Journalistic Outrage

Shoshana Bryen
Senior Director for Security Policy
JINSA Report #: 1,052
January 12, 2011
http://www.jinsa.org/node/2133

The "World Security Network" newsletter carried the following bit of an interview reportedly with Hamas leader Ousama Hamdan about Gilad Shalit.

Hamdan: There was what everyone calls the pre-final offer, and the Israelis accepted a suggestion from the Germans, and we also thought it is a good one, just that it needed a bit of work to make it into the final offer. When the Germans went back to the Israelis, they said they are not interested in the offer anymore and introduced new ideas that eventually led to the collapse of the whole process. The Germans were upset, but they could not change the Israelis' minds. Now, I have to quote from Gilad's father when he said that Netanyahu is a liar. He undermined the process and was not willing to conduct negotiations in a proper, positive way.

There was a real problem inside the coalition between the seven member committee, the prime minister, foreign minister, defence, military and intelligence leaders. The military and the intelligence had different positions...

Big media didn't carry the interview or details of the negotiation. The kidnapping of Gilad Shalit hasn't made Western news in months - maybe years. Shalit, a uniformed Israeli soldier, was kidnapped by Hamas from inside Israel in 2006 and has been denied the Red Cross and diplomatic visits that are the right of prisoners of war. Nearly 1,700 days of captivity in the hands of terrorists, yet governments talk to his kidnappers and the kidnappers talk about the inner workings of the Israeli government and quote "Gilad's father" as if he's a buddy and they're negotiating over a used car. "Hey, there was a 'pre-final offer' and I just had to take it to my manager for approval. Now you wanted free undercoating? No deal." No outrage.

Western journalistic outrage moves much faster when the victim is a presumed victim of the IDF. The New York Times and others ran the Palestinian-produced horror story of poor Jawaher Abu Rahma's death as a martyr at the hands of the criminal IDF while noting - as an afterthought - that the IDF disagreed. Even Wikipedia got into the act, reporting in its notes on CS gas, "CS gas was widely reported to be the cause of death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah in December 31, 2010, although the Israel Defence Forces has questioned the veracity of the report." Don't check, don't read the hospital report, don't interview the family. Why ruin a delicious story about a possible IDF war crime? Go for it, be outraged!

The report wasn't logical, it wasn't credible and it wasn't true. Shades of Mohammed al Dura.

Specifically, American journalistic outrage moves at warp speed when the first sound bites can skew the later coverage for or against favored targets. After Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy; after Hesham Mohamed Hadayet fired on the El Al ticket counter at LAX; after Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women and killed one at the Seattle Jewish Federation; after Nidal Hassan killed 12 people at Ft. Hood; after Abdul Mutallab flew in an airplane with a bomb in his underwear; and after Faisal Shazad parked a car bomb in Times Square, Americans were sternly warned not to read anything political into their behavior - for all we know, they might have been upset over the downturn in housing prices.

The media is singing a different tune about Jared Lee Loughner, ascribing motive, psychoanalyzing and assigning blame. And being outraged over motive and blame about which they have no credible information.

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Hamas Freeloads Off Red Cross Jerusalem HQ

Honest Reporting/Backspin
12 December '10

Three Hamas MPs are freeloading at a Red Cross office in eastern Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post writes:

During their time at the Red Cross, the politicians have held regular Friday prayer services attended by large crowds of Jerusalem residents; greeted visiting dignitaries, including former American president Jimmy Carter and a Jordanian envoy; and held photo ops with various local Arab notables. Literature supporting their cause has been distributed from the Red Cross compound, and large signs with the legislators’ faces adorn the side of the building.

A Red Cross spokesman told the paper there's no safe haven and police can come arrest Ahmad Attoun, Khaled Abu- Arafa and Muhammad Totah anytime. But how does the IRC explain this?

The Red Cross has provided the politicians with a room inside the building where they can sleep and keep their belongings, a bathroom, electricity for their large protest tent, and a water cooler, it is understood . . .

Do you really think the Red Cross would give me the same privileges if I just showed up and refused to leave?

