This is a cross-post by Marc Goldberg
The headlines are filled with talk about the imminent release of Palestinian terrorists who were decades ago imprisoned for committing terrible crimes. Bloggers and journalists alike have been sharpening their metaphorical pens in order to better stab the Prime Minister for taking the (albeit still to be ratified) decision to acquiesce in the Palestinian demand for the release of their people as a precondition for peace negotiations.
Ultimately this isn’t a complex argument; murderers are being let out of prison in exchange for the possibility of both Israelis and Palestinians living in a better world.
They’re being released for peace.
By releasing these terrorists Bibi is showing the world that not only is Israel ready to make nice sounding statements about new negotiations but is willing to take serious actions in order to get things moving once again.
This will come as small comfort to those who believe that these new talks will bring nothing but a new security nightmare for us. But then when it comes to ending this conflict there really isn’t anywhere else to go.
What it really comes down to is whether or not you believe that we can have it better than we have it now. Whether you believe that one day we all be living in this land together in peace.
We Jews deserve our homeland, we deserve our piece of dirt on this earth to call our own and we deserve to be able to live in it in peace and prosperity. Whether or not we can do that in large measure depends on the Palestinians. To be able to create a better future for our children we need these talks to happen and we need them to be successful.
Just as once the mere idea of a Jewish state was dismissed as a pipe dream so too is the possibility of peace with the Palestinians. But Ibelieve that creating this state was a lot harder than making the peace will be and I believe that making the peace happen starts with an act just like this one.
I sincerely hope that one day we’ll all be able to look back and say “it was the release of those Palestinian prisoners that really made peace possible”. It’s not easy to be able to think that way but in this land of God and miracles it shouldn’t be so hard to find those willing to bet on a simple act of faith for a better world.
