Posted on 01/26/2003 8:04:20 AM PST by SJackson
I swear, I’m adopting the creed of take no prisoners. Why? Because I know, sure as shootin’, that the minute there is a prisoner exchange to be made somewhere, some politician will use it as a bargaining tool. For everybody, that is, except Jonathan Pollard. In his case, the powers that be will keep him incarcerated for another eighteen years. Jack the Ripper could be let out of jail, but Pollard - forget it. Ah, but he’s the one exception in the world. Pollard is just too controversial for the mainstream politician. We let in terrorists who want nothing more than to kill us, yet we continue to imprison Pollard. Maybe if the public knew a little more about the reasons the jail should be opened to let him out, including the many improprieties surrounding his incarceration, pressure might be put on the Jewish leadership to open their mouths. That is something that they’ve yet to do.
At one point, I thought that the Human Rights Hollywood crowd, who are always so vocal in their campaigns for the release of the wrongfully imprisoned, might want to get involved. After all, the Streisands, Penns, Sarandons, etc. are always so keen on being liberal, progressive and caring. Might they possibly want to film a television show about the disgraceful imprisonment of Jonathan Pollard? I spoke about the feasibility of a screen play about a man who merely wanted to help Israel and give it the information that the United States was withholding from its ally, and how he still sits in prison. Sound good? Yeah, right. On the subject of Pollard’s release, they’re almost as quiet as the peaceful Muslim community on the topic of terrorism in the Western world. I made the rounds of the offices of two of the biggest producers and pitched the thought of a made-for-television show about Jonathan Pollard. They couldn’t have cared less. The sad thing was that both of these major producers were Jewish. The topic was one, they told me, that they didn’t want to bring up. This “wasn’t the time.”
Since I’m speaking of prisoners - Years ago, I chaired what I believe was the only female run discussion group in a federal institution. It was a Jewish Discussion Group at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Out of twenty-eight hundred inmates that were in the prison, the most that were Jewish, at any one time, was ten. I used to tell them that they had to be products of mixed marriages. The point is, even they used to make jokes about how they conned the public. All of them deserved to be there, yet most of them had lawsuits pending about their unfair incarnations. The ‘do-gooders’ were naive then, and they haven´t changed now. Twenty years later, they are marching to the tune of ‘let´s-understand-the-poor-downtrodden-terrorist, oh, excuse me, ‘militant’. Well, I didn´t buy it then and I don´t buy it now. How does a rational mind comprehend the Palestinians, a people who can name a soccer tournament after the suicide bomber who killed 29 people and injured 140 last year during a Passover Seder, as the Palestinian Authority daily al-Hayat al-Jadida reported with great pride?
I cannot count how many terrorists - not ‘militants’ or ‘activists, but terrorists - that Israel traded while I watched helplessly. Usually it was a thousand PLO members for one Israeli. Which, in retrospect, is a pretty fair trade. However, some of these guys who were let out of those jails were pretty bad characters. Even worse than the trade, were the “goodwill” releases of the Shimon Peres and Yitzchak Rabin regimes. They just opened the gates and let everybody out, in the hopes that Arafat really meant what he said.
That’s why I’m for the death penalty. Because there are too many misguided people who think that criminals are just a misunderstood group who should be let out. Israel isn’t the only place that does such crazy things. Recently, Illinois Governor George Ryan, who is facing possible criminal indictments for activities while serving in office, did what I lovingly call a “ Shimon.” He opened the doors of death row and commuted the death sentences of 164 inmates to life imprisonment without parole, pardoning four of them. Half of his jail had Dead Men Walking. It was enough, at least, to cause catastrophe in our penal system and heartbreak to the victims’ families - they will never have the chance for a pardon.
Our liberal left has gone off the deep end. I wonder when the mental institutions will be opening their doors and letting the loonies roam free? Oh, excuse me, the "emotionally challenged." And, in the interest of political correctness, heaven forbid if we mention that the Moslem religion is not only dangerous, but also violent. Yet, the ACLU rushes to release imprisoned terrorist suspects. How many of these Islamic terrorists will be saved to come back and kill another day? Recently, I heard a speech by Dr. Daniel Pipes, who is probably one of the world’s foremost experts on Islam and it´s culture. One of the things that he said impressed me; he spoke of how there are over a billion Moslems in the world and, although maybe only fifteen percent are in the category of terrorist, that´s close to two hundred million people who are dedicated to the demise of Western culture: "Not all the Moslems are terrorists, however, all the terrorists are Moslem." Their numbers are growing at an enormous rate. The danger of them taking over is a clear and a present danger. We are allowing too many of the enemy into our country because of naiveté and the fear of racial profiling. We are not doing enough to secure our borders.
So, do any of you see anything wrong with the picture that the terrorists are free to come and go, the non-violent criminals are kept in prison, Syria is chairing the United Nations Security Council and Libya is on the UN Human Rights Committee, while Israel is never even allowed to serve on the board? How about letting out all of the residents of our mental institutions next? That seems to be what the United Nations is advocating. It is a shame that they have turned into a legally excused sounding board for anti-Semitism, something Adolph Hitler only dreamed about.
--------------------------------------------------------
Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at bestredhead@earthlink.net.
How about you responding to Irene Adler's Post #12???
Cat got your tongue?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.