The real chutzpah is that even as Hamas enjoys the health organization's largesse, it still allows no Red Cross access to Gilad Shalit.

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The rise and fall of the Gaza blockade

This month, we learned that the closure will, for all intents and purposes, expire. And nobody, not even Schalit activists, has uttered a syllable of protest.

Frimet Roth
Op-Ed/JPost
08 December '10

Last week, 21 aid groups launched a high-profile PR attack entitled “Dashed Hopes” directed at the blockade of Gaza. Aside from the disproportionate focus on a problem far overshadowed by starving populations elsewhere, the illustrated nine-page document suffered from a glaring omission: mention of Gilad Schalit.

The Gaza blockade was born exactly one year after Schalit’s capture by Hamas militants. It was imposed in response to Hamas’s political takeover of Gaza in June 2007.

However, it soon acquired an intrinsic connection to the campaign to free Schalit even though its full potential as leverage was never tapped.

In February 2009, it was still a nominal bargaining chip in Israel’s dealings with Hamas. Eli Yishai, then deputy prime minister, stated: “Israel is facing a serious humanitarian crisis and it is called Gilad Schalit and... until he is returned home, not only will we not allow more cargo to reach the residents of Gaza, we will even diminish it.”

In June 2009, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell advised a reversal of that policy, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused.

In July 2009, leaders of the campaign to free Schalit demonstrated at the Erez crossing, blocking the passage of food and medicine to the Gaza Strip.

When the government announced an easing of the blockade after the Mavi Marmara flotilla affair, Noam Schalit railed at Netanyahu: “And where is Gilad in this whole story?”

YET THIS month we learned that the blockade will, for all intents and purposes, expire. And nobody, not even Schalit activists, has uttered a syllable of protest.

(Read the full op-ed "The rise and fall of the Gaza blockade")

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Why I’m not marching

What does the new Schalit campaign hope to accomplish? Is there anyone in the country who does not already think that Gilad should be freed?


R. Stewart Weiss
Op-Ed/JPost
05 July '10

Yesterday, I received a call from the well-organized and highly-efficient Gilad Schalit March Committee, asking if I would join its parade when it reached our area. Politely and with no little reticence, I said, “No.”

I have marched for any number of causes throughout my life. I marched against the war in Vietnam while a student in the ’60s; I marched in protest at the French embassy during France’s arms boycott of Israel, and screamed, “Poo, Poo, Pompideau!” I marched with 250,000 Jews from around the world in the famous March on Washington for Soviet Jewry in 1987; I marched countless times on behalf of the State of Israel. I have even marched to save the whales and the ecology.

Those marches were pure of purpose and had a solid, sensible goal behind them: To raise public awareness and convince the powers that be to right a terrible wrong.

But what is the raison d’etre of the Schalit campaign? What does it hope to accomplish by this nationwide campaign? Is there a Jew anywhere in the country who does not already think that Gilad should be freed? Is there any decent Jew in this country who is unaware of his plight, or who is apathetic and unsympathetic to it? Clearly, beyond the march being a “happening” and the “thing to do,” this summer, it is meant to place unbearable pressure on the prime minister and members of the Knesset. Noam Schalit has said just that in so many words, “We will march to the Prime Minister’s Residence and will not leave until Gilad is with us!” he exhorts the marchers.

But just what does he want Bibi to do? Hasn’t Netanyahu already leapfrogged over every previous red line and agreed to free 1,000 terrorists and murderers, including many with blood dripping from their hands? Hasn’t he already, under intense pressure, agreed to disregard the expert opinion of both the military – who risked and forfeited countless lives to capture these monsters – and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and let these despicable criminals go? No, the endgame of this march is as obvious as it is ominous: We should allow our archenemy Hamas to set the agenda, list the most outrageous demands and then capitulate to its every sinister wish.

(Read full article)

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NGOs, Universal Human Rights and Gilad Shalit: Four Years of Double Standards

NGO Monitor
01 July '10

For most of the four years since the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, most human rights NGOs have ignored his situation. Shalit was taken from Israeli territory on June 25, 2006 and has since been held captive in Gaza without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.

