June 28, 2011, 3:54 AM
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Sunday was the first day of Sgt. Gilad Schalit's sixth year in captivity. Schalit was kidnapped on June 26, 2006 and has been held hostage by Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas in Gaza ever since.
For five years, Schalit has been held incognito. His terrorist captors have permitted him to send but one letter to his family and released but one video of Schalit over this entire period. He has been denied visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross. He was clearly emaciated in the video.
Over the past five years, Hamas has engaged in periodic indirect negotiations with Israel through a German mediator and others. While their demands have varied from time to time, essentially they want Israel to release around 1,500 terrorists from its prisons in exchange for Schalit. And they want the terrorists to be released to their homes in Judea and Samaria and Gaza where they can pick up killing Jews where they left off.
And it isn't only Hamas demanding these things. In an interview with IMRA news agency on May 25, Fatah negotiator Nabil Shaath said that the Fatah supports Hamas's demands. Shaath explained that once the Fatah-Hamas unity government is formed Schalit will become the responsibility of the unified Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian Authority will continue to hold Schalit hostage and demand that Israel release thousands of terrorists as ransom for his release. As he put it, "We have 7,000 political prisoners in Israel by design - taken by the Israeli authority. They have to be also freed."
So the Palestinian leadership from Fatah and Hamas alike are unified in their view that it is perfectly acceptable to hold Schalit captive. As far as they are concerned, it is acceptable to stand in breach of international law and basic standards of humanity in order to extort Israel to free mass murderers from prison. And it is acceptable to the Palestinians for these murderers to return to their work killing as many Jews as they can get their hands on.
It is hard to think of a more despicable comment on the state of Palestinian society than their wall to wall support for the taking and holding of hostages or their desire to see mass murderers released from jail. A person could be forgiven for thinking that on the fifth anniversary of Schalit's abduction that the media would be full of articles describing in detail the evil that is Hamas and Fatah which celebrate Schalit's victimization and the suffering of his family.
But that person would be wrong. The media coverage of the fifth anniversary of Schalit's kidnap devoted no attention to his Palestinian captors. In fact, if a person were simply going by what he learned from the Israeli media over the past several days, he would likely believe that either Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is hiding Schalit in his cellar, or that Netanyahu is colluding with Hamas to keep Schalit captive in Gaza.
Aping the increasingly grotesque genre of reality television shows, local celebrities and washed-out headline-starved failed former security brass got together with Yediot Aharonot and put on a reality TV stunt for the public to mark the anniversary.
One after another these supposedly concerned citizens walked into a knock-off solitary confinement cell furnished with a dirty toilet and television cameras. The beautiful ones sighed, cried, kicked, and whined for an hour apiece. Their performances were broadcast live on Yediot's Ynet news portal.
Channel 2 rebroadcast the highlights on the evening news.
The purported goal of the campaign was to "raise public awareness," about Schalit's plight. As if the Israeli public isn't aware of his plight. For the overwhelming majority of Israelis, the mention of Schalit's name evokes profound concern and sorrow.
BUT THEN, Yediot knows that. And raising public awareness was not the goal of their televised pimping of Schalit's suffering with the help of shameless celebrities and far-left retired generals. Their goal was to turn the public against Binyamin Netanyahu - Schalit's imaginary jailer.
This message was delivered not only by the likes of radical failed Shin Beit chiefs Ami Ayalon and Carmi Gillon. It was delivered by Gilad Schalit's father Noam Schalit at his press conference on Sunday.
Noam Schalit declared, "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, you do not have the right to sentence Gilad to death. The weakness and the stubbornness you are showing in this crisis is an immediate danger for Gilad's life and health. More than that, it is a danger for the values of the State of Israel, on which generations of Israelis were raised."
There is no doubt that Noam Schalit is acting as he is because he wants to get his son home alive. But there is also no doubt that by pressuring Netanyahu and the government and accusing them of being responsible for his son's captivity, Noam Schalit is only making things worse.
Hamas wants to destroy Israel. Its terrorists in prison want to destroy Israel.
