Guilty!

On December 24, Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai, 40, father of seven, was murdered by Arabs in a drive-by shooting, killed while driving home from work. His wife and one child were in the car. Members of PA Chairman Abu Mazen’s Fatah party gleefully announced they had carried out the “successful” terror slaying.

Get that: The three Arabs who plotted, planned and then took Rabbi Chai’s were members of the very political party that the Community Organizer – and much of the rest of the world -- is forcing on Israel as our “peace partner”.

But even worse than that, the outrage is that the terrorist Fatah party is one of those now being trained by the US government under the supervision of Gen. Keith Dayton. Israel is complicit: Fatah receives the US military training with the full approval of our Defense Minister, our own Pillsbury Dough-Boy, Ehud Barak.

Wait – it gets better (or worse): The three murderers were previously convicted terrorists who had been released from Israeli prisons as one of Israel’s (stupid, but oh-so-gratifying to US officials) “gestures” of peace toward the Arabs.

(Well, those three won’t do it again. This time the IDF did what they should have done the first time: they hunted down the three and killed them. Good riddance. The world is now a better place, not to mention safer.)

So now we add Rabbi Chai’s name to the ever lengthening list of shame: as of today there are 177 Israelis who have been killed by Arabs who had (at least once) been arrested for terrorism, then released in some idiotic form of “gesture” for peace.

The question is no longer, “What’s wrong with these Arab terrorists, who refuse to give up their desire to kill?” Instead, the question is, what’s wrong with us, that we continue to release terrorists?

Why do we give in to US demands? With a track record like this – 177 dead and counting – don’t we have enough justification to just say no to the incessant demands of the Community Organizer, Missus Bubba – and indeed, George Bush, who also liked the idea of freeing terrorists?

I guess not. The exchange of 1000 of these same bad guys, many with blood on their hands, is still under consideration as an exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Once those evil men and women are released, what will Israel’s death toll then be?

Will it help the legions of orphaned children and bereaved parents if the US and Israeli officials say, “We meant well. We didn’t know they’d return to terrorism.”

It boggles the mind how the high and mighty officials -- judges and politicians -- around the world can be “mistaken” so frequently in their assessments of whether or not a terrorist can be trusted to have “reformed” or not to follow up on their terrorist threats. What’s wrong with these people? Are they so removed from normal life -- do they feel so secure with all their personal security -- that they can ignore the rest of us who live without our own armed guards?

It’s not just here, of course.

In Detroit, it was Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, a wealthy and privileged son of one of Nigeria’s most important families who tried to blow up an airliner. Six months ago, Abdulmutallab's father had informed the US embassy that his son had joined the roster of al-Qaida terrorists, saying that he was concerned about his son’s increasingly extreme religious views. For two years, Abdulmutallab had been on the FBI’s and Homeland Security’s list of people who were known to have ties to terrorist organizations. Yet he encountered no problems in boarding the aircraft.

When will the US wake up?

Before that, it was the “Palestinian” Nidal Malik Hasan who opened fire at the Fort Hood military base, shooting killing 13 and wounding 30 more. There, too, officials closed their eyes. On any number of occasions he’d openly expressed his radical views. The FBI knew he was in email contact with leading terrorists and notorious terror groups, but they did nothing.

In Israel, at least one elected official is calling for changes. Put the judges who released them on trial, one MK says.

“Ketzaleh” -- MK Yaakov Katz -- said strong action must be taken against the judges who turned these dangerous terrorists loose after their previous convictions. "The judges who freed the murderers of Rabbi Chai, must be put on trial, because they released them even though they were told that the terrorists would immediately return to terrorism.

"Only that will end the saga of the release of the terrorists who murder our people," MK Katz said. "It's time that someone took responsibility for the spilling of Jewish blood that takes place as a result of these releases, since they know the terrorists will go back to murdering."

The rest of us regular old common citizens understand that you can’t just keep releasing dedicated, cold blooded murderers, and trust them to stop their terrorist plans. If we can understand that, why can’t they?