On the fourth anniversary of Shalit’s capture, most of these NGOs continued their silence. The exceptions were Human Rights Watch (HRW), B’Tselem, and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI): HRW and PCATI called for Hamas to allow access to Shalit, while B’Tselem called for his release. Amnesty International, which was initially active, to a limited degree, on the Shalit issue, was silent.

HRW

In addition to releasing a statement in both 2009 and 2010 on the anniversary of Shalit’s capture, HRW has mentioned Shalit in several press releases, but has not engaged in any significant campaign.

(Read full report)

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Alternatives to surrender

For too long, by allowing themselves to be led by our deranged media, Israeli citizens and governments alike have ignored the fact that the answer to every question is not more concessions.


Caroline B. Glick
carolineglick.com
29 June '10

To the roaring cheers of the local media, on Sunday the Schalit family embarked on a cross-country march to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence. They set out two days after the fourth anniversary of IDF Sgt. Gilad Schalit’s captivity.

Outside their home on Sunday, Gilad’s father Noam Schalit pledged not to return home without his son. The Schalit family intends to camp out outside of Netanyahu’s home until the government reunites them with Gilad.

The only drawback to this dramatic, newspaper- selling story is that it is wrong. Gilad Schalit is not a hostage in Jerusalem. He is a hostage in Gaza. His captor is not Netanyahu. His captor is Hamas.

And because the story is wrong, the media organized cavalcade of ten thousand well-intentioned Israelis is moving in the wrong direction. And not only is it going in the wrong direction, it is doing so at Gilad Schalit’s expense.

The truth that Yediot and Ma’ariv’s marketing departments ignore is that Schalit’s continued captivity is a function of Hamas’s growing strength. To bring him home, Israel shouldn’t release a thousand terrorists from prison.

To bring Gilad Schalit home a free man, Israel must weaken Hamas. And this is an eminently achievable goal. Noam Schalit knows it is an achievable goal. That is why last week he was the most outspoken critic of Netanyahu’s decision to abandon Israel’s economic sanctions against Hamas-controlled Gaza. That is why over the past four years, the Schalit family has staged countless protests against Israel’s massive and continuous assistance to Hamas-controlled Gaza. If anything positive is to come from this march, then when the Schalit family arrives in Jerusalem they should abandon the newspapers’ demand that Israel surrender to all of Hamas’s demands. They should acknowledge that doing so will only guarantee that more Israelis will be kidnapped and murdered by Hamas and its allies.

If the Schalits wish to criticize the government, they should criticize Netanyahu and his coalition for the steps they have taken to strengthen Hamas. The Schalits should demand that the government reinstate and tighten Israel’s economic sanctions against Gaza. They should demand that Israel end its supply of electricity and gasoline to Gaza and take more effective action to block smuggling through the tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border.

All of these actions will weaken Hamas, and so contribute to the prospect of it being forced by the Gazans themselves to release Schalit to his family.

(Read full article)

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Observation: MK Miri Regev takes populist simplistic stand on Schalit issue despite defense background

Dr. Aaron Lerner
IMRA
27 June '10

Is the Schalit story simply bringing all the opportunistic self promoting politicians out of the woodwork or is MK Miri Regev really so shallow?

MK Miri Regev (Likud) flaunts her military background (she served as IDF Spokesperson) and parlayed her background to become a member in the much treasured Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this, her first term in the Knesset. In fact, this is the profession she lists for herself on the Knesset website: Spokesperson, Strategic and Media Advisor

Here is what strategic advisor MK Miri Regev suggested in a live interview broadcast on Israel Radio shortly after 7:00 AM this morning: Israel can release any and all terrorists in exchange for the release of Schalit. And Israel has no security problem if the terrorist murderers return to their homes.

And why can Israel free the top terrorist murderers and allow them to return to their homes - this when Israeli officials warn that the return of this group to the area would lead to a restoration of the terror infrastructure that Israel invested so heavily to decimate? Just this morning Israel Radio reported that 63% of Hamas terrorists released in the past returned to terror activities after they were released.