Hamas's leaders view Schalit's illegal incarceration and the anguish it causes in Israel as a source of pride for the movement and Palestinian society as a whole. It views the release of terrorists as a means of strengthening the jihadist movement politically and militarily.
Every time Noam Schalit blames the government for his son's plight and demands that our leaders free terrorists to bring him home, he strengthens Hamas's negotiating position.
On Sunday, Netanyahu admitted that the pressure worked. Netanyahu did in fact agree to what had been Hamas's demands for the release of more than a thousand terrorists for Schalit and Hamas didn't even bother responding to the offer.
On Monday, Hamas said that Netanyahu's offer was too low.
With Noam Schalit and the media in its court, Hamas knows there is no reason to rush into anything. So its leaders raised the price still further.
SINCE SCHALIT was first kidnapped, his family has repeatedly invoked the plight of IAF navigator Col. Ron Arad who was taken hostage by Shi'ite terrorists when his plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986. Arad has been held hostage for the past quarter century.
The Schalits say their pressure campaign against the government is fuelled by their desire to prevent their son from sharing Arad's fate.
These statements show that the Schalits fundamentally misunderstand what happened to Arad and what is happening to Gilad. It wasn't for lack of will that Israel has failed to bring Arad home. Arad disappeared because Israel never had good intelligence information about his whereabouts.
If it had, Arad would have been rescued, dead or alive. According to recently retired IDF chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the same has been the case with Schalit.
In their refusal to recognize that they are hurting their son by directing their anger at the government rather than the Palestinians and their international supporters, the Schalits are unconscionably egged on by the media. As Yediot marked the fifth anniversary of Gilad's internment with their celebrity solitary confinement stunt, Maariv marked the fifth anniversary by interviewing 25 celebrities about their activism on behalf of Schalit.
All these celebrity attacks on Netanyahu are consistent with the past five years of media coverage of Schalit's confinement. It is also consistent with their past coverage of the captivity of every other IDF hostage taken by Arab terrorists in recent years.
THE SCHALIT family's counterproductive behavior is the result of a combination of desperation, ignorance and manipulation by PR agencies. But what explains the media's behavior? Why are they helping Hamas? Some media critics attribute their behavior to journalistic laziness and a desire to create sensational stories that will sell newspapers. No doubt there is some of that at work.
But lazy reporters and editors in search of screaming headlines have other options.
They could pit Noam Schalit against the father of one of the victims of the murderers whose release the Schalits and their supporters are demanding. That would make colorful page 1 copy.
The media could have a reporter spend an hour researching the Israeli and international self-described human rights community's silence on Schalit's plight and the shameless absence of any concerted demand by the self-proclaimed human rights community for his immediate release. Over the weekend, Israeli and international "human rights" groups B'Tselem, Amnesty International, Israel; Bimkom; Gisha; Human Rights Watch; International Federation for Human Rights; Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza; Physicians for Human Rights, Israel; Public Committee Against Torture in Israel; and Yesh Din all got together to release a statement about Schalit. They failed to call for his immediate release.
Certainly a banner headline reporting this outrage would have sold papers.
All of these stories and journalistic stunts are low-cost and would sell newspapers.
And at a minimum, none of them would harm Schalit's chances of getting released.
Yet the media have opted to sell the tale of the government's culpability for his suffering due to its failure to bow to Hamas's ever-escalating demands.
The media's behavior is puzzling not merely because they have options besides supporting Hamas. It is puzzling because their obsessive coverage of Schalit arguably hurts their tireless efforts to sell the public on the notion that it is a terrific idea to give Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem to Schalit's captors. By reminding the public of Schalit, the media are also reminding the public that the Palestinians are not interested in peace and that they use the land Israel gives them to attack us. That is, their Schalit campaign undermines their appeasement campaign.
Finally, their demand that Netanyahu "release" Schalit is alienating their readers.
In the face of their intense campaign, "for Gilad" according to a poll published last month by Maariv, only 41 percent of the public agrees with their surrender at all cost strategy and 51 percent opposes it.
