R.I.P. Baruch Mizrahi and Peace to his family

Ziad Awad was re-arrested on suspicion that he murdered Baruch Mizrahi on Passover eve. Ziad Awad was one of the 1027 terrorists released in exchange for Hamas releasing Gilad Shalit. Once released, Awad’s friends and neighbors celebrated his return with a hero’s welcome. It should be clear that his terror supporting friends and neighbors are just as guilty as he is. This Hamas terrorist, convicted but released by the Government of Israel in the infamous Gilad Shalit Transaction in 2011, has been arrested for the killing of Police Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi. In the final minutes before the onset of Passover, an Israeli family from Modi’in, traveling on Highway 35 by car to a family seder in the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba came under fire near the Arab village of Idhna. The driver, a man in his forties and a police officer was shot to death. His pregnant wife was struck by bullets as well and evacuated to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in critical condition. One of their children sitting in the back seat was also hit by bullets. Ziad Awad and his son Izz Eddin Hassan Ziad Awad were arrested on May 7 by the Israel Police’s elite counter-terrorism unit in collaboration with the Shin Bet security service for the April 14 shooting of the 47-year-old father of five. The senior Awad is accused of carrying out the shooting, while his son allegedly assisted him in planning the shooting and coordinating the escape. “Like father…like son.” This is clear proof that once released/paroled, they will continue acting the same way than before. This is also clear proof to the world, that once in jailed…these animals should never be released. Or better yet, Israel must institute the death penalty and proceed in the same manner that took Eichmann to the gallows. The awful confluence of Israel’s latest hostage “situation” and the arrest of Ziad Awad should bring a painful reality into clear focus: Israel will not survive in the long-run without the mettle to stand up to life in the Middle East, and without the backbone to stand up to pressure exerted by devastated family members and to foreign governments or even the United Nations. And so, the question remains for Israel: Which Zionist principle is stronger? The commitment to maintaining a Jewish Democratic Country in the Land of Israel, or your fanatic commitment to resist all allusions to traditional Judaism. Remember the fateful words of Date-Leumi and Jabotinsky: “The Jewish People in the Promised Land with the TORAH.” Nothing else matters…the people, the land and the TORAH as a lighthouse of wisdom and our way of life. “Israel will not allow any terrorist group to trample on its citizens. Israelis are acting in self-defense.” “The idea of releasing terrorists has come to an end.”