Regev explained that Israel could simply send the terrorist murderers back to prison after the deal.

(Read full post)

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The fateful decision

JPost Editorial
22 December 09

"And with the absolute sincerity of an alcoholic having one final drink before going cold turkey, the government will assert that the Schalit deal will be Israel's last lop-sided prisoner exchange."

A portentous decision on whether to trade Gilad Schalit - who has been in Hamas captivity for an excruciating 1,275 days - for a thousand imprisoned Arab terrorists is now being finalized. The raw anguish of Gilad's parents, Noam and Aviva, has been imprinted on the Israeli consciousness since their son fell into enemy hands on June 25, 2006.

Our hearts tell us to pay Hamas's price.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his top ministers, however, have the terrifying responsibility of acting with both their hearts and minds. Their deliberations cut to the essence of what it means to be Israeli.

Israelis do not want a second Ron Arad affair; Gilad is now so close to freedom, he's virtually touchable. For him to slip away now would be devastating.

Paying Hamas's price, though, would constitute a second "Jibril Deal." That 1983 prisoner swap with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine saw 1,150 Arabs exchanged for three Israeli soldiers. One of those Arabs was Ahmed Yassin; others would become his lieutenants. Together they created Hamas.

There are doubtlessly men of Yassin's "caliber" among the 1,000 Hamas seeks. After his release, Yassin was re-arrested, only to be released in 1997 by Binyamin Netanyahu - during his first term as premier - in yet another prisoner exchange.

Beyond the moral bankruptcy of rewarding past evil, with history as our guide - and with heavy hearts - we assert that Israelis will die if the government obtains Gilad's freedom by acting only with its heart.

Things were not supposed to get this far. Days after our Gilad was taken, Hamas demanded the 1,000 prisoners. Ehud Olmert responded: "We won't let anyone believe that kidnapping is a tool to bring Israel to its knees." Privately, however, the then-premier gave Egypt the green light to commence bargaining. Those talks are culminating now under Netanyahu.

(Read full editorial)
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Broken Record

Batya Medad
Shilo Musings
22 December 09

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, no not the Guinness type of the most and biggest. The idiom "broken record" comes from the day when recorded music was on a round plastic disc with groves. If one of the groves was faulty, the sound repeated and repeated until you moved the arm with the reading needle to a better spot. When it comes to the issue of protests and negotiations to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured by Hamas three and a half years ago, I'm sure I sound like a broken record.

We need some G-dly Being to lift the arm and place the needle someplace else, totally different tactics.

Palestine Media Watch presents a very comprehensive report explaining why the current policy is so dangerous.

It's very hard to get balanced news about it. On the IBA's official site this morning, as I write this post, these are the following headlines:

• Meeting continues on the prisoner release proposals
• A rally taking place in front of the Prime Minister's Office to free Gilad Shalit
  
• Senior ministerial forum continues deliberations on Shalit deal
  
• Ben Eliezer: Israel has taken steps to bring Abbas back to negotiations
  

Yes, half of the eight headlines concern Shalit. The media campaign is massive, massive but mistaken. We keep hearing that "the fate of Shalit is in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's hands." That's not true. That's because Shalit isn't in "Netanyahu's hands." He's in Hamas, Arab terrorists' hands, and they are the ones who have the physical and moral responsibility to free him. It's not up to Israel. Those Arabs are being strengthened by the Israeli media, because the media blame us, Israel, and not the Arab terrorists who are the guilty ones.

So, I keep rewriting the same message, in different ways time after time like a broken record, hoping and praying that there will be a total turn-about in the Israeli negotiations and in the public campaign to free him.

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Good news: Obama demands Israel match Hamas terrorist release for Fatah

Carl in Jerusalem
Israel Matzav
20 December 09

This was expected. The Obama administration is demanding that Israel release Fatah terrorists to shore up Abu Bluff's standing in the event that it releases Hamas terrorists in exchange for kidnapped IDF corporal Gilad Shalit. As a result, the price for releasing IDF Shalit from Hamas' custody has just doubled. And apparently, that's even giving the government second thoughts.