So by any rational measure, the media are acting against their own interests by pushing the pro-Hamas line. The only explanation that remains is irrational. But it is also consistent with the media's serial irrationality on everything concerning Israel's relationship with the Arab world generally and the Palestinians in particular.
The explanation is that like the rest of the Left - in Israel and worldwide - the media hold Israel responsible for Hamas's imprisonment of Schalit because they perceive the Arabs generally and the Palestinians specifically as objects rather than actors. The only actors they see are Israel and the US.
Just as the international Left sends ships to aid and comfort Palestinian terrorists in Gaza to fight the so-called "occupation" which ended six years ago, so the Israeli media says the government is holding Gilad Schalit hostage. In both cases, the Palestinians are invisible, and inert.
To its credit, after five years of inaction, last Thursday, the Red Cross finally asked Hamas to prove Schalit is still alive. Gazans reacted to the move by attacking the Red Cross office in Gaza.
This major story received little mention in the media. And that makes sense. How can they cover a story about a group of people they can't be bothered to notice?
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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The question must be asked ;
Why are the majority in Israel courting death?
So willing to have so many dedicated killers of Jews released instead of defeating,destroying them in totality ?
Do they actually think a compromise can be reached with Amalek or do they just have a death wish ?
'Better to have an extinct Hamas than an extinct Israel and to hell with what the world has to say' would be a good slogan for a sane and wise Israel determined to survive ,but this is not the case.
The opposite is !
If Israel had finished the job in Gaza in January of 2009 instead of trying to please her god of no peace in Washington just maybe you would be writing a different article today.
And the Mavi Marmara Flotilla would have never
had to break a problematic blockade of Gaza,a failed blockade strategy because of Israel's failure to finish the job.
An Israel weakened by the false peace agenda of the false god she obeys and serves above HaShem
is a death wish nation spiraling down and Hamas can see this every day.
They know Israel will not torment them thanks to the reprobates of the Left and the weak groveling Right wing, AND THEY KNOW THEY HAVE FREEDOM AND Many REWARDS TO TORMENT Israel with a death wish.
If Israel had become ruthless with Hamas and terrorized them into fear and defeat Shalit might have been home six years ago ?
Instead insane Israel has chosen to be merciful to the evil Amalikites and unmerciful to Jews obedient to their God.
The reborn nation has a suicidal death wish and the majority are driven to pursue death.
'Hamas wants to destroy Israel. Its terrorists in prison want to destroy Israel.'
This elementary truth does not concern the death wish Jews.
This is why Israel is so willing to drive peaceful Jewish home builder out of their homes and give their destroyers Fatah/Hamas a Palestinian state, a reward for their evil deeds against the people of Israel.
'But he who misses me or sins against me wrongs and injures himself; all who hate me love and court death.'
Proverbs 8:26
Caroline, thank you once again for your words from the soul. It is difficult, no nearly impossible for anyone to imagine the anguish of the Schalits as each day passes without word as to the fate of their son Gilad. The combination of a people, the Palestinians, who will stop at nothing in their pursuit to demean and attempt to destroy Israel aided by Leftist Jews in the media and government is unconscionable. Releasing thousands of prisoners to resume their criminal activities serves no purpose other than to show the weakness of the Israeli government and also sends a message to our enemies that they can do what they want and Israel will always be blamed for the fallout. Despite the pressure being exerted Netanyahu would do well not to cave in. The time for making nice and being reasonable with the enemy is over. We must rally our allies near and far and Hashem will do the rest if we just have b'tachon and emunah.
"... they perceive the Arabs generally and the Palestinians specifically as objects rather than actors."
Exactly, and in a succinct nutshell; none of this is real to the shallow and dishonest left, or for the most pathetic of all, "Leftist Jews", and to the simply criminally opportunistic media which day in and day out aids and enables, directly and indirectly by their devious bias, a deadly enemy which will have no mercy if they finally gain the upperhand during and following a surprise biochemical/biological missile attack at 3:00 am one sad morning.
