A Choice Between Dying And Getting Dead

“Prime ministers are occasionally required to make decisions that are contrary to public opinion, when the matter is one of importance to the state.”

So begins a letter Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu wrote to the people of Israel purporting to explain why he has agreed to release 104 bloodthirsty radical Muslim killers from prison as a precondition for peace talks almost no Israeli desires.

US Secretary of State John Kerry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Jerusalem, Thursday, June 27 (photo credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

But in fact, the letter doesn’t do that at all: it doesn’t explain why Bibi has agreed to release these killers. It just says Big Brother knows best. That’s not how it works in a democracy. In a democracy, elected officials have to serve the will of the people.

And the people say no.

They say no to the early release of criminals with blood on their hands. This is the only fact that bears any consideration in guiding public policy and the Prime Minister’s hand. It is the only fact of any import here. It’s the only reason the Prime Minister is in office and the only information that should guide him.

A Palestinian prisoner released by Israel, December 2008 (photo credit: Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

There is talk that President Obama must be strong-arming the Israeli Prime Minister, telling him that if he doesn’t release these 104 terrorists, the U.S. will not supply the ammunition Israel requires in the event it must go to war with a nuclear Iran. This is the buzz on Facebook today. It’s the only way to make sense of Bibi’s letter and the course of action he has taken.

Stuff We Don’t Know

It’s the theory of “Stuff We Don’t Know.”

It’s about backdoor deals between world powers. We can only offer conjecture, because we the people will never know the truth of what really happened: what was said and agreed upon behind closed doors.

A satellite image of Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility (photo credit: AP/DigitalGlobe)

In this case, the “stuff we don’t know” is a scenario in which President Obama tells PM Netanyahu that Israel must agree to release 104 murderers or the U.S. won’t supply Israel with the bunker busters needed to take out underground nuclear installations in Iran.

Iran’s president-elect Hasan Rouhani at a press conference, in Tehran on June 17, 2013. (photo credit: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

Let’s assume this is true—that the President is making U.S. military support and aid for a strike against Iran conditional on releasing murderers. Is there some reason the Prime Minister can’t just publicly out this attempt at blackmail? Is there some reason Bibi cannot say: “President Obama has informed me through back channels that if Israel fails to release 104 murderers from Israeli prisons, he, President Obama, will refuse to supply Israel with the weaponry needed to neutralize the nuclear threat emanating from Iran.”

I don’t see any reason for the Prime Minister not to tell the world what is behind this deal. Let him air the details and refuse the demand to release prisoners.

Let him expose for public scrutiny whatever Damocles sword is held over the heads of Israeli Jews. Let him expose the deal that forces Israel to choose between dying and getting dead—dying by the hands of released Arab terrorists, or getting dead by dint of an Iranian nuclear Holocaust against Israel.  I believe that in exposing the back channel threat, the threat would be neutralized, defused.

Big Brother

I want more than anything to see an entirely different sort of letter from the Prime Minister: one that tells the Israeli public the truth behind the backdoor deals that force his hand against the Israeli people. Because no other explanation for this deal makes sense and we, the Israeli people, have the right to make this decision. We didn’t elect Big Brother. We elected a leader we believed would express the will of the people.

Let Bibi be forthright in telling us what forced his hand and then let us decide if we agree that releasing the 104 murderers is the correct decision.

We have a right to know.

President Barack Obama, Monday, July 22, 2013. (photo credit:AP/Cliff Owen)