the gov't and the writer don't want anything to happen to advance the cause of peace. Both the writer and most of the gov't will fight any peace deal with the Palestinians to the point of civil war. The gestures are solely aimed at placating America and then saying "look nothing happened!"

Livni does not believe negotations will bring peace: you can say many bad things about Livni, but she is not stupid. She is doing what she is paid to do by her masters. After Lebanon II she did everything she could to weaken Israel strengthen Hezbollah in Lebanon, now she wants to do the same thing in Judea and Samaria.

I was always taught that in a democracy the judiciary is separate from the executive and not beholden to it in any way.. I therefor fail to understand why the executive has the power and authority to decide to release those who have been convicted and sentenced, they are not prisoners of war, they are common criminals who are paying for their crimes. Could the executive suddenly decide to release a convicted murderer, an Israeli citizen who commited a crime in Tel Aviv, I think not.

On a very sober note, Israel does not look good these days.

Unleashing murderous terrorists against Israel is much worse than futile. It is criminal negligence. If an American government freed a single terrorist and he murdered someone, the victim's family would be able to successfully sue the U.S. government for countless millions of dollars. The "peace talks" are pure evil. They get countless Israelis murdered. Their intent is to steal Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria from Israel and turn Israel into a 9 mile wide concentration camp. The P.A. are mortal foes, like the Nazis. Israel needs to deal with them as such.

Besides calling all the Palestinian murderers of Jews "heros", and calling for the international boycott of the Israeli economy? Did he give up the right of return? Did he renounce all terror attacks? Did he recognize Israel's right to live peacefully?

Obama pressures Bibi.. Bibi a charlatan, coward and a faker gives into obama's demands, releases murderers. Bibi justifies the decision on israeli national security, trying to curry favor with Obama.. Bibi for years attempting to get Obama to act on Iran. obama refuses to act, prefers negotiations, appeasement and eventually acquiescence to a nuclear armed iran. Israel has a choice between shame or war. Israel has chosen shame and now she will have war.

That must be a great source of pride for you- our leadership has reached the level of the Palestinian leadership. And why would someone violently opposed to peace even care what the Pal leadership positions are???

...the accurate thing would be to say that "no one here (i.e. the Israeli government and most of its people) WANTS peace to come"

The Prisoner release is the gesture to balance settlement expansion some say some to conciliate an interim Palestinian State in 75% of the West Bank and Parts of Islamic Israel in exchange for a massive Israeli USA and Nato presence on the Jordan valley and parts of area C .This will be the new status quo with settlements remaining and expanding at moderate pace.

Finally the truth is brought to light. If Israel were to give all the land to the Pallys and only keep enough to stand on it would not placate them. All these Peace Talks do is give a few irrelevant people something to do. Truly a waste of time.

in which the PA agreed not to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court. For peace, both sides will need to make concessions. That is just the way things work.

It is fair justice for anyone who commit terror-actions. Even the terrorist will be happy to be helped into being a martyr. ps:to all terrorists to be, there is a clinic in Switcherland who can help you to achieve the uppermost goal to get your 72 virgins, please go there..

Tzipi Livni Justice Minister is a disaster needs sacking.

The Only person laughing is Tzipi Livni after all she’s justice minister domain of prisoners issues - to her that’s her job not land issues.

in which the PA agreed not to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court. For peace, both sides will need to make concessions. That is just the way things work.

How on earth you inferred from my post that "we are exactly the same as the Pals" is beyond me. We have recognized the Palestinians' aspirations for a homeland. Even Lieberman said so. We have promised over and over that we have no interest to attack them, if they don't shoot at us. We have withdrawn from their cities in the West Bank. We have withdrawn from the entire Gaza strip. We promised to make further withdrawals, and evacuate the settlements, if they show peaceful intentions. We supply them with electricity, water, fuel, and free passage of international aid. We cooperate with them economically, and give them tax money. We gave them state-of-the-art greenhouses. We treat their wounded and sick in our hospitals, free of charge. We released hundreds of their prisoners, including dozens of cold-blooded murderers. If all of these are not indications of goodwill and peaceful intentions, I don't know what are. What did we get in return for all this? Have they given up the right of return? Have they stopped shooting rockets at our towns? Have they even promised to stop the shooting? Have they changed their charter to no longer call for our destruction? Have they stopped calling for economic boycotts against us? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO to all of these. So now after I opened your eyes - if you still choose to blame Israel for the diplomatic impasse, then you are clearly not thinking straight, and reasoning with you is futile.

livni has a problem in her awareness of what is going on. She doesn't see. Her partner, olmert did one thing only during his reign of some value to Israe: he sat with abbas, gave him whatever essentially he wanted, waived palestinian flags, empathized with nakba, railed and hurt the settlers and even allowed palestinians back into israel on right of return. No one could do more for abbas as olmert killed israel for which he is now universally hated except for jew hating haaaretz So from his efforts, peace with arabs as livni conceives is impossible even if god came down and said yes to peace. Instead of securiing israel's borders, thislunatic with her husband coaching her, carries on with peace dragging bibi along as he is scared of his shadow and has no guts, zero to resist obama. While israel is well prepared at defense withyaalon, it has to replace bibi by someone with some guts not this wimpering pleading jew.

Peace to Israel and most of the world leads to a Jewish majority state and a Palestinian majority state. The majority of Palestinians reject living next to a Jewish majority state. So, what is peace to them? The powers like the EU and US are apparently afraid to ask and leave it at that hoping that things will just work out. The US and EU are always pressing Israel to accept a Palestinian majority state and it's about time they put their cowardice aside and pressed Palestinians to accept a Jewish majority state. Otherwise, nothing happens.

You mean terrorist murderer release was part of the blackmail? It just goes to show how messed up this world is today,and how everything is turned upside down that a terrorist group of a nonsovereign entity can threaten to take a sovereign nation to a phony partial international so called court for defending themselves,and their citizens,and yet when mass murderers of the non sovereign terror entity are freed in mass there is hardly any outcry about it at all.

Most of the rest of the ME is in chaos and economic ruin and in some and near famine. Not too bright, are you?

American political leaders invoke none other than Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu to argue, Israelis and their leaders want (desire that a Palestinian state be established in Israel's heartland; in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, etc., a state dedicated to Israel's destruction. As a forty two year registered Republican, it is dispiriting to see leaders of my party (the Party of Lincoln) invoke Mr. Netanyahu when drafting our party principles and goals at a national level. At the platform writing committee deliberations (August 2004, Tampa), former Sen. Jim Talent, a Mitt Romney surrogate, "ultimately fended off the flurry of amendments, arguing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly endorsed the two-state solution as Israeli government policy."

and next to any Muslim nation on earth. I particularly enjoy watching Muslim vs. Muslim wars. Their saving both Israel and the USA tons of $$ BULID FASTER THE JEWS ARE COMING !!!

How can you think that nothing will come from releasing terrorist ? They will kill more jewish children knowing that there will be no justice upon them.So sad, so tragic.

How correct you are. All we will get is more terrorism, and more noncompliance with signed treaties and obligations. This has to be the stupidest thing the government could have done

they don't want peace...they are not ready....gestures are futile, there is no occupation.... What they actually mean is...the current situation is overwhelmingly in our favor...we are not prepared to give up our privileges and in any case......there is still plenty of land....precious land to be taken.....

the court convicted them as civic murderers 1, and release them as war prisoners, someone didn't regulate the court system in Israel, they act more on their own behalf then and not follow the law.

Europe didn't start it. you might ask Noam chomsky. after all it is his life work, with no consern for left or right wing Israeli term. the terror attack were at the highest during Rabin term in the era of "peace".