There's only one way to deal with this and remaining defensive isn't it. The answer is a simple one. It's you or them.
It's time to realize that Sgt. Gilad Schalit has perished. Until the enemy produces PROOF otherwise, have a funeral, erect a memorial, create films about these Palestinian's sins, move on.
Why does anyone in their right mind ever read or watch the media? If you can't get news from a sane and reliable source, you don't need the news.
How to bring home Gilad? Is the same way to end the threat against Israel. Make it a policy of the State of Israel that the Temple Mount will be cordoned off and no one other than the Jewish people will be permitted to enter until he is returned.
Oh, how to end the threat against Israel goes a bit further: upon the first sign of attack, certain structures on the mount will be leveled, secondly, the prison containing all the terrorists will be leveled.
This would certainly bring everything to a head.
Enough already...
let's go back to the basics...
hamas? is a TERRORIST group and as such a bounty should be put on the HEAD of every member. I'd say $500 bucks per Hamas member, DEAD or Alive.
Israel wake the hell up.
Cause Hamas pain....
Kill them...
Everyday, one at a time, in groups, in the shopping malls, in the barber shops...
Everyday we should read that 2, 5 or even a dozen hamas member have been shot, stabbed, killed or captured.
Stop screwing around..
What has been happening to him every single day of his captivity?
What has he experienced every year since he was taken?
What has he thought about and what does he think and feel now?
Critics of the PA are accused routinely of Islamophobia and Orientalism by the international left. But who are the true racists: people who have a realistic view of the Palestinians based on their behavior or the idealists who romanticize them as "victims"? Isn't this demeaning attitude against "the other" another form of Orientalism. Why can't the international left insist that the Palestinians raise their standards of conduct? Alan Dershowitz has said many times that the world has let the Palestinians get away with bad behavior. This appeasement just enables the bad behavior. It is time that the international left stop being Haman's cheerleaders.
We hope and pray for the release of Gilad Shalit so he will be returned safely to his family. We also hope that Israel will not be forced into some unreasonable trade that would allow the release of dangerous terrorists. Anybody with any sense can't help from realizing that the PA is a failed potential state.
Re: The Invisible Palestinians - Caroline Glick
_____________________________________________
Saving Sgt. Gilad Schalit
_____________________________________________
If the State of Israel deals with the approaching Flotilla as it has dealt with the kidnapping of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, it will prove to be a sorry spectacle to see.
Though I do not pretend to be any smarter or any wiser than the next person, I find myself at a loss for words over how Israeli government decision makers have behaved for the past five years regarding the illegal kidnapping of Sgt. Gilad Schalit.
If it is true that Israel may even be thinking of changing its position and actually considering releasing jailed terrorists including cold blooded killers, in order to get Gilad released, then I must say that present Israeli policy puzzles me in the extreme.
Admittedly the brilliant level of creativity that Israel demonstrated in the rescue at Entebbe will not be possible in the case of Schalit. All the circumstances are different.
In the case of Entebbe Israel knew where the kidnapped hostages were being held. Clearly that was the key factor involved in their successful and very dramatic rescue that so stunned the world. You can act and act boldly based on hard facts. When you are dealing with the fact that Schalit's whereabouts are unknown, then one is working in the dark. It is a difficult challenge to be sure.
But one thing is known and that is that Israel does knows where Gaza is located and where over a million Palestinians are located and truth be told there is nothing invisible about one million people.
It has been said that collective punishment is sinful and unacceptable but the manner in which Schalit has been treated is equally unacceptable. Indeed his being held incommunicado for five years, not even allowed a visit from the Red Cross, is so over the top, so illegal, so sadistic, behavior so bizarre and heinously cruel on the part of Schalit's captors, that it is a mystery to me why Israel accepts it and has tolerated it for so long when I believe the State of Israel is not helpless to deal with this situation and does in fact have options it has not exercised or is unwilling to exercise.
What message does Israel's handling of Schalit's fate, send to Israel's adversaries in general and all terrorists in particular.
