US Republican candidates rebuff aid cut to Israel
by JTA---

US Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain pushed back against a proposal by Ron Paul to cut funding to Israel.
 
Paul, a Texas congressman, during the GOP debate Tuesday in Las Vegas repeated his proposal to cut foreign aid, including the $3 billion Israel receives annually in defense assistance.
 
“That foreign aid makes Israel dependent on us,” he said. “It softens them for their own economy. And they should have their sovereignty back, they should be able to deal with their neighbors at their own will.” Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, and Cain, a businessman, pushed back.

"We should not be cutting foreign aid to Israel,” Bachmann said. “Israel is our greatest ally. The biggest problem with this administration and foreign policy is that [US President Barack] Obama is the first president since Israel declared her sovereignty who put daylight between the United States and Israel. That’s heavily contributed to the current hostilities that we see in the Middle East region.”  Read on...

 
Veteran Israeli writer and translator, Jonathan Rosen said:  “It is time for Israel to institute the death penalty for terrorists. …It should be eminently clear that a recurring decision by the political echelon to circumvent due legal process and to grant clemency to murderers and other convicted terrorists will necessarily produce a loss of public faith in the justice system, which is a pillar. … Take the example of Said Ibrahim Shalaldeh, who up until yesterday was serving two life sentences, one of which was for brutally stabbing to death the 51-year-old Sasson Nuriel in 2005. He was released yesterday, less than a decade after his arrest…. How can this situation be remedied? How can Israel forestall the loss of public confidence in the sentences that are meted out to terrorists upon the completion of due process? One obvious option is to introduce, in the most extreme cases, the use of the death penalty. Particularly heinous crimes can and perhaps ought to be punished by death, a punishment that cannot be reversed as a result of political pressure. The death penalty ensures that the worst of all criminals are fully and irrevocably punished by the state and that justice has been publicly served."

To date, the use of the death penalty in Israel has been reserved for Nazis, and was carried out only in the case of Adolf Eichmann.  It could be that the time has arrived to reconsider those restrictions, which are anachronistic in more than one way at the close of 2011.

God says:  “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”... “Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.”(Genesis 9:6; Numbers 35:30-31)

The Jerusalem Connection says:  Here again, Israel would do well to follow the guidance of the God of the Hebrew scriptures. Their greatest failures have come when they refused to obey the clear commands of the God of Israel. Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi is dead because the Libyan people demanded justice. Israelis should have the same demand for justice that requires the “termination with extreme prejudice” of all proven Jihadist murderers. Hamas has already declared they plan more kidnappings of soldiers. Rather than swap another 1000 terrorists for the next kidnapped soldier, Israel should have some demands of their own. If the soldier is not returned in 24 hours, 1000 Jihadists will meet their Allah. These people have a death wish for martyrdom. Let Israel grant them their dying wish.

 
Gilad Schalit arriving in Israel

Gilad Schalit walked down the steps of his family home in Mitzpe Hila on Tuesday afternoon following his release from over five years of Hamas captivity.
 
Schalit was welcomed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as he landed at Tel Nof Air Force base in Rehovot earlier on Tuesday afternoon, before being reunited with his family.
 
As Schalit stepped out of the helicopter that brought him to the base, the prime minister said to him: “Welcome to Israel, it’s good that you’re home."

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