Murderers of Israelis Released to Jordan to Prevent Hamas Credit

Ehud Olmert vowed not to set free any prisoners with "blood on their hands" in his impending release of 250 Palestinian terrorists to "strengthen the moderate Abbas." (Of course, Israeli jails have been emptied so often that officials are having difficulty finding any long-term terrorist prisoners who weren't successful murderers.) So how does he manage to release the terrorist murderers of two IDF soldiers? Simple: don't include them in the count.

While the cabinet did not discuss the 250 prisoners, it did vote 16-4 to release four Jordanian prisoners who killed two IDF soldiers in 1990....

Cabinet sources said that one of the considerations behind transferring the men was to prevent them from being included in any future prisoner release or swap - such as the gesture to be made to Abbas or a possible swap for kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Schalit. Olmert, according to the sources, did not want Hamas to be able to "take credit" for the transfer, as Hizbullah did when prime minister Ariel Sharon released a number of Jordanian prisoners in the deal for Elhanan Tannenbaum, held in Lebanon, in 2004.

So instead of allowing Hamas to take credit for these four murderers, Israel will have to release more than four attempted murderers. And this way, Hamas will get to claim both the higher number of released terrorists plus these four. They would have every justification for receiving credit for prophylactically-released terrorists as well.

Admittedly, prophylactically-released terrorists command a lower mindshare valuation on the Arab street, so the Israeli calculus is not wholly without merit.

How to mute any local negative publicity? Simple. Claim that they are being released to Jordan, who "will continue to punish them." Jordan promised to wait 18 months before releasing them. Now, if Jordan has used its diplomatic capital to push for releasing this prisoners, and is intending to let them go as soon as Israel will agree, what kind of "jail" are they likely to face in Jordan now?