The message is that Israel has gone soft, lost its way, is so terrified of world opinion and giving anti-semites more reason to hate Jews, that Israel feels it must proceed in every situation as if walking on eggs.
There is a long list of things Israel can do immediately to put powerful pressure on Schalit's captors. Here are two examples that are too obvious for words.
1) Israel should immediately begin to treat all terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails exactly in the same manner as Schalit is being treated. And I mean here to take nothing off the table. Employ the whole nine yards for as long as it takes.
2) Take off "the gloves" in the way Gaza is treated. Contrary to world opinion the people of Gaza actually do not have it so bad these days. We have all seen the actual videos of the shopping malls and daily life in Gaza.
But Israel has it in its power to make things get very uncomfortable, very quickly, for the people in Gaza. I am not talking about invading with tanks and planes either. Far from it.
Israel, to my knowledge could cut off Gaza's electricity starting with just one hour per day.
The poor deprived people of Gaza would not be able to charge their high tech cell phones, or use their dish washers or go fill up the gas tanks of their BMW's since filling stations use pumps that require electricity.
Restaurants would suddenly be in the dark, elevators and escalators in the Gaza shopping malls would cease to operate. The cash registers and credit card machines and ATM bank dispensers would stop functioning.
And all that is just for starters!
Suddenly one million residents in Gaza will stop being so invisible and instead will become real people up in arms, yelling at Hamas to send Schalit back to Israel so the people can get back to their normal everyday lives.
If losing their electricity for one hour a day does not have the desired effect then Israel should keep withholding an additional hour of electrical power, thus extending the length of the blackout every single day and/or night.
I would venture to guess that Hamas and the kidnappers of Sgt. Gilad Schalit will soon start making a lot of enemies very vast in their own backyard and they won't like it one bit. This is called fighting smart !
Will the world be up in arms ? So freaking what - who cares or gives a damn- if seeing Schalit return to his family means anything to anyone. He has suffered under the most heinous, illegal conditions for five long years. It is enough and indeed was too much one month after he was kidnapped five long years ago.
When a citizen of the State of Israel puts on his/her military uniform, they are saying, ipso facto, that they are prepared to put their life at risk to protect the State of Israel.
But the State of Israel has a fiduciary responsibility and must simultaneously make and pledge the solemn commitment to every Israeli soldier that the State of Israel will move Heaven and Earth, if need be, to keep that soldier out of harm's way as much as possible and if captured will take any and all steps to get that soldier home in the shortest space of time. That means employing unconventional methods of rescue if need be and circumstances so demand.
What Schalit's captors have done to him is a crime that will live in infamy. But at the same time there is something equally outrageously wrong that Israel has allowed this situation to drag on for so long.
Surely a nation as great as Israel when it comes to creativity and doing the impossible, as was proven with the rescue at Entebbe can discover a solution to get Sgt. Gilad Schalit back home.
There are a mountain of endless methods, means and ways, by which Israel can bring pressure of a non-military nature, to bare on the one million inhabitants of Gaza that would have Schalit's captors begging Israel to take him back in short order via the auspices of the International Red Cross.
None of this is rocket science and my brain reels from the insanity of why Israel continues to coddle the terrorists and murderers in its own jails with cell phones, daily comeraderie and cable television while a man who was prepared to put his life at risk for the State of Israel continues to languish in some Hellish holding cell in Gaza- or perhaps somewhere else.
If Israel surrenders and trades even one convicted terrorist to get Schalit back they will be putting every single Israeli soldier, man or woman, at risk and indeed in immediate peril. Every Israeli soldier will become a potential "Schalit".
But that is not to say the State of Israel should, or must, sit on its hands and do nothing.
May G-d will that the State of Israel will take off the gloves, put on its thinking cap and do whatever it takes to bring sufficient pressure on one million Gazans so that Hamas will have no choice but to release Schalit immediately.
And, by the way, let the world think what it wishes to think. The world was not interested when our people were burning during the Shoah.
