israel will welcome its dead soldiers home but, soon, more will be taken, dead or alive, never to be seen alive again. This is too high a cost that Israeli should no longer be expected to pay. It's hard to say "no" to such deals, but ultimately it is the right thing to do, because eventually the terrorists would learn that kidnapping attempts do not pay off. If Israeli soldiers fall captive to Hizballah, only proportional trades, in both size and mortality, should be considered.

Bulldozer Terrorist Attack Was Preventable

In an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, Yaakov Katz writes that today's attack by a Arab resident of Jerusalem driving a bulldozer would have been "difficult to foil." Israel's Chief of Police, David Cohen, said "There's no way to control a single person if he wants to commit terrorism."

However, according to earlier reports, the terrorist -- Husam Taysir Dwayat, a 30-year-old father of two from Sur Bahir in southeast Jerusalem -- was carrying an Israeli identity card and had a criminal record due to previous criminal activities, mainly drug felonies, as well as furniture theft. Had Dwayat not been issued an Israeli residency document in the first place or had his documents been revoked upon conviction of a crime, or in this case several, he would not have been legally employable in Jerusalem and would have been unlikely to have had access to the bulldozer used in the attack.

If Arabs fortunate enough to hold Israeli residency permits commit crimes or other violations, then those permits should be suspended or revoked, because they have proven themselves to be security risks. If Israel does not now conduct a thorough background check on Arabs applying for or holding residence permits, it should start to do so immediately. Having a criminal record like today's terrorist did ought to be immediate grounds for disqualification for such permits and the employment privileges inside Israel that accompany them.

AP Misunderstands Bush Palestine Policy

AP reporter Jennifer Loven, reporting from Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, where President Bush is meeting Arab leaders after visiting Israel, said that, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset the other day marking Israel's 60th birthday, Bush barely mentioned the Palestinians' plight and foresaw a Palestinian state only in 2068. She then quotes several Arab leaders and officials sharply criticizing the speech.

In his speech, Bush said he envisioned that the Palestinians "will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved -- a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror."

With these remarks, Bush has gone further than any other Arab leader in supporting a Palestinian state. How so? Because of the conditions he's placed on it. A Palestinian state that resembles its Arab neighbors, where the people cannot freely vote for their leaders who stay in office for lifetimes and where violence reigns, like seen most recently in Lebanon, will do the Palestinians, and the rest of us, much harm and little good. Unlike Ms. Loven would have us believe, Bush understands and sympathizes with the Palestinians' plight very well and very much so because he wants to save them from the failure leadership and sad predicament that most of their Arab bretheren must endure.