Barghouti ‘handshake’ suggestion makes me sick to the stomach

Miriam Davidowitz

Sifrin ends his column expressing a scene with Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Marwan Barghouti to thunderous applause as they receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace. Sifrin asks: Is it naive, wishful thinking?

I am a 79-year-old Safta with Israeli citizenship and I cannot imagine anything more hurtful and offensive to the pure emotions of any Israeli/Jew than to release the arch-terrorist Barghouti.

This man who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail, can be likened to the worst Nazi war criminal; Barghouti organised the brutal killings of hundreds of Israeli men, women and children.

Only one year ago he urged the Palestinian Authority to immediately end security co-operation with Israel and called for a Third Intifada. He refused to present any defence for charges brought against him, maintaining that his trial was illegal and illegitimate.

Marwan Barghouti is without a doubt one of the biggest Jew-killers since the Nazis, and if given the chance (as Sifrin suggests) he would, with relish, attempt another Shoah in our Holy Land.

Now can you understand why I feel sick to my stomach? In my opinion the Jewish Report erred in allowing Sifrin to express his hurtful sentiments in our only Jewish newspaper.

Golden Acres, Johannesburg