Israel and the Jews owe no explanations to anyone, now or ever, at this point in history, except perhaps- to Sgt. Gilad Schalit and his Family. May they be reunited soon.
And may those who rule Israel, people I very respectfully admire, finally start to realize that sometimes in life the welfare of one single Israeli soldier and his Family is worth more and is far more important in G-d's eyes, than what all the world may think today or tomorrow.
It is time to bring Sgt. Gilad Schalit home.
__________________________________________
David Pakter
New York City
28 June 2011
I have asked myself many times, "What would I do if it were my son or daughter being held captive by Hamas or some other terrorist group?". It is truly a heart-wrenching question. My deepest feelings of sympathy extend to the family of Sgt. Shalit. I realize that I personally cannot even begin to feel the agony they must be experiencing, and have been for so very long.
Nevertheless, I am old enough to remember Israels policy of never negotiating with terrorists, and I believe to this day that is was the correct policy then and that it is the correct policy now. Just as I attempt to envision what it must be like for the Shalit family, I attempt to envision what it must be like for the family of an innocent man, woman, or child to stand by helplessly and watch my government free the malefactor who murdered my loved one. To tell the truth, I cannot tell you which would make me feel worse. In instances like these there is no choice which brings comfort. Even were Sgt. Shalit to be released, his exchange for thousands of terrorist prisoners would only encourage more such atrocities. What so lice is there in that knowledge.
The first mistake Israel ever made was to negotiate any such trade with her enemies. I would favor expending no limit of intelligence and military force so that none of our people, soldiers and civilians alike, remain in the hands of a ruthless and merciless enemy like the one we have faced since before the inception of the State of Israel. If we are to survive, if we are to win back the respect of the rest of the civilized world we must return to the policy of no negotiation with terrorists. And that includes abandoning the sham of a "peace process" created by Western politicians for their own selfish political ends. It is time that all Jews and all Israelis realize that there can be no negotiation with an enemy who refuses even to acknowledge our right to exist as a free people in our own land. I am a student of world history and I am hard-pressed to recall a single instance in which the victor in a defensive war was the party who had to sue for peace. But then of course, in those cases the victors were not Jews. If more than three thousand years of murders, massacres, pogroms, and a Holocaust have taught us just one thing, it should be that we are not like the other nations ... not since the day Moses led us out of Egypt by the Hand of G-d to receive His Law at Sinai. It is ironic that this very law is the basis of every monotheistic religion on the face of the planet, and still the people who brought this great treasure to the world are seen as a nation apart, a subhuman people whose lives mean so little to the world that they are willing to stand back and watch us be destroyed by whatever nation or nations take it into their minds to do so. Hardly a just reward for a people who have given mankind almost every value which separates us from animals. And when it comes to the Jews, it is amazing how quickly our brethren are ready to revert to the animals they were before they encountered G-d's people and His Law which they carried with them out of the Sinai desert.
If I seem cold-hearted to you Mr. and Mrs. Shalit, then I am truly, truly sorry. But the survival of the Jewish People and the Jewish Nation are more important than the survival of one individual, as important as his survival is to all of us. Those who blame the government or the Prime Minister for Sgt. Shalit's captivity need to start putting the blame where it rightfully belongs -- on the culture of death spawned by the so-called "peace process". Had the Arabs, any of them, even once, acknowledged our right to live in peace in the land we purchased with our blood, sweat, and tears, I might think differently. But that has never happened, never once and never even a hint that it ever will. We need to face that reality, and at the same time learn about out own history, and learn about the millions of us who perished in order to see the dream of our return to Israel become a reality. If it were me languishing in some Hamas dungeon, I would rather be dead than know that my freedom was obtained by trading the freedom of thousands of murderers in order to make that happen. Were that the case, I simply could no longer live with myself.
Steve Harr, San Francisco
Re: The Invisible Palestinians - Caroline Glick
_____________________________________________
Saving Sgt. Gilad Schalit
_____________________________________________
If the State of Israel deals with the approaching Flotilla as it has dealt with the kidnapping of Sgt. Gilad Schalit, it will prove to be a sorry spectacle to see.