A senior official in the U.S. administration told Haaretz that if the deal for Shalit's release is completed, the U.S. would be interested in seeing Israel releasing Fatah prisoners as well, in addition to other gestures to bolster's Fatah's status compared to Hamas. "We are telling the Israelis that [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas' situation needs to be mitigated," the U.S. official said.

(Continue article)

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Only Write What You Know

Backspin/Honest Reporting
24 November 09

Past efforts to bring home Gilad Shalit have had a lot close calls, empty promises and disinformation, so I'm taking today's press coverage with a grain of salt.

As I read today's papers, I'm reminded of a basic element of Journalism 101.

Only write what you know.

I'm giving a thumbs up to NY Times bureau chief Ethan Bronner, whose update on the Shalit talks essentially quotes who said what to whom. And it works. My fave snippet:

“Those who don’t know can talk,” Dan Meridor, Israel’s intelligence minister, said Monday on state radio. “Those who know should keep silent.”

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Killing Terrorists Saves Lives

Evelyn Gordon
Contentions/Commentary
12 November 09

When four Knesset members proposed legislation last week to institute the death penalty for child murderers, it revived a long-dormant Israeli debate over the pros and cons of this penalty in general. The latest installment, in today’s Jerusalem Post, supports the current de facto ban on executions, arguing that they deter neither murderers nor terrorists.

Regardless of whether that’s true, it misses the point: Israel desperately needs a death penalty for hard-core terrorists — not as a deterrent but to prevent them from being released to kill again. And, equally important, to spare the country wrenching emotional blackmail over kidnapped soldiers.

While ordinary Israeli murderers usually serve their sentences in full, terrorists have an excellent chance of being released early — either in an effort to “bolster Palestinian moderates” or in exchange for Israelis (or their remains, or even a “sign of life”) kidnapped by terrorist organizations. Israel releases hundreds of terrorists for one or both of these reasons almost every year. Most recently, for instance, it freed 20 female terrorists in exchange for a mere videotape of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

There are no official statistics on what percentage of these freed terrorists return to kill again. While one would hope the security services track this data, no government has ever published it, possibly realizing that if the statistics were known, public support for prisoner releases would plummet. Unofficial statistics — leaked to journalists or compiled by private organizations — vary widely, ranging from 25-80 percent. But even the lower figure is hardly negligible.

And the anecdotal evidence is compelling. In 2007, for instance, the Almagor Terror Victims Association compiled a list of 30 attacks committed by freed terrorists in 2000-2005 that together killed 177 Israelis. IDF Col. Herzl Halevy said this September that terrorists freed in a 2004 swap with Hezbollah composed “the entire infrastructure of Islamic Jihad” in subsequent years — during which Islamic Jihad bombings killed at least 37 Israelis. In short, executing terrorists, and hence preventing their release, would save lives.

But beyond that, executions would also end the agonizing debate over whether to trade terrorists for kidnapped Israelis. Most Israelis, for instance, would have no objection to freeing minor offenders in exchange for Shalit; the problem is that Hamas is demanding hundreds of mass murderers — who, if freed, would almost certainly kill again. Had these terrorists been executed, however, they would not be available to trade. Hamas would either have to make do with low-level offenders or get out of the kidnapping business.

Might that not encourage terrorists to kill rather than kidnap? Well, do the math: over the past decade, terrorists have kidnapped exactly two live Israelis (plus five dead ones, for whose remains Israel also paid). During the same period, freed terrorists have killed hundreds. It may sound cold, but that’s a pretty good cost-benefit ratio.

The bottom line is that Israel needs a death penalty for terrorists now. Few things would do more to save Israeli lives.

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IDF soldiers to say 'Don't release terrorists for me'

Gil Hoffman

JPost

11 October 09

Grassroots efforts against a proposed prisoner swap for IDF soldier Gilad Schalit began Sunday when Likud activist Moshe Feiglin announced a new initiative in which IDF combat soldiers will be asked to sign a petition asking Defense Minister Ehud Barak not to release terrorists for them if they were captured.

