Will Pollard celebrate the Seder with his family?

April 10, 2014   

According to unofficial reports from Washington, a deal to release Jonathan Pollard is closer than ever. According to the report, in exchange for his release, Israel will release between 400 and 450 Palestinian terrorists, including Israeli Arabs with Israeli ID cards. Earlier, senior sources in Israel said that Israel had decided to give up a firm demand to freeze the 15 international treaties to which the Palestinian Authority had requested to join, but recent reports indicate that Abu Mazen may freeze at least 7 of these 15 requests - a freeze that means stopping the advancement of the procedures for the requests. Last night, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement stating that the treaties signed by the Palestinians will enter into force on May 2. In exchange, as stated, Israel will release the terrorists, but will also freeze further construction in Judea and Samaria, according to reports coming from the PA. The US, for its part, will release Pollard, already in time for the upcoming Seder night. If everything is indeed done, the parties will return to the negotiating table, exactly to the point where they stopped the talks that exploded. The deal is supposed to be approved by the government in the coming days, and the big question is whether it will be approved. Let us recall that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has already expressed his opinion that his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, would prefer to go to the elections over releasing additional terrorists. Will he stand by his statements or fold? - time will tell. ""We must not turn the other cheek"" Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin is calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this evening to avoid returning to a deal that would include the mass release of terrorists and a freeze on construction. "Certainly as long as the Palestinians have not withdrawn their appeal to the UN." According to Elkin, "Returning to the outline of the deal in such a situation would convey weakness and constitute a reward for the Palestinians for their refusal, and would only encourage their desire to strike the State of Israel in the international arena. We must not turn the other cheek when we are spat on. In this way of surrendering to Palestinian aggression, we have always only brought disasters upon ourselves. Signing the deal under the current conditions could lead to political upheaval and drag the State of Israel into new elections.""