Though I do not pretend to be any smarter or any wiser than the next person, I find myself at a loss for words over how Israeli government decision makers have behaved for the past five years regarding the illegal kidnapping of Sgt. Gilad Schalit.
If it is true that Israel may even be thinking of changing its position and actually considering releasing jailed terrorists including cold blooded killers, in order to get Gilad released, then I must say that present Israeli policy puzzles me in the extreme.
Admittedly the brilliant level of creativity that Israel demonstrated in the rescue at Entebbe will not be possible in the case of Schalit. All the circumstances are different.
In the case of Entebbe Israel knew where the kidnapped hostages were being held. Clearly that was the key factor involved in their successful and very dramatic rescue that so stunned the world. You can act and act boldly based on hard facts. When you are dealing with the fact that Schalit's whereabouts are unknown, then one is working in the dark. It is a difficult challenge to be sure.
But one thing is known and that is that Israel does knows where Gaza is located and where over a million Palestinians are located and truth be told there is nothing invisible about one million people.
It has been said that collective punishment is sinful and unacceptable but the manner in which Schalit has been treated is equally unacceptable. Indeed his being held incommunicado for five years, not even allowed a visit from the Red Cross, is so over the top, so illegal, so sadistic, behavior so bizarre and heinously cruel on the part of Schalit's captors, that it is a mystery to me why Israel accepts it and has tolerated it for so long when I believe the State of Israel is not helpless to deal with this situation and does in fact have options it has not exercised or is unwilling to exercise.
What message does Israel's handling of Schalit's fate, send to Israel's adversaries in general and all terrorists in particular.
The message is that Israel has gone soft, lost its way, is so terrified of world opinion and giving anti-semites more reason to hate Jews, that Israel feels it must proceed in every situation as if walking on eggs.
There is a long list of things Israel can do immediately to put powerful pressure on Schalit's captors. Here are two examples that are too obvious for words.
1) Israel should immediately begin to treat all terrorist prisoners in Israeli jails exactly in the same manner as Schalit is being treated. And I mean here to take nothing off the table. Employ the whole nine yards for as long as it takes.
2) Take off "the gloves" in the way Gaza is treated. Contrary to world opinion the people of Gaza actually do not have it so bad these days. We have all seen the actual videos of the shopping malls and daily life in Gaza.
But Israel has it in its power to make things get very uncomfortable, very quickly, for the people in Gaza. I am not talking about invading with tanks and planes either. Far from it.
Israel, to my knowledge could cut off Gaza's electricity starting with just one hour per day.
The poor deprived people of Gaza would not be able to charge their high tech cell phones, or use their dish washers or go fill up the gas tanks of their BMW's since filling stations use pumps that require electricity.
Restaurants would suddenly be in the dark, elevators and escalators in the Gaza shopping malls would cease to operate. The cash registers and credit card machines and ATM bank dispensers would stop functioning.
And all that is just for starters!
Suddenly one million residents in Gaza will stop being so invisible and instead will become real people up in arms, yelling at Hamas to send Schalit back to Israel so the people can get back to their normal everyday lives.
If losing their electricity for one hour a day does not have the desired effect then Israel should keep withholding an additional hour of electrical power, thus extending the length of the blackout every single day and/or night.
I would venture to guess that Hamas and the kidnappers of Sgt. Gilad Schalit will soon start making a lot of enemies very vast in their own backyard and they won't like it one bit. This is called fighting smart !
Will the world be up in arms ? So freaking what - who cares or gives a damn- if seeing Schalit return to his family means anything to anyone. He has suffered under the most heinous, illegal conditions for five long years. It is enough and indeed was too much one month after he was kidnapped five long years ago.
When a citizen of the State of Israel puts on his/her military uniform, they are saying, ipso facto, that they are prepared to put their life at risk to protect the State of Israel.
But the State of Israel has a fiduciary responsibility and must simultaneously make and pledge the solemn commitment to every Israeli soldier that the State of Israel will move Heaven and Earth, if need be, to keep that soldier out of harm's way as much as possible and if captured will take any and all steps to get that soldier home in the shortest space of time. That means employing unconventional methods of rescue if need be and circumstances so demand.
