14 Year old Danny Katz was your average Israeli teenager. Walking to visit his friends in Haifa, his life was interrupted when he was kidnapped by 5 Israeli Arabs on December 8, 1983. His badly beaten corpse was found a few days later in a cave in Carmel. In 1991, the five Arab men who confessed to the crime, were sentenced to life imprisonment for abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering Katz. According to the original indictment against the five, they met a few days before the murder and decided to kidnap and kill a Jewish child. (YNET)
Fast Forward to 2007.
The Katz family receive a phone call from a journalist asking for a comment. They ask, "a comment on what?" The journalist says, "You didn't know? President Shimon Peres has just reduced the life sentences on your son's killers."
Humiliated. Shocked. Outraged, Danny's brother told reporters: "Peres hasn't even warmed the presidential seat and already he is busy releasing the vile men who murdered my brother."
To the dear Katz family: Welcome to the club called "Annoyances of the State"
You are now official annoyances of Israel, for you dare to criticize Israel's President.
This club contains all sorts of unfortunate people...
Fast Forward to 2007.
The Katz family receive a phone call from a journalist asking for a comment. They ask, "a comment on what?" The journalist says, "You didn't know? President Shimon Peres has just reduced the life sentences on your son's killers."
Humiliated. Shocked. Outraged, Danny's brother told reporters: "Peres hasn't even warmed the presidential seat and already he is busy releasing the vile men who murdered my brother."
To the dear Katz family: Welcome to the club called "Annoyances of the State"
You are now official annoyances of Israel, for you dare to criticize Israel's President.
This club contains all sorts of unfortunate people...
- Families of Terror Victims who demand justice for killers...or at a minimum, that terrorists won't be freed. (Update next week - mentioned on radio this morning, not in print yet)
- Senior State Employees who whistleblow about corruption. (Finance Minister Ronnie Bar On has informed the accountant-general, Yaron Zelekha that his contract would not be renewed at the end of October, when he is set to complete a four-year tenure...Zelekha reported Ehud Olmert's involvemnt in tailoring the tender sale of Bank Leumi to his personal cronies. YNET)
- Sederot residents who wish for some measure of safety for this children when going to school. (Yet another Qassam rocket his Sederot today...Sderot's parents association has been threatening not to allow the school year to open in the town on September 2, due to the government's failure to complete the fortification of classrooms and schools. YNET)
- Elderly Holocaust survivors who receive a pittance of a stipend from the government. (‘Israel demanded reparation funds from Germany, but did not allocate them in a just and logical manner,’ Dalia Itzik says. MK Pines-Paz: According to the deal, if Anne Frank were alive today she would not have been recognized as a Holocaust survivor YNET)
- Gush Katif residents who were evicted from their homes...and would appreciate some relief -- in terms of housing or employment...or even acknowledgment of their plight. You don't need a link for this...as I bring it up every other week.
The list goes on.
My heart goes out to the Katz family -- because the way Peres, Olmert & Co. treat citizens here, if you're an annoyance, you're an enemy.
Unfortunately, Shimon Peres treats the real enemies of the State with much more compassion that he does for the members of the Annoyances of the State club.
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael
My heart goes out to the Katz family -- because the way Peres, Olmert & Co. treat citizens here, if you're an annoyance, you're an enemy.
Unfortunately, Shimon Peres treats the real enemies of the State with much more compassion that he does for the members of the Annoyances of the State club.
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael
The Rabbis knew about this thousands of years ago:
ReplyDelete"He who is merciful to the wicked will end up wicked to merciful ones."
See the last two paragraphs of this post: http://mevaseretzion.blogspot.com/2007/07/theodicy.html
It is sad enough to make you crazy.
Olmert and company sure have their moments.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard anything about this until just now. I looked up the story and it appears (from the minimal amount of print I've come across in these few minutes of research) that the commutation was based, at least in part, on some concern as to whether these men are actually guilty.
ReplyDeleteMy views therefore are pretty simple and are the same views I hold with regard to the death penalty debate in the United States. If someone is known to be guilty of a cold-blooded murder they should be punished in the severest way allowable by law, HOWEVER this can only morally be done if you KNOW that the guy is guilty. As the Shir Beitar has it, "Gaon V'Nadiv V'Achzar" - you can and should be an achzar only AFTER you've tried being a Nadiv.
In any event, I'm not sure why I'm being dan peres l'kaf zchut being as he's an absolutely evil asshole. But... it's worth knowing the facts anyway.
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
P.S.I REALLY dislike Peres.
P.P.S. Don't believe me? I was jogging toward the second Kav Shmonah Esreh back on Yud Bet Adar some 12 years ago or so when... what happened happened. Peres roared in with his Shabak entourage for a photo-op while the bus and the bodies were still there. This is shortly after Rabin was killed and people were getting tossed in jail for making jokes about it (such as that "Mi Bator?" "Peres" one). I was livid beyond compare in seeing this garbage show up and I ran into the street and spat at his car as his chauffer was slowing down to park and I shouted at him something along the lines of "Mavet L'Peres". The man really is garbage. - Once we're on the subject, remember when he was running against Bibi and Arafat came out publicly to say that there would be no more bombings until after the election so as not to hurt Prime Minister Peres' chances? That was back in the day when Peres was Arafat's spokesman for his laughable claim that Hamas was out of his control. Anyone in Israel at that time knows that, entirely unlike today, there was zero truth to that. In any event, I had the opportunity to rip into Peres about that at a very public gathering of "Young American Jewish Leaders". No shouts or saliva here, just an icy-cold, clear and well-spoken rhetorical question regarding what influence Peres might please exert on his good friend and Nobel-Prize buddy so that there wouldn't be murderous bombing massacres throughout the country even if he, Mr. Peres, did not win the election.
By God, did that get his attention and change the course of the rest of his meeting with us young Jewish "leaders".
Anyhow, I'm still marshalling what optimism I can.
Cheers and Shana Tovah ~ m
mevaseretzion could you please provide an Internet Link to that quote.
ReplyDeleteIt is just that I like it so much I will like to use it often.
Have you read this article yet?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/899694.html