Feiglin wrote a letter to Barak on Sunday asking him not to negotiate his release should he ever be kidnapped by Arabs. He said that at first, he would start an online petition drive for IDF soldiers to join his call, which he said was inspired by Jonathan Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel.

He wrote to Barak that every time the possibility had been raised that Pollard would be released as part of a prisoner swap, Pollard refused.

"What our betrayed hero who is rotting in his cell understands, must be understood by any Israeli citizens as a free person. We must not buy one
person's freedom in exchange for risking the lives of many and encouraging additional abductions."
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Weighing Truths for Gilad

Paula R. Stern

A Soldiers Mother

04 October 09

When you are young, there is often one great truth to all things. It doesn't matter what the situation is, it's just a way you have of looking at something and deciding what is right or wrong in that simple moment. It is a singular truth that seems obvious and clear. As you get older and your life gets more complicated, shades of other truths blur the picture. There is no longer one side, one truth. Every action has a reaction; every cause not just one result but often many.

There's a scene in Fiddler on the Roof where someone says something to the main character, Tevye. Tevye confirms that the man is correct. Another man comes forward and voices an opposing position. "You are right," Tevye tells him.

Another steps forward and says, "but they can't both be right."

To which, Tevye responds, "and you are right too."

I felt that way in the last few days listening to the debate about the release of 20 security prisoners in exchange for a two minute video of Gilad Shalit this past Friday. There are so many sides, so many truths that perhaps the greatest relief comes from not being in a position to have to choose that path.

His mother has suffered so long, his father traveled so many miles begging people to listen and help free their son. Don't they deserve, don't they need this reassurance that their son is alive. This is truth.

Although 14 of these security prisoners were wanted for attempted murder, all would have been released in the coming months...certainly within the next year or so. Israel is a land that follows the rule of law. Unlike Hamas, we do not hold prisoners without trial and with trial comes a just sentence. The sentence is served and remorseful or not, the prisoner is released, often to return. This is the strength and the weakness of a democracy and so these prisoners, once freed, may well choose to attempt to murder another Israeli. This is truth as well.

The cost of this exchange boggles the mind. The value, as set by Hamas is staggering. A video of an Israeli is equal to 20 prisoners; the value of his life set at a minimum of 450 Palestinian prisoners - murderers, terrorists, killers. Twenty prisoners for one video. As one blogger wrote, "guppies cost more." This too is truth.

After so many months of silence, Israel needed a sign that we were negotiating for a live human being. We've given hundreds of prisoners for coffins; this time, it was right to get proof before any agreement and dealing with Hamas is not the same as dealing with human beings who respect life. This organization and the people who belong to it feel nothing about endangering their own people. They fight from within their own schools, mosques and hospitals.

How could we expect them to do what is legal, what is just, what is moral, what is human? They relish the suffering of others; they crave it. This is a culture that worships death and cares nothing for the suffering of an Israeli mother or her family. If this is what holds Gilad and we want proof that he is alive, this is the cost. And here too, there is truth.

"We aren't like them," said a friend. "We couldn't stand by and not do something to alleviate the terrible pain of the family." More truth.

Trade for Gilad? Accept a video in exchange for 20 prisoners - 14 wannabe killers? "What do you think of this?" I asked Elie.

"They've endangered us all," he said without hesitation. What joy I felt at hearing that we'd received the videotape and it showed a healthy, if thin, Gilad, evaporated with those words. This is a truth every Israeli mother knows and doesn't want to hear. Yes, when you reward terrorism, you get more terrorism. It is, perhaps, the greatest of all truths.

"Already Hamas has said they are going to try to kidnap more soldiers," Elie continued. More truth, more shades to consider.

He's right on so many levels and wrong on others. Or, perhaps wrong is not correct. He has yet to marry and have a child, yet to understand the awe, the love, the responsibility that comes with that.