What Schalit's captors have done to him is a crime that will live in infamy. But at the same time there is something equally outrageously wrong that Israel has allowed this situation to drag on for so long.
Surely a nation as great as Israel when it comes to creativity and doing the impossible, as was proven with the rescue at Entebbe can discover a solution to get Sgt. Gilad Schalit back home.
There are a mountain of endless methods, means and ways, by which Israel can bring pressure of a non-military nature, to bare on the one million inhabitants of Gaza that would have Schalit's captors begging Israel to take him back in short order via the auspices of the International Red Cross.
None of this is rocket science and my brain reels from the insanity of why Israel continues to coddle the terrorists and murderers in its own jails with cell phones, daily comeraderie and cable television while a man who was prepared to put his life at risk for the State of Israel continues to languish in some Hellish holding cell in Gaza- or perhaps somewhere else.
If Israel surrenders and trades even one convicted terrorist to get Schalit back they will be putting every single Israeli soldier, man or woman, at risk and indeed in immediate peril. Every Israeli soldier will become a potential "Schalit".
But that is not to say the State of Israel should, or must, sit on its hands and do nothing.
May G-d will that the State of Israel will take off the gloves, put on its thinking cap and do whatever it takes to bring sufficient pressure on one million Gazans so that Hamas will have no choice but to release Schalit immediately.
And, by the way, let the world think what it wishes to think. The world was not interested when our people were burning during the Shoah.
Israel and the Jews owe no explanations to anyone, now or ever, at this point in history, except perhaps- to Sgt. Gilad Schalit and his Family. May they be reunited soon.
And may those who rule Israel, people I very respectfully admire, finally start to realize that sometimes in life the welfare of one single Israeli soldier and his Family is worth more and is far more important in G-d's eyes, than what all the world may think today or tomorrow.
It is time to bring Sgt. Gilad Schalit home.
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David Pakter
New York City
28 June 2011
Noam Schalit lives in a democracy, but that democracy is not California, and California is (not yet at any rate) within a territory that is overwhelmed by a population of 11 year old delinquents armed with machine guns, a smorgasbord of more exotic weaponry (courtesy of Iran) and an almost involuntary reflex condition about using them on Israelis and/or themselves. Noam Schalit may feel that he has a legitimate grievance with the Israeli government. But the Israeli government, in spite of its obvious failings, is orders of magnitude better than the regional alternatives that he unwittingly gives support.
Yhe west will win this intellectual battle when the internet exposed secular arab students gain in number over the Muslim Brotherhood students in the Universities all over the Arab world. The internet will grow in importance and decide over the outcome of the battle between the free Western world with the totalitarian shariah ..
Caroline,
Thank you for having the courage to write what you have! You have tremendous insight!!
I wanted to leave you with a couple of thoughts as you ponder why the Left and liberal media do what they do. I think that many who subscribe to the liberal mindset are "stiff necked" and have a rebellious streak against those who stand for what is morally right.
As for Sgt Schalit, my heart is so sad. Why does the government not take a strong position? What I mean is that you pound the living day lights out of the Palestinians until they cry, "Uncle!” By taking a so called peaceful approach, the Israeli government has open wide the doors to terrorism. Bullies may hate a strong foe, but they respect them none the less.
Thank you all the thought you pour into your articles. They are concise and well thought out.
Your question, as to why the media and the left establishment are pursuing the line they are on the hostage taking of Gilad Schalit, is absolutely to the point.
How can any sane or moral person accept that the attacked can be blamed for an attacker's actions?
It is a sick and self-destructive charade.
The only rational explanation is that the left establishment and its media, even within Israel, want Israel destroyed and are part of the campaign being waged by the enemies of Israel.
These people are not stupid. They know what they are doing and what the consequences of their campaigning would be were they to succeed.
They are the enemy.
Caroline has got it right again...and again....and again....and again........