(IsraelNN.com) .Arnold Roth, speaking on behalf of himself and his wife Frimet, was an invited guest on CNN International's news program "The Brief" on Thursday, December 24. Their daughter Malki, 15 at the time, was among 15 Israelis – including eight children – who were murdered by a Palestinian suicide terrorist in the Sbarro pizzeria slaughter in August 2001 in downtown Jerusalem.
"What sane society would let such murderers back out on the street?" Roth asked rhetorically.
He spoke of his opposition to the proposed exchange deal under which nearly 1,000 Palestinian Arab terrorists are to be released from Israeli jails in exchange for hostage Gilad Shalit. Shalit was abducted by Hamas terrorists in an undergound raid when he was serving on Israel’s border with Gaza in June 2006. Two soldiers were killed in the raid, and Shalit has been held hostage under inhumane conditions since then; no Israeli or Red Cross representative has ever been allowed to see him.
Roth wished to emphasize that the proposed exchange involves not merely the return of Gilad Shalit to his family, but also the release of hundreds of murderous terrorists. “We have to look at who the government is planning to let loose,” Roth said. “These are people with the most barbaric actions behind them, and an unrelenting desire to do them again and again. [By releasing them,] we will be creating the most impossibly dangerous situation not only for Israel, but also beyond Israel’s borders.”
Among the terrorists to be released is Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who planned the Sbarro attack and who drove the suicide murderer to his destination. On the day of the attack, Tamimi, then a 20-year-old part-time university student, and the explosives-carrier posed as English-speaking westerners in order to pass through checkpoints and arrive in Jewish western Jerusalem. In 2006, she told an interviewer, “I'm not sorry for what I did. I will get out of prison, and I refuse to recognize Israel's existence. Discussions will only take place after Israel recognizes that this is Islamic land.”
“She is still young,” Roth told CNN, “and she will have children, and her whole life in front of her, and she will be a heroine – as opposed to my daughter Malki, who led a very productive life, including helping her severely disabled younger sister, that was cut off thanks to these terrorists.”
“This woman [Tamimi] is not the only one,” Roth said. “She is just one of several big names involved in the Sbarro massacre. Hamas will reap a large PR victory by being able to spring these terrorists from prison. And there are hundreds of others as well, who, with every fiber of their bodies, want to continue killing Israelis. What sane society would let people like these back out on the street? I don’t see the sense of it at all.”
"What sane society would let such murderers back out on the street?" Roth asked rhetorically.
He spoke of his opposition to the proposed exchange deal under which nearly 1,000 Palestinian Arab terrorists are to be released from Israeli jails in exchange for hostage Gilad Shalit. Shalit was abducted by Hamas terrorists in an undergound raid when he was serving on Israel’s border with Gaza in June 2006. Two soldiers were killed in the raid, and Shalit has been held hostage under inhumane conditions since then; no Israeli or Red Cross representative has ever been allowed to see him.
Roth wished to emphasize that the proposed exchange involves not merely the return of Gilad Shalit to his family, but also the release of hundreds of murderous terrorists. “We have to look at who the government is planning to let loose,” Roth said. “These are people with the most barbaric actions behind them, and an unrelenting desire to do them again and again. [By releasing them,] we will be creating the most impossibly dangerous situation not only for Israel, but also beyond Israel’s borders.”
Among the terrorists to be released is Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who planned the Sbarro attack and who drove the suicide murderer to his destination. On the day of the attack, Tamimi, then a 20-year-old part-time university student, and the explosives-carrier posed as English-speaking westerners in order to pass through checkpoints and arrive in Jewish western Jerusalem. In 2006, she told an interviewer, “I'm not sorry for what I did. I will get out of prison, and I refuse to recognize Israel's existence. Discussions will only take place after Israel recognizes that this is Islamic land.”
“She is still young,” Roth told CNN, “and she will have children, and her whole life in front of her, and she will be a heroine – as opposed to my daughter Malki, who led a very productive life, including helping her severely disabled younger sister, that was cut off thanks to these terrorists.”
“This woman [Tamimi] is not the only one,” Roth said. “She is just one of several big names involved in the Sbarro massacre. Hamas will reap a large PR victory by being able to spring these terrorists from prison. And there are hundreds of others as well, who, with every fiber of their bodies, want to continue killing Israelis. What sane society would let people like these back out on the street? I don’t see the sense of it at all.”