Bennett M. Epstein is a criminal defense lawyer practicing in New York City. He is a former prosecutor and professor of criminal justice.
More from Bennett M. Epstein
	The Nativity Thirteen

"Exile" means Elba, right? Or at least enough security to insure that these criminals will never again terrorize Israel? Well, apparently no. According to the latest from the EU, these most wanted criminals are "free." And we thought Arafat had a revolving door.

Given Europe's record when it comes to supporting Israel's fight against terror, and the refusal to accept responsibility that accompanied Europe's latest involvement, why should anyone expect anything different?

Italy and Spain were early candidates to receive the thirteen, but placing any restrictions on them was apparently never seriously considered. Italy, whose universities must have a very liberal open enrollment policy, actually suggested issuing student visas to the terrorists. Of course this is something we in the U.S. do all the time, but at least we try not to know it in advance. Once it dawned on the Italians that visiting scholars like these might cut every class but chemistry lab, the Italians withdrew that invitation and Spain quickly followed suit.

After these countries backed away as potential hosts, the rest of the EU, particularly the Scandinavians, seemed to fall all over themselves pointing out clauses in their immigration laws that make such accused criminals -- otherwise usually referred to by them as "oppressed victims of Israeli occupation" -- ineligible to enter their countries. All of Europe bailed out faster than you can say, "not in my back yard".

The Europeans then turned to the "moderate" Arab countries to accept the Palestinians. Surprise, surprise, the Saudis, whose generosity to the cause of Palestinian suffering (especially by the families of suicide bombers) has become legendary, would not broadcast so much as a public service announcement, not to mention a telethon, to help them. The Egyptians and the Jordanians also announced that they would be unwilling to receive any of their brethren. All of this is actually perfectly understandable as consistent with the kind of hospitality that maintains Palestinians in refugee camps more than five decades after the original Palestinian "refugees" attacked Israel and created their own Diaspora.

Next, it was proposed to try to achieve some measure of control over the whereabouts of the "militants" by dispersing them to out-of -the-way locations, possibly to assimilate there and make a fresh start. This is what the U.S. government has tried to do in the Federal Witness Protection Program (see: Gravano, Sammy). "The Program" might be a good analogy in terms of their murderous tendencies and respect for law and order, but it is not a very realistic plan in the case of Palestinian terrorists. Countries that were mentioned as possible destinations for this included Canada and Luxembourg and the vision of the Abayats playing hockey or wearing lederhosen proved to be a nonstarter. Ireland was also mentioned, a location where Arafat's purported ties to the IRA might have helped the assimilation process but not the overall goal of security.

Now it appears that the Nativity Thirteen, a bloody gang of brutal killers, will be sent to Italy, Portugal, Spain and Greece, and free to move about at will. The likelihood is that they will wait about a nanosecond before sneaking off to join forces with Osama, or slipping once more into the West Bank to attack Israeli civilians. Whatever the case, this should make for quite a nostalgic "Where are they now?" segment on Al Jazeera in a few years time.

This episode speaks volumes about the pitfalls of European involvement in finding peace in the Middle East. The EU is totally spineless, afraid of Arab terrorism and willing to appease the Arabs at all costs. If this is how they proceed to try to resolve one small piece of the problem, just imagine what their final solution might look like.

The latest dispatch has the EU currently hosting the Nativity Thirteen at the seaside Flamingo Hotel in Cyprus. At least for now it's not the King David.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.

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