Leaving aside the many campaign promises of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu regarding the future of the Oslo agreements, let us concentrate on his commitment regarding security, the mantra of the Likud Party. On January 14, 1997, the day the Israeli Prime Minister signed away 80% of Hebron, leaving some 450 Jewish residents of that city prey for the 120,000 or so Hebronite Arabs, Ya'akov Yamin was bludgeoned to death by an Arab terrorist.

According to the press reports, sixty year old Ya'akov Yamin of Jerusalem was in need of a day-laborer to replace his regular Arab worker. Mr. Yamin was doing construction work at his Ramat Sharet property and went to pick up help at the outskirts of Jerusalem where Arab day-laborers wait for employment. On the job with his new worker, Yamin spoke with his family over the telephone at 10:30 and again at 11:30 in the morning. By 12:15 that afternoon Ya'akov Yamin was found by a plumber in the basement of the building of the construction site, a large puddle of blood surrounded his body.

Ya'akov Yamin was dead. His head was crushed by severe blows on the very day that the government of Israel was congratulating itself for signing an accord with the Palestinians that was to increase the security of Israeli citizens.

Witnesses described a young Arab man running from the scene. The day-laborer hired by Yamin was no where to be found. Police confirmed that an Arab worker in blood soaked clothes hijacked a taxi from the scene of the murder and forced the driver, at knife point, to deliver him to the Bethlehem checkpoint were he then proceeded on foot into the autonomous Palestinian-controlled city. Police admit that all evidence indicates that the attack was a nationalist crime perpetrated by Yamin's Arab day-laborer residing in Judea. Additionally, the police say that the alleged assailant made a clean get-away into the Bethlehem enclave controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Ya'akov Yamin is survived by his wife and four children.

Those are the facts. These facts remained in the public eye only a day or so after the incident for there have been no press reports or government comments on the terror attack after February 2, 1997. There might have been no mention of this horrible incident in the press following the initial shock of the murder had it not been for a plea from Yossi Yamin, son of the terror victim, to Prime Minister Netanyahu for the extradition from the Palestinian-controlled areas of the Arab terrorist responsible. Yossi Yamin's request was made February 2, 1997 and to date there has been no response or reference to the crime from the Israeli government.

While the prime minister and his government were basking in the light of world love for relinquishing control of Hebron in January it was somehow plausible to explain that there was no time for the trivial matter of a murdered Jew at the hands of a Palestinian terrorist. And one can safely assume that by February 2nd, when Yossi Yamin made his desperate plea, the glow of world appreciation had not yet worn away from the otherwise dark Israeli administration. What is their excuse now? Why does the Yamin murderer receive no attention? Minister of Justice Tzahi Hanegbi has a list of those wanted for extradition by the Israeli Justice Ministry from the Palestinian Authority for their involvement in crimes within Israel, be they nationalist or otherwise, a total of thirty-three in all. The names were to be submitted to the Palestinian Authority on March 16, 1997, a meeting that was subsequently cancelled. However, there is no mention of the murderer of Ya'akov Yamin. Indeed, no government representative visited the Yamin family following the murder nor has there been a call from a single government official for the arrest, even by the Palestinian Authority, of the responsible terrorist.

How seriously are the people of Israel to understand the promise of increased security? Ya'akov Yamin's murder is an inconvenience that the government of Israel simply refuses to acknowledge for it flies in the face of the sworn commitments made at the Hebron accord signing on January 14th. If indeed the situation is known to be something other than a terrorist attack then the government should say as much. Alas, this is not the case and security is merely a byword for election campaigns; a ruse used to distinguish between political candidates who really have more in common than not. The government's idea of "security" seems to be a concern when it is political fuel that bolsters ratings and job performance polls gleaned from a populace that is manipulated by a self-serving media and government apparatus.

It is unlikely that Israel will be successful in its demand for the extradition for trial of Palestinian terrorist and criminal suspects from the Palestinian Authority as is witnessed by previous requests made by the Peres government. It should be noted that the Netanyahu government has yet to submitted a single request of extradition. And although a large grain of salt need accompany the statements of PA Minister of Justice Freih Abu Meddien, he did state on March 16th that Israel does not have to wait for a face-to-face meeting in order to submit requests for the transfer of suspects. That aside, the Israeli government's total disregard for the tragedy of the Yamin murder is a disgrace compounded by the fact that no call has been made for the terrorist who perpetrated this crime. That murderers can commit their crimes and then find safe-haven in Palestinian-controlled enclaves is a travesty of justice in itself, but for the Israeli government to ignore the terror-killing of an Israeli citizen because it happened at an inopportune juncture of the Oslo process is unpardonable.

Perhaps the greatest irony of this rather perverse story is that the newest signed agreement of the Oslo Accords is centered around Israeli demands for greater security and Palestinian reciprocity. Israel insisted that in signing the Hebron section of the Oslo agreement the Palestinians act upon extradition requests. This was supposed to prevent the Palestinian-controlled areas from becoming the safe-haven for terrorists that they now appear to be.
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