Israel to Release 200 Fatah Terrorists

In another show of goodwill, Israel is planning on releasing 200 Fatah terrorists. The idea is to strengthen Fatah, but why? How many times has Israel shown goodwill towards their Arab neighbours only to have their neighbours respond in violence?

Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, is pretty upset over the latest prisoner release. Basically all their hard work is for nothing. Jerusalem Post

The government's decision to release some 200 security prisoners - mainly from Fatah and including two with "blood on their hands" - to help Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

News of the impending release was received negatively among Shin Bet handlers and agents, the source said.

"You have to hear the responses inside the Shin Bet to the release. They work day and night to capture and neutralize terrorists, and all of it is gone in an instant," he said.

....

The government's attempt to help Fatah with the new prisoner release was unlikely to succeed, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shalom Harari, a senior research scholar with the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said on Sunday.

Harari, who was as a senior adviser on Palestinian affairs to the Defense Ministry for 20 years, said Fatah was in an extremely vulnerable state, and that the proposed prisoner release would likely be "forgotten after two days."

Fatah's responses to previous prisoner releases were not encouraging, he said. "On the morning after the release, we heard Fatah blaming Israel. Whatever happens, they will blame Israel and fault everyone except for themselves," Harari said.