The diabolical smile on the face of Ori Ansbacher's killer as he sat inside the courthouse is a call to the Israeli public, the judicial system and the prosecution. The murder that shocked an entire country should be a watershed moment for the State of Israel in the war on lone-wolf terrorism. Having been caught alive, the killer's trial can also be an opportunity for the State of Israel to make clear it has changed its approach. To that end, the legal proceedings must be handled by a military court that has the authority to issue a death sentence as well as ensure the entire legal arsenal is exhausted against the terrorist. The time has come for the judicial system to engage in some serious introspection.
The court should not have released the killer the first time around, when he was detained for carrying a knife and threatened to carry out an attack before the judges. Experience has shown that we should assume that when a terrorist makes a threat, they will make good on their words. As a rule, threats serve as a warning before action is taken. When it comes to terrorism, we cannot take chances. That is what administrative detention is for and the GOC Central Command should have issued an order extending his arrest in light of the threat he presented. There are Jewish hilltop youth who are kept under administrative arrest for longer periods of time out of concern they will commit far less serious crimes upon release.
Someone released from prison should also, at the very least, have been fitted with an electronic monitoring device, just as sex offenders are. Alternatively, they could have been deported from Judea and Samaria to the Gaza Strip.
When the chase began, an official order should have been issued that the killer is not allowed to make it out alive. Due to the killer having been armed with a weapon at the time, there was all the legal justification in the world for clearing the structure. A knife is a weapon, especially when it was just used to murder someone. Not even the dogs used to track the suspect down should have been made to risk their lives for this killer.
From now on, Ansbacher, may she rest in peace, will lie in a grave while her murderer is on track to enjoy a good life in prison.
Israel's Justice Ministry has been paying for his lawyers to personally accompany him from the moment of his arrest. Furthermore, he is now also on track to receive personal assistance from the Palestinian Authority, which will provide him with financial security and family pay and cover his personal rehabilitation fees.
The path of hope has already been laid out before him; that is why he had that arrogant and chilling smile on his face. He and his family know the trial will be held in a civil court that is unable to hand down a death sentence. Why did the prosecution for the Justice Ministry choose to transfer the trial to a civil court when the law allows him to be tried in a military court, where there is the possibility of a death sentence?
Sooner or later, the killer will be put on the path to freedom: the same path afforded to another killer who murdered an innocent couple in an adjacent field and has already been set free.
This is the justice system and the prosecution's Yom Kippur War. Following a murder that crossed every single line, the time has come to put their house in order. Time and time again, the system's excessive pseudo-humane purism takes precedence over the security of Israel's citizens. We are paying with our lives.