Gilad Shalit is alive. This Hamas has proven. This young man has spent the last three years of his life a prisoner of our enemies, separated from his family, denied all contact. Night after night his mother goes to sleep not knowing where he is, if she will ever see him again. It is enough to weaken any mother's heart.

But Elie doesn't have a mother's heart. He has a soldier's heart. He loves his country, he loves his family. He's right - this endangers them all. In Elie's world, right is right; weakness damages our position. He has rules that he lives by, just and legal. There is a sense of morality, but more, there are rules of engagement. Hamas continues to violate international law, refuses to even allow Gilad to be seen by international representatives.

If he were my son...but I can't begin that thought because the pain is too great, the fear, the worry. Is there anything I wouldn't give for my children? Anything I wouldn't do? This is why it isn't correct for Gilad's parents to determine policy in this case, why mothers shouldn't be asked. We love our sons, desperately want Gilad home. This is their truth, our truth, a mother's truth.

But there is a greater truth that Hamas lives by and that truth is cheering now because they know that for a video we will release 20 prisoners, for Gilad we will release killers...who will kill again.

How many people have been murdered by the same terrorists we released in exchange for past captives? Did their families love them any less than Gilad's family loves him? This is the dilemma. Gilad on one side, a healthy, prisoner, begging us to do what we can to finally bring him home...and untold numbers of others on the other side, including Elie, telling us that what deal we make, if the price is high, will only encourage them to try to kidnap more soldiers. This is truth.

What the government has done endangers them all, while what we don't do, endangers Gilad. Sometimes, everyone is right and no one wins. The weight of that truth keeps me awake at night as I watch the video of Gilad over and over again and pray that in this bargain we made with the devil, at least his mother will find some comfort.

Gilad Shalit

Today's cartoon was done in anger and born out of frustration.

Israel's handling of the kidnapping and the "negotiations" has been, and continues to be a disaster. Here in Israel we are bombarded with constant "coverage" of the kidnapped soldier story. Constant debate about how many convicted terrorists we'll have to release. Israel's government seems unable to deal with the situation with any strength or intelligence. The truth is that there is simply no proof that Gilad is still alive. And no reason to believe that, after handing over the terrorists, we will receive anything other than a corpse ...as we have in the past.

Meanwhile the captivity of Jonathan Pollard continues, shockingly, to be ignored by our "leadership".

If It's Good Enough For The USA, It's Good Enough For Israel!

Batya Medad

Shilo Musings

23 August 09

(Another one of Shilo Musings' many gems.)

This interesting little New York Times article illuminates some information which I hadn't realized was true. Not even the United States automatically reveals the names etc of its non-American prisoners to the International Red Cross.

So, if that's the case, we really don't have to cooperate with the Red Cross or any other international body, nor do we have to give our Arab terrorist prisoners more than the minimal food and medical care. We certainly don't have to give them visitors, nor packages. They shouldn't have the rights to lawyers and clergymen. They shouldn't have telephones nor television, videos nor dvd. They are prisoners not campers. They are enemies not friends.

And not only must we demand that Gilad Shalit be released and sent home, we have other missing soldiers, such as Ron Arad and the others captured decades ago, during the Lebanese War. If they're alive, then let them return home to their families and friends, and if they're dead, let their families bury them here in Israel.

Israel must stop this nebichy, weak nice-guy schtick and start showing self-respect and determination.

Successive Israeli Governments have just been embarrassments and failures. It's time to stop and use the strength G-d has given us. Nachshon, where are you?

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Israeli Defense Policy

August 18, 2008

Okay, so we'll have to pay "a difficult price".

But the "difficult price" that Ehud Barak wants us to pay is the undermining of Israel's legal system by releasing convicts as a political act.

It's a price that nobody talks about, but it eats away at our rule of law, our morale, and the social contract that binds us together as a nation.

What we need is a return to the Israel of the Six-Day War andEntebbe. We need leadership that offers creative, brave, intelligent answers and strategies.

Israel needs leadership that is smarter than what we've got.
Do you think we'll get it?

Related: Gilad graphic