Election day thoughts

Our child's murderer at her June 2012 wedding in Amman, Jordan 

(she's second from right). Her husband/cousin is in the middle. The girl
in the blue dress is Ahed Tamimi, a cousin to both bride and groom.

Many of you are surely in a quandary: to believe the flood of negative coverage of Netanyahu or to discard it as fake news. After all, many journalists just want him defeated so should we trust what they write?

For what it's worth, my husband and I - utterly apolitical citizens - can contribute some personal insight into Netanyahu's morality and mindset.

On the day our Malki was murdered in the Sbarro massacre of 2001, Netanyahu was a guest of the Melbourne Jewish community. Local reporters told him that one victim, our child, was an Australian citizen as well as an Israeli. He immediately responded: I will be paying the girl's family a condolence visit upon my return home.

Empty words...

Several years later, the public learned that a deal with the devil, Hamas, to retrieve IDF captive Gilad Shalit, was imminent. Our child's murderer, Ahlam Tamimi, was being mentioned as one probable name on Israel's list of imprisoned terrorists to be "swapped" for Shalit. We fairly inundated the Prime Minister's office and the media with pleas for Tamimi's name to be deleted. Netanyahu's office didn't send even a monosyllabic response. 

And, of course, Tamimi, mastermind of the Sbarro bombing which took 16 innocent lives, (eight of them children) was freed. The convicting judges' warning never to include her in any possible future prisoner swaps was ignored.

Subsequently, Netanyahu speaking on television assured the public that he was sending all bereaved families who had been affected by the release a letter of explanation and apology. When we called his office regarding such a letter, an assistant of his assured us she had personally delivered hundreds of copies to the post office. 

I suppose liars hire liars. Because we never received such a letter, nor did any other of our terror victim friends.

Not long after her release, Tamimi publicized her hankering for another murderer who had been freed in the Shalit Deal - her cousin and fiance. She had been returned to her home in Amman. While he, under the Deal's conditions, was barred from leaving the West Bank. Not to worry. Netanyahu to the rescue. 

We lodged a petition with the High Court of Justice to enforce the Deal's conditions and bar Tamimi's fiance from crossing the Allenby Bridge into Jordan.

Some hours later, our lawyer was phoned by a Netanyahu government official who requested that we temporarily suspend those legal proceedings because all would be well. We need not be concerned.

We naively complied.

Next thing we knew, the Tamimi murderers were celebrating their reunion in Amman before rejoicing fans and media. [For some background: "A wedding and what came before it"]

Well, I suppose, we were actually to blame. Why hadn't we learned the obvious lesson? Never trust Netanyahu!

Now we suffer daily the double anguish of missing our precious child along with watching her murderer - sentenced to sixteen life terms but released after just eight years - enjoying her freedom and brazenly inciting Muslims to "follow in her footsteps and continue the fight".

Food for thought as you head to the polls.