The entire country is reacting to this attack with horror. This is the first Arab terrorist attack since Prime Minister Netanyahu's government took office. And it is interesting to hear the reactions as they come forth.
First, it took the government nearly five hours to send the IDF into Ramallah to search for the terrorists. As if the terrorists can't cover their tracks on their own home turf in five hours. Not only that, but te government first asked the PLO for permission.
Here I thought that the right of hot pursuit was included in Oslo. If this is the case, why did the government need to ask permission. In the time it took to obtain this permission, the hot pursuit turned deathly cold. Is this the kind of deal Israel is ready to make with the PLO on Hevron? Is Israel prepared to turn Hevron into another Ramallah? Is Israel prepared to allow the deaths of more Eta and Ephraim Tzur's?
Another, more fundamental question is at stake here as well. Since when do Jewish soldiers, on behalf of a Jewish government, need to ask anyone's permission to hunt for the killers of Jewish people? If Israel had felt the need to ask for such persmission in the 1950's, the fedayeen would still be there in Gaza. If Israel had felt the need to ask in the 1960's, the Six Day war never would have happened. If Israel had felt the need to ask in the 1970's, the Entebbe Raid would have never happened.
Israel appears to have lost its nerve. The cause of this is an inept and ineffective response to Arab terrorism in Israel, and asking the PLO's permission to hunt murderers is a part of this. It is like asking a lion if you can steal its lion cubs. The PLO and Arab terrorism are one and the same, and dealing with the PLO as if they were worthy of human treatment is akin to admitting that they are correct and that Jews have no place on this Earth.
Still, the PLO does not lose hope that this admission might one day take place. After all, Israel still has Yossi Beilin. Beilin is one of the prime architects of the Oslo Accords. He was very involved in their conception, and he knows that the provision for hot pursuit -- without prior permission -- is included. Yet he, showing all too well how Israel's Labour party still does not care one iota for Jewish life, had this to say in reaction to the murders. "Beilin stated that the PLO does not really need to extradite terrorists to Israel. He explained that this provision was inserted into the Oslo agreements in the event a wanted terrorist is not brought to justice by the PLO Authority." (Israel TV Channel 2, December 12)
Beilin does not really believe in hot pursuit. The party which he hopes to lead has consistently ignored that provision, preferring to believe that the PLO, those true lovers of Jews, will carry out Israel's justice for them. Now, Beilin admits that there is even more meaningless drivel in the Oslo Accords. I suppose Beilin truly believes that the PLO brings terrorists to justice. They do, after all. They arrest them. They try them in their own courts, and they convict and imprison them, only to release them to freedom in a week or two once the noise has died down.
The International norm for treaties of extradition states that when a crime is committed by a citizen or resident of one State on the territory or against the people of another, the accused must stand trial in the State where, or against which, the crime was committed. The Israel-PLO agreement is the only one of which I am aware, where someone can commit a crime against one State, and be tried in the jurisdiction of another entity. The PLO does not even constitute a State, yet Israel is prepared to give them this preferential treatment that exists nowhere else in the world.
Yossi Beilin, of course, is the prime mover behind this preferential treatment. The value he places on Jewish life and on Jewish concerns is non-existant. His only motive is to see that the Arabs get what they want, even if it means the murder of innocent Jews at Arab whim.
When will the Israeli left finally realize that Jewish blood is not cheap? The positions of the Labour (not to mention Meretz) party is nothing less than an insult to all Jews around the world. The sooner Israel's Labour party rids itself of cowards and hypocrites like Beilin, the sooner they can begin to dream of attaining power and respect again in Israel. Until then, keep Beilin as far away from Jews as possible. Their lives could depend on it.
Copyright 1996. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
