By Schmoel Yitzhak
Pressured by the United States, Israel agreed to release up to one hundred Arab prisoners with blood on their hands.
Benjamin Netanyahu complied with the request from his so-called allies but not because he believes that letting murderers free to murder again is the right thing to do.
Rather he did it to appease The Tweedle Dum in the White House and the Tweedle Dee who happens to have the title Secretary of State.
Together Barack Obama and John Kerry believe they still can squeeze concessions out of Israel's Prime Minister because they know that there's absolutely no give on the other side.
Take? Yes. Give? No.
The prisoner release was executed by Bibi as a "gesture of goodwill" to Mahmoud Abbas so that the weak-kneed PLO leader could momentarily look stronger than he really is; and that's not much.
However, there's a problem with "gestures of good will" and that is that they have the shelf life of a rotten egg.
There are two very grim reminders that this give-without-take process encouraged by the White House is an exercise in futility. Exhibits A and B are the weekend deaths of two members of the Israel Defense Forces.
First, Sergeant Tomer Hazan was lured to the village of Beit Amin and slain by Nidal Amar. Not it should interest Obama-Kerry but the murderer comes from a family known to be affiliated with Fatah which supposedly is negotiating in good faith with the Israelis.
On Sunday the IDF's Gabriel Kobi was shot dead by a sniper in Hebron.
Thus, Abbas' murderers are batting two-for-two over the weekend and if those examples of homicidal behavior should have any legitimate meaning it is that they a signal an abrupt halt to Kerry's farcical "peace" maneuvers.
Check the bizarre ill-logic: On the one hand Israel delivers a good-will gesture, releasing Palestinian prisoners and the Arabs reciprocate in the most insidious manners possible; a kidnapping murder and murder by hidden sniper.
Rubbing salt into the justice travesty, the PLO failed to deliver a clear condemnation of the deaths. Then again, why should it since the Obama-Kerry duet only warble sweet tunes about the Palestinians no matter how many Israelis are murdered.
Credit Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman for standing up and calling a spade a spade; that the peace talks are a sick joke.
"This (the twin murders) proves that the current negotiations the Palestinians are conducting with Israel is, for them, merely a tactical move solely aimed at improving their international standing," says Lieberman. "They continue to encourage and support the murder of Israelis."
Meanwhile the response from the European Union would be hilarious were it not so pathetic. For the umpteenth time the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has wrung her hands and calls for "maximum restraint."
The only trouble with that plea is that while Bibi restrains, Abbas' people continue to kill. Such an equation should not be tolerated in a sane world and it succinctly sums up why I believe that Israel simply should call off the whole peace process because it is not processing peace.
Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett accurately pinpoints the core issue; whether it's 2013 or 1913 the Arabs want no part of peace with the Jewish State.
Bennett: "Twenty years after the Oslo Accords our partner has not changed. The murders demonstrate to us once again who our partner is. You don't make peace with terrorists who throw soldiers bodies into wells. You fight them mercilessly."
Netanyahu's response was responsible. He will re-open the previously shuttered Beit Hamachpela building in Hebron to Israeli Jews while simultaneously warning that the twin murders will inspire an appropriate response.
What the Prime Minister is not doing -- and should do -- is to deliver a more forthright response; something to the effect that one more murderous Palestinian act will catapult Israel right out of the putrid peace talks. Housing Minister Uri Ariel wonders -- as I do -- how many more times Israel will be coerced into making a conciliatory gesture while getting murdered in return.
"The State of Israel's absurd dance of releasing prisoners continues to harm the security of Israel," asserts Ariel. "Terrorists have learned that we no longer have any red lines."
Ariel says "no more prisoner releases" and we second the motion.
Now it's Bibi's turn to stop the bleeding.
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