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Posted on 08/21/2004 4:59:18 PM PDT by SJackson
Last week, the Palestinian "security prisoners" in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike. The Israel Prison Service decided to monitor any changes in the health of about 1,500 convicted terrorists. It plans to subject those participating in the hunger strike to medical examinations.
Physicians and paramedics were put on alert to offer medical service and, if needed, force-feed any prisoners whose lives might be in danger as a result of their hunger strike. The prison authorities also presented the incarcerated with a document, in Arabic, on the dangers involved in hunger striking.
This bureaucratic response went against the initial, intuitive reaction of Minister of Internal Security Tzahi Hanegbi to the strike, which was: "Let them starve."
His intuition may be right.
The term "security prisoners" is basically a euphemism for ideologically motivated murderers convicted of terrorist activities against Israelis. The purpose of their imprisonment is primarily to minimize their potential to harm Israelis.
No one really entertains any hope of seeing them repent or reform their murderous views as a result of their exposure to an Israeli prison facility. Jails rarely have this type of effect.
From what we know, the time spent in Israeli jails is used by the Palestinians for further indoctrination and improving the skills needed in terrorist activities.
Israeli prisons have been a breeding ground for the Palestinian national movement. Indeed, there have been any number of cases of released prisoners re-arrested for killing Jews.
Thus, if some of them decide to starve themselves to death while in prison, it would be foolish on Israel's part to prevent it. The alternative in many cases is the death of the prisoner after release, this time as a shaheed, after taking several Israeli lives besides his own.
Acts of suicide terror only prolong the conflict, while the early demise of such terrorists will serve to reduce the level of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a precondition for stabilizing the tense relationship. The calculus of utility in allowing the prisoners to make good on their hunger threats is thus brutally clear.
The ethical considerations are somewhat less clear. Israel is responsible for the prisoners' lives and basic healthcare. But this is assuming they want to be healthy. If they decide to use their health as a weapon in the struggle against the Jews, Israel's obligation is void.
Seeing that many of these terrorists were ready to sacrifice their lives in the course of their actions against Israel, it makes little sense to claim that Israel has a moral imperative to keep them alive against their will. While the process of eliminating terrorists is bound by moral considerations, their self-elimination is less of a constraint for Israel.
A probable consequence of such a nonchalant attitude toward the hunger strikers would, paradoxically, save prisoners lives. But the posture adopted by the prison service limits the risks to the strikers, as it promises prompt intervention to save their lives when their health deteriorates. This only encourages their recklessness.
Hanegbi's opposite formula increases the uncertainty surrounding the continuation of a hunger strike, and this may serve as an incentive for its discontinuation, at least for the more rational prisoners. The fanatics will be less dissuaded, but their death is not something to be regretted.
That, indeed, is how prime minister Margaret Thatcher decided to respond in 1981 to a hunger strike by jailed IRA members. After six months and 10 deaths by willful starvation with no British concession in sight, the strike lost momentum. Its failure was one reason why part of the Irish nationalists gradually shifted from violence to the negotiating table.
The current hunger strike in Israel is motivated by several specific demands intended to ease communication between prisoners and the outside world – partly to better orchestrate terrorist attacks.
Yet its significance is primarily political. It is designed to regenerate and mobilize a tired Palestinian society. As the campaign around the security fence peters out, a new issue is needed to galvanize the Palestinian masses for the continuing violent struggle against Israel.
As a political and humanitarian issue, the prisoners create great resonance in the Palestinian street. Palestinian propagandists also understand well that children carrying pictures of their jailed fathers or brothers are an excellent public relations ploy.
Thus Israel has an interest in winning this round. After all, the conflict with the Palestinians will not be surmounted with one decisive blow but through incremental triumphs over time.
A tough Israeli stance, one that shows the hunger strikers they will make no gains, would further discourage the Palestinians, reinforcing the growing feeling that the latest wave of Palestinian violence has been a colossal failure.
The writer is professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and heads the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies.
They'll get fed.
I think Israel should supply tapeworms for the fluckers.
I hear a prisoner exchange program with Russia...
Israel sends them Palestinians, and Russia sends Israel whatever they want.
See how the Palestinians like Russian prisons.
Heard these creeps were sneakin food and sayin they were starvin.
You're right.
There's a video, on the Jerusalem Post site, showing Marwan Barghouti, their leader, sneaking a meal during the strike.
I have not heard much in the last few days about this subject.
Are the hunger strikers getting hungry yet? Are the barbecues outside their cells having any impact? Is anyone writing up a new palestinian terrorist diet plan book?
What is going on?
From a humanitarian perspective, all Israel needs to do is see to it that each prisoner has access to adequate nutrition and health care. If he chooses not to make use of them, that's his own private affair.
I agree witht he sentiment however, priveleges can be used as leverage against bad behavior.
Name: Achmed bin Terrorist
Cause of Death: Anorexia Nervosa
Let them die. If they want to kill themselves, it means more Jews get to live. Israel is under no moral obligation to keep anti-Semites alive against their will.
the only good terrorist...is a dead terrorist....besides the smaller they are the less room they take up.....
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So what you call this prisoenr diet
South Beach diet or Low Carb diet
I don't think it is Slim Fast I think it is Ensure
Slip Ex-Lax into their drinking water.
My bet is that no more than one will die. The rest will stop playing "give us cell phones and Coca-Cola" when they get really hungry. I have fasted two weeks before, it is not that hard to do. But around 30 days or so they will get really hungry. They they will eat their shoes.
From what we know, the time spent in Israeli jails is used by the Palestinians for further indoctrination and improving the skills needed in terrorist activities.
Israeli prisons have been a breeding ground for the Palestinian national movement. Indeed, there have been any number of cases of released prisoners re-arrested for killing Jews.
Thus, if some of them decide to starve themselves to death while in prison, it would be foolish on Israel's part to prevent it.
At long last in this article....BINGO! It is damnably weak on Israel's part to show worry about it. If they want to starve, let them.
But wait, the Jews in Palestine and most famously aboard the "Exodus" started a hunger strike and depended on the world-wide media to back them. Those Jews wanted only their own state......
The Palestinians try to copy old Jewish methods, and the world media has certainly shifted sides. But there's a real difference. The grab bag of assorted ethnic groups called the Palestinians are parasites. According to Mark Twain and others, Palestine was desolate in the 1880s. The land would revert to shambles without the Jews that built the area into the finest example of agriculture, industry and technology in the whole Middle East and that in an area the size of New Jersey. I suppose that is the 'unforgiveable sin' to the Arabs, it shows up their own failures so plainly.
The Israelis should pull a "Thatcher" and just ignore their publicity plays, and tell the media to go to hell.
You dough heads!
They are only going to "starve" during the daylight hours.
When the sun goes down, it's chow down time.
Just like fasting on Ramadan, you only go hungry when the sun is shining.
Sealed up long enough, they'd start eating each other.
A hunger strike on their own terms, with eating at night?
LOL. And the media buys this?
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