Palestinian terrorists murder Israeli civilians.
Said terrorists are convicted in a court of law; sentenced to life.
Palestinians kidnap an Israeli in order to free convicted terrorists.
Palestinian terrorists are freed in exchange for kidnapped Israeli.
Something is wrong with this picture (besides the evil of the murderers and the kidnappers).
That something wrong is the phrase, sentenced to life.
Can you think of a reason not to impose the death penalty on Aziz Salha, and those like him?
In October, 2000, Aziz Salha was photographed proudly waving his bloodstained hands out of the window of a Ramallah police station after participating in a lynch mob that broke into the building and beat to death two Israeli reservists who had been taken into Palestinian custody there after making a wrong turn into the city. An Israeli court convicted Salha of the murder of Cpl. Vadim Norzich.
Is there a reason not to impose the death penalty on Husam Badran?
As the leader of Hamas military wing in the northern West Bank, Badran instigated the 2001 bombing attacks on a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem (15 killed), the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing in Tel Aviv (21 killed), the 2002 suicide bombings of a Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya (30 killed) and the bombing of the Matza restaurant in Haifa (15 killed).
The best arguments against the death penalty are two:
One, you might execute the wrong person. In the case of Palestinian terrorists acting and killing in the open, check this box: Argument not applicable.
Two, you engage in the very brutality that the murderer engages in. In the case of convicted murderers who will likely be released in these immoral prisoner exchanges, who express no regret, who to the contrary will do their best to kill innocent people again, check this box: Argument not applicable.
To let a premeditated murderer rot in prison for life is one thing.
To make him a magnet for kidnapping, to make a mockery of his life sentence by letting him out, and to help him kill again, is totally different from the non-Palestinian-terrorist context; and totally transcends the argument that to execute him is to sink to his level of brutality. Exactly the opposite. To execute the Palestinian terrorist is to engage in the very purpose of the life sentence: the protection of the innocent.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
