The coalition's right-wing MKs and cabinet ministers are wrong, at least for now. There is no basis for their demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renege on Israel's promise to release additional terrorists. Israel has made a pledge on the matter.
The pledge was made as a result of the Right's unwillingness to accept a temporary settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria.
It rejected the prisoners' release and it refused to stop construction, but it failed to present an alternative. Just what would it be willing to offer the Palestinians? The Right would like to see Israel offer nothing. How good and how pleasant it is to see the status quo remain as is.
Nothing should be given in exchange for a mere willingness to open talks; that principle is correct.
But it would be wrong to think that things would have stayed the same had Israel made no gestures. Stagnation would have strained relations with the Palestinian Authority, which has been helping with counterterrorism efforts in its cities. It would have also caused friction with the U.S., which has only recently stopped International Atomic Energy Agency monitors from inspecting the reactor in Dimona. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
There is room to debate whether Israel acted wisely when it agreed to release more than 100 Palestinians who had been serving lengthy sentences in exchange for the renewal of talks. But deliberating whether Netanyahu should keep his promise is a whole new ballgame. What's more, the Palestinian Authority has fulfilled its part of this painful bargain as it has not waged another U.N. statehood bid nor has it shirked its duties when it comes to fighting Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Any entity has to be held accountable for what takes place in its territory and for the acts of various rogue citizens, but Israel has never had to pay a price for the price-tag attacks perpetrated by its anonymous law-breaking vandals. This is because the international community believes Israel truly wants to find them and punish them.
The Palestinian Authority is held to the same standard. If it turns out that the killing of the Israeli soldier near Shaarei Tikva last week and the fatal sniper attack against another Israeli soldier in Hebron on Sunday was perpetrated by someone from within its own ranks it would have made sense to exact a price for the victims' deaths. But so long as the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency lack proof that PA President Mahmoud Abbas supports the killings, the Palestinians should be spared punishment. "Everyone shall die for his own iniquity," said the Prophet Jeremiah.
Israel must tread lightly when it comes to fulfilling the duties it has undertaken as part of the peace process, where the U.S. plays a central role. The peace talks have been placed on the back burner, because only various instigators and provocateurs want to have them preoccupy the already simmering Middle East. The events in Syria and Egypt should trump everything else. But if Israel tries to champion this approach, hostile forces will seize on this and try to portray the region's instability as Israel's fault.
Unless there is a significant spike in Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria, and so long as Abbas does not brazenly flout his commitments, Israel has no choice but to hunker down as well as possible.
The right-wing members of the cabinet know that too, but because their political well-being is secure, they can afford to enjoy being in power without expressing the necessary solidarity with the state's leadership.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו