31-Oct-11: Bombardments across Israel's south

The outdoor car park of an Ashdod residential apartment
block in flames after one of numerous Gazan rockets
sought Jewish civilian victims across southern Israel
over the Sabbath 

Because we're traveling, we're temporarily unable to do justice to the events unfolding in Israel's south with massive and indiscriminate rocket attacks. Stay tuned.

27-Oct-11: "Allah granted me success. Do you want me to denounce what I did? That's out of the question..."

We made some points in a blog entry a week ago (see "20-Oct-11: Enough already: A first-person reminder for those who think we objected to the release of a mere driver") about the racism, barbarism and bottomless evil embodied in the woman who murdered our daughter. If our case was not sufficiently clear, the woman herself has come to clarify matters for anyone still wondering.

Interviewed yet again, and surely not for the last time, the convicted murder responsible for planning and executing the massacre of innocents in the Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant ten years ago, and now free (read "Colossal Failure") to be embraced by her countless supporters as a celebrity, makes sure the Arabic-speaking world knows just how proud and religiously fulfilled she feels for the deaths and destruction she made happen.



If you clicked and viewed it, we have a half-serious question. What chance do you think, now that MEMRI have translated the new interview to English, that this woman's blunt defence of murder will provoke vociferous condemnations from Moslems throughout the world anxious to defend the good name of their religion? This barbarian clearly places it at the center of her murderous value system. Does this abuse of their religion not bother them?

The fact that most of our readers will intuitively dismiss the very thought is worth spending a moment to ponder.

27-Oct-11: Dealing with terrorists produces - not surprisingly - additional terrorist attacks

Under the heading "Calm shattered in south as Grad rocket lands near Ashdod", Ynet reported in the last few hours this extremely unwelcome news:

A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night landed in an open territory in the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council between Ashdod and Gedera. According to Magen David Adom, several people suffered shock.

This is the first terrorist rocket attack from Hamas-controlled Gaza since the Murderers-for-Gilad-Shalit transaction of last week. Incoming-missile sirens were sounded, to the horror of local residents, in Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Nes Ziona and Rehovot - all of them southern suburbs of Tel Aviv. Rehovot has not previously heard the sounds of Code Red; it's unlikely to be the last such occurrence. No Iron Dome anti-missile-attack batteries are currently deployed in the region.

UPDATE Thursday afternoon: JPost reports there were in fact three incoming rockets last night, all fired at Israeli civilians around midnight.

25-Oct-11: "This is a stunning victory for Hamas" [Video]

Jordana Miller of Jewish News One, a new global non-profit international news network that was launched on 21 September 2011, interviewed the Roths in their Jerusalem home a day before the Gilad-Shalit-for-terrorists hand-over of hundreds of convicted murderers.

The video clip below is one of the few that we have seen that gave us the opportunity to deliver more than the briefest of sound-bites to a video audience. Click to view the interview which is currently hosted on the YouTube site.



The petition mentioned in the interview - to have the name of our daughter's murderer removed from the list of terrorists to be freed - is here. We failed in our effort, and that murderer was released from her Israeli prison cell last week. She is currently living in "exile" in Jordan (where she was born and where an unknown number of members of her family live) where she is being feted and honored as a hero and as a figure worthy of emulation, especially by children and women.

25-Oct-11: So where exactly were the human rights groups till now?

Source

From an op ed in today's Jerusalem Post (we added the hyperlinks):

Releasing more than 1,000 terrorists and murderers may be a necessary evil, but it is an evil, nonetheless. Unfortunately, human rights NGOs have refused to speak out against it... At the center of the five-year ordeal to free Schalit was an abject failure of justice and international law. The hundreds of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate in this region – and claim in some manner to promote human rights – never adopted the Schalit cause as a raison d’etre. On the contrary, since his captivity began, organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Euro- Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN), B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Gisha, and Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) did not conduct sustained, coordinated campaigns on his behalf. Gilad Schalit was simply not a priority for these NGOs... Gisha, for example, wrote: “We join in the sigh of relief that is palpable today throughout Israel and of course the relief felt by the Schalit family and the families of the prisoners who will be released.” ... Did Gisha feel relief for the release of Ahlam Tamimi, who drove the suicide bomber and the bomb to the Sbarro pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem in 2001 and waited calmly for the explosion that murdered 16, including many children? Tamimi is a cold-blooded mass murderer by any definition, who boasted and laughed about her “accomplishments” in television interviews from an Israeli jail after she was caught, tried and sentenced. Yet none of these self-proclaimed human rights organizations condemned her or her release...

The whole article, "Not Just Any Celebration" by Jason Edelstein and Naftali Balanson of NGO Monitor, is here and worth passing along to friends. The shabby hypocrisy of organizations that presume to take money from donors to support self-proclaimed human rights activities needs exposing - and ending.

24-Oct-11: There's a heightened terror alert in effect in Jerusalem right now

Having just returned home from the center of Jerusalem, we're not so surprised to read that the authorities "have raised the city's alert level on Monday due to a terror warning. Helicopters have been dispatched and police are patrolling the area."

It's been a while since we saw such a noticeable presence of Yasam Rapid Response Motorcycle Unit anti-terrorism cops mounted two-to-a-bike riding through the central city's streets and lanes. Let's pray it's a false alarm.

UPDATE 17:45 Ynet says "The Jerusalem Police on Monday ended the heightened security alert called in the capital after several tense hours."

13-Oct-11: Roth explains to Australia's AM why the release of murderers is so bad [audio]

One of Australia's most listened-to radio programs is the nationally-broadcast news magazine "AM".

On 13th October 2011, just before the expected completion of a transaction in which Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit would be freed by his terrorist captors in exchange for a huge number of convicted and imprisoned Palestinian Arab murderers, this report by its Middle East correspondent Anne Barker went to air.

Criticism for Gilad Shalit prisoner swap
Anne Barker reported this story on Thursday, October 13, 2011 08:15:00

TONY EASTLEY: An Australian expat in Israel is among several people considering a legal challenge to stop the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the freedom of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The young soldier was captured by Palestinian militants five years ago.
In exchange Israel has agreed to free Palestinian prisoners who include convicted murderers and others involved in terrorist attacks.
Israeli citizens outraged at the exchange will have the chance to appeal against the decision, as Middle East correspondent Anne Barker reports.
ANNE BARKER: Australian man Arnold Roth knows too well the price Israel is paying for Gilad Shalit's freedom.
His teenage daughter Malki died in a massive bomb blast 10 years ago in Jerusalem.
ARNOLD ROTH: My daughter was one of 15 people murdered in a cold-blooded attack on a pizza restaurant in the centre of Jerusalem on a school holiday where the focus was on women and children.
ANNE BARKER: The bomber too was killed when the explosives hidden in a guitar case blew up.
But a young Palestinian woman who helped mastermind the bombing was sentenced to life in jail.
Now she is tipped to walk free.
ARNOLD ROTH: It's devastating. She's got a life that's being handed back to her as a result of this transaction.
She'll almost certainly have children and she'll almost certainly inspire many more children than she'll ever give birth to. She has said without any prevarication, I'm proud of what I did.
ANNE BARKER: Ahlam Tamimi is one of 27 Palestinian women in Israeli jails, all of whom are set for release as part of the deal Israel has struck with Hamas.
In all 1000 men and the 27 women will be freed. Hundreds of them are militants serving life sentences for murder or violence.
Arnold Roth isn't the only Israeli who objects to the deal. Even some in the Israeli government voted against the agreement, warning it'll only encourage more militants to take hostages.
Once the names of the prisoners are made public by Sunday, the Supreme Court will grant 48 hours for any Israeli to lodge a legal appeal against the prisoner exchange although similar appeals before have invariably failed.
(Sound of Isaac Maoz speaking)
"I don't know if I can do anything against the deal," says another Israeli man Isaac Maoz, another bereaved father. "I am almost certain that all the murderers who will be released will resume their actions. This is very dangerous. My daughter was murdered because of them."
For their part Palestinians are celebrating the deal which is a clear victory for Hamas.
Qassem Razem whose son has served 30 years in jail says he hasn't seen him for five years.
(Sound of Qassem Razem speaking)
"This is what I wish for and what we wait for too," he says. "What more could we ask for if those who have been serving for many years are released? And we have been longing to see them for years."
The first prisoners and Gilad Shalit are expected to be freed some time next week.
This is Anne Barker in Jerusalem for AM.

A streaming-audio recording of the program is here.

18-Oct-11: Le Figaro interviews Arnold Roth about the release of murderers

Le Figaro's Adrian Jaulmes interviewed Arnold Roth in his Jerusalem home. Brief excerpt:

«Les victimes du terrorisme embarrassent nos sociétés modernes, explique posément Arnold Roth. Nous sommes bien sûr, comme tout le monde, heureux que Gilad Shalit retrouve les siens. Mais on oublie que sa libération n'est qu'une petite partie d'une histoire beaucoup plus vaste, dans laquelle on oublie les victimes. Nous avons l'impression d'être pris pour des idiots.»

The entire interview - in French - under the title "Israël: des familles de victimes d'attentats s'estiment oubliées" is here on the Le Figaro site. In unofficial translation, Roth is quoted saying: "We are neither hysterical nor political activists, but are simply very opposed to this proposed release on principle."

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde.

22-Oct-11: Stabbed this afternoon in Ramot

Because we don't listen to the news or have our computers switched on during the Sabbath, it was alarming to hear the sounds of police and ambulance sirens wailing through the air this afternoon, along with a helicopter swooping through the skies. We now know that 3 minutes drive from our home, a young man was stabbed at about 3 this afternoon by an Arab. Reuters quotes Israel police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld saying they see it as "a terrorist attack" and that witnesses saw the suspect fleeing the scene. The young victim, name still unknown, is said to be in critical condition in the trauma unit at Shaarei Zedek hospital. The news reports here say he and a friend were sitting on the curb "when a young Arab man passed by them. According to the friend, the Arab man turned around, headed toward the two, stabbed the man in the back and the stomach, and fled".

UPDATE Saturday night 9:00pm: This report says the victim is a 17 year old boy and gives his name. If our guess is right, he's the son of a local storekeeper here in the neighborhood. We're praying for his full and speedy recovery.

UPDATE Sunday 1:45pm: The boy stabbed in our neighborhood yesterday afternoon by a Palestinian Arab is reported today to be in stable condition, we're pleased to say, following surgery for stab wounds to the abdomen and back.

20-Oct-11: Enough already: A first-person reminder for those who think we objected to the release of a mere "driver"

Repeatedly over the years and especially during this past very difficult week, reporters, analysts, political figures and even friends, having noted our call to have the name of our daughter's murderer removed from the list of terrorists to be (and now) freed by Israel, have referred to the woman as "the driver" of the human bomb.

She was not the driver. She was sentenced to sixteen life terms in prison because she played the most central of roles in the Sbarro Jerusalem massacre. She murdered 15 people on the day, eight of them children, and a sixteenth - a young mother - remains in a vegetative state until today. And here, in the video below (hat tip to vladtepesblog.com) , she says it. So please - enough already with calling this murderer a mere "driver".



As for the convicted murderer's total absence of regret for the deaths she engineered, she continues to take full credit, no regrets, now that she is free as a bird in Jordan. See this report ["Tamimi: I have never regretted what I have done"] from a Jordanian publication, today. It includes original video with Arabic dialogue that we hope someone authoritative will translate into English. Here is how the editors at Ammon News in Jordan rendered her appalling message in their English:

‘I have never regretted what I have done, and if given another chance I’ll do it again’ she added. Tamimi expressed her believes in the rightness of what she has done. Tamimi said in an interview with Ammon News Tuesday that the hostility and aggression is the basic character of the Israeli officials, unless the are forced to negotiate. Ahlam Tamimi, 31, was serving 16 life sentences for her role in a suicide bombing, including taking the assailant to the Sbarro franchise in Jerusalem where he killed 16 people in 2001. deported to Jordan last Wednesday early morning. She thanked Jordan and stated that Jordan people are the heart beat of the Palestinians. [More]

While still inside an Israeli prison, the murderer was interviewed for a film that we saw some years ago. To understand the meaning of evil incarnate, watch her face in the video below as she hears for the first time the actual number of children who were murdered in the Sbarro massacre.



(Hat tip to Vlad Tepes from Canada. The source - under the title "Palestinian terrorist delights in the knowledge that it was eight children who died by her hand" - is here.)

Tamimi is the only one of the terrorists released on Tuesday to have been sent into so-called 'exile' in the Kingdom of Jordan. That happens to be where she was born and where her family resides. Some exile.

She was feted there in an official and well-publicized reception yesterday. We choked when we noted that the location was the Family Court of Amman. It's covered here.

19-Oct-11: Last Saturday's interview with CNN, before the prisoners were let loose

In an article entitled "Israel releases list of Palestinian prisoners to be swapped", CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports on Israeli anguish over the decision, announced that day (Friday), to free more than a thousand terrorists from Israeli jails. He interviews Arnold Roth - click the image below to view it.

19-Oct-11: Frimet Roth's letter in The Guardian: The murderer was no mere driver

Frimet Roth's letter to The Guardian was published before the mass-release of terrorists.

The bomb that killed our precious daughter

• guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 October 2011 21.00 BST
• 
  
• Contrary to your report (Palestinian families wait to hear prisoners' fate, 14 October), Ahlam Tamimi did not drive the Sbarro restaurant suicide bomber to his target. She personally transported a bomb weighing 10kg from a West Bank town into Jerusalem, concealed inside a guitar case, and arranged for a taxi to bring her and an accomplice by the name of Al Masri to an Israeli security checkpoint. To reduce suspicion, they were dressed to look like Israelis. It worked. The bomb was not detected, and Tamimi led her "weapon" – Al Masri – to the target carefully selected by her. 
• 
  
• The pizza restaurant was selected because it was located in the heart of Jerusalem and on a hot summer vacation afternoon it would be teeming with women and children. Tamimi instructed Al Masri to wait 15 minutes before detonating the explosives to give her sufficient time to flee the scene safely.
• 
  
• Our precious daughter, Malki, who was 15, perished in the ensuing inferno.
• 
  
• The contention that Tamimi was pressured into this barbaric act that took the lives of seven men and women and eight children, and left a 16th woman in a coma until today, is false. Since being sentenced to 16 life terms, she has been interviewed twice. She has repeatedly stated that she does not regret her actions. She smiled to the camera when she learned that she had murdered eight children; she had been under the impression it was fewer.
• 
  
• Are these the deeds and words of someone who "was a perfect target" for Hamas and who hadn't "fully thought through what she was doing", as her brother contends? Mention of the egregious injustice and betrayal now being perpetrated upon the families of the terror victims is the least that the Guardian could do in reporting this news.
• 
  
• Frimet Roth 
• Jerusalem

Sorry to be so slow in posting this. These past few days have been intense.

19-Oct-11: Haaretz: Shalit prisoner swap marks 'colossal failure' for mother of Israeli bombing victim

From today's Haaretz, an article by Yair Ettinger

Shalit prisoner swap marks 'colossal failure' for mother of Israeli bombing victim
Malki Roth was killed just over 10 years ago in the suicide bombing at Sbarro restaurant in the center of Jerusalem, along with 14 others.

By Yair Ettinger

Frimet and Arnold Roth kept their distance from the radio and television on Tuesday. They were afraid that the flood of broadcasts would reveal the voice and face, flush with victory, of Ahlam Tamimi in their own home. To see or hear Tamimi, who took part in the murder of their daughter Malki, would be unbearable.
So the news slowly filtered into their home in Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood via frequent phone calls from friends and relatives and a careful use of the Internet, mostly in English.

"He's in Israeli hands, there are pictures," the father's matter-of-fact voice could be heard from the other room, referring to Gilad Shalit. The mother was explaining to us why the deal to free the abducted soldier was a "colossal failure," the abrogation of the state's role to protect its citizens.

"I'm happy to hear that Gilad Shalit is alive and well," said Frimet Roth. "That's a great relief and happy news. But it's accompanied by other feelings, the difficult ones. There is sorrow, anger; we're having a hard time understanding and digesting it. There is also fear. I'm very scared."

She said she was happy that Noam and Aviva Shalit got their son back; she knew what it was to love a child who wasn't there. Despite her tone, Roth said her objection to the exchange, including the release of many terrorists, was based on reason and not emotion.

Malki was the fourth of the Roths' seven children. She was killed just over 10 years ago in the suicide bombing at the Sbarro restaurant in the center of Jerusalem, along with 14 others. If she had lived, Malki Roth would be exactly the same age as Gilad Shalit, 25.

On the dining room table is a framed photo - Malki is seen with her good friend Michal Raziel. The two died together in the restaurant and were buried next to each other.

The Shalit deal forced hundreds of families who lost loved ones into an emotional whirlpool that is hard to comprehend. Pictures were pulled out of photo albums, siblings and parents remembered the victims and together watched the news, holding on to each other as if going through another Memorial Day.

Arnold and Frimet Roth decided not to gather their children together at home and did not renew their old connections with the other families of the Sbarro victims. They just made sure to keep away from the television.

"During the week, the television was on. That's how we discovered that Tamimi was being released," Frimet said. "This morning I couldn't watch the prisoners smiling. It was a nightmare that I dreamed of so many times for so long. I don't want to see her making a victory sign with her fingers."

Since the bombing a decade ago, Roth swims every morning in the local pool, something that strengthens her greatly, she said. Yesterday morning she needed strength just to leave the house. But at the pool's locker room she couldn't avoid the topic of the day.

Some women said the deal was the "least worst" option, but it was clear they thought the exchange was justified, Roth said. She said she needed to control herself and keep quiet to avoid starting an argument. If she hadn't kept silent, she would have told the women that they, like many others in Israel, were hiding behind a smokescreen.

"Only now there are military leaders who are telling the truth that there were military options that were not taken," she said. "Why was it not done? There was a colossal failure here."

Roth has written a number of opinion articles in the past few days, including one in Haaretz. The pieces drew many responses but did not halt the prisoner exchange. Roth and her family did not join the petitions to the High Court of Justice against the swap, whose ruling she said was clear in advance.

From Haaretz/English (International Herald Tribune) edition. The Hebrew version is here.

18-Oct-11: Arnold Roth on "The World at One", BBC4 (audio)

Arnold Roth was interviewed by Martha Kearney on BBC4's "The World at One" on 18th October 2011. He argued that the mass release of terrorists from Israeli prisons, part of the transaction by which the Israeli Gilad Shalit, held hostage by Hamas for more than five years, was immoral and dangerous to the security of Israelis.

The streaming audio interview is here.

18-Oct-11: "The statistical likelihood of more murders in the wake of a mass release of terrorists... is a certainty"

Canadian CBC Radio's "The Current" program, hosted by Anna Maria Tremonti, devoted serious time to looking at the sadness and anger of some Israeli families looking on today as terrorists were released from Israel's most secure prisons. 

Prisoner Swap: Arnold Roth  We started this segment with the sounds of celebrations among Palestinians. The first of what will be a thousand Palestinian prisoners are being released from Israeli prison as part of a swap for one Israeli soldier. Sgt. First Class Gilad Shalit had been held by Hamas since he was taken in a cross border raid near Gaza in 2006.
Today, the complex deal to secure his freedom began. Sgt. Shalit was handed over through Egyptian officials because Egypt helped broker the deal. By the end of the day, more than 450 Palestinians will have been freed - some to return to Gaza or the West Bank, others to be exiled. The remainder will be released in the coming months.
Polls suggest most Israelis approve of this swap but they also show concern that some of those freed could return to violence. And there is sadness and anger as some families watch the killers of their loved ones released long before their sentences would have run out.
Arnold Roth's daughter Malka was 15 when she was killed in a 2001 suicide bombing, which left a total of 15 dead and 130 injured. A woman named Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life sentences for her role in orchestrating that suicide attack. The Palestinian has served 11 years in prison, but under this prisoner exchange deal, she is being released and deported to Jordan.
Arnold Roth had been lobbying the government to take Ahlam Tamimi's name off the release list. Late yesterday, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled the prison swap was a political decision and it had no jurisdiction. Arnold Roth was in Jerusalem.

Listen to the program (streaming audio) here.

18-Oct-11: Gilad is on Israeli soil

From the Haaretz Live Blog: 11:03 OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION: Gilad Shalit has been returned to Israeli soil after 5 years and 4 months in captivity.


It's the moment the entire nation has been praying for these five years. 

18-Oct-11: Frimet Roth speaks about our daughter's murderer going free (audio)

Frimet Roth was interviewed yesterday (Monday) on the BBC World Service about her feelings on the pending release of Ahlam Tamimi. Here's what she said (streaming audio).

18-Oct-11: NPR reports on criticism of terrorist mass release (audio)

In a story that went to air today, NPR's correspondent Peter Kenyon interviews several parties including Arnold Roth on the criticism being expressed from parts of Israeli society to the mass release of terrorists including multiple-murderers like Ahlam Tamimi. Here's an excerpt.

Israel-Palestinian Prisoner Swap Stirs Strong Debate
...The exchange has the backing of nearly 4 out of 5 Israelis, according to a poll published Monday. That support comes despite the fact that some of the Palestinians being freed took part in some of the most notorious attacks against Israeli civilians.
A street musician played Monday at the scene of one such incident, at the intersection of King George and Jaffa streets in downtown Jerusalem, where a Sbarro pizzeria used to be.
In August 2001, a young Palestinian man walked in and set off his bomb, killing 15 people, including eight children. One of those scheduled to be released Tuesday is a woman, Ahlam Tamimi, who a decade ago was a 21-year-old who dropped the bomber off at the restaurant.
Father Of One Victim Opposes Swap
"It's extraordinary to me that people can call this a celebration, a happy day, on our side. This is absolutely beyond me. This is a terrible day," said Arnold Roth, who lost his 15-year-old daughter, Malki, in the Sbarro bombing. She was a classical musician and a volunteer who worked with disabled children, and it's difficult for Roth to accept that unlike Malki, Tamimi is about to get her life back.
"She should never be allowed out," Roth said. "She should never be allowed to make babies, make speeches, be feted and honored. She should spend her life behind bars."
Roth believes Tamimi and some of the other released prisoners will either carry out or inspire more attacks against Israelis. Efraim Inbar, an analyst with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, agrees.
"First of all, it's quite clear that the Palestinian terrorists have additional incentives to try to kidnap additional Israeli soldiers, because they get a huge price," Inbar said. "The second repercussion is there are clear statistics which show that 60 percent of the released terrorists from previous exchanges have returned to terror."

Read the whole article. The streaming audio of the report is there too.

17-Oct-11: The American Conversation and the Terrorists-for-Gilad deal

From the Takeaway website:

Israel released the names of the 477 Palestinian prisoners it will free on Tuesday in exchange for captured soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas since 2006. Most of the prisoners were serving life sentences for violent crimes, including murder. About 200 of the prisoners will not be allowed to return home, and will be exiled to Qatar and Turkey. A poll by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth found nearly 79 percent of Israelis support the swap. Arnold Roth is not among them. Roth lost his daughter in 2001 after a suicide bomber blew up a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem. The woman who drove the bomber, and may have had a hand in plotting the attack is one of those being released tomorrow. Roth share his thoughts on the idea of her and many other convicted prisoners being released.
Guests: Arnold Roth. Produced by: David J Fazekas

The TakeAway show is a radio co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston. Today, Monday 17th October 2011, the program focused on the objections raised to the Terrorists-for-Gilad deal in Israel. The guest speaker was Arnold Roth.

Click to hear the four minute interview.

17-Oct-11: "These people who are released are going to become terrorists again"

From the BBC today: an article entitled "Family reactions: Shalit prisoner swap"

Israelis who object to an individual prisoner release had 48 hours, starting from Sunday morning, to appeal to Israel's highest court to intervene.

Among them was Arnold Roth, whose daughter, Malka, was killed 10 years ago - when a suicide bomber attacked a pizzeria in Jerusalem. A woman convicted of involvement in the attack is among those due to be set free.

"We're aiming to have her name removed from the list," Mr Roth told the BBC.

"We're doing this principally because we think there is a colossal amount of misinformation about this specific woman. She's actually a monster, on really any view. She's cold blooded and charismatic, she's very attractive to look at and this has somehow bamboozled many of the people who've been reporting about her. She engineered the massacre that led to the deaths of 16 people and 130 injured. And she's been saying for at least five years: 'I'm going to get out. I don't regret a thing'. And she's also said: 'I would do it again'."

Mr Roth added that, in general, he did not think such prisoner exchanges had a place in civilised society. "It has tremendously complex implications for the rest of us, including people who don't yet know that they're going to become terror victims," he said. "These people who are released are going to become terrorists again. They're going to be inspirational. Many of them are iconic figures and we're going to pay a heavy price."

17-Oct-11: "The public has been given a false sense that there were no other options"

From today's Jerusalem Post:

Family begs for daughter’s killer to be kept in prison
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
10/17/2011 02:36
Arnold and Frimet Roth circulate a petition against Ahlam Tamimi’s inclusion in prisoner swap.

A Friday morning phone call confirmed the Roth family’s worst nightmare – the woman who helped murder their 15- year-old daughter Malka a decade earlier, was due to be freed as part of the prisoner swap for Gilad Schalit.
Arnold Roth said that he had been on his way home from synagogue when the Department of Pardons at the Justice Ministry called him on his cell phone.
The woman who spoke was “very nice and solicitous,” he recalled for The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “She said, ‘I am very sorry to have to tell you this.’” Her words were shocking but not totally surprising.
Both Arnold and his wife Frimet had already feared that Ahlam Tamimi, 31, who helped organize the August 2001 bombing of the Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed 15 people including Malka, would be part of the prisoner exchange.
Earlier this year Arnold and Frimet wrote a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urging him to exclude her from the list.
What was particularly upsetting, they both told the Post, was that Tamimi appeared to have known for years that she would be freed and had even told reporters this in 2006.
Tamimi’s brother said the same thing and added that no terrorist serves out a prison term, Frimet said.
“It is all so horrific,” she said.
“Now, everyone knows that there is no justice here. You can murder and walk free. [Tamimi] knew this, years ago. Now she is free to do it again. Who is going to stop her?” asked Frimet.
Although she and her husband have lobbied against Tamimi’s release for years, in the last three days they have embarked on a last-ditch public campaign to halt her release.
Frimet, a native of New York, and Arnold, who is from Australia, have skipped the legal process in favor of a campaign that includes massive media interviews, the lobbying of Israeli politicians and a petition through which they are soliciting the signatures of supporters around the globe.
Petitions, in this type of situation, “are an exercise in futility,” Arnold said.
Instead he hopes to sway the “rational people at work in the government” to change their mind.
“It is a naïve expectation, but we have picked up quite a lot of support,” he said.
Since it was the government and public opinion that led to the deal, they are the ones that can change it, he said.
Tamimi, he added, accompanied the suicide bomber and helped him with the explosive before escaping.
On that summer afternoon, neither he nor his wife, knew that Malka, one of their seven children, was at the pizzeria.
Malka had called her mother an hour earlier to say she was leaving the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and heading to the neighborhood of Talpiot for a meeting of counselors from the youth group Ezra.
Then there was a change of plans, and instead she and a good friend Michal Raziel, 16, who was also killed in the bombing, decided to stop downtown for pizza, Frimet said.
“They were going to meet another friend who did not get there in time,” Frimet said.
Initially, Frimet said, she feared more for some of her other children. But she said her concern for Malka grew after she could not reach her by phone for hours. Her fear heightened when she learned that Michal was also not answering her phone.
They decided to check the hospitals and on the way learned that the two girls had gone to Sbarro’s and had never arrived at the meeting.
“For a long time, no one would tell us for sure that she was dead,” said Frimet. It was only some 12 hours later that her body arrived at the morgue at Abu Kabir.
They want to be sure that no other parents go through that experience at the hands of Tamimi, or any other terrorist that was freed as part of the prisoner exchange.
The public has been given a false sense that there were no other options and that the only way to free Schalit was to do this deal, Arnold said.
“I have had people yelling at me, ‘Do you want to see [Schalit] killed?’” Arnold said.
“But it cannot be that a government has no options and decides to give in,” said Arnold, who moved to Israel with his family from Melbourne in 1988.
“This is a campaign that is driven by the feelings that come upon you when your child is killed,” he said. “I do not feel that Malki is a partner in this.
Her memory is not being honored and her life has not been honored by the way that this morally tainted transaction has been carried out.”

Postscript: Yediot Aharonot reports this morning that 79% of the Israeli public supports the terrorists-for-Gilad deal. Support among males is 74% while 86% of women support it.

17-Oct-11: Releasing terrorists: "The calculation is based on extortion"

Arnold Roth was a featured guest on the BBC World Service's Newshour program on Sunday, speaking about the campaign he and his wife are waging to have a specific female terrorist removed from the list of terrorists to be freed in the context of the deal to release an Israeli hostage, Gilad Shalit. Go to the Newshour page and click on Chapter 3 to hear him.

16-Oct-11: "Do not free my daughter's murderer" (Haaretz today)

Malki was a talented classical flautist

This went up just a few minutes ago on the Haaretz site... 

Mother of Israeli suicide bombing victim: Do not free my daughter's murderer 

Frimet Roth's 15-year-old daughter was killed in the attack on Jerusalem's Sbarro pizza restaurant in 2001; Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life terms following the attack, and is set for release as part of the Shalit deal.

I am writing these words moments after belatedly watching a recorded video that went to air on Israel’s Channel 2 News on Friday night. It shows the Hamas terrorist, Ahlam Tamimi, being asked: “Do you feel sorry for what you did?”

She answers her interviewer without a trace of hesitation:. “No. Why should I feel sorry?” 

The interviewer persists: “Would you do it again if you had the chance?” Her unwavering response: “Yes.” 

Tamimi was reaffirming the declaration she made originally in 2006: “I do not regret what I did”, is the way she put it then. 

One summer vacation day in August, 2001, Tamimi murdered my fifteen year old, daughter along with 14 other innocent men, women and children who were having lunch at the Jerusalem Sbarro pizza restaurant. 

I wonder whether PM Netanyahu has heard Tamimi’s statements. Could he possibly have agreed to free an unrepentant, cold-blooded murderer, sentenced to 16 life terms after she publicly committed to murder again?

Perhaps he simply hasn’t seen the interview. Or perhaps the Prime Minister did see it and wasn’t moved.

After all, several months ago my husband and I sent him a letter detailing the crimes of which Tamimi was convicted and pleading with him to refuse to release her. In that letter, we reminded him that she is generally described mistakenly as the “driver” or “helper”. We noted that she was actually the planner and engineer of the attack. She personally transported the 10 kg bomb concealed in a guitar case in a taxi from Ramallah to Jerusalem, met up with Al Masri, the suicide bomber, and handed him the case. The two then walked together, disguised as tourists, to the center of the city. They stopped at the target Tamimi had selected. She instructed Al Masri to wait fifteen minutes before detonating the explosives. She wanted him to give her enough time to escape the scene safely, she explained later. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu never responded to our written plea. He did not attempt to explain to us why he decided to include Tamimi in this horrific deal despite her uniquely demonic credentials: a mass murderer who has served nine years and has publicly proclaimed her lack of remorse and intention to murder again. 

Now the day nears when we fear Tamimi will board the bus to a free life in Jordan, when her own prediction of 2006 - “I will be free again” - is realized. 

We feel desperate. We beg Mr Netanyahu to grant us a few minutes of his time and hear us out.

In any sane country with a fair judicial system, even paroled murderers are not released without granting the victims’ loved ones a chance to address the parole board. I thought Israel is such a state. I pray that I was not wrong. 

Frimet Roth - Jerusalem 

Click here to read Haaretz's interview with the Roth family, immediately following Malka Chana's death in 2001.

A reminder to our visitors and readers that we created a petition in the past 24 hours calling for the deletion of Tamimi's name from the list of terrorists to be released from Israeli prisons. We need your support. Please go the petition site and sign - and please encourage your friends to do the same.

15-Oct-11: From today's NY Times: "This deal is a disaster"

Frimet and Arnold Roth with a photo of Malka, their daughter, who was killed
in 2001 in an attack at a Jerusalem pizzeria. Two of those
found guilty in the killing will be released next week.
[Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times]

In Israel, Swap Touches Old Wounds

By ETHAN BRONNER

Published: October 14, 2011

JERUSALEM — Arnold Roth had just returned from synagogue on Friday morning when the phone rang. It was Israel’s Justice Ministry, telling him that two of the people who murdered his 15-year-old daughter Malka at a Jerusalem pizzeria a decade ago would be freed next week as part of an exchange of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held by Hamas.

It was not an unexpected call but it was, for Mr. Roth, a horrifying one.

“This deal is a disaster,” he said of the exchange for the Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, as he sat with his wife, Frimet, on the balcony of their Jerusalem apartment. “Some of these people will go back to murdering. They pose an existential threat to all of us.”

Blocks away, Esther and Yehuda Wachsman were absorbing similar news — that a man who took part in murdering their son, Nachshon, in 1994 was to be freed for Sergeant Shalit. By cruel coincidence, it was the anniversary of the killing — Oct. 14. But Mrs. Wachsman had a different response.

“I’m willing to pay the price for another woman’s son to come home and end the agony,” Mrs. Wachsman said, sitting near a corner of her living room devoted to Nachshon’s memory. “Our hurt will never go away, but I just hope and pray with all my heart that Gilad comes home healthy in body and soul.”

The contrasting responses from two couples who have known and comforted one another were part of the highly charged emotional and political atmosphere in Israel since the announcement on Tuesday about the exchange aimed at ending more than five years of captivity for Sergeant Shalit, 25. Early on Friday, a man who lost both his parents and three siblings in the pizzeria attack that killed Malka Roth defaced the Tel Aviv memorial to Yitzhak Rabin, the slain prime minister. The man, Shvuel Schijvesschuuder, 27, said he was protesting the freeing of his family’s killers.

“People don’t understand the horror of what has been going through my mind,” he said in an interview at his home near Tel Aviv after being detained and freed by the police. His brother, Meir, 32, said all five remaining members of the family would leave the country forever after the deal was completed.

“We feel betrayed and we are going back to Holland,” he said.

As the details of the exchange become public, the near universal joy that greeted the original announcement is being tempered with concern. Israel Radio reported that Sergeant Shalit would be handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza on Tuesday, taken from there to Egypt and then flown to a military base in central Israel, where he will be reunited with his family. They will then be flown to their home in the country’s north.

The full list of Palestinians to be released will be posted on an Israeli government Web site by Sunday, although the Justice Ministry’s calls and lists published by Hamas provided some idea of who is on it. About 477 prisoners will be released in the first round, with 550 to follow two months later. Several hundred of those to be released are serving life sentences, and most of them will go either to the Gaza Strip or go into exile to other countries.

Among those is Ahlam Tamimi, a 31-year-old woman who was a key figure in the pizzeria attack. She is often described as the driver of the car that brought the suicide bomber to the Sbarro restaurant and killed 15 people. But the Roths say her role went far beyond that, to the actual planning of the attack.

In interviews from prison, Ms. Tamimi, who was a journalist, has told of having brought the suicide bomber to Jerusalem and then going on Palestinian television’s afternoon broadcast to announce the news of the attack without acknowledging her involvement.

“I’m not sorry for what I did,” she told an Israeli news organization in 2006. “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.”

The Roths said their anger over the prisoner exchange was focused on Ms. Tamimi, who is being sent to Jordan. She is young, fervent and charismatic, Mr. Roth said, and proud of what she did. In a documentary on Palestinian prisoners, she was asked whether she knew how many children had been killed in the attack. She did not. When told the number was eight, she smiled.

The Roths recalled that their daughter, known as Malki, was a dedicated volunteer for disabled children. In her memory they started and still run a foundation that helps families keep their disabled children at home by providing equipment and therapy. About 30 percent of the foundation’s beneficiaries are Israeli Arabs, Mr. Roth said.

“This is not a political issue for us,” he said. “I am not some raving right-winger. We too share the joy of the Shalit family. But the victims are being marginalized. We object on principle. We see ourselves as agents of the children who will be killed by the graduates of this release.”

For the Wachsmans, the return of Sergeant Shalit is especially poignant. Like Sergeant Shalit, their son was a 19-year-old corporal in uniform when he was seized by Hamas militants. But in their case, the Israeli military tried to rescue him six days later and failed, leading to his death.

“It happened 10 minutes from this apartment,” Mrs. Wachsman said. “I heard the helicopters.”

One man being freed next week was the driver in the abduction plot, she said. His parents have been interviewed on television saying that it is about time that he was freed. Mrs. Wachsman did not share that sentiment.

“I wish him nothing but ill for the rest of his life,” she said, her gaze steady.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 15, 2011, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: In Israel, Swap Touches Old Wounds.

15-Oct-11: Video: The murderer of our child says: "I don't regret anything"

Friday night's Channel Two News (Israel) included a brief interview with Frimet Roth, and much longer interviews with our daughter's murderer, a woman called Tamimi, and with Tamimi's brother in Jordan. The link below is to the video which is in Hebrew and Arabic. We are trying to get English subtitles arranged.

Key points:

• The woman says: "I don't regret what I did. Why should I regret?"
• The interviewer quotes her to the brother, saying that Tamimi told him: "She said would do it all again".
• The woman refers to the religious fanatic whom she accompanied, and who carried the bomb in a guitar case on his back to the site of the massacre, and says the one question that the human bomb asked her was: "Will there be religious Jews there?" She quotes the answer she gave him: "Yes." She knew, because it was she who selected the target site after earlier visiting it.

[If the image above does not lead you to the video, click here for the video page.]

It's inconceivable that a monstrous killer, an ideological young woman filled with racist hatred, an iconic figure who is certain to influence a generation of available and accessible brains throughout the Arab world, should be allowed to leave her prison cell and live as a free person. We must stop this.

She has been depicted in news reports all over the world as the person who drove the bomb to the Sbarro restaurant where the massacre was executed. A mere driver, an accessory before the fact. But this is completely untrue: she planned, executed and celebrated the murders at Sbarro: fifteen people killed (another woman has never regained consciousness) and among them 8 children.

Help us get Tamimi, sentenced to sixteen life terms in prison, removed the list of murderers to be released in the next few days. Please go to our petition, and sign it. Please tell your friends. We have very little time. Click on this link to go to our online petition: Remove Ahlam Tamimi from the list of terrorists to be freed.

14-Oct-11: Please sign a petition to keep this particular terrorist behind bars

Please consider signing the following petition. To sign, go to
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/remove-ahlam-tamimi-from-the-list-of-terrorists-to-be-f.html

We urgently call on Israel's Ministry of Justice to remove Ahlam Tamimi from the list of prisoners to be released in exchange for the return of Gilad Shalit.
Tamimi was sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms in jail for her involvement in the terrorist attack on the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001 that claimed the lives of 16 innocent victims, amongst them many Jewish children. 
Tamimi has never expressed remorse and told reporters in 2006, "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."
If released, Tamimi will have her life to live, despite having been sentenced in a court of law after a full and proper trial to sixteen consecutive life sentences. The thought that she will become a wife and mother, be honored by her community and others, and become an inspiration to young formative minds in the Arab world is horrifying and unacceptable.
It is unfathomable that such a proud and unrepentant terrorist be granted freedom under any circumstances.

14-Oct-11: "It's devastating. She's got a life that's being handed back to her as a result of this transaction."

Australia's ABC interviewed Arnold Roth shortly after the announcement of the terrorist release transaction. The transcript follows:

The video segment itself is here

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Israel's prisoner exchange with the Palestinian militant group Hamas could face a legal challenge.

Israel has agreed to free more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in return to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas five years ago.

The deal has been widely welcomed, but some Israelis who have lost relatives in suicide attacks say they feel betrayed, and they're considering an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.

Middle East correspondent Anne Barker reports.

ANNE BARKER, REPORTER: Arnold Roth lost his daughter Malka in a suicide bombing ten years ago. The 15-year-old was killed in an attack on a pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem.

ARNOLD ROTH, FATHER OF MALKA ROTH: The young man in question, who is now of course dead, had brought a bomb inside a guitar case so that everyone who would have looked at him, including my daughter who is a musician, would have thought: here is a man who knows music.

ANNE BARKER: 15 people were killed that day at the Sbarro restaurant. 130 were wounded. The bomber might be dead, but Arnold Roth has had some comfort knowing the woman who helped mastermind the attack, Ahlam Tamimi, was jailed for life, but now she's likely to walk free within days.

ARNOLD ROTH: It's devastating. The person that you're referring to is a woman who's now 31 years old. She's got a life that's being handed back to her as a result of this transaction.

ANNE BARKER: In total, 1,000 men and 27 women prisoners are slated for release, even though hundreds of them are militants serving life sentences for murder or terror attacks. Even some Israeli cabinet ministers voted against the deal, warning it will send hundreds of hardcore terrorists back on to the streets; and for Arnold Roth it's just too high a price.

ARNOLD ROTH: Many hundreds of convicted murderers are going to be released for no other reason that the Government of Israel saw no alternative. Obviously, everyone in this country is delighted if this is going to produce a healthy and well Gilad Shalit, but that's not the whole deal - and the parts of the deal that involve allowing terrorists back on the streets is a recipe for a terrible outcome.

ANNE BARKER: One of those tipped to be freed is Ahlam Tamimi - the young woman who drove the bomber to Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant. She was sentenced to more than 1,500 years in jail - the equivalent of 16 life terms, and she's never expressed remorse.

IFTIKHAR A'REF, SISTER (translated): I support what she did and any Palestinian would support her because they're the enemy, our occupiers, and they've killed our children.

ANNE BARKER: Ahlam Tamimi's own family believes she deserves to be freed.

IFTIKHAR A'REF (translated): I understand the Israelis' anger, but they have to understand our anger too. Ahlam killed 15 people but the Israelis have killed thousands of us.

ANNE BARKER: Once the names of the prisoners slated for release are made public by Sunday, Israel's Supreme Court will grant 48 hours for any Israeli to challenge the prisoner exchange. Arnold Roth isn't yet sure whether he'll lodge an appeal. The first 450 prisoners and Gilad Shalit are expected to be freed within a week.